OWELLE ROCHAS AT 64: POWER IS TRANSIENT
E-ISSN: 2354-4481
John Mbonu Uchenwoke-Ekperechi
When the phone stopped ringing, when friends mind their business, and when relatives define boundaries, it signals the declining of an era. The dotage point of power, yet human beings still do not remember this important transitory phase of life.
His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Rochas Okorocha, former Governor of Imo State from 2011 to 2018, was born on September 22, 1962. Yesterday, Tuesday, September 22, he clocked 64 years on earth, as God loves him, but naturally, September 22, 2026, went unnoticed in Imo State without any fanfare. Without much newspaper coverage or social media crowded with celebration news, with the blazing jingles and many internet advertisements to celebrate him.
That is how life is. That is how humanity has grown to a place of “Mind your business.” But could this have been possible when he still wielded the power of an “Executive Governor” in the Nigerian style of executive power? Could this have happened when the shout of “My People, My People” was met with the unnatural replies of “My Governor, My Governor”?
A typical Owelle birthday celebration would have had all the women dressing in colourful wrappers across the 305 wards in Imo State, heading to the Douglas House for celebrations. Nneoma Rochas Women would fill the entire capital. Imo Rescue Movement, Rochas Children, and others would all turn out in their uniforms to celebrate their boss.
Then come the political appointees. They would flood social media with newspaper publications, singing his name to high heaven, including the ones he did not do, all in the name of praise-singing and in service of impressionistic endeavours.
Today, the chicken has come home to roost, and I dare ask, “Where are the Rochas teams” he worked with from 2011 to 2018 as a governor? Where are his commissioners, Special Advisers, Personal Advisers, and Local Government Chairmen? Those he made billionaires, have they all gone solo because the phone stopped ringing?
His Excellency, Senator Rochas Okorocha, as bad as you may rate his administration, there are things he truly did well as a governor, and that is what he can be remembered for.
He administered the state with the best of his abilities, pushing social welfare, education, and rural road opening, encapsulated in “Populist Government,” with a lot of showman sprees. Like him or hate him, those students who graduated under Rochas’ free education scheme idolised him to high heaven. They are the real essence of governance, not “Executive sycophancies.”
It is a call for those in government and in positions of authority to do the right things when they have the opportunity to do so, knowing that the flooding of congratulations by people around them is not the real deal. The ideal of leadership and government is that every government should have signature projects that truly affect the lives of the people. Because power is transient.
It is not permanent, and those celebrating today are merely doing so because you have things to throw around. But it is more important when you use the resources of the people to develop them in every area of human development. This is the best birthday celebration that would outlive generations because “General grace” is boundless and unselective.
Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha may not have been celebrated as it ought to have been on his birthday, being September 22, 2026, but there are those things he achieved while a governor that are serving humanity today. These are the true signatures of his administration. Those people he truly empowered, especially in education, idolise him. These formed the natural birthday gifts to a man who governed Imo State for eight years with the mantra, “My People, My People,” and “My Governor, My Governor.”
Owelle Rochas at 62: Power is transient. Let us govern with a human face and do the right thing.
Happy birthday, Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
John Mbonu Uchenwoke-Ekperechi
Publisher/Chief-Editor-in-Chief, Inside Agwa News
Columnist, “Shadow of the Flag”
