Guest Writer, Onwusoanya FCC Jones Writes On Imo; New Ideas On Governance

OKOROCHA

 I was at a popular relaxation spot with some old friends recently, and expectedly our friendly banters degenerated to political talks and polemics on leadership challenges confronting our dear nation. It was a general consensus that Nigeria has not been lucky in leadership since independence. If this meeting had produced a communique, I am sure one of the paragraphs in that communique would have read something like this: “That this body agrees that elections should be banned in Nigeria, since it has become obvious that every election throws up a worst disaster than the one before it, and there seems to be a deadly cult secretly manipulating all our electoral processes to ensure that only the worst and daftest people get into positons of authority in Nigeria.”

What alternative would we have proffered in place of democratic elections? We did not discuss this, but if we had, we would still not have been able to reach any workable conclusion on that. For instance, one of us is a Pastor in one of these new generation business centers that pose as churches and I am sure he would have suggested that we go to God in prayers and maybe ask Him to choose our leaders for us, the way he did in the time of Israelites. But somebody like me would have had at least two points to counter such suggestion. One of it is that churches in Nigeria have become business or even fraud centers, where prophecies are sold to the highest bidders. The set of Pastors we have in Nigeria at present, will likely end up foisting the Devil himself upon as President, while the most deadly of his demons become ministers and Governors, as long as the Devil can offer them good deals, of maybe shielding them from any corruption probe, not regulating the operations of their businesses and also with heavy loads of cash as evidence that their own Jesus is not poor. Also, Nigerians are not very different from the Israelites who kept nagging God for one thing after He had given them the other. Remember, that Israel practiced true theocracy, before the Children of Israel demanded that God gave them a king from among themselves, so they can be like other nations that had their own kings. God gave them Saul, and it wasn’t long before Saul showed them real pepper and they started asking God to come back as their King. So, with the experience in Israel where there were fewer thieves and inept leaders, God may not really be able to choose a King without faults for us in Nigeria, where there are only two groups of people; those who steal and those who complain because they have not being given the opportunity to steal.

 It did not take long before our discussion drifted to Imo State, my dear State. I tried to see if we could talk some other things, or even discuss about another State of the Federation, because the Imo situation have got so bad that I fret discussing it. Am I not too young to be hypertensive? But my friends will not take any of that. One very troublesome one among them even accused me of having being bought over by the government of the day, hence, my reluctance to discuss how my State is being governed. That was enough blackmail and I fail for it. Before I could hold myself back, I had reeled out tales of disappointments and disappointments which the Imo populace is suffering. I told them that this is the worst we have had it in the history of this State, and I was sure they believed me. However, something came to my mind. I told my friends that if there is anything, Governor Okorocha has achieved in Imo State, it is his success in introducing a new concept in governance, and should any good researcher work on it, most schools across the globe will be ready to adopt the Okorocha leadership philosophy; wayoism, as a terrible leadership concept that must be avoided by all means. Any nation or State that falls victim to this leadership trap will have its fortunes reversed by at least fifty years.

As much as we have not really being very fortunate as a people to have wonderful people as our Governors in the most recent past, we sure have not had anything close to what Okorocha is giving us as governance since the creation of Imo State. There could be States that are worst governed. It will be pathetic to find a State anywhere in this country that is worst governed and where its leaders treat its people with such insulting recklessness as the Governor of Imo State does to the people of this great State.

It will be a Guinness World Record to see another State where the Governor boldly tell civil servants that there is serious economic crisis in the State, hence, the need to reduce the salaries of civil servants while retrenching thousands of others in order to save cost, while at the same time squandering public resources on the most insulting frivolities. For instance, our Governor approved funds for his wife to host a completely powerless, illegal and I daresay useless group, under the name of Southern Governors’ Forum in a jamboree organized in Owerri. Spaces were paid for in newspapers, while slots were secured in television and radio stations to announce this completely irrelevant and insulting jamboree, by a group of women without legitimate jobs in government. In this our Governor introduces the idea that no matter how irrelevant a thing might be, as long as it makes your wife feel good, then squander whatever resources you can lay your hands and the people can go to hell. After all, where were they, when you were working hard to become a Governor?

Just as we were still debating if this really happened, our Governor without having paid January salaries to any civil servant in the State jetted out to London, allegedly with about two hundred and fifty aides, Party members and friends of the Government for a botched lecture in Chatham House; a building housing the Royal Institute for International Affairs in the United Kingdom. The embarrassment that that jamboree turned out to be will be a discussion for another day.  By this action, our Governor makes us understand that governance is not about the people but about the Governor’s personal aggrandizement and development.
Before Chief Rochas Okorocha became Governor, one could believe that an individual charged with the responsibility of governing a State should be a good planner who should know something as common as that the best time to embark on any serious construction work, especially road construction is during the dry season. But our Governor rested his tractors and other construction equipment throughout the over six months of dry season, and immediately the first rains touched the ground, our Governor mobilized bulldozers to sites and they started off with demolishing peoples’ structures and throwing people off their businesses. I did not know that reconstructing or expanding roads that are in good conditions is more important than attending to several impassable roads across the State, till I got a Governor who is also my big brother. This is also a new idea in governance.

I did not know that there could be a government appointee whose major job will be to organize demonstrations, riots and anything that will require giving jobless youths 1,000 Naira, a sachet of water and a sausage roll. My Governor has such an appointee, Mr. Kenneth Emelu who was his commissioner for youths and sports and now officially appointed his SSA on youths and sports, but I do think that there could  be a typographic error as his designation should have read something like; SSA on Demonstrations, Riots and Youth Destruction. It is also a new idea.

Hate or love him, my Governor is a very intelligent man, he is creative too. Even if he continues on this jamboree till the end of his tenure in 2019, Imolites will remember him for teaching them how not to be a Governor and those who were deceived by the noise and sounds of beautiful speeches, but who are being kicked around like pieces of rags today, would have learnt how to make more informed choices in electing their Governor.

KA IMO DI MMA OZO!