Before the close of last year, I had
the singular misfortune of been confronted by a longstanding friend from Gombe
state who indeed wanted to validate the impressions he had about the current
status of governance in Imo state whereby Chief Rochas Anayochukwu Okorocha a
man born and bred in Northern Nigeria preside over as the governor. Shehu
Salisu who is an accountant with a good grade from one of the Southern African
Universities told me that from the stories told him by some friends he met in
Jos, Plateau state where indeed the current Imo state Governor grew up and
attended schools up to post-graduate levels, he has this uncanny suspicion
that people running down the administrative style of the Imo state governor are
only doing that because they perceive him as a man with a wider accommodating
political space for other members of the polity especially those from the
Northern segment of Nigeria.
Shehu Salisu was bent on convincing
me that he would rather err on the side of caution than accept hook line and
sinker those calumnious publications targeted at damaging the political
pedigree of the Imo state helmsman but he insisted that since we have been so
close for over three decades and since I too was born and bred in the North may
be my response may be genuine enough except otherwise proven through an
extensive visit to Imo state to verify those claims by himself.
Sincerely, I lacked what to tell him
but on a second thought I decided to give him what I considered as the general
impression of most people I have met in the last two and half years that the
current Imo state governor won election and especially those of them with vast
knowledge of the state for many years.
Speaking with over two dozen persons
in Imo state, the impression I came out with is that the Imo state governor has
made landmark achievements in the area of urban road infrastructure especially
in Owerri and Orlu even as his effort to build and indeed at the verge of
completing a general hospital each in all of the 27 local government areas has
been applauded as positive and indeed salutary. Okigwe senatorial zone has
yet to see some of these so-called infrastructure said to have been delivered
in the two other zones and unemployment is still very high among Imo state
youth.
In summary, most people staying in
Imo state and who have witnessed different layers of bad governance over the
last fourteen years that democracy returned to Nigeria, have told me that half
bread is better than none meaning that the little things being erected by the
current Imo state governor are far better than all the past civilian governors
put together since 1999 and who have mostly been produced by the
Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].
Rochas won election under the
popular pro-Igbo political platform of All progressives Grand Alliance [APGA]
but he cross carpeted to the newly registered opposition party the All
Progressives Congress [APC] in search of a national platform so he
stated.
Going home during the last yuletide
celebrations, one was greeted by the funny reality that the current Imo state
governor inaugurated what could become the finest evidence of an epicurean or
hedonistic political practice because he was said to have released N200, 000
each to all of the autonomous communities numbering in their hundreds to throw
Christmas parties for their people and indeed in my own autonomous community my
elderly impoverished citizenry were joyful that at least for once a serving
governor remembered to send them their own quota of the national cake. There
was this atmosphere of if you can not beat them then you join them. I refused
to join this hedonistic party in my rural community that is still battling to
come to terms with the fact that it is still largely backward in areas of
modern infrastructure.
But is this 'half -bread- is -better
-than -none' kind of approach to citizenship and followership in Imo state a
good way of building a vibrant society? I think sincerely that hedonism in
whatever form is despicable because to bring out public fund to be spent
on non-productive social events such as the last Christmas parties in the
autonomous communities is like saying 'let us eat today for tomorrow we
shall die'. This is sad and unfortunate. Again, the current Imo state
government has faced a deluge of speculations and gossips of several billions
of public fund that have either been stolen by the government officials or
diverted by some failed contractors some of whom are foreigners from other
jurisdiction.
Worried by the seemingly undying
claims and counter claims in the grape vine of missing billions of public fund
belonging to Imo state under the watch of governor Rochas Okorcha the state
governor recently issued a rejoinder to disabuse the minds of the people of Imo
state to still have confidence in the half bread is better than none type of
political administration going on in Imo state.
The governor's spokesman had written
in a rejoinder that in the latest edition of the Verbatim News magazine
which has a lead cover story with the referenced caption about some missing
billions in Imo state, it found out that the entire materials published were
just rehash of some half baked truth and innuendos of some missing billions
that it stated only existed in the figments of the imaginations of the
writers.
"We had gone through the 12
pages story and discovered that the authors decided, for reasons best known to
them to repackage perforated stories that had been told since March, 2013 and
treated accordingly", he had stated.
The Imo state governor's spoke
person continued by saying thus; "We have also made contacts with the
officers of the EFCC who could be in the know, to find out if the Imo State
Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is at the moment under any probe over N26
Billion Expenditure, and our finding was in the negative".
"For these reasons, we want to
state as follows, at least, for the avoidance of doubt; The EFCC or any
other agency is not probing the Imo State Governor over N26 Billion Expenditure
from the state treasury".
The authors of the story, he stated, did
not state the items on which the said N26 Billion expenditure was made for
which the EFCC is allegedly probing the governor and that the
writers of the story made reference to the petition written by the former
leadership of ALGON in the state dated March 11, 2013, which is an indication
that the Verbatim team only succeeded in creating a story, that never existed.
"The writers of the story
concerning the governor of a state on such a sensitive issue never deemed it
necessary to hear from any of the governor’s aides including the Governor’s
Senior Special Assistant on Media who is a long-time friend of the
Editor-in-chief of the magazine, Mr. Tobs Agbaegbu. Instead, the writers
preferred to talk with the vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof.
Ukachukwu Awuzie who should not have been contacted on such issue in the first
place. No EFCC official was also interviewed on that", he said.
Samson Onwumeodo who signed off as
the Imo state Governor's senior special assistant on Media also debunk the
insinuations of a schism in the government of Imo state saying that It is also
important to state categorically that the Deputy governor of the state, Prince
Eze Madumere is not under any threat of removal, talk more, the plot to remove
him thickening as reported by the magazine.
To the good people of Imo state who
have accepted the unproductive and dramatic style of half bread is better than
none syndrome, the state government urged them to keep the flag of optimism
flying. He the spokesman of the Imo state governor had written thus; "We
simply want to urge men and women of goodwill to disregard the story because it
has no iota of truth. Governor Okorocha is not under any probe by EFCC or
by any other agency over N26 Billion Expenditure.
It is also important to remind those who have the privilege of writing and
publishing materials on the pages of newspapers on people to always remember
posterity when handling the biro".
But who still writes with 'biro' in
this twenty first century? From my village of Ndiuche etiti Arondizuogu which
has also benefitted from this half bread is better than none style of
governance with the tarring of our rural road [an achievement that is
unprecedented in the last thirty years], I still wrote from my laptop because
the private telecommunication companies have installed many devices to enable
the rural folks also enjoy some sense of modernity. Is half bread better than
none really?
+Emmanuel Onwubiko; head, Human Rights Writers Association
of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.org; http://www.huriwa.blogspot.com/
1/10/2014
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