Ralph Miliband was a key twentieth century political thinker. Ralph
\nMiliband once said that the hottest place in hell will be reserved for
\nthose who sit on the fence in the face of great moral crisis. No one
\nwill want to go to the hottest place in hell, at least not me. As a
\ncitizen of Imo State, I am worried about the style and policies of the
\npresent Governor of Imo State.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0 will continue to speak out but When you write from the comfort of
\nyour home abroad, you write with all the fire in you without minding if
\nyou insult Babangida. You just write as the pen directs you. But when
\nyou live in Nigeria\u00a0 like me and you are writing within, you write
\ncarefully or you may have tough times. You can even be sent on exile
\nlike what happened to me for\u00a0 8 years when Governor Okorocha was in
\npower. The Eze’s of your community can even banish you from the
\ncommunity to please a governor.<\/p>\n
Today,\u00a0 Chief Emeka Ihedioha is the governor of\u00a0 Imo, though he won no
\nelection. The 2019 Imo State gubernatorial election\u00a0 may have been an
\ninstance of a coronation instead of an election. This\u00a0 is diametrically
\nopposed to the basic building blocks and values of the democratic system
\nof government.\u00a0 In defense of the country’s fragile democracy, I believe
\nstrongly that the\u00a0 Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court\u00a0 will\u00a0 stand
\ntall as they have in other cases in teasing out this\u00a0 evil machinations
\nof a corrupt few in Imo whose desires to win at all costs undermine the
\npublic interest. The people decide and legitimacy is confirmed through
\nthe ballot box.<\/p>\n
Legitimacy in a democracy is not a function of some powerful
\nindividual’s interest or instructions, but rather, it is a derivative
\nfunction of the collective decision of the people. To believe or do
\notherwise, in a democracy, is an oxymoron that must be shunned. Ihedioha
\ndidn’t win the Imo guber election but that is left for the courts.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I am at a loss\u00a0 at the fanfare exhibited by the governor of
\nImo state\u00a0 just to celebrate two months of pension payment. In all the
\nRadio stations in Imo including newspapers, the governor celebrated\u00a0 two
\nmonths pension payment. He\u00a0 even paid just 50% of\u00a0 each pensioner’s
\ntotal monthly take home. He was on air\u00a0 \u00a0just to buoy his\u00a0 ego and show
\nhis cluelessness. The irony of this madness is that\u00a0 our governor who
\nshould be covering\u00a0 his\u00a0 face in shame for 5 months of\u00a0 non performance
\nis\u00a0 the one dominating the Pages of Newspapers and going on air to
\ncelebrate payment of\u00a0 pension. As I write, Owerri the Imo State Capital
\nstill remains the dirtiest city in Nigeria despite the funfare and the
\nmillions of Naira expended under the infamous naira gulping monthly
\nsanitation exercise led by former governor Ikedi Ohakim . I will not
\nforget the expensive advertorials placed in both Electronic and the
\nPrint Media on the state of Owerri yet the place remains dirty. It is a
\nnotorious fact today that the sanitation state of Owerri\u00a0 is going from
\nbad to worse. I therefore condemn the millions expended on the Keep
\nOwerri Clean project which has now become a conduit pipe for Ikedi
\nOhakim to siphon Imo State money with\u00a0 the tag of chairman of
\nsanitation.<\/p>\n
My friend John recently said ” a governor who\u00a0 finds a pothole on a
\nroad,\u00a0 moves his cabinet there. They come with TV men , microphone and
\ncameras. They take pictures and make speeches, shake their heads ,
\ncurse Rochas Okorocha, abandon the road is clueless. A\u00a0 Governor who
\nshouts ‘rebuild Imo’ and in 30 days that\u00a0 he became the number one
\ncitizen, begins to\u00a0 rebuild himself, rebuild his personal\u00a0 houses in Imo
\nand Abuja\u00a0 is clueless .John also said ‘\u00a0 Ihedioha awards his first road
\ncontract . He calls a village meeting. Masquerades are made to attend.
\nIt’s the commissioning of the beginning of the building of a road
\nproject. Balloons are hoisted. He climbs into an old tractor brought by
\nthe contractor. He drives around. The women in asoebi dance. Men drum
\nfor them. He tells them he is rebuilding Imo then he jets away to USA
\nfour times in one month”\u00a0 \u00a0I am asking, is such a governor not clueless?
\nWe are getting wearied of inept leadership in Imo. We are getting tired
\nof leaders at all levels in the state that cannot perform.<\/p>\n
It is easily understandable why Ihedioha’s Imo has suddenly become the
\noil block of Nigerian columnists , social media commentators and writers
\ntoday. Simply, there is so much free LGA\u00a0 and ISOPADEC money flying
\naround. Same reason why Ihedioha feels safe and comfortable\u00a0 for five
\nmonths now, running a government on the pages of newspapers.<\/p>\n
Equally the same reason why he has recruited a hefty column of writers
\nand columnists into his regime. It is the same reason why he has not
\nallowed whatever are his works to speak for his regime but the ceaseless
\nforgeries of the many writers he has recruited and the countless others
\nhe freely provides for with resources needed to lift Imo State from the
\ndoldrums .The fact that is constant in all the strange events that have
\nmade Imo the first port of call for cash-and-carry writers is that Emeka
\nIhedioha\u00a0 is clueless.<\/p>\n
He has shown us in 5 months that he knows nothing about leading a state
\nlike Imo and wants to hide behind the media. The only project moving at
\na fast pace\u00a0 in Imo is his personal house. That one was started quietly
\nas my friend John said. And it’s galloping towards the sky. John did
\nsaid ‘ Ihedioha brings poles for solar light. He sows Isiagu for one
\nidle diplomat. They assemble village women. They dance.\u00a0 And break kola
\nnuts . And commission ‘a multimillion dollar street light project’. Is
\nthat one not cluelessness? Then he started building 27 stadia in the 27
\nLGA’s of the state. Hmmm! That one na Mr Clueless oh? Ala ajola njo n’
\nImo.<\/p>\n
Here we are, five months\u00a0 of this administration and we are seeing
\nunleashing of attacks on petty traders, road side mechanics, other
\nartisans and unemployed youths are now groaning under brutal attack on
\ntheir means of livelihood. In the name of beatification at strategic
\nplaces while the interior and inner roads are deplorable.<\/p>\n
Reminiscent of the inglorious era of military absolutism where culture
\nof fear and intimidation is often imposed on the people, Emeka
\nIhedioha’s\u00a0 administration through the service of some gangs of\u00a0 thugs
\nwho masquerade as Government monitoring team has continued, under the
\nguise of beautification and cleaning-up project, to use brute force to
\nsubject thousands of small traders and artisans at different areas of
\nOwerri\u00a0 to all forms of harassment and physical assault.<\/p>\n
To intensify the attack on the living condition of the suffering masses,
\nthe government introduced different extorting policies through levy,
\ntax, fees etc. In Owerri, heavy taxes are imposed on houses, banks,
\nhotels and shops in the name of Physical Planning and Infrastructural
\nDevelopment . Worse still, the government does not use its legitimate
\nmachinery to collect these fees. It rather employs the services of thugs
\nwho do not only intimidate people but also wreak havoc in the process. A
\nsanitation fee is forcefully collected from people who dispose wastes
\nthemselves in the nearest bush but have never set their eyes on a
\ngovernment waste bin van. Yet, there has been nothing fundamentally to
\nshow for the infrastructure levy collected from the masses.. And I ask,
\nhas Imo entered one chance?\u00a0 May God save us from Mr Clueless.<\/p>\n
-Kenneth Uwadi writes from Mmahu-Egbema, Imo State, Nigeria and can be
\nreached via\u00a0kennethuwadi@gmail.com<\/p>\n
ReplyReply allForward<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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