Chief (Dr) Chekwas Okorie @ 70: Reflections Of A Journalist

Apart from the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu, there was no other Igbo political leader I so much admired than Chief (Dr) Chekwas Okorie during my time in Enugu as the Punch Correspondent from 2003 to 2006.

Colleagues in Enugu had warned me that Ojukwu was hard to get for a state correspondent seeking interview, and that he preferred to speak with the big editors in Lagos. So, one day I decided to test the portrayal and visited his residence.

I was there by 9 am and told his aides I wanted to interview him on some national issues. They asked if he gave me any appointment and I responded in the negative. They said I had to wait for him to come down from upstairs. I gave them my complimentary card and scribbled a note behind it.

When he came down about one hour later, I was the first person he asked to see! We had an hour-long interview. After that interview, he said I could call him anytime I wanted him to speak on any issue. He continued to be my friend until I left Enugu. I found that everything I was told about him was false.

He spoke during our interviews with passion and intellect, and his eloquence delighted me to no end.

The man who gave me a similar feeling of satisfaction after every interview was Chief Chekwas Okorie who was then the National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance—a party he founded with the late Ikemba.

I first met Chief Okorie on the pages of newspapers! Since I was new in Enugu and didn’t know many important people, I read newspapers and watched television channels to know who the opinion leaders were at the time, and I was attracted to the strong, progressive views of Chief Okorie.

When I got his contact and called him, he invited me to his residence, and talked for more than an hour. We chatted after the interview where he spoke off-the-record for a long time. I had several other interesting interviews and meetings with him thereafter. Chief Okorie is a delight to interview, just as the late Ojukwu.

Chief Okorie always speaks his mind and is not shy to speak on any issue. He knows how to respond to every question with information. He is knowledgeable and self-assured. Unlike many politicians and leaders who become uneasy in the company of journalists, he is very much at home with journalists. An amiable personalty, he’s always willing to share a drink or banter with journalists.

He understands the role of the press and how a politician can have a mutually beneficial relationship with the media. Chief Okorie will make you believe in him and his cause when he talks to you. His intellectual convictions are infectious, and you will love to support his cause. Apart from the telephone, we always had our interviews in his house when I was in Enugu. Only a man comfortable with you will invite you to his house.

His views are unrepentantly progressive. He is the type of politician that is elevated in other parts of Nigeria, especially in the South West. He loves his people but also loves Nigeria. He’s proud of his Igbo pedigree but not an ethnic irridentist. I saw a strong connection in thought between him and the late Ikemba.

It was easy for me to understand why he and Ojukwu worked together on the APGA project. He wanted APGA as a political pressure group for the Igbo to negotiate power at the centre, something the Ikemba also admitted to during my conversations with him. It was a project that was feasible, and one that could have prevented the rise of IPOB and other groups seeking self-determination for the Igbo.

The Chief Okorie-led APGA was propelled by intellect, reason and political reality. He came across to me as a politician ahead of his peers. He wants a better deal for the Igbo in Nigeria but has the intellect to realize that the people first needed a political platform to channel their agitation, which APGA provided. He knew that once APGA became the political force in the Southeast, the rest of the country would be forced to negotiate with it. I became one of his admirers.

Unfortunately, politicians in the party who lacked any long-term vision for the people started a storm that eventually pushed him out of APGA. Of course, he attracted malicious envy for what he was doing as national chairman of APGA. The party was creating political waves and his profile was rising rapidly. But since he left APGA about 16 years ago, the cruise stopped and the party has not grown beyond Anambra State.

Those who connived to seize the party from him have gone ahead to realize their individual ambitions but failed to achieve the collective goal. APGA today is a party struggling to breathe because of the dearth of vision, courage, and tenacity to achieve the goals which Chief Okorie stood for.

Chief Okorie brought APGA into national reckoning when he was national chairman due to his charisma, intellectual sagacity and talent for mobilizing people and building bridges. His voice commanded respect across the country.

There’s no better evidence that APGA had lost it way after Chief Okorie’s leadership than the fact that the party is now factionalized and has become a third-rated political party in the Southeast.

Around November last year, a factional national chairman of the party, Chief Edozie Njoku, led the party’s National Working Committee to apologise to Chief Okorie, for all the wrongs past leadership of the party had done to him. Njoku admitted Okorie was unjustly pushed out of the party by buccaneers.

He said, “What we are here to do today is not to bemoan, think about the past, we are here to say Chief Chekwas Okorie – you are the face of the party, we are here to say we are truly sorry.

“From the bottom of our hearts, we are truly sorry for all the injustice you have suffered in this great party that you conceived and brought all of us into Igboezuo. We are truly sorry. We are just asking that you find a place in your heart because time has gone by to forgive us…This is your family. APGA is your home. APGA is your baby, and we say please come back to your home.”

In a few days time, Chief Okorie is going to be 70 years. He may have lost some of the energy to mobilize and build a national party for Ndigbo, but his experience and natural talents are still needed today.

Though a Yoruba man from Kwara State, I will truly love to see Ndigbo build a political party strong enough to command the respect of other national players and help the Southeast fight the alleged political marginalization. Chief Okorie at 70 is still an asset.

On April 10, I will join his friends and associates to wish him a happy birthday at the BMO Event Center in Wuse, Abuja.

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.