My initial plan was to do an open letter to the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, but considering that the message of the letter would be for the twenty seven of them in that House, I chose to convey my message through this channel, hoping that it will achieve the same result as an open letter would have. I am not deterred by the possibility that this set of legislators do not seem interested in anything other than what the Governor says or wants, but as an Imolite who is entitled to quality representation by not just the legislator representing my own particular constituency, but by the entire leadership and membership of that House, I am duty bound to express my opinions and reservations and also expect that they are taking into consideration. A more detailed letter will still come, when I am done with gathering more facts.
Some few weeks after I put up a short article on the social media in which I lambasted the bootlicking dispositions of the present crop of legislators we have in the State, one of my Comrades called my attention to a pathetic photograph in which two supposedly honourable members of the State Assembly were kneeling like some house-boys being reprimanded by their employee. I refused to believe that that photograph was genuine till one of the actors in the photograph, I think that should be Mr. Stan Dara unashamedly came out to defend such degrading level of servitude. Whatever may be the intentions or justifications of those dishonourable men, I do not think they were in the first place qualified to be legislators. In that same picture, RT.Hon. Benjamin Uwajimogu, the Speaker of the House of Assembly was seen gesticulating like a chief-apprentice reporting the misdemeanours of his fellow apprentices to their boss; Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Since the inauguration of this fifth House with Chief Benjamin Uwajimogu as its Speaker, I have always laboured to put a distinction between the office of the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly and the office of the Commissioner of Information in the State or even the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor. This is because there is hardly a time my Speaker will address an audience or grant an interview to journalists that he will not bore our ears with stories of how wonderfully he thinks the Rescue Mission government is performing. The Speaker has used every opportunity to embarrass Imolites before the world, by telling the whole world how weak a legislator he is. Isn’t the legislature distinct and equal with the executive? For a man whose position is Constitutionally co-equal to the office of the Governor to be crawling on his knees in order to please the Governor clears every doubt that he has some putrid skeletons to hide in his cupboard.
It is not wrong for the legislature to have a good working relationship with the executive, just as it is not wrong for the Police to have some good rapport with potential criminals or law breakers. But it becomes disastrously suspicious when our lawmakers do not only dine and wine with the executive but also appoint themselves as defenders and spokespersons for some executive rascals. The legislative arm of government in any democracy is the police of the government, they are Constitutionally empowered and expected to keep the executive on their toes all the time. It is the duty of the House of Assembly to carry itself in such a way that the executive will be in constant fear of it, they are supposed to through their actions and inactions deter the executive from acts of recklessness, corruption, lawlessness and any other unconstitutional and or undemocratic acts that are capable of crippling the machinery of governance.
The major reason why Imo operates like a State without laws and order and the Governor works like a despotic totalitarian is because our lawmakers are ill informed about their powers, duties and responsibilities. Most, if not all members of the present State House of Assembly have transmuted their legislative assignment into some form of local trade and contracts. They have become pawns in the hands of a reckless capitalist. It does not seem to bother them that they are enjoying the mandate of some constituents whose expectations they must meet. If a legislature was conceived to operate the same way as this present Imo legislature, then the legislative arm of government is a total waste of voters’ time and taxpayers resources.
Somebody is arguing that this House has at least debated bills, motions and screened government appointees. They have even passed laws. Including the abortion law which was debated, passed and signed into law under the cover of some curious darkness, if not for Dr. Philip Njemanze, we would have being ignorant of that taboo being a legitimate clause in our State laws. They are almost through with a bill seeking to establish the Imo State Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Imo EFCC). They had earlier passed a law setting up the unnecessary and grossly useless Community Government Council. One interesting thing about most of these laws is that majority of them emanated and had the full sponsorship of the executive. I am yet to hear of any proposal or bill from the executive of arm of government that has been turned down by this House. I am yet to hear of this House reprimanding any member of the executive arm of government, even with legion cases of rascality and arbitrariness hanging on the necks of most of them.
On more than one occasion, top ranking officials of this government have been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for questioning. Some of them were detained for days, yet, this House never deemed it fit to investigate these officials, rather they projected themselves as solicitors and even media aides of these officials who are being investigated for grievous financial malfeasance. On more than one occasion, the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly has taken up paid advertorials in local and national tabloids to defend this government and its officials, without the simple pretence of attempting an investigation. The shameful response this House could muster is to do the Governor’s bidding by proposing the establishment of an Imo EFCC. This potentially obstreperous agency, will more or less be another thug outfit of the State government, with which it will want to scuttle the activities of the main EFCC and ICPC and possibly witch-hunt perceived and real political opponents.
The haphazard speed with which the elected Deputy Governor of the State; Sir Jude Ikechukwu Agbaso was impeached has kept discerning minds wondering if we really have a legislative arm in this State. How could a legislature that boasts of well-groomed politicians and professionals neglect the heavy revelations made against principal officers of this government and concentrate on their allegedly paid brief of impeaching the Deputy Governor? A legislature that is worth its name should have observed that more than Jude Agbaso, the Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha deserved to be impeached. How this House of Assembly refused to ask the fundamental questions of how a contractor could have been paid more than the quoted contract sum, even before equipment are mobilised to site and how 1.3billion Naira of our money could have been paid to a self-confessed Lebanese criminal contractor without a letter of award or even any advance payment guarantee. This should worry any right-thinking Imolite.
There have been credible allegations that the members of the Imo State House of Assembly are more concerned about winning contracts from the State government than giving the slightest attention to their legislative duties. I am still investigating a strong allegation by some contractors in a local government in this State that they are not being able to hasten up the execution of their jobs because the member representing that local government in the House of Assembly collects a good bulk of whatever they are paid, these contractors seem helpless because these monies must pass through the House member before it gets to them.
In my own local government area of Ideato North, my representative whom I seriously admired failed me during her last empowernment charade. She insulted my people by distributing plastic bowls and other cheap articles as her own empowerment goodies. I think, Honourable Eudora Igwe has been distracted by her audacious bid to displace Chief Hope Uzodimma as our Senator. While it is no sin to dream dreams, I will hope this usually good and humble woman understands the Herculean task involved in displacing one of the best political representatives Orlu people have had in recent times. While I wish her well in this bid of hers, I am sure she won’t get to the Senate with my vote and votes. She won’t even get my vote if she decides to return to the House of Assembly in 2015, because I have not felt the impact of her close to three years representation.
I was terribly disappointed with the usually vibrant and youthful Honourable Ozuruigbo Ugonna who represents Nwangele State Constituency and a member of three political Parties; APGA, PDP, and to a greater degree APC. This adorable friend of mine got me thinking about his real sense of value and political responsibility when he posted photographs of some Christmas lights hung around Weatheral Junction with so much excitement. To him, that was a great achievement as it made Owerri appear like Dubai. I later understood that he was merely joking or trying to play to the gallery, because as someone who has had great success as a private businessman before his election into the House of Assembly, I will be surprised if he hadn’t being to Dubai on a business trip and appreciated the difference between real and lasting infrastructural revolution and cosmetic window dressing. I wouldn’t because I was able to buy some plastic Christmas lights for my mud house in the village begin to compare my hut with the Buckingham Palace. That will be the lowliest pettiness. Well, a contractor must learn to flatter his client, if more contracts must come.
Legislators who are encumbered by the dictates of petty and parochial interests are disasters to the people they represent. A legislator’s loyalties must lie with the people he represent and the State whose destiny may be affected for good or for bad by his or her legislative actions and inactions. The sole desire that should spur legislators should reflect what is best for both Imo people and Imo State. The difference between a legislator whose motivation is his or her selfish political and economic gains and the legislator who is spurred by the best interests of his people and the State is the difference between corruption and valour. It is central to the duties of the legislature to remind the executive to practice and propagate the virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude in a spirit of charity, humility, and patience.
I do not know if the members of this fifth House and third assembly of our dear State appreciate the reality that they are the regulators and appropriators of our commonwealth. While the executive spends the money, it is the legislature that should approves whatever should be spent or not. Do the Speaker of the House of Assembly and his colleagues ever check the fate of the funds they appropriated? The Governor has severally made some disheartening confessions and our legislators are not asking the simplest questions. This Governor has recently confessed that billions of Naira of our money have grown wings in the hands of some of his foreign friends. That is enough to begin impeachment proceedings against such Governor if we had an active legislature. So many of our public assets have been privatised without our knowledge and I suspect it was also to the belated knowledge of our House members.
It is important to remind the members of this State Assembly that days have gone when any single individual can impose his or her choice candidates on the people and expect us to follow suit. Imo people have grown beyond that, we shall vote or reject candidates based on their antecedents and service delivery. Trying to hide under the sterile incumbency of the Governor cannot guarantee political success to any of the members of this House. It is the expectation of well-meaning Imolites that a good number of our state legislators shall make the best of the remaining part of their term to right the wrongs of the past years.
