Who is Rochas Okorocha?
The Returning Officer for the much extended Imo governorship election, Professor Hillary Ode Edeoga, announced the final 336,859 votes for Okorocha, which made him 46,363 votes better than incumbent Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 290,496. Indeed, a governor-in-waiting had been decided Some analysts see Okorocha’s victory as […]
The Returning Officer for the much extended Imo governorship election, Professor Hillary Ode Edeoga, announced the final 336,859 votes for Okorocha, which made him 46,363 votes better than incumbent Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 290,496. Indeed, a governor-in-waiting had been decided
Some analysts see Okorocha’s victory as the first time that the people of Imo State will have a governor-elect that will create ‘such a monumental momentum and an overwhelming outpouring of excitement by a majority of the people’.
The Owelle Ndi Igbo, is regarded by his swelling admirers as a great son of Imo State who is a successful businessman and a great philanthropist who has trained numerous indigent pupils and students in his tuition-free schools in strategic parts of the country through his Rochas Foundation.
Addressing residents of Imo State in February at the Rochas Foundation Centre (RFC) in Owerri, Rochas described the late Chief Sam Mbakwe as his inspiration. He said if elected governor, he would be repairing Imo by continuing from where Mbakwe stopped. The aspirant at the time who decried the circumstances of ‘decay’ in the state, recalled the administration of the late Sam Mbakwe and promised to begin from where he stopped.
“Mbakwe is my yardstick and since he left office, there has not been any government in the state,” he asserted. He said the state which had become known for ‘hardship of citizens and dilapidated infrastructure and youth unemployment’ will be recreated under him.
Okorocha said he chose to address the people at the Rochas Foundation Centre because it was the centre that integrated his covenant with God, a covenant which he said he made with God 11 years ago when he built the RFC in four states to provide free education to the poor. Okorocha said he has sponsored more than 40,000 Nigerians, many of whom he said eventually became university graduates.
Imo State came into existence in 1976 along with other new states created under the leadership of the late military ruler, Murtala Muhammad, having been previously part of East-Central State. Part of it was split in 1991 as Abia State and another part became Ebonyi State in 1996.
Mbakwe became governor of old Imo State on October 1, 1979, three years after its creation by the military in 1976. Mbakwe had settled down quickly to the business of governance, mobilising resources to facilitate development. Mbakwe, himself a disciple of foremost Igbo nationalist, the late Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, became known as the “weeping governor” following the way he took the trouble of his people to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings of those years and most importantly, when there was a flood disaster at Ndiegoro in Aba, Abia State now. His contemporaries recall that at several meetings, Mbakwe, unable to hold back his emotions, shed tears over the declining fortunes of his people.
Mbakwe returned for his second term as Imo governor in October 1983, riding on the goodwill he garnered in his first four years in Government House but was dethroned along with all other authorities of the Second Republic by the military on December 31, 1985.
Owelle Rochas Okorocha’s enthusiasts believe that he indeed possesses the character to become another Sam Mbakwe in the sense of compassion for the people and dedication to their wellbeing.
“The governor-elect is a philanthropist who has demonstrated considerable concern for people in difficult situations and the less privileged,” National Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Sani Shinkafi, told Sunday Trust on phone.
Shinkafi added, “Our governor-elect said during campaigns for his election that he was on a rescue mission. I have no doubt that he is on a rescue mission. I have no doubt that he is indeed in Imo State to rescue his people. He has done it on a private basis, working hard to educate children of poor parents through his tuition-free schools across the country; just as he is using his personal resources too to provide for the destitute as well as physically challenged persons. Being governor will give him more opportunities to serve humanity. Imo people are lucky to have the new governor.”
Okorocha has in his election to govern Imo State, his first major political elective office, having made attempts in the past that got him hardly anywhere. He took his first shot at the Government House in Owerri, the Imo State capital, when democracy was restored in 1999. He competed in the primaries to be People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate but lost to Achike Udenwa, who eventually won the 1999 election to become the governor. Okorocha moved to the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), and aiming higher, contested unsuccessfully to be the ANPP’s candidate for president in 2003. He returned to the PDP and was later rewarded by President Olusegun Obasanjo who appointed him as Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs.
Still unable to find the accommodation he desired in the PDP, Okorocha formed the Action Alliance (AA) party in 2005, apparently for the sole reason of becoming its presidential candidate in the 2007 elections. That plan did not work and he again returned to the PDP, and indicated in September 2007 an interest to become PDP’s national chairman.
His first confrontation with Imo State incumbent governor, Ikedi Ohakim, came when Ikedi decamped from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to the PDP in July 2009. Okorocha disowned Ohakim, questioning his role as leader of the party for the only reason that he was the governor. He spoke for a ‘proper’ PDP congress to decide who should be what in the PDP.
Okorocha left the PDP for APGA and became its candidate for the Imo State governor in the April 2011 general elections. INEC was to declare that the Imo State governorship election held on April 26, 2011 were inconclusive. The collation of results, INEC said, was marred by irregularities. INEC then ordered reruns in four local government areas and one ward, to be held on May 6, 2011. Elections were not held in Oguta Local Government Area eventually due to a ‘security threat’, but INEC concluded that the elections that did hold produced results that could not be invalidated by the skipped voting in Oguta LGA. It announced Okorocha who polled 336,859 votes as winner, effectively deposing Ohakim who got 290,490 votes.
Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha was born on September 22, 1962 in Ogboko, Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo State. Incidentally, this was where fate was to pause his early links to his home state, as he became a virtual ‘Jos boy’ afterwards.
He attended Juladaco High School, Jos, from 1976 to 1981. He first studied at the University of Jos in the 1990 – 1991 session, obtaining a diploma in Public Administration. He returned to the University of Jos in 1993 to obtain an advanced diploma in Public Administration.
Okorocha is the President of the Nigeria Red Cross Society. He is the founder and President of Rochas Foundation Inc, an arm of his numerous endeavours which he devotes essentially to attending to the needy. He is President, Rochas Group of Companies Limited, his business empire. He is also the Pro Chancellor of African Business School and a former Chairman of the Board of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).