Felix Ashimole Esq
 Published
July 10th, 2008
My attention has been
drawn to the publications making rounds about my
governor, Ikedi Ohakim, who took over the reins of Imo
State from Achike Udenwa in questionable circumstances.
Ewu na okuko knows that Ohakim was not among the first 5
top contenders in the April 28th Selection
conducted by Maurice Iwu. Be that as it may, otu nwa shi
yo uwa, ya hiri. Ohakim has stayed one year in office.
It is now time to check what he has achieved. The press
secretary of Ohakim, Mr. Steve Osuji on the back page of
SunNewspaper of 2nd July, said unbelievable
lies that make me wonder if there are people in Imo
State , to correct these lies. To add salt to injury,
one Mr. Ike Ben Onyechere wrote in the SUN Newspaper of
July 4th 2008 that “IMO IS NOT DECADENT”.
My interest is hinged on
the parroting by Ohakim’s government of CLEAN &
GREEN; the new face of Imo project. I was forced to
go to Owerri to re-see things for myself and what I saw
is a shame. There has been no improvement to the decay I
saw about two weeks ago, which gave birth to my writing
A Letter to Ikedi Ohakim, published by the Sun Newspaper
of 1st July 2008. As a blind man will know,
the painting of the walls of Owerri green and white is
not an evidence of environmental cleanliness. Mr. Osuji
and Onyechere, keep telling the world that all is well
in Owerri. If a blind man says he doesn’t see oyi ututu,
doesn’t he feel it?
Let us take a trip around
Owerri and see if Owerri is not decaying and smelling.
Take a look at the gutter on Bank Road , especially the
one opposite Intercontinental Bank PLC. Visitors from
Rivers State are welcome at Owerri Girls-Control post by
a river over flooding the road. Even the by-pass through
NTA/ West End -Ama Hausa, is over grown with grasses and
the gutters smell. Another one that will interest you is
the one by Garden Park and opposite Imo State library.
If the governor is serious, what has he done to the road
from Government House through Shell Camp Police station
to Central Mosque? This road is directly on the route to
his office, obviously he can’t say he hasn’t seen it. I
challenge the governor and his commissioners to show me
a functional gutter and I will walk naked around Owerri
and apologise. The governor should visit Works Layout
and tell me if it befits the image the sycophants in his
cabinet are lying to the world about. The whole of Owere
nchi ise stinks like a graveyard, as the gutters are
over flowing with algae. Nda Njemanze o no kwa na
ulo while the goat of misgovernance in
Imo under Ohakim is suffering birth pangs on a
tether? These stagnant gutters are breeding ground for
all manner of diseases. Check out Ama J.K. to Garden
Park , beside the failed Co-operative bank. I am ashamed
of the lies told on national newspapers by the chief
press secretary of Imo State . All these national
dailies that sit in Lagos and Abuja and write rubbish
about Imo State , should visit the state and do a
documentary on the state. It is obvious that the
governor and his spin-doctors are wasting our money to
launder the non-existent image of his government.
Apart from the poor
sanitation in Owerri, the state capital, other cities
are in dare need of attention. Irete, in Owerri-West
L.G.A., Orji in Owerri North L.G.A, Attah in Ikeduru,
Osina in Ideato North L.G.A. Just name it; Imo State
gives me the creep as though I am walking through a
massive dinosaurs’ graveyard.
I shall not address the
issue of the 50-billion naira loan taken by Ohakim.
Although Mr. Steve Osuji wants us to call it a BOND. But
bottom line, somebody must repay 50 billion. What I want
the good people of Imo State to ask the State House of
Assembly is what they have done to checkmate this
reckless borrowing by Ohakim. His 419 commissioners are
saying that he is constructing roads. Rubbish. There is
a difference between road rehabilitation and
construction. A juicy part of these roads are given to
Zeerock Construction Nig. Limited. Serious minded
Imolites, should ask who owns Zeerock? Are there no
construction companies owned by ndi Imo that can do a
better job? What Zeerock did on Owerri Okigwe road, is a
shame.
How about the Local
Government revenue? For one year running, monies meant
for LGAs have been going into the state coffers without
due account by Ohakim. What is holding elections in the
27 local government areas in Imo state? Don’t allow them
to deceive you that its because of election petitions
against him. If these petitions did not stop him from
collecting loans, or bond as his spin doctors will want
us to read, why should it stop him from conducting
election? Ndi Imo chi abola, shine your eyes there is a
great fraud going on. From the feeder roads in
Owerri-West through Owerri North to the five kindred of
Mbaise, there is nothing going on as the governor keeps
changing the Transitional Committee to create job for
the boys. The members of the State House of Assembly
should wake up to their responsibilities and give us
good governance. That they are collecting fat car and
wardrobe allowances should not make them mortgage the
state as they are doing. How much did Ohakim waste in
hosting Nigeria Musical Award, where Nollywood actresses
came to expose their breasts. What did Imo State benefit
from that breast jamboree? Where are the men in Imo
state? Bush telegram on the streets of Owerri has it
that the governor wasted 600 million to gape at
dilapidated Nollywood breast.
Imo is known to produce no
nonsense men. Men who are articulate and will not allow
any governor to mess up the state.
With mixed feelings I
congratulate the governor over the victory against Uche
Onyeagocha at the Court of Appeal. With this, his
parrots will not tell us he did not perform due to court
cases against his stolen mandate. What are the programmes of
this lame duck governor? When will Ohakim generate
employment? Agreed NEPA is Yar’Adua’s headache, how
about water? I cannot remember the last time the tap ran
in my compound. Borehole is now the order of the day.
Otamiri and Nwaori are dead, full of refuse and debris.
I am ashamed ndi Owerri
are not asking question. I hope there are still men
left; men who have not sold their birth rights; men who
still remember what De Sam Mbakwe did from 1979-1983.
There is need to start now to check this rascality going
on in the name of governance in Imo State .It pains me that the
students of Imo State University will go through a
jungle to get to school, without asking questions. What
kind of NANS do we have these days? A peep at Item
Street will show you that these students do not
understand that a clean environment is their right. That
the State Government owes it to them to generate a
conducive learning environment to bring out their best.
Aga ekwu ole hara ole?
How about the criminal
banning of Okada in some roads of the capital? Where are
the Okadas? The banning of Okada has nothing to do with
security rather, it is to generate money for the hire
purchase green buses and taxis Ohakim is forcing
everybody to enter. Was it not the government that gave
Okada and Glo GSM to graduates? Can you beat it? This
banning of Okada has turned the Police into daylight
robbers protected by the State. Imo State has been
turned back to the days of Otokoto, there is kidnapping
everywhere, nobody is safe.
The government should tell
us who is rebuilding Chibet Hotel, Piano Stores and
other 419 houses burnt during Otokoto saga. Let me warn,
there is fire on the mountain. Imo is sitting on a keg
of gunpowder and if the government goes about lying that
all is well, when the combustion will erupt, none will
be spared. The armies of angry unemployed youths are
seeing the looting of the state fund, the beautiful cars
by the SA and PA to governors are ridding, yet a
graduate cannot eat one square meal a day in Imo state.
These unemployed youths are seeing the Hotels springing
up in Owerri, whose owners have no industry or
verifiable source of income; the youths are asking who
will pay the loans being collected by Ohakim’s
government with active connivance of the State House of
Assembly. This is time for action.
The silence of ndi Imo is making Ohakim and his
spin-doctors to tell lies about the true unemployment
situation in Imo State , the high level of insecurity
and the total decay in Imo State . Everybody, oge erule
to ask questions and DEMAND an answer before this
government will incur loans our great grand children
cannot pay.
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