I write to condemn\u00a0 in absolute terms the\u00a0 recent irresponsible action of the Imo Trumpeta Newspaper. Trumpeta reported falsely that the Deputy Governor of Imo State Prince Eze Madumere\u00a0 was booed by youths of Amaulu Mbieri\u00a0 and Obazu\u00a0 during his town hall meeting\u00a0 at Ihitte\u00a0 Mbieri . Madumere\u00a0 is currently holding\u00a0 village square meetings, visiting various\u00a0 Imo state\u00a0 communities. People are coming out to ask questions, making suggestions and their opinions felt. Monarchs and their subjects in so many Imo communities look forward to see him as another way of getting more projects sited in their various towns and \u00a0villages.<\/p>\n
Last week, my friend Emeka and I were in a hotel room in Owerri, Imo State \u2013 we were visiting an age mate, a fresh employed\u00a0 at\u00a0 a bank in Imo \u2013 when my friend\u2019s cell phone rang. Half awake and half-asleep, I heard him ask repeatedly and\u00a0 insistently, \u201cWhat happened to Prince Madumere at\u00a0 Ihitte Mbieri? What happened?\u201d I shook off sleep and formed the only words I could muster in the circumstance: \u201cWho are you talking about?\u201d \u201cThe Imo State\u00a0 Deputy Governor,\u201d he answered.\u00a0 I asked, \u201cWhat happened to him?\u201d Anxious, perhaps, not to startle the eavesdropping hotel attendants working in our room, he\u00a0 simply waved his\u00a0 hand and whispered: Imo Trumpeta newspaper reported he was booed by youths of Amaulu Mbieri\u00a0 and Obazu\u00a0 during his town hall meeting\u00a0 at Ihitte\u00a0 Mbieri .<\/p>\n
In the darkness of the room I said wow, what a story for my weekly column. I imagined the buzz this story\u00a0\u00a0 would generate when I make a\u00a0 column salivating over the details .\u00a0 To verify I quickly made some phone calls,\u00a0 one to\u00a0 my source in government house another to Mike Ibe from Obazu.I have known Ibe for 15\u00a0 years, as far back as in our undergraduate days \u00a0in the University of Port Harcourt\u00a0 and he is still\u00a0 a good friend. Ibe told\u00a0 me that the Ihitte\u00a0 Mbieri boo\u00a0 story\u00a0 is grave, misleading and highly fraudulent. That it is mere mischief to state that “Madumere was booed\u201d . He told me point blank that no such thing happened. That there was only loud noise of some \u00a0people at the venue \u00a0begging the Deputy governor\u00a0 for\u00a0 money.<\/p>\n
This Trumpeta media attack against Madumere is aimed at making the Deputy Governor to halt his visit of various Imo communities thereby denying tens of thousands of Imolites, especially commercial motorcycle riders\/operators and the youths the opportunity to meet and interact with the number 2 citizen of the State and voice out the needs in their various communities.<\/p>\n
A deputy governor\u00a0 who created\u00a0\u00a0 time out of his busy work schedule to go round towns in Imo State interacting with\u00a0 the people\u00a0 and picking points from their contributions must not be condemned but should be given kudos. We must not \u00a0turn everything into wicked politics and smear campaign. How better Nigeria will be if all governors and deputy governors\u00a0 will borrow a leaf from Madumere by making themselves accessible to the people regularly\u00a0 and not build walls\u00a0 of Jericho around themselves.<\/p>\n
For a\u00a0 Newspaper\u00a0 that claims to fight\u00a0 for the Imo\u00a0 masses\u00a0 to launch vicious attacks aimed at stopping \u00a0a man who is touring \u00a0the communities\u00a0 in the state\u00a0 to see how to \u00a0help the communities \u00a0shows its selfishness ,unpopularity and anti-democratic character.<\/p>\n
I \u00a0therefore call on organizations and individuals in Imo State including trade unions, human rights groups, staff unions in universities, students unions, youth groups, activists and socialists, locally and internationally, to demand an end \u00a0to \u00a0the false smear campaign against the Imo Deputy Governor by Trumpeta\u00a0 newspaper . I am aware that his \u00a0rising political\u00a0 profile in Imo State has quickly become\u00a0 a source of \u00a0fear to some politicians who are making all\u00a0 effort to negatively define him. At the moment the mention of the name Madumere\u00a0\u00a0 is making some politicians\u00a0 to develop instant fever\u00a0 and\u00a0 they are going\u00a0 bunkers\u00a0 and I don\u2019t want to believe that Trumpeta is part of the shoot Madumere down project.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Madumere\u00a0 is one of the ten politicians in my list of greater Imo State.He is one of the politicians that can move this state forward. I developed an air of breathless excitement whenever I hear anything about him. He does things right. His simplicity and doggedness to issue are legendary. He is one of the extremely few people that can be relied upon and who has the genuine desire in the uplift\u00a0 of\u00a0 Imo State.<\/p>\n
Let him come to\u00a0 Egbema\u00a0 in the Ohaji\/Egbema\u00a0 LGA\u00a0 too and soon\u00a0 and hear from us. We want him to\u00a0 see the power crisis situation in our\u00a0 area\u00a0 and press\u00a0\u00a0 buttons\u00a0 for\u00a0 Egbema\u00a0 to\u00a0 get\u00a0 electricity and deliver us from\u00a0 the everyday rumble of a generator in our homes as\u00a0 we await the takeoff of\u00a0 the Egbema\u00a0 gas plant. Governor Okorocha has pressed\u00a0 some\u00a0 buttons\u00a0 and\u00a0 some communities in Imo state have\u00a0 electricity. Let the same button be pressed for\u00a0\u00a0 Egbema\u00a0 to get electricity.<\/p>\n
As I write, the state of power supply in Egbema\u00a0 has sunk to new and intolerable lows. Egbema\u00a0 people\u00a0 and businesses in the area used to be able to count on some modicum of power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the successor to NEPA. Not anymore.\u00a0 I was in Bonny Island in Rivers State of\u00a0 Nigeria last week\u00a0 and I was amazed\u00a0 to see that\u00a0 the\u00a0 Island\u00a0 has\u00a0 247 electricity\u00a0 as the eyes\u00a0 could see . I could hardly mask my bewilderment.I felt humiliated because I\u2019ve not had any electric supply in my home in Egbema for some time now. I\u2019ve been running the power generator. Employers of labor are scarce now in my community because the power crisis continue to eat up their business capital and many of them\u00a0 are\u00a0 forced to close down. But hot pressure pipelines criss-cross our landscape just like in Bonny. Gas is\u00a0 also being flared twenty four hours\u00a0 in Egbema. Roofs easily leak because of acid rain. Acid rain impoverish soil by rendering them infertile for cultivation yet unlike Bonny oil kingdom\u00a0 we don\u2019t have electricity in Egbema oil kingdom.The more generators we buy in Egbema\u00a0 to cling to\u00a0 electricity, the more we are at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and other pollutants. Save us o God.<\/p>\n
-Kenneth Uwadi, Mmahu-Egbema , Imo State,Nigeria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I write to condemn\u00a0 in absolute terms the\u00a0 recent irresponsible action of the Imo Trumpeta Newspaper. Trumpeta reported falsely that the Deputy Governor of Imo State Prince Eze Madumere\u00a0 was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n