The reported threat by Orlu Political Consultative Assembly (OPOCA) to deny the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Orlu people’s votes, if the party’s Imo State gubernatorial primaries were not cancelled, is both ridiculous and ludicrous.
To begin with, OPOCA, basically a one-man squad, has for long ceased to exist, as there had not been many crises upon which it would feed fat.
Secondly, OPOCA is an embarrassment to many decent Orlu people who would rather prefer that its leadership chose another name that would remove “Orlu” from its designation.
One had thought that since the organisation was variously rebuked and publicly repudiated as a self-made mouthpiece of Orlu people, and it went into a limbo, that it would have seized the opportunity to evaporate, for good.
But no. The Imo PDP primaries gave OPOCA the chance to come out of hibernation, especially as Senator Ifeanyi Araraume is involved and can be reckoned with to release the funds to the OPOCA leadership to “fight” Ihedioha and PDP “to a standstill”.
OPOCA should be told in very clear terms that it possesses neither the “ability nor capability” to influence Orlu people’s votes, and as such was merely grandstanding when it threatened in its statement, as recently reported in the media, that it “will ensure that no Orlu man votes for PDP in the 2015 elections”.
Once upon a time in Imo history, OPOCA indeed had a vibrant nuisance value. But it has lost it, due to the inability of its perennial leadership to realise its limits.
So when many cultured and decent men and women of Orlu have distanced themselves from OPOCA, where will OPOCA overlords recruit Orlu people that will withhold their votes from Ihedioha and PDP?
Anyone who reads through Araraume’s complaint to the PDP would recognise that a matured and cool-headed personality was writing. He marshalled his points and invited the leaders of the party to look into his case.
He certainly does not need the meddlesomeness of OPOCA.
If anything, OPOCA is in fact polluting the waters by trying to introduce division and rancour among faithful and loyal PDP men and women across Imo and even beyond.
Nobody needs to tell OPOCA that Araraume is no fool and would be disinclined to shell out his hard-earned money to mere rabble -rousers that OPOCA has always been.
Can anyone remember one positive input OPOCA has made in the politics of Orlu or Imo?
OPOCA would always surface when there is a crisis in which funds are likely to be released for a phony media war or where somebody could be blackmailed to bring out money to OPOCA leadership or…
Listening to the arrogant vituperations of OPOCA’s spokesmen, one would quickly relate them to the type of insensitivity our brothers up North used to show in discussing Nigeria and their perceived superior numbers vis-a-vis the rest of the population.
Since when did Orlu’s 12 local governments decide the fate of politics in the rest of the 15 LGs of Imo?
Why should OPOCA introduce mischief in our political discourse by provocatively flaunting perceived Orlu’s numerical dominance of the rest of the state?
OPOCA and its promoters should stop being so predictably laughable whenever they sally forth into the political arena.
And they should stop forcing Orlu people to cover their faces in shame and snigger whenever they pretend to speak for them. It should not appropriate to itself authority, power or clout that it does not possess.
Its leadership should also appreciate that both Ihedioha and Araraume parade competent professionals in both law and journalism in their campaign teams and do not therefore require the amateurish prancing of the OPOCAs of this world.
Without massive votes from Orlu, it is clear that Araraume and Ihedioha would not have got such high scores in the primaries.
And what it means is that both men are solid political heavy weights in Imo and have their admirers and supporters all over the state, including their respective zones of origin.
Imo people have, for a very long time, demonstrated that they have gone beyond primordial and blinkered politicking.
Our people have shown that they want men and women with brain and charisma to lead them.
Where such an acceptable leader comes from in Imo is patently irrelevant.
Thank God we all speak one language and majorly profess one religion; so no mischief-maker can play the language of religion card.
Igbo people, from history, respect and applaud an achiever who has a visible means of self-sustenance.
The Igbo culture abjures a parasite and a trouble-maker who causes uproar in the market place.
This writer does not come from Orlu zone. But he can boast of knowing and having Orlu friends who are among the most brilliant and the most cultured of any Nigerian you can think of.
One is almost tempted to name names.
They must be sorely scandalised to hear an organisation like OPOCA speaking for and on behalf of all Orlu people.
OPOCA should discover something more honourable to expend its energies on.
If Orlu people tolerate them as their kith and kin, Imolites from outside Orlu may not have that patience and would be forced to give it back to them, poker for poker. No puns intended!