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The parlous condition of Imo State makes discerning minds weep. The state is seemingly cursed almost all the time. Political tradesmen straggle onto the seat of power and because their minds are vacuous of state craft, they plunge the state into deeper mire and consternation such that the only thriving industry in the state today is politics.
This has caught the attention of Chief Jim Isilebo, an Abuja-based Imo native, who in a post recently lamented that politics, sadly and strangely, is the biggest employer of labour in the state.
Isilebo wrote: “It is very disturbing and shameful that we are living with a clear dysfunctionality in a state whose inhabitants (big or small) daily see politics as the only thriving, lucrative and paying business worthy of engagement in the state.
“Over the years, our collective psychs have been so much manipulated, battered or even outrightly damaged by successive political dispensations, to the regrettable extent of every Tom, Dick and Harry in the state squarely relying for their daily survival either 100% on partisan politics or depending on the dining-table droppings of those directly and actively involved in politics as their sole vocation.
“No thanks to the willful destruction of other sectors of the state’s economy by the same succeeding political leaderships whose responsibility ordinarily would have been to address this aberration.
“It’s so discomforting just undertaking a trained survey of all the legacy industries and infrastructures initiated and built by our late political sage, Dee Sam Mbakwe, which would have been improved on and consequently aided in directing attention of our hordes of jobless youths for meaningful engagement, they are all in dilapidated state or no more in existence.
“The most noticeable dividends of democracy attractive to this current set of politicians is yearly grandstanding with shopworn projects that do not directly impact immediate human capital development.
“Rather, we seem majorly concerned with projects such as: *Constructing, scraping & reconstructing, resurfacing, remodeling, rehabilitating, renewing existing roads, especially in the state capital.
“*Repeatedly sinking, re-sinking and double-re-sinking of water boreholes, some of which have remained dry from the day of commissioning.
“*The new fad and craze now (probably because of its easy, fraudulent and outrageously high ‘return on investment’ is massive installation, re-installation, replacements, remodeling of all models, sorts, designs and shapes of solar street lamps with some curiously located deep inside the bushes without any known accessible roads, all to justify the content of invoiced payments.
“At the macro-state level, whenever you come into our state and make an honest enquiry of what the government has been doing with the humongous allocations to it every month, its ready-made apologists are quick to jump into pointing towards the direction of Warehouse Junction to Orlu road expressway, Fireservice junction to Mbaise/Obowo road (ongoing), and probably the recent the Assumpta/Control Post interchange (ongoing).
“There is no doubt that these are laudable projects, but one is tempted to innocently ask:
‘*Are these all that this dispensation has to show for its huge successive Federal Government monthly allocations?’
“Even doubling with the comparative advantage of one of the two oil-producing states in the South East geopolitical zone, can’t we do better?.
“*Was the immediate past Ebonyi State (without oil) governor, Engr. Dave Umahi, using ‘juju’ to mint money and be able to accomplish and complete all the major legacy projects he undertook during his eight-year tenure? (Ehough I may not agree on the need of some ‘white elephant’ ones, among them like the airport).
“*Is the present Governor of Abia State, Alex Chioma Otti, engaged in money-doubling to be able to fund and achieve the widely acknowledged feats he has already recorded within less than eighteen months of his stewardship?
“Are we eternally jinxed in Imo State, or is something pathologically wrong with us, where even notable politicians who are even supposed to speak up or speak out have either tucked their tails in-between their legs and scampered for safety, cowed, or biding/waiting for their turn for one voodoo appointment or another that will perpetually close their mouths in obedience to the table manners etiquette, where you are not supposed to talk while eating, or, finally, mischievously make so much noise to attract governor’s attention for the purpose of ‘settlement’ either in cash or kind?
“I guess the person who coined the phrase, ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ might have had Imo State in mind.
“Doesn’t it disturb all of us of this noticeable trend around our dear Imo State today? Whenever you meet most young men and women, they will largely introduce or address themselves either as an “Ex-Honourable”, “Serving Honourable” or a “Potential/Prospective Honourable,” all jostling for the next electioneering season.”
“The state is gradually slipping into a comatose state. The bells are tolling fast for her eventual interment.
“Therefore, if nothing is not done urgently towards a diligent and purpose-driven recalibration of our polity, leading to its consequent rescue, the standby undertakers may eventually be this set of current politicians, and most pointedly the ever ubiquitous cheerleaders littered all over our political landscape.”
Isilebo’s timeous and insightful intervention is salutary. Many are afraid of the consequences of speaking truth to power. Because critics are frequently hunted down, blackmailed and labelled with all manner of misfitting tags; even some are guillotined or quarantined.
I weep for turncoats and those inebriated today by piecemeal appointments that smother their conscience to turn truth on its head. If you are honourable, where is your honour, in compromised slavery? If you are excellency, where are you excelling, in duplicity? If you are a commissioner, what are you commissioned to do, convince the Eskimos of water?
Sadly, the mediocre Goebbels are more focused on their today but forget tomorrow. When you eat your dinner at breakfast, you will be hungry. When you destroy your seed meant for sowing, you will be bereft at harvest time when posterity shall be brutal in its judgement of those that fritter away the people’s patrimony.
Instead of appreciating critics, the yes-men poison the governor’s mind against those who by their constructive criticisms point him to better governance.
This is not about the current governor but about all ‘iberiberic’ successive governments after Dee Sam.
However, I know that Governor Hope Uzodimma is smart and knows his onions; he is unstoppable once his mind is made up.
Yes, I am not a politician though I supported Athan Achonu in the last election because I still believe he has what it takes to transform the beleaguered state.
I witnessed the sham and shenanigans of last November’s election and know that many are reconsidering ever going to cast their ballots again.
Nevertheless, I’ve consistently argued that whether Supreme Court judgement or not, Uzodinma is the governor and deserves his dues. So, it is important for the governor to redeem himself a little, as four years will soon elapse.
The late Gani Fawehinmi was a thorn in the flesh of General Ibrahim Babangida, former head of State. The General confessed to detaining Fawehinmi only because every other government did, otherwise he found the legal luminary’s activism very useful in decision-making. Fawehinmi did not hate IBB, and the man who is unarguably one of Nigeria’s few great leaders understood that.
So, Uzodinma must not allow pedestrian political jobbers, who coat every critic in vicious tar, to ruin his chances of redemption but strive to retrieve his destiny from selfish, grovelling jackals.
Imo needs healing from this Stockholm affliction whereby people fall in love with their manipulative oppressors because of pecuniary morsels.
Hunger is a disease; only patience and uprightness can cure it. In our clime, however, it is a veritable tool in the hands of the roguery fool, and pliable lilliputian minions, who take priding in treading down others because of dubious appelations; we see them stamping fellow brother in distress to please their common oppressor because of little privilege. So sad, both the prisoner and unofficial warder are in prison; don’t fool yourself.
It is also illusory and piteous to forget that there is a life after Government House…Isorite.
