The news of our great leader, Chief Chekwas Okorie visit and plead of allegiance to APC and President Mohammed Buhari, met me with shock and awe. Initially, I was confused honestly, out of shock and wondered why should he!
And, as expected, criticism rightly followed from all angle. I couldn’t join the bandwagon because of the Igbo blood that flows in my veins. As a well brought up Igbo person, even if my elder is wrong, he’s still my elder, and if I must correct him, I must make sure I do so in respect, while still leaving his dignity intact. Especially, when I have not heard from him.
While still having this deep retrospect about how to approach him and table the issue, express my feelings and thoughts and that of millions other Igbos round the world, who felt betrayed. I began to deeply reflect on certain issues about our people.
It now dawned on me that the level of deep outrage that followed his declaration of support to Mohammade Buhari, must have been as a result of where, deep in our hearts, we placed Chief Chekwas Okorie. There are several politicians, senators, Federal House members, former governors and powerful individuals of Igbo extraction that has declared support for APC and Buhari government, you hardly see the level of condemnation and outrage that followed what is happening to Chekwas Okorie.
The only one to compare to it was the declaration of Kenneth Okonkwo of the Andy of Living In Bondage fame.
As negative as these may appear, it goes a long way to proof something solid. These two characters were well loved, highly respected and adored by the Igbo people, therefore, the high level of feeling betrayed being expressed.
Having concluded that, I try to place myself on Chief Chekwas Okorie shoes, to enable me feel his pains, before I judge him. As I was doing that, I realized that it wasn’t even about him. The issue at stake is beyond an individual no matter what he represents in Igbo land. The issue is about the collective interest of Ndi Igbo at large.
But, then, there’s just no way one can rightly pass a judgement without having a think back to history. It was Chief Chekwas Okorie’s antecedents in the past that made him penetrate our heart as a great Igbo leader.
Here’s a man that struggled to create APGA as a political party. In one of my interviews with him few years back, he told me a sad story about how he was tagged 419 and duper when he was running around to establish APGA. He was using the 190 Mercedes Benz brand, and one of the days, after meeting with one of the Igbo lords, he was still at his compound trying to start his car, when the man thinking he has left, picked his 090…that was invoke then, and called someone to tell him that the 419 man that said he is forming an Igbo party just left.
He told the other end that it’s not easy for a group of people to form a political party and Chekwas Okorie alone is running around saying he’s forming one and using it to dupe people of funds. Years later, after toiling and suffering to establish APGA, the same man was among those that descended from nowhere to join force to push him out of the party. After going to court for years, in tears and heart broken, he left APGA and started toiling afresh to form UPP.
UPP was originally meant to be UPGA, to bring back the memories of those Michael Okpara years, just like PRP is still there in the memory of Aminu Kano, but being Igbo, INEC refused. Even using the leopard as a symbol was a war. I remember spending hours, at a secluded area in Abuja with him, trying to reflect on what to do. And running a story about the injustice on UPP before we were allowed to go.
Out of his convincing love for Ndi Igbo, Chief Chekwas Okorie carried the cross, bared the wounds, answered bad names, ignored all and carried on.
So, looking at his history and how he has always seen things ahead of time, even if I am or we are not convinced about his steps today, we still have to handle it with wisdom and understanding. In our criticisms, we still have to leave room open to approach him for questions that he must answer. We cannot throwaway the bath water and the baby because he messed on it.
First, Chief Okorie shouldn’t be entirely blamed for the steps he took today, the Igbo leaders ought to share majority of the blame. This man and his political organization has been here, long before Bola Tinubu came up with AC and APC, what did our Igbo leaders do with it?
You can see how Bola Tinubu, an individual accomplishment a complete revival of building a political strong hold out of virtually nothing.Today, his Yoruba people are best for it. But, here we are tearing each other apart and using APGA to defraud people in the name of party primaries. APGA instead of building to be a dominant force in Nigerian politics, has been reduced to a small clique control by a small section of Anambra people.
UPP has been there, none of the Igbo leaders want to make something out of it. If under these circumstances, PDP failed to approach him and APC did, though because of where we placed him, we are right to feel betrayed and angry. Insulting him isn’t the best way to play politics. We shouldn’t start abusing him and tagging him all sources of names. We should find out if he learnt something from the politics of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Micheal Okpara, Chief Francis Artur Nzeribe and Chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe and ask him: what’s there on the table for Ndi Igbo.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe NPP joined force with NPN and Barrister Umezuoke emerged as Speaker Federal House. Artur Nzeribe asked Chief MKO Abiola what’s there for Ndi Igbo under your SDP president?
Igbo youths and groups should storm Chief Chekwas Okorie home at Enugu and ask him, what’s there for us?
We should call him out on social media and ask him, what’s there for Ndi Igbo instead of abusing him.
We have enough Ndi Igbo at PDP, our own Peter Obi is already the VP to Atiku. If PDP wins, we are inside soup.
Having some strong foothold deep into APC too is a strong and wise political strategy. As much as we dislike Buhari, the fact remains, if APC by any chance happens to win again, this our nightmare is going to be there for another 4 solid years. And, after another 4 years of Buhari, the anger we harbour today will start mellowing down. Once Buhari is not going to be on the ticket in 2023, you will discover that there’s not going to be much difference between PDP and APC. Our greatest issue with APC today is just Buhari. Let that not blind us from a look at the future.
Buhari has launched Next Level campaign for 2019, with promises of railroad, roads, education, jobs, infrastructure developments, security, health etc etc.
Let our politics not start and end on social media, we are super vocal on social media. Let’s take a step further. Let’s arm ourselves with these facts and storm Enugu and ask Chekwas Okorie to show us what’s there for Ndi Igbo?
If he went there to negotiate just for himself and family, that’s when the insults will start raining cat and dog.
Let’s allow wisdom and understanding and maturity to subdue our anger. Let’s come to the realization that this is politics, no matter how we look at it. We should learn to be a little smart in politics and play with the wisdom and intelligent we use in business and trade.
