Until last May 29, Chief Godson Ikedi Ohakim was Governor of Imo State, popularly as the Eastern Heartland.  The masters degree holder in management from University of Lagos has played the political field for over two decades, during which he has experienced mixed fortunes.

It began with a successful stint as commissioner for Commerce and Industries under the then Evan Enwerem administration, while in his early thirties, which earned him the sobriquet, Ochinanwata – child king.

Ohakim’s private sector background– as a seasoned marketing professional and Managing Director of a flourishing aluminum company – seemed to have contributed to his radical, but clearly less than popular approach to governance. His edginess was quick to show through                                                                                                                  . So was

his eagerness to free himself from a well-engrained culture of political bigmanism and Godfatherism. He sought to impose himself and his  socio-political on people to convince them.  For him, Imo State could not march forward without fundamental reforms in several spheres, starting with basic hygiene and order.

His reformist agenda would be articulated in the New Face of Imo agenda, a key aspect of which was the widely applauded: Clean & Green initiative.

The Clean and Green initiative was initially well received by urban-based Imo people. Soon enough, it would become one of Ohakim’s many albatrosses as he ventured into changing the way the people behaved and had gotten used to behaving over years of permissive and sympathetic administrations. It was a revolution carried out in a hurry, and often carried too far, with little thought to the socio-economic realities .

Beyond sweeping the streets clean, shops and other illegally sited business premises that had sustained families for years began to come down. Levies were imposed. Defaulters were arrested and made to receive stiff punishments. Mechanics, artisans, hawkers, barrow-pushers and the urban down-trodden bore the  brunt of Entraco, the environmental police led by no-nonsense lawyer and idealist, Willie Amadi.

They were enjoined to ‘sacrifice today and enjoy forever’. But were the long-suffering people of Imo State prepared to make further sacrifices in the name of a better tomorrow, when they desperately yearned for immediate succor? This was the million dollar question Chief Ohakim and his band of reformists did not give time to fully address as they embarked on the clean and green crusade.

In the midst of controversial but well intentioned reforms, he also unwittingly created animosity among the Imo elite and an army of enemies emerged as he bravely overcame a myriad of legal disputes surrounding his gubernatorial victory, his fight to seize control of the state PDP structure plus his policy to starve political big men of easy access to state funds.

That Ohakim meant well for the people of Imo State was never in doubt but the side effects of his change programmes even in the face of visible  dividends seemed to antagonise the populace who felt his style of leadership was not sensitive and consultative.

His significant achievements in various sectors will remain reference points in the years ahead because there is no forgetting them in a hurry. Barely one year in office, for the sheer novelty of his programmes as well as their profundity, Ohakim was proud winner of the Thisday Governor – of-the -Year Award. An honor he proudly shared with Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State and perhaps more deservedly so, given the meagre resources at his disposal to drive  developmental change in Imo State.

It is a lesson in the dynamics of political fortunes that the same newspaper would predict his downfall in a pre-election opinion poll, two years later. The Clean and Green initiative had also earned Owerri  the award of Nigeria’s cleanest city in 2007. Street managers and landscapers were constantly on hand to keep it so.

These two awards only served as impetus to pursue the New Face of Imo agenda with extra zeal. Other achievements included the first-ever state-owned municipal bus and taxi system, the job creation centre, the Imo Rural Road Maintenance Agency (IRROMA), innovative agricultural schemes, and roads new and reconstructed. Communities like Amucha-Eziama Obire and Dikenafai-Isiekenesi-Umunago whose roads were nightmares for decades and only drew unfulfilled promises from President Shehu Shagari in 1982 and General Ibrahim Babangida in the early nineties, will not forget Ohakim in a hurry.

No less communities like Ebenato Ekwe in Njaba Local Government Area and Nkwo Mbaa in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area – two others once almost completely washed away by flood and erosion. What of Obohia-Ugurike and Okwu in Ikeduru Local Government Area also saved from gully erosion?

Ohakim’s achievements in the health sector attracted accolades from no less an authority than the  United Nations who ranked the State tops in reducing child and maternal mortality in addition to achieving other Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. Okigwe people will be quick to acknowledge that with just a little federal assistance in 2007, Ohakim quickly completed the Greater Okigwe water project which Governor Sam Mbakwe initiated but could not complete it following the military coup of 1983.

If Ohakim’s achievements are said to be drowned by his political failings, it would be difficult to completely exonerate previous administrations from the  decay and neglect that had accumulated over  the decades. This is made worse by the general awareness that elected representatives at all levels wallow in opulence while steadily sapping the economy.

Anyanwu is a public affairs analyst based in Mbaise, Imo State