EBERE WABARA [email protected] 08055001948
SINCE September 3, last year, when the appeal court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 governorship election, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, for lack of merit, the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives has never seen anything good in the governance of victorious Rochas Okorocha. This is quite understandable, if not taken serially too far. Bad losers are interminably lachrymal, especially in Nigeria.
Without needlessly chronicling his grouses about Rochas, just last week Ihedioha descended on Rochas over the ongoing demolition of structures and property in the Owerri Metropolis, instead of completing those he had started. There must be reasons for the current urban renewal which should not be politicized. Owerri is just like a massive construction site with all manner of architectural physicality—resplendent of Onitsha—springing up in every nook and cranny, most of them brothels euphemistically called hotels!
If Rochas does not intervene the way he is doing, Owerri will soon overtake Onitsha in structural notoriety and environmental hazardousness. Perhaps, what Ihedioha needs to do is to quietly suggest to Rochas better approaches to urbanization. Demonizing the governor in the media may not be productive. Good governance is a collective/synergistic initiative. Ihedioha is not alone in the hate-and-blame game as there is a flourishingly mushrooming tribe of Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha’s hypercritics.
Until I read a pullout on the state in May by our award-winning, mature and responsible Assistant Editor (South East Bureau), Chidi Nnadi, a colleague of mine who has reputational pedigree of professional quintessence and modest opulence, I had always thought that Rochas was all about boyishness and non-performance. Alas, Nnadi captured it all and through his profuse and profound reportage demystified the ingrained misperception of Rochas. I have the conviction that Rochas needs integrated perceptive management that transcends public relational stunts and dismissive media visibility that may reek of propaganda.His ephemeral idiosyncrasies are outlandishly confounding: multitudinous special assistants and innumerable advisers! Policy-wise, too, there are startling decisions: concurrent establishment of three universities and whittling down of third tier government’s independence by controversial local council leadership dissolution amid other eye-popping inclinations.
Alas, his eccentricities and perplexity of bizarre administrative style notwithstanding, the governor of Imo State, Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha (OON), seems to know what he is doing even as some people are haplessly bemused not by his developmental accountabilities, but by the boyish— almost cavalier—approach to governance. I think the important thing is not the weird route of the journey which may be unnecessarily circuitous but the outcome of the trailblazing and exuberant trip.
For this columnist, the greatest achievement of Okorocha so far is the unprecedented introduction of free education at all levels to Imo indigenes, the first of such an initiative in the annals of the South- East geopolitical zone. This feat, for me, diminishes any sour grapes from the opposition and other subscribers to the hypercritical fraternity—which has remained a congenitally thriving industry in Imo State, particularly the Owerri axis, since its creation till date! I am sure they will slam me shortly for un-solicitously holding brief for this largely misunderstood and mismanaged zestful light in the corridors of power.
Another noteworthy accomplishment of Owelle Ndi Igbo is the establishment of community-government council that will serve as the instrumentality for the revitalization of the agricultural sector which was in the doldrums before the spectacular emergence of this illuminator of our time.Before he came into governance, his amazing cross-sectional philanthropy, especially in the sphere of education, was and remains indelibly underscored. This, possibly, was contributory to his electoral triumph despite the dark forces of the PDP that found the people-backed Okorocha train unstoppable. His honesty in governance, pundits say, is unparalleled nationwide. As you read this, about 90 per cent of Owerri urban roads have been put to shape while inter-city roads are at various stages of reconstruction or completed. The highway re-engineering of the state is such that on the Owerri-Aba road, the boundary signpost begins at the point where the terrain becomes almost inaccessible! The joke in the area is that you do not need any boundary sign between Imo and Abia states as it is self-evident. Concerning the health sector, three general hospitals—one in each of the three senatorial zones—have been refurbished while three others of similar status are undergoing renovation. Generally, educational and other infrastructural facilities, most of which dilapidated over the years, are being touched up.
The state’s version of poverty alleviation is through the employment of youths in a direct labour scheme used in the erection of housing estates that depend on locally-fabricated construction input, which excludes zinc, nail and a few other foreign items. The home-made primary technology gainfully engages the youths who ordinarily would have been into one mischief or another.
SOS to Gov. Ambode
PURSUANT to Lagos State’s drive for IGR, I implore my friend-before-election, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, to look into the fiscal activities of Surulere and Mushin LGs. Recently I went to register one of my wife’s distribution vans at Surulere LG. From the way instructions and counter-instructions were given over the payment I made I knew that a large chunk of that money will not get to the state’s coffers.
Last Thursday, the van was impounded at Pako by officials of Mushin LG (Office Advert Unit Office, Old Secretariat, Oliyide Street, Mushin, Lagos). The driver was compelled to pay N5,500 (five thousand five hundred naira) for a “shine-shine sticker” and a yellowish receipt issued to him. Apart from the amount being high, the mode of cash collection and jaundiced receipting tell me clearly that the money will definitely not get to the state government!
Your Excellency, I am sure there will be other sharp practices in these and other LGs/ LCDAs.
My grouse is not about the paltry payment, but the systemic and mechanistic fraud perpetrated and perpetuated in the most callous, combative and irresponsible manner symbolic of hooliganism, if not official banditry, in collecting the statutory charges! Let the process be forensically harmonized and self-accounting such that nobody pays cash to any LASG staff or tax agent.
Luckily, the governor is an unrivalled accounting and administration icon in the state and understands this complaint best. Ambo!