By Kelechi Nwaeze
Ikedi Ohakim governed Imo State between 2007 and 2011. That is a fact. He lost re-election in 2011. Another fact. The people of Imo moved on. So must he.
The circumstances of his emergence as governor remain controversial. It is widely believed that he rode into power not on the back of popular mandate, but through high-level political deals brokered in Abuja. Even his immediate successor, Rochas Okorocha, refused for much of his tenure to acknowledge Ohakim’s legitimacy as a predecessor. His election lacked the energy and broad-based participation one would expect of a people’s mandate. It was power acquired by arrangement, not enthusiasm.
Ohakim was a wildcard who quickly became a wild horse. He was the right man in the right circles at the right time, favoured by fortune and well-placed allies. He fits Chinua Achebe’s metaphor of the man whose kernel was cracked by benevolent spirits, only to turn around and mock those whose fortune did not match his. Rather than show grace, he became arrogant, distant and disdainful of dissent. His moment came, and it passed. And as the saying goes, lightning does not strike the same place twice.
Unfortunately, Ohakim has refused to move on. For over a decade, he has continued to posture as a governor-in-exile, a man unjustly removed from office who deserves a return ticket as compensation. He argues that he was supposed to serve eight years, that his tenure was prematurely “interrupted,” and that Imo people owe him a chance to finish what he started. The irony is painful. He did not step down. He was not overthrown. He was defeated at the polls, fair and square, in a keenly contested election. That defeat was no fluke; it was the people’s verdict.
Yet Ohakim has built a whole narrative of victimhood around that loss. According to him, the 2011 election was manipulated, driven by external forces and dictated by Abuja’s whims. This line of thinking is not only delusional, it is insulting. It suggests that Imo people are too weak-minded to make their own decisions, and that the power to choose their leader lies elsewhere. It is a deeply patronising and self-serving revision of history.
Even more troubling is that this narrative has become his political calling card. At every election cycle, Ohakim resurfaces to stir up old grievances and position himself as the one who must be restored. He insists on telling a story of injustice rather than accepting the implications of rejection.
Rather than accept any responsibility for how his style and decisions alienated both power brokers and the electorate, Ohakim clings to the idea that his removal was purely a result of political sabotage.
The evidence, however, tells a different story. After his 2011 defeat, he failed to win the PDP ticket in 2015. He moved to APGA ahead of the 2019 elections and again failed to secure the nomination. When he eventually ran under the Accord Party banner, he garnered barely 6,000 votes. The decline is not a matter of sabotage. It is a matter of rejection.
Despite this, he continues to project himself as the face of equity in Imo politics. He has attempted to monopolise the legitimate call for power rotation among the three Zones of Imo (Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe), and to twist it into a personal campaign for political redemption. He encourages prominent figures to float the idea that the principle of rotation should naturally mean a return of Ohakim to Government House. This is dishonest and opportunistic. The agitation for equity is sound, but it is not about Ohakim.
Owerri and Okigwe zones absolutely deserve a shot at the governorship after Orlu’s long dominance since 1999. That is a matter of justice. But it cannot and must not be confused with the entitlement of one man who believes that the state owes him a second term. It is an insult to the spirit of democratic rotation to reduce it to a sympathy project for a man who lost his way over a decade ago.
The world has moved on, and so has Imo. This is a time for innovation, vision and capacity, not nostalgia.
Ohakim has the right, like any citizen, to run for public office. No one is denying him that. What is unacceptable is the insistence that he must be handed the governorship as a form of recompense. If he has fresh ideas for Imo, let him present them. If he can inspire the people once more, let him try. But he must stop insulting their intelligence by pretending that he was robbed and that he is entitled to restitution.
If he truly cared about gubernatorial service, why did he try to become a senator in 2023? More importantly, why did his people reject him outright? That rejection was not engineered. It was decisive. The people said no.
There is a pattern here. It is the pattern of a man desperate to stay relevant. A man who will accept any appointment, chase any endorsement, and say anything to remain within reach of power. At his core, he is not seeking to serve. He is seeking to be validated. That is not the spirit of leadership. That is the profile of someone addicted to public attention, not public duty.
Imo owes Ikedi Ohakim nothing.
He contested, he lost. His curve peaked in 2011, and has trended downward since. His ideas are outdated. His politics are uninspiring. He is entitled to run in 2027, yes; but he must stop guilt-tripping the people of Imo into thinking they denied him a right. There was no right. There was an opportunity, and he blew it.
This state does not exist to bottle-feed politicians back to power. This is not the time for sentimental politics. It is time to build on real progress with a credible, forward-thinking successor who will rebuild Imo for greater tomorrow.
Enough of the tantrums. Enough of the manipulation. Enough of Ikedi Ohakim.
