Ahead Of 2015 General Elections, Owerri Zone; Are We Prepared?

By nobert okey osonwa, 07064403423

We all watched with bewilderment and gross concerm last week as Governor Rochas Okorocha inaugurated his phantom 25000 jobs for Imo youths under the youths must work programme.
The scam called youths must work becomes more laughable when you consider Okorocha’s antecedents with youth related issues. Long before he was elected governor, a friend of mine expressed his worries over the deceit laden campaign promises of Owelle Rochas Okorocha .
He was worried that so many Imolites did not really know much about this man, yet they were being gullibly hoodwinked in to believing he is the messiah they have been waiting for, merely because of his purported free education schools.
He narrated how several youths Including himself has worked in his Lamonde hotel in Jos plateau state for several months and when it was due to pay them, he would use one gimmick or the other to send them away empty handed.
He would initially tell you he was helping you save your salaries so that when you want to go for Christmas or Easter holiday he would pay you the bulk sum of your accumulated salaries. However a few weeks before one is due for the accumulated salaries he would accuse you of one phantom allegation or another and then sack you. Thus the young man had serious reservations concerning his bid to become Imo governor. Events have since proven the young man’s apprehensions were not entirely undue.
First is that further investigations have shown that the Rochas foundation colleges are not funded by Owele Rochas Okorocha, rather they are being funded by international donor agencies. His close relationships with past military leaders, Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha enabled him to maneuver his Rochas foundation as the principal recipient of educational aid grants in Nigeria. Thus grants made for the government of Nigeria are paid to his foundation. All he needs do is to put up a few colleges to justify the continuous flow of the aid money and then pocket the balance.
Secondly he played a similar trick as narrated by the young man who worked in his Jos hotel, on contractors in Imo State. Soon after he was sworn in as the governor in 2011, he announced that government contracts in Imo State will no longer to be business as usual, and then he was only going to work with serious minded contractors.
To demonstrate seriousness, a road contractor would have to move to site, began to do earth work, filling, compacting before he would be considered for any part payment. At a point in the last quarter of 2011, several gullible contractors have met all these requirements on the various roads they were verbally assigned by the governor and his agents. However the governor told them during an interactive session in December 2011 that he would not pay them any money so that they don’t go and buy cars or marry new wives during the Christmas period.
He assured them he would pay them in January 2012 so that they will use the money to continue their various projects. More than 98% of these contractors have not got this payment till date. Some have died due to heart failure because of the sever debts they got themselves into. Only contractors who have family ties or marital ties with the governor have gone on to execute all projects for the Imo government.
Next lets us look at the ills meted out of the beneficiaries of the 10000 jobs under the Ikedi Ohakim administration. Whereas the Ohakim regime had painstakingly carved out these vacancies in the public service as contained in the Imo State government white paper on downsizing and right sizing with annexures of July 2010, Owelle Rochas during his 2011 guber campaign had taunted these youths that Ohakim could not provide them with tables and chairs and will not pay them the minimum wage. In comparism he assured them that he will pay them the minimum wage, as well as ensure they are provided with well furnished offices. No doubt a lot of them fell for the trick and voted for him. In return for their votes, he sacked them within just xix days in office, claiming there were no such vacancies.
Let us also consider his many other numerous gimmicks aimed at deceiving Imo youths such as, YOUTHS 4 AGRICULTURE, IKUONA NKWU, Imo Youth Engineering Corps, ISTMA, etc, that nothing beneficial to any youth ever came out from any of them. In the case of the Imo state traffic management agency (ISTMA) most of the youths that were recruited into this traffic scheme worked for about one year and six months and were disbanded without their salaries.
The Imo youth Engineering corps was suppose to improve the training these youths received from the higher institutions of learning so that they will later get job placements. After a fifteen months training period at the Imo College or advanced professional studies ICAPS Egbu road, Owelle Rochas awarded them a drainage cleaning contract in 2013. These young men obediently undertook this drainage project and completed it, yet they did not get, paid for the job to date.
Now consider his new 25000 jobs via the youths must work programme and one would not hesitate to conclude that it is a mere election trick aimed at deceiving these youths to vote for him in the coming election. For what kind of employment is that where an employee will have no letter of offer of appointment from his employer.
Then you have a standard #20000 uniform payment for everyone, irrespective of qualification and they all have to work for up to six months before they are entitled for payment.
It is pitiable, yet not surprising that a governor could condescend to such wicked tricks to deceive his people. Rather than come up with proper plans for the implementation of the SURE-P programme in Imo State, for which it is believed he has collected over #16 Billion, he chooses to trick Imo youths to accept less from governance when more is possible.
In conclusion, the writer enjoins all Imo youths and indeed the entire electorate to look beyond Okorocha’s white wash gimmicks and elect a leader who can actually create economic value in our society.
I also enjoin all political parties and especially the PDP to field only the candidates that are most compliant to the needs of our time. Perpetual recycling of former politicians who have equally failed us in the past is a recipe for defeat. A word is enough for the wise.
Engr. Nobert Okey Osonwa writes from Owerri.