Shortly after
Governor Rochas Okorocha assumed office, he introduced what he called
the Imo Anthem to be sung in schools and at every
occasion where the National Anthem is played.
The wording of
the anthem was apt and the tune melodious. It was what the people wanted to
hear.
Soon it was on
the lips of many, especially students who had to sing it every day.
Some of its verses are
reproduced here:
Imo my state,
Great state, my state,
Land of Wisdom, Peace and Unity
O Lord my God
We cannot do
without you
Grant our leaders the
wisdom to lead us
Rule of Law
Rule of Law in our
time
Rule of Law,
This is our prayer
Corruption must stop
must stop in our time
Corruption must stop,
this is our prayer
Education must be free
Must be free in our
time
Education must be free
This is our prayer
Imo must be better,
must be better in our time,
Imo must be
better
This is our prayer
Voice of the People
Voice of the
People
Voice of God
Voice of God
No shaking.
While the people were
singing Rochas was busy doing every thing but what the song was about.
In short the
people were singing a lie.
There has been no rule
of Law under his tenure
Rochas ignored
the Procurement law, declaring that he did not believe in Due Process and
going ahead to spend the state funds as he saw fit.
He single
handedly awarded contracts running into billions without recourse to anyone.
Paid very hefty mobilisation fees for projects of dubious value with some of
the contractors absconding with the mobilisation fees.
He took some of the
money himself, to go to China to buy school uniforms including sandals
and furniture, and to refurbish the Government House at the cost of four
billion to mention a few.
In the area of
land matters. He bastardised the existing Master plan, converting open spaces
and streets to plots allocating them to his relations and cronies as well
himself.
Revocation and
reallocation of land previously allocated to other people by earlier
governments has been the order of the day with Rochas working through his son
in law who he appointed the commissioner of Lands, to allocate land to
themselves through proxies, only to turn around and sell the lands.
In many cases,
people's land is seized for no reason.
Rochas destroyed
property running in hundreds of millions in places like Orlu, Akokwa, OsinaN
Anara, Amaraku and along the road from Owerri to Orlu and in many parts of
Owerri capital without due process and without paying any compensation to
anybody.
In the civil service,
appointments, promotions and retirements or dismissals were not done in line
with laid down procedure, only according to the whims of almighty Rochas.
He tampered with
the third tier of government, the Local government by trying to outlaw Town
unions and introducing what he calls community government which is not in the
constitution and which has refused to work.
Okorocha is renowned
for his blatant disregard and disdain for court orders and processes.
So where is the rule of law in his government?
The part where the song
talks about stopping corruption is a joke. The present administration will go
down in history as the most corrupt. Evidence of this can be seen in how much
property Okorocha, his siblings, cronies and members of his inner cirle have
amassed in the past four years. They have gone about this in a most brazen
manner, not caring what anyone may feel
Okorocha
apologists say he was wealthy before he became Governor.
Maybe so, but
the fact remains that he was very heavily indebted to some banks to the tune of
several billions on naira and most of his property was mortgaged to these
banks.
After one year
in office he had paid off his debts and still has money to keep acquiring more
property all over the world.
All those around
him including people who could not even meet their rent obligations before
2011, have become multi millionaires, buying up houses left right and centre.
Where is the
money coming from?
Okorocha's
government saw more money than the previous two administrations put
together.
With the price of oil
at more than 100 dollars for most of his regime, the money from the Excess
Crude account was huge as was the Isopadec funds.
Other monies such as
Ecological fund, VAT and Local Government allocations among others were all
coming and they were cornered by Okorocha.
Despite all
these and the 13 billion Naira he inherited from Ohakim, Imo under Okorocha is
heavily indebted to the banks.
What is there to show
for all the money apart from a few shine shine projects situated along the road
where the can be seen and some incomplete and uncompletable projects he has
embarked on?
What about the scams
in Imo Transport Corporation, Adapalm,Concorde Hotel, Ministry of Lands and
others to mention a few?
The grandest deceit of
all is Okorocha's so called free education.
How can he say
Education is free when he is deducting a percentage of workers salaries every
month to fund education?
How can education be free when the
students of Imo state university are paying incredible sums as'Acceptance
fee'.
The fee covers what the students
were paying as acceptance and school fees before the introduction of free
education.
The founding fathers of IMSU
established it to help cope with the large numbers of Imo students, who though
qualified were denied admission every year due to such reasons as catchment
area.
Now, for Okorocha to be able to
fund his dubious free education, more non indigenes are being admitted so they
can pay the fees Imo indigenes are not paying.
The result is that we are back to
where we started, with our qualified children being rejected in their own state
university. The cost of this policy is the thousands of qualified Imo
youths who cannot get into the school. How can they say education is free when
students are required to pay 20,000 Naira to get cheques for the sum of 100,000
Naira, which they now present as their fees.
How can education be free when the
state is paying greatly for it in terms of falling standards of
education.
The performance of students from
the state in all national exams has fallen greatly from the commanding heights
of the past.
There are not enough qualified
teachers. The ones who have retired or died have not been replaced.
The poor funding or non funding of
education in the name of free education is taking a great toll on the
state.
If you are paying a great
price for something how can anybody say it is free? Payment does not always
have to be cash. It could be in the form of missed opportunities and inferior
education owing to poor standards.
Most people will testify that the
only people Imo has been better for these past four years are Okorocha and his
family and friends, who have truly rescued themselves from poverty, while at
the same time plunging the state into the deep abyss of poverty and debt.
Another four years of Okorocha and
his deceit will bring irreparable ruin to Imo. Please vote for change in Imo.
Vote out Rochas Okorocha. Ka o puo!
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