Need to Caution Imo Politicians
As we count down to the final lifting of ban on politicking, it has become absolutely necessary and important that our politicians are cautioned ahead of time.
Politics is widely said to be a game. Infact pursuing an elective position could be likened to two people playing the game of draft.
Infact if you are one or if you have watched the players, you will come to better appreciate how both players boost before each other while the game lasts.
Each player with all confidence will tell each other how he will outsmart him and come out as a winner at the end
But most often this boosting aspect do not add any value to who wins at last. Yet, at the end of the game, both players will still stay together and the looser waiting for another opportunity to try again.
Unfortunately, most of our politicians have failed to be guided by the Alhaji Aminu Kano’s political philosophy which is politics without bitterness.
How come that out of the mirage of contestants who file out each political regime, good conscience do not tell them that all of them cannot win the same time.
In 2015 for instance, we shall at the end of the day have only one Governor in Imo State irrespective of how many political party, aspirants and candidates who fielded candidates and ran for the election.
So also are we going to have one senator for the three senatorial zones of the state as well as one representative for each of the Federal and state Constituency at the end of the day.
So, it is until the contestants and their followers appreciate this fact, that they will exercise restraint in their approach to the exercise.
Worse culprits in this brigand character assassination and indeed political rascality are the followers and supporters of these aspirants who often than not throw caution to the winds in their conduct and approach of the matter.
That is why it has become very expedient to if possible have legislation on the general character and conduct of aspirants and candidates while the exercise lasts.
This has become very necessary so as to act as an antidote to the expected vituperations which usually characterize electioneering campaigns in this part of the world.
That somebody is presenting himself to serve the people is not a crime. It should not create a room for people and charlatans to make mockery of the person.
Rather, such opportunity creates room for the masses to have an option among the whole lot in good faith and conscience. But a situation where some of the aspirants hire thugs to maim, assassinate and even say unprintable things through campaigns of calumny is dangerous for our democracy.
These tendencies therefore should be widely criticized and condemned by all and sundry ahead of the INEC’s lift on campaigns and rallies.
Need For A Positive Environmental Sanitation Culture In Imo State
Waste Management has remained one of the major problems associated with urban and sub-urban areas. The problem is also present in rural communities but more pronounced in the cities where it, somethings, reach alarming proportions as a result of high population growth, not matched with the necessary planning prerequisites.
Imo is one of the states in Nigeria still struggling to get it right in the area of environmental waste management. During the four-year tenure of Late Chief Sam Mbakwe (1979-1983), the administration made a giant stride in urban waste management by introducing, for the first time, the automated system of refuse disposal. Under the system, sulo bins were positioned at various points on the roads and streets while compactor trucks regularly moved round to empty the bins and cart away the refuse to the final disposal dump sites.
Unfortunately, subsequent governments in Imo State after Late Chief Sam Mbakwe’s regime failed to build on the milestone reached by Mbakwe administration. Consequently, the situation incrementally degenerated just as population increased and more waste generated. Some previous governments in the state adopted the monthly clean-up exercise as part of their programme to maintain clean environment but this still did not achieve the desired result. The Rochas Okorocha administration discontinued the monthly clean-up exercise and encouraged residents of the state to make the cleaning of their surrounding a daily affair. The Okorocha administration has, so far, invested significant resources to achieve the Imo Must be clean initiative which is a cardinal plank of the Imo Must be Better agenda. What is lacking thus far is he complementary action of the residents.
Most people handle waste materials in the way and manner that completely negate all government efforts geared towards maintaining a clean environment.
Some people prefer to litter the roads and streets, even when the refuse bins are empty. Somethings there are cases of sabotage by those who advertently litter the roads and streets with huge refuse collections immediately after the waste management authorities had cleaned the particular area. On assumption of office as General Manager of Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission Imo ENTRACO, Honourable (Ambassador.) Henry Ike evolved a revolutionary, pragmatic and sustainable waste management blue print. The initiative, a modern approach to environmental waste management was designed to ensure prompt and efficient collection and disposal of wastes generated by households, markets, offices, firms and industries. These waste generating entities are required to buy^ waste bags from Imo ENTRACO and bag their waste materials, tie and drop at designated points where the commission’s personnel would promptly pick them for disposal.
For the avoidance of doubt, it is now an offence to dispose waste indiscriminately. Anyone who litter or drops waste, not bagged, would be arrested and prosecuted at the mobile Court now set up for the purpose. Similarly, anyone who drops waste outside the approved dumping time of 7:00pm to 10:00pm would also be prosecuted accordingly. Imo ENTRACO operatives clean the cities every night but by next morning and afternoon, the roads and streets are littered again. Adoption of the standard dumping time is to ensure that wastes dumped between 7:00pm – 10:00pm are through cleaned by night for the city to remain clean during the day.
All Imo residents are therefore urged to key into the new system of waste management and imbibe a positive waste management culture.
Ndubizu Ugoji, Owerri
