Every
observer of happenings in the state will no doubt attest to the fact that
Governor Okorocha has lost grip of both his followers and the state’s polity.
This was further proved at the just concluded presidential and national
assembly elections where the governor lost all the three senatorial seats in the
state and also eight out of the ten House of Representatives seats in the state to the
PDP. This am sure was a big blow on him though I am sure he was not surprised as
he should have seen it coming.
Yes, we all know that no one can eat his cake and have it back. We also know that one can only fool people for a while which explains why the people of the state including his appointees and subjects have come to realize the kind of person Rochas truly is. They have seen the true and original Rochas and they have come to realize he is a very selfish and greedy person who is never contented. They have realized he is one that believes so much in the theory of robbing Peter to pay Paul. They have realised he is very insensitive to people’s plight. They have realised he is a liar and a scammer. They have realized he has no respect for God, women, and even life. They have realized he is very corrupt. Above all, they have realized he is not who they thought he was. This realization which has turned into regrets and hatred for the man explains why he lost these key political sits at the just concluded elections. As a matter of fact, it will not be absurd to say from events that he has lost the state political machinery and even the admiration plus trust which he once enjoyed from the people and is definitely on his way out of office come April 11th.
Yes, we all know that no one can eat his cake and have it back. We also know that one can only fool people for a while which explains why the people of the state including his appointees and subjects have come to realize the kind of person Rochas truly is. They have seen the true and original Rochas and they have come to realize he is a very selfish and greedy person who is never contented. They have realized he is one that believes so much in the theory of robbing Peter to pay Paul. They have realised he is very insensitive to people’s plight. They have realised he is a liar and a scammer. They have realized he has no respect for God, women, and even life. They have realized he is very corrupt. Above all, they have realized he is not who they thought he was. This realization which has turned into regrets and hatred for the man explains why he lost these key political sits at the just concluded elections. As a matter of fact, it will not be absurd to say from events that he has lost the state political machinery and even the admiration plus trust which he once enjoyed from the people and is definitely on his way out of office come April 11th.
To start with, Governor Okorocha made people to see him as a very peaceful and decent man that can not hurt a fly. That was the impression he gave the people of the state. However, a few people who have had dealings with him before he became governor will always tell you that the man is too sleek and is almost a mafia lord who adopts every method violent or diabolic to achieve his aim or tame every opposition or competition. For instance, most people have not forgotten how our dear Owelle staged a very violent invasion of the old APGA office through which he got the governorship ticket of the party for the 2011 elections. Most people still remember this episode and how the then party leadership was rough handled and party property damaged by the thugs commissioned by Rochas.
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People have now realized that Owelle used the money of the individual contractors to actualize his much celebrated rural road revolution in as much as the roads collapsed only after six months. Recently, the contractors under the auspices of the Unpaid Imo Contractors, UPIC, staged a protest against the government, alleging that the state government is owing them over 20 billion Naira as regards the road projects. This shocked the people of the state who believed the governor when he said all the contractors in the state have been paid. The road contractors constitute a tiny fraction of those who the Rochas government has continued to owe. Another instance of the above are the pensioners who he has continued to owe and issue dud cheques to. People have failed to comprehend this as no government atleast in Imo has ever given dud cheques to poor and weak pensioners. Honestly, this has been happening since last year and most people still have their cheques or photocopies of it with them till today while some have lodged theirs at the banks while hopefully waiting for the cheques to be honoured.
As it stands today, Governor Okorocha’s free education policy in the state has been totally faulted and widely condemned as people have discovered how fraudulent and lopsided it is. For a start, the so called free education policy only favours Imo indigenes in the Imo state university. The other Imo students in other institutions like Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Federal university of technology,Futo, and the Federal polytechnic Nekede were not accommodated talkless of those in other institutions outside the state. Even at that, the government of Rochas Okorocha altered the admission policy of the Imo state university from the original 80% for indigenes and 20%for non indigenes to 30% for indigenes and 70% for non indigenes. This has been frustrating a lot of Imo sons and daughters who would have gained admission into the institution based on merit.
People were so surprised and shocked when the government after announcing the free education policy still went ahead to ask the students to pay for their acceptance fee which is #75,000 and another #20,000 to access the funds. So every student is expected to pay about #95,000 which means that the government actually paid only #5,000 for the students when he actually claimed to have paid a hundred thousand Naira to each student. Today, Imo undergraduates still buy their textbooks and other materials themselves without the government helping out through bankrolling the cost or even subsidizing it. Be it as it may, Imo state education system even under the so called free education policy is presently rated among the poor education states in the country. Results of both the past NECO and WAEC were so terrible that the state is now placed on the 34th position in the country’s education rating. Recall that Imo used to be among the first five in the country under the previous governments in the state which has raised a lot of questions in the minds of the people of the state.
This
rating however did not surprise many who watched helplessly as the education
system was gradually collapsing under the Okorocha administration since the
government could not train or even employ more teachers for the state schools.
Available statistics have it that the state schools lack teachers especially in
the science and English departments as each school in the state can not boast
of more than two teachers in each of the above mentioned departments.
At
the face of this mass failure, the state government still went ahead to
announce that it has procured school uniforms, canvas shoes, chairs and even
desks for Imo students from China. This contract ran into billions of Naira
which has made people to ask why the contracts were not given to artisans in
the state who would have given the state better value for its money while at
the same time benefiting from this largesse. To the dismay of the people, no
Imo student today wear these uniforms or sandals as they have all either faded
or torn only after a few months which has again questioned the quailty of the
products as supplied. As a matter of
fact, most people see this as another channel through which the government
laundered money as it is being alleged that the governor has a major interest
it the Asian companies that handled the production of these materials.
Today, Governor Okorocha has over 605 certificates of occupancy, C sof Os in the state alone since he became governor. Most of these properties are in the high brow areas of the state. Today, Governor Okorocha has a kingdom in Owerri, the state capital around the Orji axis where over 30 modern and state of the art buildings were erected. It is rumoured that over 60 plots are in this estate. This is why a lot of people including leaders like Chief Achike Udenwa and others have continued to shout and lament. It was even rumoured that Gen Buhari was also shocked and asked if the property was the new government house when he came to campaign in the state. Outside this, Governor Okorocha also bulldozed his house in Ogboko and built what Achike Udenwa in an interview with verbatim magazine called a cathedral. All these lands and properties he acquired in three years of his stewardship of the state to the shock and dismay of the people who now wonder if he indeed was a rich man before now as he says.
Today, Imo State has been banned by the CBN from obtaining loans from any bank as the loan profile of the state is so alarming and terrifying. I pity the next government of the state as it will be in a very terrible predicament.
It
is now a common knowledge that the state government of Rochas withheld all the
allocations to the LGAs in the state since it came into office in 2011, a
development that has crippled the entire LG system in the state . These monies
run into over 400 billion Naira.
At
the moment, His Excellency is so terrified of his own shadow and atrocities in
the state and has resorted to intimidation and fighting everybody who speaks
out on his ills. He attacked some widows
in the state who were on a peaceful protest and smashed the camera of a news
man from NTA who was covering the protest. This reporter was so mercilessly beaten and battered that he
ended up at the federal medical centre, FMC Owerri while a lot of the widows
ended up with broken ankles and bones. Another pressman was also battered by
his attack dogs led by his son inlaw, and the
commissioner of lands, Uche Nwosu when undergraduates in the state were
protesting against the faulty free education policy in the state. Recall that
the students broke all the street lights on the bank road and the okigwe road
when they rampaged.
Now he knows he can not fool everybody all the time. Recently, the governorship debate organized by the Obiri Odenigbo, an arm of the Owerri catholic Archdiocese was aborted as Rochas also sent his attack dogs led by his inlaw, Uche Nwosu, The secretary to the state government, Prof Anwuka, The commissioner of youths and sports, Hon Emelu, the commissioner of information, Chidi Ibe and others, to personally invade the arena with thugs and destroy church property, wound people and beat up priests within the environment. People scampered to safety during this mad attack while a lot sustained various degrees of injury. This was his greatest undoing and mistake as his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim was disliked and ultimately voted out when he was accused of beating up a priest. Again, the same debate which he aborted was the major platform that sold him to the minds of the people of Imo. Tongues have continued to wag since then as he is being accused of disrupting the debate because he promised then to go for a single term of four years which he has reneged on.
Bearing
in mind that Imo is a core Christian state, his attack on the church that
organized the debate has put him in a very precarious situation as the
predomantly Christian electorate of Imo has vowed to vote him out especially as
it is rumoured that he is an agent Islamism in the state. Recall that he gave
his express consent to the building of an ultra modern mosque in the state and
also gave a cash gift of #2 million Naira to about twelve Imo indigenes that
converted to Islam last year in Abuja. Another reason why the Christian people
of Imo have hated him is that he initiated and signed the very controversial
abortion law for which many see him now as inhuman and as an anti Christ.
Recall the abortion law caused a lot of uproar in the state that he had to
retreat.
Governor Okorocha has obviously shot himself on the leg and has scored himself an own goal through his recklessness, deceit, fraud and insensitivity. As it stands now, I am sure Governor Okorocha himself knows the game is up for him and should have conditioned his mind to exit Douglas house come April, 11th.
Written
by
Ugo
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