Date Published: 03/21/11

Issues in Imo State Governorship Campaigns by M A C Odu

The incumbent governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Godson Ohakim has the job of explaining the dearth of development worth the sums accruing to the state from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government since 2007 when he assumed governorship. He has spent close to N350 billion naira allocated to Imo State. He has mouthed a number of projects as ongoing from the very start. The projects are either non-existent in reality or are only available in plans or no where else but in the imagination of the governor or his henchmen. The projects that have featured significantly in the media so far are:

Imo Wonderlake at Oguta. He had sold the impression that the project for which a sum of eighty billion was sought from the capital market via bonds, has been drawn down by a figure in the neighbourhood of N12 billion naira. Not one dent has been made on the site save the recent breaking ceremony at which Imo citizens were again alarmed at the near sterile state of the site. It did not bother the campaign machine of the governor to continue naming Oguta Wonderlake project as one of his accomplishments. A reverend gentleman came on air only yesterday, 18 th March to speak for Ohakim and announce that renovation had been achieved. The gentleman probably thought that the guest houses constructed under Administrator of East Central State in the early seventies, Mazi Ukpabi Asika was what amounted to Oguta Wonderlake. His background is to blame for that wild assumption. Nothing had been done on the site. One would want the governor to explain where the fund drawn down against the bond issue was spent at. It was probably spent on judges in the prolonged litigation between the incumbent and the disinherited candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Ifeanyi Godwin Araraume. I am aware that a certain gentleman co-ordinated the planning of the resort. Elaborate designs had been done before the gentleman was relieved of his post.

Oak Refinery and Petrochemical Project: There is nothing to show for this boast anywhere in Imo State. The project is touted as a going concern of immense benefit to Ndimo.

IRROMA: It has been in the air that a project to construct over three hundred kilometres of roads linking at least nineteen local governments was near completion. Only recently (four months ago) frantic road construction works commenced on arterial roads leading into Owerri. Owerri outlets had been dualised for stretches not more than five kilometres. Interchanges presumed for now to be flyovers are under construction. This is an eleventh hour activity. Ohakim’s term is running out. A budget overrun has been raised in the Imo House of Assembly. It was even indicated that over N25 billion naira expenditure had no blessing of the Imo House. Some fall guy has been sent packing for raising the issue. A fascist is the governor. The House of Assembly members dare not query their governor for misdeeds with the people’s funds. The roads are not yet done. People complain about the state of roads stridently in spite of the posture of massive road works achievement which Ohakim and his aides blatantly assume in the media. Obviously they wrongly believe that no one is mobile enough in Imo State to check out their deliberate falsehood. He has had to maintain that his promise at inception of his lame and illegitimate administration was on course. It is not true.

Nworie River Dredging as Tourism Facility: This is also not true. It is indeed a good project in the hands of Niger Delta Development Commission. It is wholesome for both leisure and drainage. The ambience for tourism is non-existent. Tourism thrives when hunger is at bay, leisure is desired and security infrastructure are reliable. In a milieu of state sponsored terrorism tourism is a non-started. Local tourism is still a far cry. Nigeria as a whole is not yet a desirable tourism destination for the world.

Governor’s Office: This project has been achieved. It was hastened to meet the show needs of the governor.

Clean and Green Initiative: Some cleanliness has been achieved through a tortuous path that need not be embarked upon. Green is suspect as an achievement. Some maintenance infrastructure is still alien to our level of development. Landlords in Owerri were put through virtual and real blackmail to redecorate their houses. Responsibilities that ought to belong to Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA) were duplicated and huge outlays expended in new outfits that led to waste of public funds. Guidance of OCDA should have been sought before the ban of Okada. Movement within Owerri has been afflicted by pressure of cars on infrastructure designed for a fraction of existing population. The governor has spent so much money establishing institutions in duplicity with existing and poorly funded ones. He has spent so much in self glorification undeservedly. Watch it anyone who prefers photographs of him to speak for his achievements has something to hide about his inadequacy or his pedigree. Real great leaders do not need to display themselves so vulgarly to his people. Their works speak for them.

I was delighted with the ring road plan and looked forward to it as relief for pressure of intra Owerri roads. It is not yet there. It is being sold as existing and the cruel traffic flow has not been ameliorated by traffic lights. In fact traffic flows better when there is power outage. The governor seems to favour the seeming than the real. Owerri is less efficient than it was before Ohakim. It is however more beautiful. It was nice to move certain activities outside the city centre. It would have been more productive and persuasive if appropriate infrastructure were provided in the new satellites created for the betterment of Owerri and its inhabitants. Prioritisation is to blame. One would have thought that increase in productivity was more important than beauty. He was probably too fascinated with scenic beauty in a few nations he travelled to for purpose of investment of his loot to place priority on beauty as the only basis for tourism development and growth of third world nations. He is dead wrong about.

What is the green that has so far featured in the landscape of Owerri? Very little beyond road verges dotted with trees that are now maintained by an army of women. There are still no parks and gardens for leisure. Cleanliness is substantial. But garbage ends up in the middle of roads and there is no garbage digester in the whole city to handle the huge of weight of filth generated by inhabitants of the clean city. Our governor did not think deep and round enough to deserve credit under Clean and Green.

Ten Thousand Jobs: It is evidently a hoax to assuage pent up disenchantment over his fleecing parents with appointments offshore for which young men contributed four hundred and sixty thousand naira for employment and only recently received a refund without interest on their money. He had started with an employment centre on inception of his administration that yielded nothing. There is no defensible space in any and all government ministries that could absorb ten thousand positions at the same time. He will be unable to create such space with the funds left after his profligacy. Presenting beneficiaries to fill the stadium and a few to the media who have benefited cannot make that project reasonable or desirable especially as he has killed productive plants that would have absorbed fractions of this huge mass. It will be less economic to contemplate this massive recruitment given failure of government institutions to meet their monthly wage bills. Local Governments have had their funds hived to a fraction illegally by the state for no reason other than looting and perhaps wild profligacy of the chief executive. What dishonour is attachable to an unapproved over-run of some N25 billion naira for which a whistle blower has been rusticated with cruel consent of a house of assembly only worthy to be written in small letters since they do not represent in any manner the will of Ndimo?

Dead or Dying Projects: Governor Ohakim inherited a number of projects that were going concerns. Adapalm was productive. It is now dead. It did not deserve his attention. He did not think it could employ people. He was more concerned with judges. Avutu Poultry deserved his attention. He gave none. Standard Shoe Industry is dead. He deceives people that it is a living concern. Nekede Gardens is dead. It is still being touted as a going concern. He had filled the ears of his citizens about industrial park for Ngor Okpala. He has spoken himself hoarse about partnership with Chinese for food security. Nothing to show.

He has now announced N2billion naira credit line for farmers. This is happening just a few weeks to the end of his tenure. Tell it to the marines now.

The question for the voters is? Has Ikedi Ohakim done enough to deserve consideration for another term viewing his contribution to the welfare of all Ndimo all round? The answer is definite NO! He has worsened the condition of our people and denied them requisite growth through four years. Dr Sam Mbakwe used four years to position a lot of infrastructure in both Imo and Abia States for which he is being remembered with far less funds at his disposal. Ohakim should not be voted in for a second time. He should rather be sent to the jail for imprudence and fraudulent use of public funds for private ends and for influencing people to keep him in power. He has failed those who put him there and devalued our commonwealth and common will with unpardonable insults on our sensibilities. He is cancer that ought to be excised from our body politic. He is a bad influence on our youth since he has peddled lies before them and pays youth to help him peddle same lies. We as a people have received avoidable devaluation to our psyches during his undeserved term. He has used more God than any other leader in history of all nations and that has not made him any lighter or cleaner in conscience about what is right and wrong. He has consistently destroyed bridges between him and his mentors and has used vile state terrorism to hound his opponents. He should be kept very far from leadership of any type hereafter.

Next Week: Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Araraume.