How Gov Okorocha Is Remaking Imo

By Chuks OLUIGBO

That Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha defeated Ikedi Godson Ohakim at the April 26 and May 6, 2011 gubernatorial elections in Imo State to emerge as Imo governor has become part of history. Same with the fact that Okorocha was sworn in on May 29, 2011 as the fifth democratically-elected governor of the Eastern Heartland.

 

The emergence of Rochas Okorocha was widely hailed, not only in Imo State, but all over Nigeria. Many also described it as ‘the Imo Revolution’. And indeed, looking back at the events of those few weeks leading up to the elections, the electoral process itself, and Okorocha’s subsequent victory, one cannot agree less. Imo people stood up in one bunch and chose a man after their hearts.

But the revolution did not end with the elections. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that the true revolution began after the elections. While many re-elected and newly-elected governors are still basking in the euphoria of post-election victory, Owelle Okorocha has already gone to work, at such speed that some analysts have said that the man is in a haste to move Imo forward.

No doubt, the task ahead of him is enormous. He gave a hint that he understood this in his inaugural speech when he said: “I know you expect so much from me. I know you believe in me. I know you believe I can deliver. And I promise I will deliver.”

In addition to the ‘backward progression’ that Imo has known since after Sam Mbakwe, his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, had created more problems for him. In the dying hours of his maladministration, Ohakim had announced free education to Imo children and approved the N18,000 minimum wage for civil servants as recommended by the Federal Government. These were clearly done in bad faith in order to create initial hassles for Okorocha.

But Governor Okorocha was not daunted by these antics. He took up the challenge and, there at the inauguration ground, he promised to exceed the achievements of the Mbakwe administration, considered to be the best Imo has had in its thirty-five years of existence. In practical terms, he announced the granting of free education to Imo children in primary and secondary schools. He also promised to provide jobs for unemployed Imo youths. However, he was silent on the issue of minimum wage.

To show that he was not making empty promises, on June 5, 2011, barely six days after his inauguration, during a thanksgiving Mass in honour of the new administration at Maria Assumpta Cathedral, Owerri, the governor announced a cut in the state’s annual security vote from N6.5 billion to N2.5billion, saying that the difference, N4 billion, would be used to cater for the free education he had promised at inauguration. Earlier, he had said he would also give up his salary for the same purpose. This was in line with his inaugural promise that “if the only reason that I will be poor in this life is to serve my people without being corrupt, then I declare myself a poor man from today onwards”. By that statement and the actions that have followed, he sent a clear signal to those who would work in his government that his isn’t going to be a government of ‘come and chop’.

Also, in his inaugural speech, the governor had sounded a note of warning to Imo workers that his administration would not condone any form of indolence and truancy. “For every worker in the office,” he had said, “there is an unemployed person out there waiting to take up your place.” And just few days into his administration, he took Imo workers by surprise when he arrived unannounced at the Imo State Secretariat complex along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri where most of the state ministries are located. The governor, who arrived there as early as 7:30 am ordered that the gates of the Secretariat be locked at 8 o’clock on the dot. Surprisingly, not many workers were in the office at that time. When the governor began his office to office tour, many workers who got wind of what was happening reportedly scaled the fence to sneak into their offices.

On Monday, June 6, he made his maiden broadcast to Imo people, where he announced the dissolution of the 27 local government councils in the state, something the people had been clamouring for given the hazy circumstances under which the local government administrations came to power. He also dissolved the countless development centres created by former governors, Achike Udenwa and Ikedi Ohakim; the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers headed by Obi of Obinugwu, His Royal Majesty, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, who also doubles as chairman, South-East Council of Traditional Rulers; and the interim management board of Adapalm appointed by Ikedi Ohakim and headed by Deacon Kieran Onwuzuruike. He also suspended the Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, Prof O. E. Nwebo and in his place appointed Prof B. E. B. Nwoke, until then Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the same university.

He further put on hold the 10,000 jobs created by the Ohakim administration and set up a committee to review the process and make recommendations. In a quick reaction, the affected employees converged at the Imo State Secretariat to protest what they perceived as gross injustice against them. Some of them who spoke to the press said they were not politicians and so nobody should play politics with their employment. All they asked for, they said, was to be given back their jobs, their only source of livelihood at the moment.

But the government quickly doused their tension. While addressing the aggrieved youths, the Imo deputy governor, Sir Jude Agbaso, assured them that nobody was taking away their jobs from them. Rather, because the process through which they got employed was faulty, they had no real jobs at the moment. As such, the process needed to be reviewed so that they could be given proper employment.

In a related development, some of the 305 councillors in Imo State who were dissolved alongside the chairmen of the 27 local government councils also demonstrated in Owerri, the state capital, to protest their dissolution. They were not allowed anywhere near the Government House, and so took to the major streets. In the process, about 100 of them were nabbed by the police for disturbing the peace of the state.

On their part, the sacked 27 local government chairmen filed a suit against the governor contesting the legality of his dissolution of the councils. In a similar vein, they also pleaded the court to grant them an injunction restraining the governor from dissolving them and from appointing caretaker committees. The plea was struck out by the court on Monday, June 20, 2011 while a new date was fixed for hearing on the substantive suit.

Also, the governor has quickly constituted his cabinet (commissioners and special advisers). The cabinet, which many observers have described as star-studded and designed to meet the developmental needs of the state, parades such personalities as Chief Mike Okiro, former Inspector-General of Police (SA Security), Prof Fabian Osuji, former Minister of Education (SA Education), and Nwankwo Kanu, ex-international soccer star (SA Sports). One of the nominees, Prof Viola Onwuliri, wife of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, and Ohakim's running mate in the 2011 governorship election, snobbed the nomination and refused to appear before the House of Assembly for screening.

Imo people and Nigerians in general have continued to laud these revolutionary steps by the people’s governor. Their only concern is that these should not turn out to be initial displays intended to impress the people and win their hearts, after which the governor will relapse into inertia, leaving the people who had reposed so much hope on him forlorn and disappointed. Their thinking is that if Imo has to leap and not crawl, if it has to measure up with other states in Nigeria in terms infrastructural and other developments, then the revolution must continue at the pace it has begun.