The
enthusiasm that greeted his emergence as governor of Imo State in May,
last year, was unprecedented. One year after, Rochas Okorocha, governor
of Imo State, who appears to be in a hurry to develop the state is not
having it easy with the opposition.
Recently,
the opposition parties in the state issued a statement asking Okorocha
to apologise to people of the state for wasting the last one year.
Their statement was signed by Charles Chukwudi of the Action Congress
of Nigeria, ACN, Vitalis Orikeze Ajumbe, All Nigeria Peoples Party,
ANPP, and 18 others. They chided the governor for non-payment of
contractors which resulted in the abandonment of many rural roads.
According to them, the abandonment of the road projects has left them
worse than they were before they were opened up. They wondered why the
haste with which the administration tackled the roads as if the world
was coming to an end. The opposition likened the proposed community
government council after scrapping of development centres to selling a
dog to procure a monkey.
The
opposition parties were also piqued by the planned secondment of civil
servants to their villages, stressing that the implementation of the
policy would lead to mass deaths in the state. Similarly, the
commercialisation policy of the administration also drew the ire of the
opposition politicians. According to them, commercialising government
services would deny the poor access to such services.
They
faulted the governor for destroying people’s houses in Orlu and Okigwe
zones without compensation, and also refusing to pay genuine debts
incurred by the Ikedi Ohakim administration, his predecessor. This
development, they said, was responsible for the cash squeeze in the
state at the moment. They were equally not comfortable with the
governor’s pattern of free education and urged him to travel to the
west to learn how to run free education.
But
Iheugwumere Henry Alaribe, chairman Board of Trustees, BOT, Imo Rescue
Mission, disagreed with the opposition by commending the free education
programme of the state. He explained that the programme would enable
every Imo citizen acquire education. On the Community Government
Council, CGC, the chairmen noted that it was aimed at taking
developmental projects to the grassroots, and close the gap between the
urban and rural city.
According
to him, “through CGC, it is easier for people at the rural areas to
understand the policies and projects of the state government. What the
state government is doing is to ensure that development begins in the
rural areas because people have impression that local governments have
not performed well in the rural areas.” He urged the state civil
servants to embrace the novel policy to complement the effort of the
state government on infrastructural development.
Chioma
Ogoke, state commissioner for housing and urban development, also said
the state has witnessed tremendous transformational development in the
areas of education and infrastructure in the last one year. Such
achievements, she pointed out, include the resuscitation of the Nsu
Tile Ltd, the Standard Shoe Industry in Owerri, the establishment of
the Advanced Professional Studies, the Ojukwu Centre and the renovation
of the former Parliamentarian Building among others.
In
an apparent bid to strengthen his administration for the challenges
ahead, Okorocha last week effected a shake-up of his cabinet leading to
dropping of six commissioners in the Imo State Executive Council. He
also sent a list of new nominees to the state house of assembly.The
affected commissioners include Ejike Uche, Public Utilities and Rural
Development; Ogueri Enwerem, Commerce and Industry; Obinna Duruji,
Information and Strategy, and Ogwazuo, Culture and Tourism. Others are
Nelson Ezerioha, Transport, and Ann Dozie of Women Affairs and Social
Development.
Eze
Madumere, chief of staff to the governor, told journalists after State
Executive Council meeting at the Government House June 13, that a list
of new commissioner nominees has been forwarded to the House of
Assembly for screening. He gave the names of the nominees as Uche
Mbanaso, the mayor of Orlu; Chinedu Offor, the Senior Special Assistant
to the Governor on Media, Ugochi Nnanna Okoro; Chima
Iwuchukwu; Emma Ekweremba and Charles Onuoha, the Senior Special
Assistant on MDGs. Madumere added that the governor also effected a
minor reshufflement which also affected some Special Assistants and
Senior Special Assistants whose list would soon be made public. He
explained that the affected appointees were dropped because of the
desire of the governor to effect some changes and re-jig the machinery
of governance, after a re-assessment of progress made by the present
administration in the past one year.
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