Just as the cliché goes, that it is better late than never, so the recent upheaval in the Imo State House of Assembly (IMHA) remains a welcome development, belated and feeble as it actually was.
About a fortnight ago, the Assembly witnessed an outburst of resentment, which had apparently been building up in the bowels of some of its members against the shenanigans of the state governor, Mr Rochas Okorocha. In an unprecedented move, they had given the governor conditions to be fulfilled before they could address the budget issue, one of which is that he provides details of fiscal transactions by his administration. Specifically targeted are the disbursements of the state’s share of the Paris Loan refund bailout funds. With the failure of the governor to oblige them, the bulk of them boycotted the ceremony at which the governor was to present the 2018 budget estimates to the House. That move by them effectively flopped the ceremony by stirring the hornets’ nest in the state as if an oracle had been unmasked.
Another angle to the stir in the IMHA is the purported endorsement by the Assembly, as the next governor of the state, of Okorocha’s son-in-law and Chief of Staff in the Government House, Owerri, Mr Uche Nwosu. This scenario clearly did not go down well with many of the IMHA members; hence the turbulence in the place. The purported endorsement is coming at the heels of the recent appointment by the governor of his blood sister, Mrs Ogechi Ololo, as the commissioner of a newly created Ministry of Happiness and Couples Fulfillment. Not a few see the developments as the play-out of an agenda by Okorocha to perpetuate his control of governance in the state by installing only his blood relatives in positions of power, even after his redoubtable eight-year tenure.
In the circumstances, the IMHA is now divided between the two camps of pro and anti Okorocha, with the supposedly pliable members of its members believed to include the Speaker, the Clerk of the House and some other backstage operators rooting for an Okorocha installed dynasty for the state now and the foreseeable future.
It is this picture that is at the root of the crisis in the IMHA, and by extension, the entire state. Meanwhile, if the impact of the turbulence in the IMHA has not hit the streets in Owerri and other major towns in Imo State, it is only a measure of the irrelevance of the State Assembly as they had remained complacent and fawning acolytes of Okorocha all along. For beyond the absurdity of the emergence of the new agency under Mrs Ololo, her yet undisclosed credentials and the mystery over the true mission of her agency have provided cause for significant public concern; especially as it affects Imo State that parades some of the best brains in Africa and even the world; the field of human endeavour notwithstanding. It is a good sign, therefore, that at long last, as if finally roused from a deep spell of complacence, some members of the IMHA have started asserting themselves, as an independent arm of government and questioning the governor as is required of them by the Constitution.
Expectedly, the development in the IMHA may be seen by many, even erroneously as a ‘revolt’, given their antecedents as the governor’s acolytes. Be that as it may, the members do not deserve any plaudits as their venture has nothing to do with heroism. Rather, it is at best, the starting point of their legislative mission, which they had abdicated for the past two years. In fact, all the members of the IMHA, whether for or against Okorocha, owe the people of Imo State an unreserved apology for complacence over the ruinous style of governance by the governor under their watch. Until this development, the legislators allowed the governor run riot with the common patrimony of the Imo people, with several actions of his going unchallenged by them, even with the powers granted them by the Constitution.
For instance, where were they when he erected a statue, not for the late Dee Sam Mbakwe, whose politics is inseparable from the story of Imo State, but for Jacob Zuma of South Africa, who is embattled in his own country over alleged misdeeds in office? Did the IMHA approve the creation and appointment of headship of the new Ministry of Happiness and Couples Fulfillment? The truth is that the IMHA members had sold out on their constitutionally enshrined rights, powers and obligations to protect the interest of their constituents. Hence the new development is only a mere turnaround in the fortunes of the IMHA.
Reeling out some of the negatives in Okorocha’s scorecard as governor of this state that is at the heartland of Ndigbo will spoil even the most casual observer’s day. For instance, workers and pensioners in the state are owed backlog of salaries and pensions for months. Contractors are not paid as and when due, while public service in the state has collapsed. The only bright spot in the state is the rehearsed radiant smile on the official portrait of this misruling governor, which his fawning acolytes still place premium on. Thanks to his enterprise, he almost succeeded in pushing Imo State, in all the greatness of its endowments in material and human resources, towards a theatre of the absurd.
Yet the Imo situation is only a metaphor that captures the scenario in virtually all the other 35 states of the federation, where members of the state assemblies have been playing the ignoble role of errand boys, not to their constituents, but the governors of their respective states. Yet they are expected to provide oversight over governance in their respective states. Who then should be blamed for the stalling of democracy in the country, especially at the state level, if not the state houses of assembly?
Given the pivotal role of the state tier of governance in the practice of democratic governance in the country, the need to strengthen the state houses of assembly cannot be overemphasised, for it is in them that the key to a democratic Nigeria actually lies. It will, therefore, be a new dawn if the ‘revolt’ in the IMHA would replicate around the country, either by design or accident, as either way, it will be well for Nigeria.
