I was almost at lost on which topic to treat this week in my favourite Agwodinuju column. On concluding a series I started three weeks ago, a lot happened at the state, national and international levels that deserves commentaries. While I was confused on the particular topic to comment on, the fast approaching Christmas worsened my dilemma because I have only one more edition before Trumpeta goes on yuletide break. Since the tabloid will run special Christmas and New Year editions with my column not appearing, I became in a fix on which of the subjects to dwell on.
However, since we are already feeling the festive mood courtesy of the yuletide razzmatazz inflicted on Owerri environment by the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, I will dub this week “Owelle and the spirit of Christmas.
For Imolites, especially Owerri residents and regular visitors to the state capital, the grandeur of the town no doubt has changed with the masses in festive mood. Except for towns like Calabar, PortHacourt in Cross River and Rivers State respectively, Owerri is already wearing a Christmas look courtesy of the Rescue Mission government.
Owerri major roads, streets and roundabouts are feeling the heat of the coming of Christ our Saviour, with bountiful decorations, neon lights and trappings of Father Christmas. This particular spots are obvious and glaring among the numerous decorations being witnessed in Owerri Municipality. The eye-popping and attractive Christmas light and shade at Government House/Wetheral Road is a beauty to behold. Same applies to the net-like neon Christmas lights on the new but controversial JPross Road on Warehouse-Amaigbo Street. These Christmas projections are designed to complement other perfect decorations on major entrance and exit points of Owerri, the Imo State Capital.
I am personally elated at the development even as I have reservations about the entire exercise which seems to be wasteful, unnecessary and at variance with level of hunger and deprivation plaguing people of the state. Anybody without proper knowledge of Owerri terrain may be on day-dream thinking he has mistaken his way to one of the most developed cities in the world, like New York, Paris and London, as the glowing Christmas lights are similar to what are obtained in advanced climes.
To herald the season of festivities, the Okorocha administration kick-started it with a religious affair tagged “Freedom Night” at the yet to be concluded Freedom Square, on Bank Road. With Imo obtaining notoriety of having several squares like Heroes’ Square, Bongo Square and now Freedom Square considered to be white elephant projects, the praise and worship song supposedly organized to mark the “Liberation of Imolites from bondage” was held at the Freedom Square on Sunday.
If the “Freedom” events by the state government preceding the Christmas festive are not sheer hypocrisy, and calculated attempts to hypnotize, the entire populace especially unsuspecting viewers outside the state, who witnessed the event courtesy of a major private television station, the Okorocha administration should have realizeed that the “Egyptians” that were claimed to have been chased away since May 29, 2011 are now around and putting Imo in real bondage.
It would be recalled that part of campaign slogan of the present administration during the pre-2011 election hostilities Okorocha and his faithful used wearing APGA toga, was that the “Egyptians you see today, you will see no more”
Two and half years after being at the helm of affairs of the state, the “Egyptians” can be said to have now arrived and ravaging Imolites with impunity.
As a professional, I will apply ethical standards while intimating who cares to read that it is now the “Egyptians” are truly in Imo State and Sunday’s Freedom Night/Praise organized to herald the Christmas festive could be a charade.
Undoubtedly, the pre-Christmas season event at the Freedom Square is a ruse to further propagate the reign of deceit that is fast becoming the trademark of the so-called Rescue Mission government of the present administration in Imo.
How would an Imolite praise and worship of being liberated by Rescue Missionaries at a place that is within spitting distance to a road where a contractor abandoned and bolted away with Imo’s N1.3bn and yet the government is unperturbed about the huge sum of money it lost? To worsen the mental psyche and sensibilities of Imo people, unsavoury drama characterized the entire scenario where a seeming innocent person and former co-traveler in the Rescue Mission was framed-up and made to pay the supreme sacrifice of impeachment for allegedly collecting N458m bribe from the fleeing foreign contractor. It is pertinent to ask, if it was not the monstrous “Egyptians” who ferried the runaway Lebanese Contractor from Jos into Owerri, awarded the N1.3b road contract, without due process, paid upfront without due formalities, when some indigenous contractors either died or starving over non payment for contracts executed in the state? Anybody claiming to be on true Rescue Mission and liberation struggle in Imo is expected to recover the missing huge amount of N1.3bn carted away by a single person aided by cohorts before holding a phantom Freedom Praise.
Besides, one of those who took part in celebrating Sunday’s breakaway from bondage, an ally of Okorocha and former Special Adviser to the Governor on project monitoring Prince Macdonald Akano, is reported to be an Executive Director of JPross, the company where the state’s N1.3bn is stocked.
One also begins to engage in deep thoughts about the manner of freedom from bondage celebrated in Owerri on Sunday, when the whereabouts of some foreigners said to have evaporated with billion naira worth of contracts in Imo State remains undisclosed. Records have it that foreign firms like Homipresa and Cone received upfront payment of monies running into billions for the execution of monumental and signature projects of the Okorocha administration. However, moments after the contractors received upfront payment for jobs running into billions, they disappeared into the thin air before abandoning their project sites near Avu Junction on Owerri-P/Harcourt road Ama JK Recreation Parks where Imo people are consoled with carcass of decaying equipment and machines. Further reports indicated that the members of the Imo State House of Assembly managed to recover about N14 billion from the fleeing contractors with large chunk of billions still in their possession. The worshipers at the celebration of liberation programme forgot to put in prayer the foreigners milking the state fund dry without the authorities caring to shout a hoot. Only recently, Trumpeta exposed another disturbing fraud rocking the state-owned Imo Broadcasting Corporation, IBC, operators of Orient FM Radio and TV Stations, where a serving aide to the Governor (names withheld) allegedly perpetrated the contract scandal where N14m is involved. To pontificate their “Egyptian Style”, the Rescue Missionaries are toying with the idea of establishing Imo Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Imo EFCC which invariably will serve as a smokescreen to perpetuate fraudulent activities using execute fiat since it will be controlled by the state government. The marking of the Freedom Praise is ironical because Imolites are yet to extricate themselves from the shackles and manacles of the Egyptian claws launched on them by fraudulent demagogues masquerading as self-styled Rescue Missionaries.
Am aware that part of the programme to mark this year’s Christmas in Imo is the meeting with various groups and categories of people in the state, the scheduled events involving workers, teachers and the physically challenged is a welcome development. At least, it will not only afford the Governor of the state the opportunity to have one-to-one interaction but also act as a catalyst to redress grey areas observed in their relationships in the past one year. I thumb up for His Excellency for considering it appropriate having audience with his subjects at this auspicious moment of waiting for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, where love and sharing is the key word.
I expect the State Governor to brace up for the challenges to be posed by the various groups he would be having Christmas rapour with. The meeting beginning this week should go beyond dining, winning and mere rhetoric. Among the packs I expect Okorocha to seek a solution to their problems are the state work force. Judging from complaints of civil servants, the highest industry in the state seems to be at the receiving end of the Governor’s perceived anti-workers posture as they claim to be the sacrificial lamb of the Rescue Mission government. Despite the N20,000 minimum wage, believed to be the highest offered by a State Governor in the federation, Imo Workers still lament over unpaid salaries and allowances including poor working incentives.
Since last week, striking workers of the Imo Specialist Hospital, Owerri shut down their offices and have taking possession of the Umuguma-Housing road leading to PortHarcourt road. Road users have been denied access to the road, no thanks to the wailing staffers who lamented non payment of their nine months salaries and other entitlements. The Governor is expected to understand the mood of the Specialist Hospital workers at this festive moment who are pouring venoms on him for trying to starve them to death. What would Okorocha tell the health workers who have put the Specialist Hospital under key and lock since last week and branded his Rescue Mission “killer mission” during this Christmas party?
The Imo Specialist Hospital workers are not the only ones left out in the plethora of demonstrators lamenting non payment of salaries by the Okorocha administration. While some foreigners suspected to be Chinese were near the Government House gate arranging the set up for the Christmas Park, Staff of the Imo State School of Health Technology came into Owerri from their Amaigbo, Nwangele LGA base, to protest the four months salary arrears owned them, compulsory deduction of N12,000 from their salaries for medical check up, non payment of statutory entitlements due to workers and continued casulisation policy of the state government in the school.
What of staffers of Imo Water Corporation (IWC) who are tired of protesting over unpaid salaries and minimum wage? They may have taken their Rescue Mission-inflicted abject poverty in good faith to forget street protests about their unpaid salaries.
Worst hit among the workers family are retirees of the IBC who are yet to receive their monthly entitlements since Okorocha came into power. On repeated occasions, the senior citizens with fading and depreciating health conditions go through the sad orgy of marching on the streets to protest about 25 months unpaid monthly allowance. In one of the recent protests, some collapsed and their condition of health yet to be ascertained after the protest. What of retired teachers going through hell for their retirement entitlements? I am optimistic that Okorocha will use the ample opportunity to address the legion of complaints from a section of workers concerning unpaid salaries and allowances.
I will not drop my pen until the final mention of workers dilemma in the hands of Okorocha administration without highlighting the incessant lamentations of serving civil servants who continue to cry out over non payment of certain statutory payments like Overtime (OT), hazards and leave allowances. These entitlements being denied to them, the workers alleged was obtained in the past. But the present government has made it a forgone alternative following lip service trailing payment of the statutory entitlements. I hope the Governor does not need inputs from advisers to know that some of these unpaid monthly salaries and statutory entitlements would make a Merry Christmas to the affected workers than the cosmetic and arrangee Christmas meetings.
The next in the line up are youths of course, the Governor may not expect embattled and sacked 10,000 jobs beneficiaries to be available for his Christmas package when they are deprived of their means of livelihood over petty vengeance mission.
I am optimistic that His Excellency will in the spirit of Christmas consider the feelings of Imolites he considers “My people my people” and provide the necessity to make this yuletide a memorable one than the Christmas park grandstanding and showmanship.
