Politics in Nigeria has become a serious business, where alot of them would do anything to get the political positions the want. who do you think is the richest politician in Nigeria?
In advanced countries like United States of America, Britain, Australia and the likes, politicians rarely come into power seeking to make money for themselves; most of the time, they come to serve the people that elected them into office.
Rarely had Nigeria ever witnessed any situation in which elected politician came with the intention to serve the people. Most of them prefer to make the big buck for themselves first and then they will dish out the left over scratch to the people they are supposed to serve. This is why politics tend to make Nigerians politicians rich.
Individuals who had little or nothing before they ventured into politics would suddenly become very rich once they are in office. It is not surprising anyway; many of the people vying for elective offices in Nigeria are mere political jobbers.
Be that as it may, it is not all Nigerian politicians that are political jobbers. Some of them actually mean well for Nigerians and they had the intention of bettering the lot of the masses before and during their tenures in office.
In actual fact, there are some of them that have made their money before they came into politics. These ones do not depend on money made as politicians to enrich themselves. One can say therefore that Nigeria politics is filled with the good, the bad and the ugly. One problem however that is the bad and ugly seem to outnumber the good among them.
It is important that you get to know those who are really rich among these politicians. In the write-up, we will inform you about the richest of the politicians in Nigeria according to latest rating.
Who is the richest politician in Nigeria?
His name is Rochas Okorocha. His net worth is $1.4 billion. He was born on the 22nd of September in 1962, 2 years after Nigeria’s independence. Aside being the richest politician in Nigeria, Rochas Okorocha is also a business man. In actual fact, he had been into business before he ventured into politics.
Among a number of other things, he is also a philanthropist; he is known to have financed the education of a number of individuals in Nigeria. He is a citizen of Imo state, Nigeria. Rochas Okorocha was the winner of the governorship election that was held on 6th of May, 2011 in Imo State, Nigeria.
He contested again for second term as governor and won the reelection on 11thApril, 2015. He is therefore the present governor of Imo state, serving his second term in office.
As hinted earlier, Rochas Okorocha is a well known philanthropist. Name of his organization is Rochas Foundation. The organization is a charity organization and it gives funding to a number of special schools. These special schools are spread across Nigeria. In addition,
Rochas Okorocha gives scholarship to the less privileged in the society to finance their education. This is exactly one of the factors that make him very popular among the people of Imo state in particular and Nigeria in general.
When he contested for the first his first tenure as gubernatorial candidate in Imo state, Rochas Okorocha contested under the umbrella of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). He actually remained in the party till the tail end of his first term in office.
Shortly before the end of his first tenure as governor, he joined the All Progressive Congress (APC) and contested under the umbrella of this new party. He won his second term election as an APC governor.
APC is a party formed by the alliance of three political parties in Nigeria. These political parties are Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
Not all members of the APGA agreed to join the APC alliance. Some of the party members declined the arrangement and they remain in the APGA. Rochas Okorocha was however interested in the alliance. This led to formation of factions in the APGA. The Rochas faction of APGA joined with the ACN and the CPC to form APC.
Closest rivals to Rochas Okorocha during the first election was Ikedi Ohakim. Ohakim was the incumbent governor of Imo State at the time. When contesting for his second term in office, Rochas Okorocha contested against and defeated Hon Emeka Ihedioha. The latter is presently the deputy speaker Nigeria House of Representatives.
The election was conducted twice anyway. In the first election, the margin between the two was so close that INEC had to call for an election rerun. Rochas however emerged triumphant after the rerun.
A little bit about his origin
As hinted earlier, Rochas Okorocha was born on the 22nd of September, 1962. He is an Igbo, a tribe in the southeastern part of Nigeria. He hails from Ogboko in the Ideato South Local government area of Imo State.
Rochas Okorocha had his secondary education in Juladaco High School located in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria from 1976 to 1981. After his secondary education, he proceeded to the University of Jos. He was a student at the university from 1990 to 1991.
At the end of his university education, he was awarded diploma in Public Administration. Later in 1993, he returned to University of Jos for his advanced diploma in Public Administration.
After his education, Rochas Okorocha became the President of the Nigeria Red Cross Society. At a later date, he founded his Rochas Foundation Inc. and he holds position of President in the charity organization.
In addition, Rochas Okorocha is the president of Rochas Group of Companies Limited. He is equally the Pro Chancellor of African Business School. Furthermore, he was former Chairman of the Board of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.
His poor background
Rochas Okorocha originated from a poor background. He actually stated that his family was poor in accordance with all definitions of poverty. He said he understood the role expected of him as an individual to the society.
Rochas Okorocha stated once that he knew he had to work very hard in order to put food on the table. And that was exactly what he did. He was forced to combine his education with street hawking.
How he grew up
Unlike a number of other children in his days, Rochas never had the opportunity to attend school normally like every other student. He equally stated that he was forced to engage in so many types of business to ensure he survived.
His various businesses
There was a time in his early days when he was selling fairly used clothes. He used the profit from the business to buy a bus. And that was when he was in secondary school.
Earlier on, he was able to buy television when he was still in primary school. He got the money for the television by selling oranges, used clothes and coconuts. Also, he formed the habit of saving and he claimed that was what helped him to start his bigger business at an early stage of life.
At a later time, Rochas Okorocha went into the business of selling used equipments. He was actually acting as agent of the company that was selling the said equipments. He was their commission agent. He claimed this was where he made his very first million US dollars.
The money he made from this business was put into the business of selling used cars. After some period, his used car sales business transformed to new car sales business. Name of the company is Rochas Motors. After a white, Rochas Okorocha went into real estate business. He claimed this was exactly what made him very rich.
His journey through time
Rochas bought his first television at the age of 9 and he bought his first bus at the age of 14. He was the headmaster of as commercial school when he was 20 years of age. Rochas however become proprietor of a school when he was 23 years of age.
Later, he started cement business in Gboko, Benue State. He got married when he was 24 years of age. He was a member of the National Constitutional Conference when he was 29 years of age. He later became a member of the Federal Character Commission.
At this early age, he contested for governorship election, but lost. He later ran for presidency shortly after that. Later, he was appointed as a presidential adviser. After this, he ran again for presidency. He lost again until he now contested for governorship election in 2011.
His political escapades
After the military handed over to civilians in 1999, Rochas Okorocha was appointed to be one of the members of National Constitutional Conference. At the earlier stage of his political career, he was a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
His first contest for governorship position was under the umbrella of the PDP. He however lost to Achike Udenwa in that election. Later, he shifted allegiance to All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP). He contested under the umbrella of this party again in 2003, but lost.
After his escapade in ANPP, he came back to PDP. This was when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo gave him appointment as his Special Adviser on Inter-Party affairs. He however gave his governorship ambition another shot in 2011 and he won this time around
If you think Okorocha is not the richest politician in Nigeria, Please share on the comment section below.
