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Ikedi Ohakim asserts his right to be identified as the author of the book

© Ikedi Ohakim, 2009

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the copyright owner and the publishers.

ISBN: 978 978 8135 32 6(Limp)
978 978 8135 48 7 (Cased)
978 978 8135 49 4 (Boxed set)

Author photo: TY Bello
Cover Design: DDB
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........IX
PROLOGUE............................XII

BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................297
INDEX........................................................................301

This book has been 17 years in the making, I have been working on it in fits and starts since 1992. During this long period, I have reworked it many times, abandoned it several times, and been re-energized towards completing it several times too. But my wandering spirit, my troubled mind, never let it go even one time. I was always searching for the proper theme to anchor the story upon, the proper phrase to capture what I considered the challenges of Nigeria which about summarizes my agitation and prompted the book. I found that anchor, at last, as I submerged myself in the tempestuous sea that was the Imo governorship race, first in 2003 as running mate and than in 2007 when I ran for the top job. I experienced first-hand the monster of money politics with all its damning consequences and recognized it promptly as the bane of our leadership and the problem of our society, even as I fell victim to its evil consequences, and battled them with every ounce of my being. I had my anchor, my theme, and the book project fund new meaning, new urgency!...

One of my fellow contestants in the governorship primaries of Imo State, had… made a cash withdrawal of mind-blowing proportion…people had this kind of money to throw into an election that they were not even sure of winning…There was something just immoral about it all in a land where people were hungry…Where graduates walked the streets in search of jobs….,where countless other children and youths walked the streets without hope for any form  of formal education …I thought of the 200,000 full education scholarship that the huge amount of money could fetch and my stomach churned.

It was one of the toughest decisions of my life. But I managed to carry it through without batting an eyelid. There was just no alternative, no going back.
“I am dropping out of the rave”, I announced to be bewildered members of my campaign team, “I am leaving the PDP”....