BY RAPLH EJIMKONYE#
Imo State is in bondage, leadership bondage. And what we have seen in the last six years is kung-fu governance run by Jackals and Hyenas in Government House, Owerri.
Never in the history of Imo State have we seen such analogue and unconventional governance elevated to an art- that has made the Governor, his family and his appurtenances richer and more powerful than those they govern who wallow in hunger and despondency.
When a leader always blows his trumpet, regales his people with his real or imaginary achievements and tactically shies away from his follies, such a leader is not only hollow but deceitful. What is taking place in Imo State in the last six years is analogue leadership, clueless and outdated governance propelled by hyenas and jackals. (Apologies to Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari who introduced the jackal and hyena theory in our national discourse.)
Never in the history of Imo State have majority of the people become so “ fed up” and disenchanted with a government that claim to derive its mandate from them. All over the world, the people’s happiness reflect the success of an elected leader. The people speak about their leaders accomplishments. One of the cardinal objectives of democracy is that it pursues the happiness of the people at all times. But in Imo state, the reverse is the case. The elected governor blows his trumpet to the heavens. Okorocha blows his trumpet of achievements to a deafening point.He substitutes noise making to oratory which he uses as a weapon to deceive the gullible masses.
Governance has sunk to the lowest ebb in Imo State and the State has become Okorocha’s fiefdom where he is the lord of the Manor. His word is law. No Commissioners, No elected local government administration for more than six years yet he professes to be the peoples leader.
Personal engagements have become state affairs for the governor and his family.If the Governor’s daughter is not unveiling her foundation, Okorocha is celebrating his birthday in a grand style with excessive state funds deployed to such mundane events.
His definition of governance is queer. He said he is an unconventional governor- a practice never known to mankind, never known to founders of democracy and Rule of Law. And he finds solace in this brand of governance because it gives him the leeway to suck the state resources with ease to compliment his fierce appetite for property and personal estate. There have been ceaseless complains of forceful land grabbing by the governor and other hyenas and jackals in his government by the people, yet he ceases to continuously indulge in this profane act!
Okorocha runs a flawed government in Imo State. His style of governance leaves is not only annoying but runs against the grain of commonsense. He is on the verge of leaving Imo State in dire straits- in complete economic ruins and social dysfunction by 2019. He runs a government that lacks quality bereft of rationale thinking and consideration- a flip flop government that has no direction and purpose- a cut and join type of leadership where anything goes!
Whatever gains he claims he has achieved as Imo State governor has been rubbished by his latest braggadocio and agbero approach towards governance lately. His ongoing demolitions of buildings in Owerri are needless. The State capital is littered with so many uncompleted projects. His road expansions programme in Owerri city is barely completed. What we see in Imo State in the name of urban renewal is a plan-less, un-coordinated approach to achieve infrastructural development leaving in its trail pain, anguish and sorrow among the people.
Owerri has lately become a construction yard with huge debris of a lousy Urban Renewal Programme that clearly lacks co-ordination and direction. This tells us that the owner of the construction yard is a workman with bad tools. It shows that Urban Renewal in Okorocha’s parlance is to demolish anything that does not catch or attract his fancy. It is only in a jackal and hyena government in Imo State that myopically sees demolishing people’s properties as normal while palliatives given for such action are completely ignored.
Why demolish the income sources of an impoverished people in Imo State when there are no palliatives to cushion the effects at a time Nigeria is grappling with economic hardship? Does Okorocha know that there is no existing economy in Owerri after he demolished Eke Ukwu Owere market all in the name of his urban renewal? Did the hyenas and jackals around him fail to tell him that the Eke Ukwu Owere market was churning in and out over 400 million naria daily and was putting food on the table for millions of families in the state?
Demolishing the market and other sources of livelihood of a despondent, angry and hungry Imo populace at a time hardship is perverse in the state tells us how a hyena and jackal government operates- such government have no consideration for the feelings of the people.
Imo state has become a peaceful graveyard where majority smile and suffer- a state where happiness has taken flight; where anguish and pain have come to stay. Okorocha has boxed the citizenry into a pigeon hole and like an emperor whose word is law, the citizenry have become so weak, have resigned to fate and have rather chosen to become onlookers than partakers on issues that affect them.
It is a jackal and hyena government that sees to the impoverishment of the people and sees nothing wrong in strangulating the economy. It is an irresponsible government that cuts off the artery of an economy. Taking down Eke Ukwu market and other business outlets of the people at a time like this is most inhuman. The happiness of the people has no place in this government when one considers the slash in workers’ salaries by 30%, the reduction in pensioners’ meager pensions and disregard for the rule of law. Okorocha is deceiving the people with his projects mantra when in real sense, he is making hunger and poverty the second name of every Imo citizen.
There is stagnation in Imo State. The people are economically helpless and the circle of governance revolves only around the governor and his family members. In Okorocha’s Imo State, the law has no say. Courts Orders are flouted and disobeyed. The Local governments are now mere extension of Government House.
No elections have taken place at the grassroots governance in the last six years and the Imo State House of Assembly has become a plaything in the hands of the governor and his lackeys.
Indeed, Imo State is a circus where hyenas and jackals hold sway and govern in a manner that will make late Dee Sam Mbakwe tumble in his grave. May God deliver us.