Imo State has, in recent times, become the poster boy of maladministration in at least the South East geopolitical zone. Rochas Okorocha, the Imo governor, has been acting strange. Just in the last few months, he has erected a giant statute in honour of South African President Jacob Zuma, who has now been ousted from office by his own African National Congress (ANC) and is facing over 700 corruption charges, has destroyed the famous Ekeukwu Market in Owerri, has created the Ministry for Happiness with his younger sister as the commissioner, and anointed his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who is his current chief of staff, his successor as Imo State governor, even though they are from the same Orlu senatorial zone as Achike Udenwa, who ruled the state for eight years between 1999 and 2007. Just 48 hours ago, Okorocha announced that he would run for the Senate next year.
In a memorable article last December on the “shithole,” which the administration of Imo State has become under Okorocha—pardon the language notoriously associated with American President Donald Trump— Sam Ohuabunwa, a former president of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), observed: “Men with deep pockets and flirting democratic credentials but with heavy appetite for vanity and theatrics have taken the reigns of power in Imo State, and the state has been groaning.
“It is very disheartening that politicians who rode to power on popular vote of resentment against the orchestrated high handedness of the previous regime against some Roman Catholic priest and other sundry misdeamenours have now turned full cycle to rule the people who brought them to power with iron fists. For a long time in Imo, many people have been in pain – civil servants, contractors, reverend fathers, traditional rulers, mechanics, traders, politicians and indigenes.”
Ohuabunwa’s article entitled “Imo People Truly Deserve to be Happy,” presaged a widely received message from the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, Most Rev Dr. Anthony Obinna. In his 2018 Lenten Message, which ushered in the holy Lenten Season on February 14, Archbishop Obinna, an outstanding scholar who, to a large extent, embodies the conscience of the people, as is the case with other liberation theologians, wrote: “My dear people of God, people of Imo State, I wish to reassure you that my priests and I share your agony and groans and will continue to pray for you and to assist you in whatever way we can. Take heart, it shall be well; God has not abandoned you. Begin afresh, and our all-knowing Father will restore you and will bless the work of your hands.”
There is a strongly held belief all over Imo State that only the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) can salvage the state. Two major reasons account for this strong conviction. The first is the state has been ruled by the two major political parties in Nigeria, namely, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and they disappointed the people profoundly. The second reason is that the APGA government in neighbouring Anambra State has been outstanding in every ramification. Anambra State is the poster boy of good governance not just in the South East but also all over Nigeria.
States like Kogi frequently send delegations to Awka to understudy how Anambra State manages its revenues in a way, which enables it to take the first position in various fields, from security to education, to excellent labour and industrial relations, to agricultural development, to industrial growth, etc. When a governorship poll was held last November, it became the most peaceful and transparent election ever conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The incumbent governor, Chief Willie Obiano, was returned by winning in all 21 local government areas in the state by a wide margin. The poll was so fair and the result so intimidating that his rivals had no option than to congratulate him on a well-deserved victory no sooner than the result was officially announced. In the past, APC and PDP candidates would have gone to the Election Petitions Tribunal to seek a cancellation of the vote or even seek to be declared the rightful winners. Even Imo State governor Okorocha, who mounted a dedicated campaign for the APC candidate so that there could be another APC administration in the South East, was among the first prominent Nigerians to congratulate Chief Obiano and APGA on the sweeping victory.
APGA’s very impressive record of service delivery saw Obiano back in office almost effortlessly. So, it is not difficult to see why Imolites are today praying and working fervently to have an APGA administration in their state. After all, Okorocha won the governorship race as APGA’s candidate in 2011, but abandoned it for the APC without consulting his people. As everyone testifies, the APGA leadership would not have allowed Okorocha to engage in any of his numerous bizarre acts without calling him to order if he had remained in the party. APGA has a soul; it is purpose-driven.
While Imo State has deservedly become the byword for poor leadership in the South East, it must be pointed out that it is not alone. My own Abia State is in a mess, too. Nothing is working here. Despite being a major oil-bearing state and despite receiving huge sums from the Paris Club refunds and despite two bailouts from President Muhammadu Buhari, workers are owed several months of their salaries. Also, pensions and gratuities are being owed. Many have died out of hunger and malnutrition, as well as inability to meet their basic obligations as parents and guardians. Like their counterparts in Imo, workers in Abia, especially those in border communities, sneak into Anambra State towards the end of every month to borrow money from their friends and relatives who receive all their entitlements before month end, sometimes with bags of rice produced in the state in addition.
There are no roads, no standard hospitals, no clean environment, no security, no discipline and no order in our beloved Abia State. As the rains have arrived, businesses and people of Aba have their hearts in their mouths. Where are the roads? Where are the drainage facilities? Aba is still covered by heaps of garbage. Of course, there is no electricity in most places. Ironically, this is a place, which has, for decades, been famed as the Japan of Africa, that is, the headquarters of indigenous technology of the African region. One of the best planned Nigerian cities by the colonial administration, Aba was well developed by the administrations of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. Michael Okpara, Dr. Ukpabi Asika, Chief Sam Mbakwe, etc. Today, it is a pathetic shadow of its old self.
This is why the people are enthusiastically yearning for APGA, like their Imo counterparts. Good a thing that APGA has in its midst excellent gubernatorial material, like Dr. Alex Otti. Otti, who holds the First Class degree of the University of Port Harcourt in Economics and was First Bank’s Executive Director. His leadership of Diamond Bank Plc was revolutionary. He will replicate in Abia State what Chief Obiano, a fellow successful banker, has done in Anambra State, which made Ndi Anambra unable to feel very much the impact of the national economic recession. There is a ray of hope in Abia, as in Imo.
• Uzoukwa, who hails from Agalaba in Obingwa Local Government Area as Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, was Senior Special Assistant to the governor.