Greg Nwadike
I was going to come out with an article with the above caption shortly after my last one tagged “Run! This Imo Governor is a deceit”. I was going to commend the Imo state Governor Rochas Okorocha for finally announcing that the elected chairmen could go back to their offices and resume work after a protracted stubbornness and refusal to do so. I was going to encourage him to do more on transparency and possibly also contribute my suggestions to him on how to move the state forward. But the proposed article was dead on arrival. My fears were once again confirmed.
Imo state was filled with palpable joy and relief when last Friday the Imo Governor Rochas Okorocha announced that the elected executive chairmen re-instated by the courts should go back to their offices and resume work. He equally directed the Councils’ workers who he had sent on an indefinite public holidays since last fortnight should resume work yesterday, Monday 30th, pleading that the returning chairmen should help him move the state forward and recover what he termed “looted funds’
While majority of the people in the state rejoiced thanking God that at least, the state can now enjoy relative peace, some of us who knew this governor for his penchant to indecision, instability and deceit feared that the man would soon spring another surprise. I personally advised the chairmen that it was not yet uhuru. If you kill a snake and the head remains alive, the snake is still alive. I knew that it only takes the governor’s going to bed and waking up with new utopian idea. A paragraph in my last article goes thus: “But just like the devil, non relenting, constantly and persistently plotting out evil and pains on humanity, so is the Imo Governor Rochas Okorocha adamant, persistent, constant and sadistically designing injurious strategies against Imo citizens”
True to the lines above, workers and the elected chairmen reported to their various council secretariats yesterday only to be greeted with another early morning announcement by the Governor’s aide that the sit-at-home continues. The aide asked all senior staff of the Local Government to proceed on seminar which he said would last till 5th of August. He thereafter announced a notice by the state’s Independent Electoral Commission of the intent to dissolve the elected councils’ officials on the 8th of August. Same day and in a meeting with the elected councils’ executives, he proposed to offer them positions of Transition Committee chairmen if they would agree to step down on their demands. What a deceitful governor we have.
For the records, this governor is fighting hell to ensure that his anus is not opened to the public who sees him as “St. Rochas Okorocha”. Wouldn’t it surprise Imolites if the story making rounds that this governor had, in just one year in office borrowed N40billion from Diamond Bank, N39billion from Zenith Bank and diverted N604million of SUBEB’s fund into Fidelity Bank account? Interestingly, N104million of this N604million “disappeared” on transit.
Wouldn’t it surprise Nigerians that Imo Councils’ allocations for three years, Adapalm and Concorde hotel have been mortgaged as collaterals for these borrowing? Could this be reasons for the governor’s stubborn refusal to allow these elected chairmen gain access to their offices? Is it true that the Heads of Admin, Treasurers and Heads of Personnel camped and lodged in Owerri, the state capital since three weeks now have been busy filling and developing vouchers for the squandered Imo money by Okorocha spent without due process and off the pockets? Who is fooling who? No wonder a former Nigerian President recently exclaimed that “I gave Imo people a thief, they say na armu robber they need”
While this writer would never be intimidated or carried away by the governor’s public shows which have kept Imolites in what is termed the more you see the less you understand, it’s pertinent to reinstate that what we want is a true messiah not a magician or a deceit. I am equally happy that none of the readers and public who responded or reacted to my article debunked any of the claims made therein.
But I’ll keep affiliating with the governor that Imo Must be better and in our own time. This, at least is the only truth I have heard from him.
GREG NWADIKE is the Coordinator, SIVE IMO GROUP and can be reached via gregokeynwadike@yahoo.com
