By Emmanuel Onwubiko<\/p>\n
Imois a state in the South East of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Inthe traffic parlance, Imo is known as the heartland of the East. The
\nState hasconsistently produced the highest percentage of students
\nenlisting for both theSecondary school certificate qualifying examinations
\nand the University’smatriculation examinations known as JAMB. In the last
\ndecade, Imo statestudents have performed as some of the finest brains in
\nthe last qualifyingexaminations. The State is one of those whose mainstay
\nis virtually theeducational sector to an extent that it has a state owned
\nuniversity that canboast of attracting students from as far as Ghana;
\nBemin Republic and Sokotostate just as it houses the most highly rated
\ntertiary institutions such as theFederal Polytechnics; the Federal
\nUniversity of Technology and one of thefinest colleges of education that
\nis degree awarding and with first classaffiliation with one of Nigeria’s
\nbest rated University of Nigeria. Imo hassome of the highest numbers of
\nfemale lawyers just as it can be stated withoutany fear of empirical
\ncontradictions that there is no village in all of ImoState without an
\nacademic professor. The state was in the times of militarydictatorship
\nknown as the state with the highest percentage of public petitionwriters
\nto an extent that those who govern the state were usually mindful ofthe
\npublic and private conducts. But the people of the state have lost
\nthemotivation for petition writing thereby emboldening politicians to turn
\nthestate to a state of poverty and gross underdevelopment.<\/p>\n
Imostate in terms of politics has been lucky and unlucky at the same time.<\/p>\n
Imostate is very lucky to have produced a governor who has entered the
\npantheonsof political history as the best in terms of infrastructure and
\nhuman capitaldevelopment known as Dee Sam Onunaka Mbakwe. It was Mbakwe
\nthat started thebuilding from scratch of the now prestigious Sam Mbakwe
\nCargo airport. It wasMbakwe that replicated the aggressive agroallied
\nindustry that marked Imo stateout then as the food basket of Nigeria. It
\nwas Mbakwe that introduced policyframeworks for massive rural
\ninfrastructural advancements and encouragedcommunity self-reliant economy.
\nImo people will not forget Samuel Mbakwe in ahurry. He has a special peide
\nof place in Imo state history.<\/p>\n
InIgbo cosmology, the appellation \u2018Dee\u2019 or Uncle in English just like
\nitsrelatively connected term known as \u2018Mazi\u2019 is a title that only revered
\neldersare entitled to by virtue of their accomplishments that are
\nbeneficialexistentially and empirically to the greatest number of people.
\nIn Arondizuogu,someone whose father is alive can’t bear the title of Mazi
\nbut will only becalled NwaMazi. This is grounded in the African value
\nsystem of respect forelders.<\/p>\n
Inthe same vein, you can\u2019t be identified as \u2018Dee\u2019 or Mazi in the real
\nsense of itif you are not a worshipper of the \u2018goddess\u2019 of truth.<\/p>\n
Whatdo I mean by being worshipper of the goddess of truth? This precisely
\nhas norelationship or nexus with idol worship but simply implies that you
\nmust besomebody who is honest in bad and good times.<\/p>\n
Inthat context as aforementioned, the man Dee Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe is
\ntodayrecognized nationally as the best governor to have come from the East
\njust likethe wise men from the East recorded in the Christian Holy Bible.
\nHe remains thebenchmark and reference point when discussing good
\ngovernance standards.<\/p>\n
Hewas a governor in a political platform that did not control the
\nfederalgovernment but he was able in the late 70\u2019s to early 80\u2019s to
\nimplementaggressive developmental blueprints that saw to the evolution of
\nseveralprojects in the then Imo state which comprised of present day Abia,
\npart ofEbonyi and the entire Imo state as it is now.<\/p>\n
Also,Imo state has been unlucky to have churned out in quick succession, a
\nbunch ofnever-do-wells and opportunistic political predators as governors
\nandlegislators since after Sam Mbakwe who took turn to remarkably under
\ndevelopthe state to a sorry state.<\/p>\n
Thelast eight years has however become particularly remarkable in the
\nsense thatthe state has gone from bad to worse due to crass misgovernance
\nand outrightlooting of the priceless resources of the state.<\/p>\n
Imostate in the last eight years has become a laughing stock in the
\nNigeriannation to a ridiculous extent that it has become a reference point
\non how badgovernance can increasingly result in a failed state.<\/p>\n
Imostate under Rochas Okorocha reached such a low that it has become one
\nof thebiggest heavily indebted states in the federation to an extent that
\nit may takeImo state almost half a century to recover from the
\nconsequences of governorRochas\u2019s misgovernance.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheDebt Management Office (DMO), recently said the domestic debt stock of
\nthecountry\u2019s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stood at
\nN3.5trillion as at the first half of 2018 (H1\u201918).<\/p>\n
Thefigure indicates that the states and FCT increased their debt stock by
\naboutN200 billion or 6.0 percent over the N3.3 trillion recorded at the
\nend ofDecember 2017.<\/p>\n
Accordingto data released by DMO on its website, Lagos State has the
\nhighest debt stockat N517 billion or 17 percent of the total debt stock of
\nstates.<\/p>\n
Thedata showed the domestic debt stock of the other states among the top
\nfiveduring the period under review are: Delta (N223 billion), Rivers
\n(N191billion), Akwa Ibom (N179 billion), and Osun (N136 billion).<\/p>\n
Thestates with five lowest debts are: Anambra (N2.6 billion), Sokoto
\n(N25billion), Yobe (N27 billion), Kastina (N31 billion), while Ebonyi and
\nJigawaStates have N34 billion each.<\/p>\n
Theother states are: Abia (N57 billion), Adamawa (N67 billion), Bauchi
\n(N78billion), Bayelsa (N123 billion), Benue (N93 billion), Borno (N78
\nbillion),cross river (N125 billion), Edo (N69 billion), Ekiti (N118
\nbillion),\u00a0\u00a0 Enugu (N61 billion),\u00a0\u00a0 Gombe (N42 billion),\u00a0\u00a0 Imo (N85
\nbillion),\u00a0\u00a0 Kaduna (N76 billion),\u00a0\u00a0 Kano (N95 billion),\u00a0\u00a0 Kebbi (N54
\nbillion), Kogi (N114 billion,Kwara (N40 billion), Nasarawa (N70 billion),
\nNiger (N40 billion), Ogun (N105billion), Ondo (N51 billion), Oyo (N88
\nbillion), Plateau (N122 billion), Taraba(N60 billion), Zamfara (N70
\nbillion) and FCT (N94 billion).\u201d As we speak Imostate has surpassed Lagos
\nstate.<\/p>\n
Itis for this poor governance status of the Rochas Okorocha administration
\nthatmillions of Imo state indigenes resolutely decided to vote out the
\nself-imposedgovernorship successor and the Son in law od Rochas who
\nincidentally was forover 5 years the defector deputy governor even though
\nhe occupied the post ofChief of staff but in real terms he called the
\nshots much better than thedeputy governor. He has allegedly amassed so
\nmuch wealth by virtue of hiscloseness to the governor who is his father in
\nlaw. Most people alleged that hehas amassed a lot of assets both within
\nand without the State even when inreality he never worked anywhere else
\nsince after his youth service. Rochasintroduced the term IBERIBERISM to
\nascribe to those who think he isn’t performingoptimally but that terms
\nwhich means foolishness has come to define his eightyears stint in office.
\nImo people say his administration is styled afterIBERIBERISM and therefor
\nthe voters decided to reject him which in effectmarked the end of
\nIBERIBERISM IN Imo state with the landslide victory of EmekaIhedioha of
\nthe PDP against Rochas’s Son in law of the Action Alliance party.Imo has
\ntherefore made history by resolving to end IBERIBERISM and indeedachieved
\nIBERIBEXIT. Imo state voters have achieved what even the Britishgovernment
\nand people can’t achieve in over three years because the policy ofBREXIT
\nis becoming the albatross of the Theresa May’s government.<\/p>\n
UKPrime Minister Theresa May had to resort to all kinds of last minites
\ntacticsand recently called on British lawmakers to \u201ccome together\u201d and
\nvote her Brexitdeal through, following months of uncertainty and division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIam convinced that the time to define ourselves by how we voted in 2016
\nmust nowend\u201d May wrote in a Britain\u2019s Sunday Telegraph newspaper,
\nreferring to thecountry\u2019s referendum on membership of the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cWecan only put those old labels aside if we stand together as democrats
\nandpatriots, pragmatically making the honourable compromises necessary to
\nhealdivision and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inthe article, May argued her deal \u201chonours the result of the
\nreferendum,addresses the hopes and fears of all sides, and is the very
\nbest dealnegotiable with the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shesaid its rejection by MPs, who have twice voted it down by a massive
\nmargin,had opened up \u201ca range of undesirable alternatives,\u201d including the
\nrisk thatthe UK could crash out of the EU without a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cVotingagainst no deal does not of itself change the legal reality that,
\nas thingsstand, a failure to agree a deal ultimately means we leave
\nwithout one,\u201d thePrime Minister cautioned adding that without an agreement
\n\u201cthe way ahead is oneof uncertainty and ongoing, perhaps permanent,
\ndivision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Onerebel conservative MP, Esther McVey \u2013 who resigned from May\u2019s Cabinet
\nin orderto vote against the government on Brexit \u2013 said yesterday she
\nwould now supportthe PM\u2019s deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheresaMay \u2013 the government and parliament \u2013 connived to take \u2018No deal\u2019
\noff thetable,\u201d McVey told sky\u2019s Sophy Ridge yesterday, meaning that the
\nchoice MPsface is now Mays deal or \u201cno Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Therefore,Imo state people should be praised for making a decision to end
\nIBERIBERISM andfor following through with this resolution. It is hoped
\nthat the incominggovernment of Emeka Ihedioha will never take Imo state
\nback to the era ofIBERIBERISM which has crippled development in Imo state
\nwhich has potentialsfor becoming a pivotal state for rapid technological
\nadvances and innovation inAfrica. Imo state shall never return to the
\nYears of the ROCHAS’S LOCUSTS.<\/p>\n
*Comrade Emmanuel Onwubikois the head of Human Rights Writers Association By Emmanuel Onwubiko Imois a state in the South East of Nigeria. Inthe traffic parlance, Imo is known as the heartland of the East. The State hasconsistently produced the highest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nof Nigeria and blogs @\u00a0www.huriwanigeria.com<\/a>;\u00a0www.huriwa.blogspot.com<\/a>;
\nwww.emmanuelonwubiko.com<\/a>;\u00a0www.thenigerianinsidernews.com<\/a>