Nigerians have expressed divergent views on what should become of the giant bronze statue of former South African president, Jacob Zuma, unveiled by the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, in Owerri.

The unveiling of the humongous statue in October last year happened just as South Africa’s Supreme Court ruled that Zuma should face corruption charges.

In addition to the statue, Zuma was given a chieftaincy title and had a road named after him.

Okorocha also conferred on him the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Imo, the highest merit award of the state given to distinguished people.

Zuma on Wednesday resigned as the country’s president after pressure from his African National Congress (ANC) ruling party over allegations of corruption and Nigerians have weighed in on what should be done to his statue.

The national chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, said erecting of a statue in Imo State in honour of Zuma by Okorocha was an embarrassment to the state and the entire country

He urged the people of the state to reject the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.

He said: “I don’t have much interest in the statues that Okorocha erects, but I can tell you that his actions have become an embarrassment, not only to the people of the state, but the entire Igbo nation and the country.

“I am sure that Nigerians, not only Imo people, cannot wait to see the back of Okorocha and it wouldn’t be him that would bring down those embarrassing statues.

“The new government that would come after him would definitely bring down the statues because those things are temporary distractions.

“Rochas has negatively impacted on APC, that no matter who becomes the APC governorship candidate, the people of the state should not allow the person to win.

“Honestly, I admire the ANC and I envy the South African people because they had the unity of purpose.

“The opposition in South Africa has been vindicated because they have been saying the same thing up to the point that the ruling party had to redeem itself.

“I wish our democracy and civilisation has developed to that level, but it has not. Nigeria is not civilised. We are not too far away from primitivism.”

Joe Igbokwe, the publicity secretary of the APC in Lagos State said regardless of the development in South Africa, that history would always have Zuma as a former president of his country, insisting that Zuma’s statue had nothing to do with the allegations of corruption leveled against him.

However, Okechukwu Nwanguma, National Coordinator, Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) Foundation said: “That Zuma statue which Okorocha moulded just like many others, was just one of the pretexts to divert public funds.

“Asking him to dismantle Zuma’s statue would be a waste of time because in the first place, he didn’t mean it as an honour.”

But the people of the state insisted Okorocha must immediately remove the statute, stressing that as long as Zuma’s statue remained standing in Imo it thus means that the state condoned corruption.

They asked him to withdraw the award bestowed on the ex-South African president, which they said was ab initio in bad taste as he never merited to be so honoured by the state.

According to Reverend Farther George Nwachukwu, Director of Social Communication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Zuma ought not to have been considered for any honour in the state because he was not known to have contributed anything to the state, neither was he an exemplary leader.

He said: “Zuma’s statute is not supposed to be erected in Imo State because he is not known to have done anything for the state and her people.

“He is the personal friend of Okorocha and even his visit to the state was a personal one and brought nothing to the state.

“To make matters worst he was given the highest merit award by the state and his statute erected in the Imo Hall of Fame.

“Now that he has been sacked for plethora of corruption charges the best thing to do is for the governor to immediately remove that statue, which in the first place should not have been erected for any reason whatever.

“If that statue is left to stand it means that Imo people condones corruption, because by the erection of that statue the state was made an international laughing stock.”

Also, Dr. Harold Wilson Onumuo, pointed out that the erection of the statue was part of the impunity going on in the state, “this erroneously means that we the people of Imo are comfortable with corrupt elements no matter where they come from.”

THE SUN