Imo State; From Iberiberism to Hopism - Ik Muo, PhD

The history of Imo State did not start with Rochas, the Owelle of Abuja. It started with Dee Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, who was so concerned about the deprivations and privations of his people and so committed to the Imo Project that he was not ashamed to became the first and only weeping governor in Nigeria. (Prof Ayade appears to be mimicking him !). However, I have chosen to start this story of Imo with Rochas, whom I know when he was a ‘small’ Rochas in Jos long before he became a ‘big’ Rochas at Abuja and an enviable public speaker. The beauty of this our business is that you have the right to decide the delimitation of your study; you are only required to justify your decision and beyond that, nobody can ask you: ‘why did you start and stop here, and not there?’.

 Recently, I met a woman engaged in a verbal ‘fight to finish’ with a road-side onion dealer  over prices. The ‘akshon’  spirit in me was aroused and I decided to go straight to PMB to ask him ‘whats-gwan’; after all, onions are not imported and the price is not subject this our queer economic strategy of  regulated deregulation. I went with Ibom Air. One of the things we have not settled alright in Nigeria is whether Government should be involved in business or not. And so, while the central and some subsidiary governments are selling their criminally  mismanaged businesses (or rather dashing them to their cronies), others are building new ones. Anyway, the beautiful hostess announced that due to Coro, they would not serve any refreshments but that we would all receive bags of goodies while we exited. Its long I patronized any of our airlines( air travel is for big-men a class to which I do not belong) and so, I expected an Ibom-made hamper.  As we landed at Abuja, the center of Unity, which is being managed by select people from a select part of our country, and where the indigenes (whom I thought were compensated and resettled then, have suddenly became so visible), we were given a beautified  paper-bag  containing a miserable piece of cake and  fruit-juice, the size of which would not be enough for a 3 month old. The bottle of water was so small that I kept it as a memento.  Funny enough, the paper-bag obviously cost more than the contents.

Anyway, the author and finisher of fake news and hate speech used some ‘amotekun’ means to know in advance that I had come on an End-SARS mission and as such, I was not even allowed to cross the city-gate. My journey was aborted and I ended at Katampe, in the fringes of the city. When I could not devise another strategy for getting to the rock, including ‘ikwu-ikili’ (flying invisibly, witch-like!), I decided to get to my village to ask from ‘amaehulu’ why they were able to   decipher my motives from afar and why the  ‘ikwu-ikili’ failed. I decided to go through Owerri and boarded Dana-Air.  That was when I appreciated the generosity of Ibom Air. Dana-Air used the same Coro and the need to minimize contacts as an excuse to  offer us nothing except another miserable bottle of water, which they placed at our disposal before we boarded the plane. ( Ibu, the Sienna driver that ferried me from Igbo-Ukwu to Lagos and who charged less than 30% of the Dana fare placed a carton of full-size bottle of water at our disposal of 5 of us). I asked the air-hostess why they could not monetise the refreshments-since that would guarantee zero contact and she got confused.  Since they had all our phone-numbers, they would have credited us with N1000 worth of airtime in lieu of refreshments! It was as simple as that! I am still trying to get across to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigerian Consumer Protection Council over the matter. Any way, we landed at Owerri Airport and on my way out of the airport, I saw it: A large billboard of the Supreme-Court Governor, with the shouting inscription: ‘HOPISM; Where government meets the people’. It also had a 3R subtitle: Recovery,  Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.!  I saw many of such before I left Owerri that day. Ha! ‘Hopism’? And then, I remembered ‘Iberiberism’!  Who did this to my brethren in Imo State?  It is too early to surmise if this is from frying pan to raw fire!

Rochas did not set out to espouse  Iberibesism as his political philosophy but he somehow got around  polularising the term to the extent that it stuck. Iberiberism  simply means  first-class foolishness ( the type they call compound-fool) and according to Chidiebere Iwuoha, the term described those Rochas ‘regarded as foolish people in their ways of life or those doing things that were not in tandem with what he was doing’ like those opposing the candidacy of Nwosu, his in-law or those in APC who thwarted some of his political shenanigans (Bear with me; I am not used to big words but this one just smuggled itself in and the Customs officer around looked the other way!)

When I thought about Rochas and his days at Imo State, I believed that he behaved ‘iberiberistically’, in  some ways,  the most visible of which was stealing ‘opendentially’ by converting Imo  State into  one huge family business run by  Rochas and Wife and Children and siblings and in-laws et al. For instance, his wife ‘controlled over four ministries’ ( As  revealed by Rochas himself in December 2016); his in-law, Uche Nwosu was the operational Deputy Governor before he became the gubernatorial candidate. The sister, Ogechi was  Chief of Staff in charge of  Domestic Affairs as well as being in charge of Christmas Decoration Project before being the first Commissioner for Happiness and Couple Fulfillment in Nigeria, nay, Africa.  In his practice of  Iberiberistic ‘familiocracy’ he learnt from Eduardo Santos( who named his daughter as head of Sonnagol, the State Oil Co), Trump (who made his son-in-law, Kushner as his senior adviser) Nguema of Equatorial Guinea( whose son was the VP and Minister of Finance), Museveni of Uganda( who promoted and appointed his son his special adviser), the 86 year old Jugnauth of Mauritius who  suddenly realized that ‘the time has come for the country to have a young leadership that represents the future’ and the only qualified person was his son, Pravind). Other acts of Iberiberism ascribed to him included construction of 27 gigantic general hospitals in 27 LGAs, none of which was completed, equipped or staffed, demolition of markets, erection of statutes including that of the multi-wived Zuma, several substandard projects and the failure to fulfill several of his promises. He  also ‘prioritized the construction of 27 stadia—all  at once—when the main stadium in Owerri was in shambles. Furthermore, ‘he ran an opaque government that serviced his ego more than it touched the common man. It is true he built many roads and structures. But he took his shallowness into everything he touched. The roads were poorly done; some of his bridges had no engineering designs. When he did a tunnel,it became a swimming pool for cars’( No be me talk-am!)

And now to Hopism. The articulate taxi driver that ferried me through ‘what was a road’ from Owerri to Orluto Akokwa,( Rochas doormouth) enroute IgboUkwu told me that the only people who had benefited from Hopism were those who produced billboards and banners; and I saw enough to agree with him. Another aspect of Hopism that I observed first-hand was the announcement by the Commissioner for Works on radio (27/11/20)that the Owerri-Orlu and Owerri Okigwe roads would be awarded to ‘competent foreign contractors’. In other words, only foreign contractors are competent. He told me that the Rochas white-elephant hospital had been demolished and converted into something else (rather than completion and commissioning). He also told me that the government had passed a law that enables the Governor to arrest and detain any resident of the state for as long as he wished.  He said it was a reaction to his appellation as a Supreme-Court Governor as well as other acts of defiance against him by Imolites. I didn’t believe this one but I researched and behold, it is true: the Imo State Administration of Criminal Bill No 2 of 2020. Sections 484 & 485  of the law provides that where any person is ordered to be detained during the governor’s pleasure, he shall notwithstanding anything  contained in any other written law, be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the governor may direct and that such may at any time be discharged by the governor on license which said license may be in such form and in such conditions as the governor may direct under section, a license that may, at any time be revoked or varied by the governor and where license has been revoked, the person to whom the person the license relates shall proceed to such place as the governor may direct and if he fails to do so, may be arrested without warrant and taken to such place.”

In a democracy! Even Trump did not go as far as this. However, Barr Adegoruwa  has assured me that the law does not concern me and I am yet to ascertain from my friend, UJ Nkamuke, a fiery activist, where he when this abominable law was passed!

 It is too early to assess Hope and Hopism.  However, I will help him to firm up the Theory and Practice of Hopism.  In Theory, Hopism is Government of Hope by Supreme court for Hopists. In practice, Hopism is the politics and policy of Quantum Leaps as in when somebody leaps from the 4^th Position to the first. He even did better than Lee Kwan Yu leapfrogged his country from 3^rd world to the first. It is a triple-jump process facilitated by judicial mathemagics.

 One Imoliti says it all: ‘One charlatan goes another charlatan comes. Poor Imo’

 I seize this opportunity to wish Catholics, all over the globe, a happy New Year. Our new year   started with Advent on 30/11/20.

 I also wish to congratulate my ‘Bros’, Abraham Ogbodo on the long and eventful life of his father, Pa Amos Orovwomoriemu Ogbodo Idiabiago (I hope I got it write), who  lived for 106 years ( yes; one hundred and six) and was buried two weeks ago (21/11/20).

If you are not impressed about this, just be reminded that the life expectancy for men in Nigeria is still less than 55. In effect, he lived the lives of two average Nigerians! It is a news-worthy record!

- Ik Muo, Department of Business Sdministration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026627