Stealing for Election

"The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion" Proverbs 28:1.

The Igbo have an old saying that he whom the gods want to kill they first make him mad. But the question has been: why do the gods not kill the man they have marked out for slaughter and save him the burden of madness? The answer is not far fetched, though.

The Holy Bible warns that "Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy" Proverbs 29:1. Second, it would seem that the gods are more interested in making the dissident mad than in his death. The gods are more interested in humbling the haughty, exerting the greatest punishment to teach the most important lesson that anyone who exalts himself shall be abased.

Governor Okorocha has shown all the characteristics of a stiff-necked man. From the day he was announced winner of the 2011 governorship election he has been stiff-necked, listening to no one and talking to no one. He does not even fear the gods. To him the gods too are conquered, same way he has conquered the state and now transforming it to his dynasty or empire, his fiefdom. Against the law, Governor-Elect Okorocha wrote to the commercial banks to stop further transactions with the outgoing Ikedi Ohakim administration that had about three months to leave. Everyone roared. But Okorocha did not listen.

When eventually he was sworn in on May 29, 2011, his first outing was to announce that rule of law, due process, accountability have been suspended. Why? He said that these time tested inbuilt checks mechanism in a democracy were breeding corruption and slowing the pace of governance. With the tenders board gone Governor awarded contracts without bidding, without going through the tenders board. All you needed to get your contract was to meet the Governor in his very good mood, perhaps after a very salacious meal, kowtow to him and he would just announce your contracts. Stories like this are not in short supply in Imo, and that accounts for the reason the state government ran into a stalemate with the local contractors who were involved in his infamous rural roads, streets gates, etc. Many of the contractors have since died as a result of pressure from banks.

Okorocha's handlers had justified his position with the claim that the Governor's suspension of due process saved cost as contracts were awarded at cheaper rates, but leading to inferior jobs, what has been christened China Roads. The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) had on two occasions raised the alarm that construction works going on in Imo State were of very inferior quality. Particularly, COREN raised the danger sign on the Orji flyover. Today, all the so-called road construction works going on in Imo have gone worse than they were before Governor Okorocha descended on them. Imo people now know that instead of saving cost Okorocha's suspension of due process has led to wastage and monumental corruption.

As the Okorocha administration winds up there is no economically impactful or regenerative project that can be ascribed to it. But the Governor is carrying out his biggest project ever. This project is his third term bid through Uche Nwosu as Governor. I had earlier explained in a previous article that the Governor is building a political empire or dynasty with Uche Nwosu as the regent. The actualization of the empire is the biggest project Okorocha has now and he is willing to disrupt anything to actualise it. But Imo people will not let him disrupt the state, and he won't achieve it.

Faced with stiff opposition within his APC, Okorocha schemes to usurp the structures of the party to outwit his opponents so as to safely deliver the APC guber ticket to his son in-law. This is the reason he is conducting local government election using the autonomous communities as Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) wards. By this, Okorocha would have more than 600 councillors instead of the 305 from INEC wards. The Governor believes that since the councillors would be delegates in the governorship primary election of the party, they would deliver his baby.

But having impoverished Imo people for close to a decade and lost all legitimacy, Okorocha believes he can buy his way and enthrone his son in-law as Governor. In fact, he already sees him as Governor as he addresses him as such, even at public functions. If money will play any essential roles in the 2019 general elections, then everything must be done to stack money in large quantity to deliver Uche Nwosu.

If you recall, the Okorocha administration has issued a letter to the traditional rulers through the Commissioner for Community Government, Culture and Traditional Affairs on April 3rd, mandating them to collect and deposit into government account N6,000,000 per month, amounting to about 4 Billion Naira per month. This money from all indication is for the purpose of the 2019 elections. Not for any development project in the communities as touted by the government.

According to the Commissioner for Information, Prof Nnamdi Obiareri, in a press release on Monday, April 23: "the principle behind this Autonomous Community Adult Development Levy is for every autonomous community to raise at least six million Naira from at least 2,000 leviable adults paying N3,000 each into their community coffers".

Though the Governor claimed the monthly N4B from the autonomous communities is for "rural development purposes", many people wonder what kind of development Okorocha would be embarking on in the twilight of his administration. They wonder why he did not carry out those projects in the last seven years. Community sources said the Governor told them that the development levy is to build cottage industries in the 600 autonomous communities.

As earlier stated, many people in Imo State fear that the Governor only wants to harvest money for the 2019 elections and not for any rural development. They argue that creating cottage industries in 600 autonomous communities would mean creating cottage industries that would not be viable forever. They refer to the 26 general hospitals project embarked upon by the Governor since 2011, with no headway. According to Imo people, if the 26 general hospitals have not worked, it will amount to poor economic calculation and total waste to think of creating 600 cottage industries in all the communities.

Imo people believe that there is nothing to believe anymore coming from the Governor. They also believe that the best way to industrialise the state is not by creating 600 cottage industries as they will be unproductive and unprofitable. They wonder how a Governor that had destroyed business premises would be talking about cottage industries. Moreover, it is feared that the Governor had touted the cottage industries in rural communities for several years, and many thus wonder why the Governor would think of implementing it at the close of his tenure.

Governor Okorocha had mandated all the students in the state owned higher institutions of learning to do a revalidation, where they were also mandated to show proof that their parents had paid the development levy of N2,000 (as it then was). Imo people want to know what happened to the money, whether they were utilised by the autonomous communities or the state government.

The motive behind the N4B monthly community development levy is further exposed not only by its illegality but by the quantum of lies evident in the government's statement. The government had falsely claimed that the "creation and recognition of Autonomous Communities in Imo State beginning from the 1978 Imo State Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities (TRAC) Law as vigorously amended has always been predicated on a number of stringent conditionalities some of which include contiguous land mass, large population and viability measured through abundance of leviable adults. All the relevant amendments to Imo State Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities (TRAC) Law through the civilian regimes of HE Mbakwe, HE Udenwa, HE Ohakim and till date have always retained these conditionalities without exception".

But a prominent lawyer and social crusader in the state, Barr Kissinger Ikokwu, disagrees with the statement, further exposing the lies in their claims. He said: "that there is no law of Imo State requiring citizens to pay Development Levy. There is not law in Imo State requiring Autonomous Communities to pay N6,000,000 to Imo State government for development or as Development Levy". He further submitted that the government "has no powers to impose 'Development Levies' on citizens. There is no law from where the Governor or Imo State Government derives powers to impose such levies on Ndi Imo".

Nothing can be more damning than the above, but Kissinger who is not given to idle talks provides further touch on the illegal community development levy, noting that Governor Okorocha is the first to impose the development levy on rural dwellers in Imo State, "after the fund to build Imo Airport some decades ago".

Debunking the claim that Governors Ikedi Ohakim and Achike Udenwa had made laws for community levy as part of stringent conditions for creating autonomous communities, he said that "there was no law under the Udenwa or Ohakim regime that mentioned the word 'Development Levy'. No such law before now, required Imo adults to pay government development levy. Suffice to say that the Udenwa regime enacted a law called Town Unions and Development Associations Law No 16 of 2000".

The Udenwa law titled "A Law to provide for the regulation of the activities of Town Unions and Development Associations in Imo State" provided in "section 16 (1): 'For the purposes of implementing various developmental projects for the community, the Town Union shall devise its own strategies for mobilizing funds including: (A) Fund raising and launchings. (B) Mandatory individual contributions; (C) Local and state government contributions; (D) contributions from external agencies, governmental and nongovernmental organisations; (E) any other legitimate means of raising funds"

It also provided in subsection 2 that "In implementing subsections (1) above, the Town Union Executive shall be mindful of the financial effect on the generality of the people and there shall be a form of social and economic grading of the people to the effect that people are taxed in relation to what they earn". Kissinger further explained that "in 2006 therefore, the same House of Assembly under Chief Achike Udenwa, reputed for having produced more legislations than its successors repealed the same Town Unions and Development Associations Law No 16 of 2000 and enacted a more elaborate and all encompassing Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities Law No. 6 of 2006. In the 2006 law they merged the Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities Law No. 3 of 1999 and the Town Unions and Development Associations Law No 16 of 2000 into one law. Today therefore the Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities Law No. 6 of 2006 is the authoritative law that governs the operation, organisation, regulation of Autonomous communities, their creation and chieftaincy matters".

Furthermore, he debunked government's claim that payment of N3,000 Development levies by 2,000 taxable adults is a condition for the creation of an autonomous community, explaining "that the assertion is not only reckless and baseless but also not a product of our laws, hence an illegality".

As reproduced by Kissinger, Section 25 (1) of the Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities Law No. 6 of 2006 provides that "Any community or group of communities seeking autonomy shall have common tradition, common identity and be homogenous. (2) There shall be signatures of leaders or representatives of all component Towns/Villages seeking for Autonomous Community in any such application", and never was taxing any adult for development levy a condition for creating new autonomous communities".

The Development Levy is not anchored on any law. It is more worrisome and politically induced, considering that the state government has already bared its fangs, threatening to sanction erring traditional rulers and communities. But should silence and indifference solve the problem? No. I think social disobedience will better register in the government that truly Imo State is not working anymore.

The writer Collins Ughalaa is the Chief Press Secretary to Dr Ikedi Ohakim

Chief Ikedi Ohakim and Rochas Okorocha in 2009