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| Has Okorocha 'bottled' Imo people including the elites? |
He is now less considerate to the plights of Imo people especially with the recent massive and not too important demolitions going on in different parts of the state in the mist of excruciating hardship.
From Amakaohia/Akwakuma road to Mbari street and to MCC road etc, it has been demolition, demolition galore leaving behind wailings, cries, homelessness and hardship to the affected people.
Our Governor obviously has nobody challenging him in the state any more. The opposition is almost dead.
The House of Assembly has been emasculated. The Elites are nowhere to be found.
The Students, Artisans, market women and the public have accepted their fate with an unprecedented calmness and equanimity.
Generally speaking, Imo people are now a conquered people.
The Governor does all he wants or wishes and nobody talks at least in the open the way they were talking and shouting during Ohakim’s time.
In the mist of all the good, the bad and the ugly in the state, Imo People now appear desolate, dumfounded, tired, remorseful, disappointed and rueful.
More often, I get surprised and wonder what is actually happening in the state.
At times, I ask: where are the Elites in Imo? Where are the Keke Riders?
Where are those who were shouting: crucify Ohakim, crucify Udenwa?
Where those who said kill Jesus and leave Barabbas for them?
I remember that Ohakim never did in 2011 half of the things that the present Governor is doing today and yet people asked for his head and his head was offered to them in 2011.
Today, all that is history.
Even Udenwa never visited the people of Imo or inflicted this level of injury in the minds of people like the present Okorocha government is doing.
However, I recall with great trepidation and nostalgia how Ohakim was almost demonized, denigrated, castigated, insulted and excessively abused when he destroyed shanties and shop protrusions in Owerri.
But today mansions, Church Buildings, Houses, Fences, Lock up shops and vital monuments have been demolished and are being demolished with unmitigated alacrity presently in Imo state and nobody, I mean nobody has talked or is talking.
Little wonder the Governor was reported to have told the world during the last event at Imo International conference centre (IICC) that Imo people are clapping for him even as he demolishes people’s houses and shops by letting loose government Bulldozers across the state.
Why not?
Perhaps for him, the present graveyard silence and docility in Imo state in the face of the government arbitrariness and insensitivity to the plights of the people mean clapping for him.
As for me, I do not share in that warped belief as being erroneously asserted by my Governor.
Imo people are grumbling, gnashing their teeth, passing through a lot of pains in their minds, facing extremely difficult times and some are even dying quietly.
So your Excellency sir, they could not have been clapping for you as you demolish their properties as that would amount to a foolery for anybody to have done that.
Rather what is actually happening in the state is such that should give every discerning mind concern.
Yes, Owelle Okorocha is the Governor today.
Of course he is very powerful, could appear very daring, may be operating unchallenged, may have amassed tremendous arsenal and wealth to fight anybody as the Governor and of course he may be too connected to whether the whatever storm but for how long shall all these temporary and Earthily powerful powers last!
Does he care at all about the end point to all these inhuman actions?
Does he realize that his actions no matter how plausible he thinks they may be are adding to the difficult times that the people are passing through presently?
Surprisingly, Imo people seem to have ignored the Governor and allowed him to do whatever he wants to do as Governor.
Nobody talks to him again.
Nobody advises him maybe because he is all knowing including those who are supposed to do that and nobody challenges him in the state perhaps because he probably is the most ‘powerful’ individual ever created by God in Imo state.
Our Governor is a super star.
He talks anyhow he wants, behave anyhow he likes, demolishes any building he wants to demolish and in all of these, he self praises himself.
He sees himself as the most intelligent, most performing, most creative and most everything in the state.
His intelligence is second to none.
Why not? After all, he is the Super Governor of Imo state who has conquered everybody. Usu enweghi onu.
You complain and shout but during election he will give you money and everybody will keep quiet.
The man honestly has the courage and can dam any consequence from anybody.
He has successfully cowed everybody including our ‘big men’ who now behave like caged monkeys.
Our House of Assembly members cannot cough where the man is and even the Church leaders have all lost their voices- that voice they had during Ohakim’s time is gone.
So who said Governor Okorocha is not powerful?
PDP members are busy fighting themselves while Okorocha is operating like the generalissimo in Imo state.
Inside the Imo state government house, he is the only occupant there living like Lord.
From the Deputy Governor to the SGI to Commissioners he has relocated all of them out of the government house and they only come to the house as visitors.
Obviously, Okorocha is a good student of Machiavelli. He is the Governor and in the Church he turns to a Pastor preaching and singing.
If he goes to the school, he becomes a teacher teaching students what he knows and what he does not know.
In the site, he is a good site Engineer and could draw a whole house for you.
He is a road Contractor and a quantity Surveyor who can tell you how much it could cost to build a road.
He is the senior Advocate. He presides a meeting and you only watch and listen. He knows from A-Z of this world.
Virtually, he is everywhere!
In Imo state today, governance has been so much centralized where every activity flows from the office of the Governor and every revenue collected is transmitted to his office.
This can only happen in a state where its citizens have been conquered. So who said our Governor is not powerful?
The man is in full control. He is deploying power anywhere and anyhow he wants. He is teaching PDP how to handle power.
In Imo state, LGA administration is dead and that all important arm of government only function skeletally.
ISOPADEC, ENTRACO, SUBEB, and other government parastatals have lost their fancy.
Government Ministries are no longer attractive as being a Commissioner now is like being a Town Union President.
There is no difference. Everybody looks up to the Governor for the usual patronage or contracts.
This is his only way of commanding utmost respect from everybody and it is perfectly working for him.
Whenever he travels, the deputy Governor most at times sent on official assignment out of the state and power is handed over to somebody close to him.
Commissioners and all government appointees fall on top of themselves to curry the favour of the guy who is the de facto Governor.
Indeed, this is a strange way of administrating a people and is possible only in a state where its people have been conquered.
Opposition in the state is completely in a coma.
Ordinarily, certain things that cannot happen even in the smallest states of South West or the North happen here unchallenged.
Although, the Governor and his close pals know that the usual chanting of OWEEELEEEEEE which hitherto greeted the Governor’s public outings have drastically reduced or completely obliterated.
He now attends public functions with little or no attention noticed both in his entrance and his departure.
Ironically, Owelle’s predecessor in office Chief Ikedi Ohakim was accused of allegedly beating a Catholic Reverend Father upon which the foundation of this state almost collapsed and black mass staged in this state against Ohakim.
All is now history.
But before our very eyes, a Priest of the same Church and an altar was allegedly assaulted, attacked and desecrated during the last Chaotic 2015 Governorship debate yet nothing happened.
The same Ohakim destroyed shanties in this state without any blockhouse being demolished and I stand to be contradicted but today mansions and monuments are being demolished yet nobody is talking.
Before, nobody could think that a major public road could be closed for one week but today a federal road has been closed in the name of building tunnel for close to three months and nothing has happen and nothing will happen.
Rochas is in full control.
In Imo state today, all those big men who were harassing Governor Udenwa and Ohakim at the end of every month with piles of monetary demands have been pursued by Okorocha out of the state where the Governor has converted the system to his private fiefdom.
Who will talk kwanu?
I can bet you that so many of them have not been ten meters close to the government house since these five years of Okorocha administration.
He understands very early that poverty can humble a people and he made sure that these Elites were staved of funds and he has continued to despise them and so with that he conquered them.
The Governor uses every available opportunity he gets in public to castigate and denigrate them.
He believes he has performed more that Dee Sam Mbakwe, Udenwa and Ohakim put together.
He sets the Exam question, write the Exam and award mark all by himself.
Imo people only keep quiet and watch him as he sees himself as the only Champion in Imo state.
Perhaps, some people are feeling that there is no reason to talk now since he could only operate till May 29 2019 and after that they can now talk.
But this is a gauche mentality. It is a mentality of a conquered people. Okorocha does not believe in due process.
He does not believe in the party. He does not believe in the traditional rulers. He does not believe in Elites.
He does not believe in high sounding personalities. He does not believe in his appointees. He only believes in himself.
He prefers to work with those he considers as ‘boys’ whom he can control and who can reverence him to the highest.
Most of them have not tasted money in the past so he considers them very cheap to maintain than the Elites.
He uses them to his utmost satisfaction but not necessarily that he loves the poor as being speculated but mainly because he can command their total respect and that is why he cannot work with already accomplished men and women.
This is just the secret. He is a smart man.
Anyway, let me pause here until next week. But before I bow out, let me for the umpteenth time remind you once again that we are still maintaining our covenant with TRUTH.
TRUTH is our oxygen and that is where we draw our strength.
As usual, we will continue to profess it undiluted and it is only the same TRUTH that will continue to set us free.
Nwamkpa Modestus wrote in from Owerri. Email: morest4u@yahoo.com
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