Of recent, Achike Udenwa, a former governor of Imo State has been in the news more constantly than he has ever been since he left office in 2007. Much of what is making the news is driven by Udenwa’s sudden and inexplicable negative portrayals of his successors in office, namely Governor Rochas Okorocha and former Governor, Ikedi Ohakim.
Udenwa’s attacks on these two men have become so serial and rancid that one is wont to suspect that it is a swan song of sorts by a man on the throes of the twilights of his political career.
It’s a political career that is littered with meteoritic flashes, chance occurrences, lack of perseverance and what have you. To recap, Udenwa was a low-grade accountant with a construction firm when the founding fathers of Imo State handpicked and anointed him as Governor of Imo State in 1999. It was such a farce that saw Udenwa picked as candidate of PDP over Rochas Okorocha and Greg Mbadiwe, both of whom had soundly defeated him in the primaries.
Suffice it to say that, to this date, a humiliated Udenwa still nurses quantum bitterness against these two men, especially Rochas who later became Governor despite Udenwa’s machinations against him. This partly explains why he continues to rail against anything Rochas, and he tags Ikedi along for good measure.
Back in 1999, Udenwa had nothing special going for him. No pedigree or excellence, either in politics or community leadership. No distinguished career and no financial prosperity. He had only three things going for him.
First, he hailed from Imo West senatorial district (Orlu zone) to which the governorship had been strictly zoned to by rank Imo leaders of the time. Two, Greg Mbadiwe and Rochas Okorocha were locked on a dead-heat nomination battle and each had refused to step down for the other. Three, some of the Imo fathers who picked Udenwa were stakeholders in the construction firm where he had worked; and he had also doubled as a personal accountant to one of them, late Chief Ferdinand Anaghara, an influencer extraordinaire, who was also close to former President Obasanjo.
That’s how Udenwa emerged and became the very first candidate in Imo State who never won a primary but became a candidate on the dubious intervention of godfathers. So, in a sense, Udenwa was both a political child of godfathers and an innovator of godfatherism in Imo politics, all with its pitfalls and adverse impacts on governance during his regime.
In time, Udenwa ran against Dr Ezekiel Izuogu, the APP candidate from the same Orlu zone, and who was better qualified and thus heavily favored to win in the general election. But it was not to be. Riding on the coattails of the same godfathers who had imposed him on PDP, Udenwa went on to be declared elected on an epic reverse of the votes scored by Izuogu.
Everybody in Imo State of that era who knew a thing or two was aware that Udenwa lost woefully to Izuogu by the popular will of Imo electorate but the results had to be switched on the overwhelming influence of his godfathers and the unbridled electoral impunity of that inglorious era.
Anyways, Udenwa went on to assume office. But did he govern well, as expected? Let’s consider these: Udenwa’s successors had some flagship projects that are discernible enough for all to see. His immediate successor, Ikedi Ohakim can point to Clean and Green, solid road projects, security, etc. Okorocha can also point to some, including infrastructural developments in Orlu, particularly the area surrounding and abutting Udenwa’s homestead in Amaifeke.
Compared to Ikedi and Rochas, what edifying legacy can anyone point to as Udenwa’s ‘achievement’ in Imo State? Well, for one – he built a basic Teaching Hospital in his Orlu zone but which he was unable to equip until some freebies were donated from America, not by his hard work but that of Ike C. Ibe. Any other significant improvement on that facility – in terms of equipment and staffing – did not happen under Udenwa but under his successors.
Additionally, Udenwa’s regime was characterized by rampant and unprecedented insecurity of lives in Imo State. It was an era of many political assassinations, all to the point that most eminent residents of Imo State hurriedly relocated outside Imo State until 2007 when Udenwa was hounded out of power and without the capacity to choose his successor. And yes – Udenwa could not choose his successor and it was such a frustrating experience that it still roils him to this day.
But the most remarkable legacy Udenwa left as a politician and a favored one at that is that he destroyed PDP in Imo State. Recall that he won his second term as a PDP candidate in 2003, and from then onwards, PDP never won governorship election in Imo State until this year – 2019, a whole sixteen years.
That’s how long it took the party to recover from the monumental damage done by Udenwa, and it only became possible because the party managed to finally and completely distance itself from an Achike Udenwa who has lately become an albatross and a political liability. Little wonder, therefore, that he is now spewing these infamous swan songs that he hopes will bring him back into media spotlight.
Odumegwu, a public affairs analyst wrote in from [email protected]