•Aide defends governor
The political atmosphere in Owerri, the Imo State capital, was heated up at the weekend following Governor Rochas Okorocha’s comments on the state’s ideal governorship candidate in 2015.
Okorocha, speaking at the yearly Oru-Owerri Festival, said people with questionable character, including “419 persons” and women who beat their husbands would not be voted for.
The governor said the would-be governor must be godly, honest and decent.
His statement angered many aspirants who stormed out of the venue.
A senator allegedly wept before moving out of the venue with aides and other supporters.
Other aspirants, who earlier adorned the venue with their campaign posters, left furiously as a large part of the crowd continued to urge Okorocha on, despite spirited efforts by some hired thugs to shout him down.
But a statement by the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, warned politicians, especially governorship aspirants, to jettison intolerant attitudes that could heat up the polity.
The statement reads: “It is unfortunate that following the exciting ovation the governor had received from the crowd and from all the corners of the venue of the event, some of the governorship aspirants in question had resorted to inciting few of their supporters around, out of envy, to begin to misbehave, while the governor was still making his emotional speech.
“Governorship aspirants should, for goodness sake, appreciate the fact that there is a sitting governor in the state, and courtesy, even protocol demands that he should be accorded the full respect due for the Office of the Executive Governor of a state and indeed, the occupant of the office.
“Anybody aspiring to be governor of the state, who cannot be civil or gentle enough to respect the person currently on the seat, cannot be seen as qualified and serious enough to be governor.”
The statement noted that “the spontaneous ovation that greeted the arrival of the governor at the event and the thunderous ovation that also greeted his speech at the occasion were all the creations of the innocent large crowd. That has been the case. That was also the reason the same people didn’t want the governor to talk at the burial church service of the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.”
Onwuemeodo said it should be the sitting governor who should be concerned about what the governorship aspirants were “saying or doing, or about the level of their popularity.”
He expressed regret that in the case of Imo State, “the aspirants get cowed and even terrified whenever they meet Governor Okorocha at public functions.”
He urged all the governorship aspirants to “cultivate the spirit or culture of tolerance and bear with Governor Okorocha whenever Imo people celebrate him. When you appreciate good tidings, obviously it will get to you.”
Earlier, the paramount ruler of Owerri, Dr. Emmanuel Njemanze, said Owerri people appreciated the infrastructural facilities the administration has put in place.
“Your Excellency, we thank you for the bridges across River Nworie, which have brought to limelight the true concept of the twin-city master plan of Owerri town, with New Owerri across the bridges. Traffic congestion even at its peak periods has been minimised. There is a comparatively free flow of traffic in and out of the state capital”.
Source: The Nation
