Rochas should be frank to himself and have the decency of differentiating between facts and opinions, just as the Athenian philosophers- Socrates and Plato, distinguished between episte
me (knowledge) and doxa (opinion, belief). Facts are objective like truth, and have no verisimilitude, especially when they have verifiable qualities.
It is quite comic that Governor Okorocha decided to be miserly with facts even when he had a well documented handover note. Certainly, he cannot expunge the reality and fact that the Governor Ohakim’s administration recorded remarkable achievements in the State. It is on record and verifiable that Ohakim’s administration undertook over 200km of world class roads (asphalted), while 232km was under construction (in various parts of the State). It is on record too that that administration rehabilitated and maintained over 720 rural roads trained and engaged more than 230 Engineers, Operators, Mechanics and drivers.
Record has it also that it undertook and completed over 600 water schemes in various parts of the State, as well as 8 small town schemes. It also constructed new classroom block in each of the 27 Local Government Areas within the first 100 days of the Administration, and later renovated 350 classroom blocks in both Primary and Secondary schools in the 27 Local Government Areas which gives an average of 12 classroom blocks per LGA.
It also renovated and equipped 27 Health Centres in the 27 Local Governments of the State, giving each an ambulance, 40KVA sound proof generators, borehole, incinerators, fenced, cold chain and drugs, as well as 27 brand new buses for health departments in the 27 Local Governments to facilitate immunization activities in the rural communities. Records contain accounts of public achievements as the Governor’s Office, the Local Government/Council of Traditional Ruler’s Secretariat, the Ahiajioku Convention Centre, the remodelling of Imo State Government Lodge Abuja; attracted the Court of Appeal toImoState, as well as 5 Judges Quarters. It also equipped the Orient TV/FM.
Furthermore, under that administration; Imo State Judiciary witnessed a lot of improvements. About 90% of the Courts were renovated and re-equipped; Judges and other apex judicial officers were facilitated with new cars, high capacity generators, internet and other entitlements. To cut it short, other areas as job creation, environmental maintenance and sanitation, security and electrification projects were abundantly executed.
Even the creation of such statutory bodies that drive developments like: The Stock Exchange Market, the Imo State Investment Promotion Agency (ISIPA),the Environmental Transformation Corporation (ENTRACO), AGRO NOVA, the Imo Municipal Transport Company Limited (which partnered with MTN to construct all the bus stops when Okada were sent off the streets), the Imo Elders Council (Scrapped by Okorocha), the Enterprise Centre Nekede, the Imo Industrial Cluster Nekede, the Imo State 9-hecter Oil Palm multiplication and nursery Centre at Nekede, etc.
The truth is that all these landmark achievements and monumental projects have become imperceptible in Rochas eyes, he certainly needs optical assistance and, if professional opticians have no sufficient eye-glasses, the road-side oculists have them. As their calibre (hawkers) is the class of Imolites that he loves to call “my people, my people”. He can visit their truck-stands and help his eyes from illusive perception. Nobody is righteous for not sinning the sins of the other.
Like every other apportioned regime, Ohakim’s have come and gone with its greatness and erring, which should be either imitated or abandoned, (after all, regime and ideological continuity is alien to the Nigerian and African socio-political administrative culture, which lacks eschews maintenance and aborts predecessors projects and developmental plans). If Rochas’ administration can finish all projects in the State, that would be marvellous and a true mark of his saviour-hood, as every rescuer on mission is by extension the Saviour of mankind. We will not only applaud him but perhaps adulate him like the Catholics do to the Saints and the Virgin Mary. It makes due for him
Posterity judges and validates State administrators, and for an incumbent to judge his as best (is good, after all, ofe nne m siri ka mma) and not a taboo. Even the madman and the drunk claim being in control of everything. Rochas should do his own and come out, and allow others to assess his performance. Achievement evaluations are never given to the participators to assess, otherwise the privileged few among them will seize the advantage and score themselves high.
Let the Saviour on rescue mission go on in Lets-Chewing-Imo. All I know is that, like many other Saviours, rescuers and Jesuses that have come, the Eternal God has always told them, “I know you not.” “It is the worst crime a human being can commit, for unto much eternal damnation to his soul, when a self-sender says ‘God said I should tell you or God sent me!”, says Hon Casmir Okeke. At the inception of his administration, Rochas said that “why God gave man the dual eyes in front is for him to look forward and match on”, forward ever.
Turning back amounts to the saltifying consequence ofLot’s wife. It is an obvious fact that the only reason why Governor Rochas Okorocha is retracing his steps from stands he made ab initio, is to stir confusion so that he can strike and retreat uncaught, therewith looting the State’s coffer and draining its milky breast dry. Everybody knows that the sole reason for his wanting to strike at the shepherd is because such action: The effects and psychological impacts will dishearten the sheep beyond any rational measure. He knows that any attack on the leaders entails that the centre of gravity is gone, and nothing remains to be revolved around, and as W B Yeats says in his poem The Second Coming (from where Chinua Achebe picked the caption of his classical novel, Things Fall Apart), ‘Things fall apart: the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
However, while we await Okorocha’s much touted exposition of the corrupt practices of the past administrations, his dishonourable attempts to blackmail and misinform Imolites further reinforces the belief by many in the State that Rochas is a self-declared Messiah Courtier and Stirrer, a Governor that cannot be trusted when truth and facts are in issue. More so, that such wild allegations were made in the hallowed chambers of the Imo State House of Assembly during the 2013 Budget presentation undermines the integrity of the appropriation bill he presented to the House.
We are aware either that Rochas Okorocha does not have his facts right or that he calculatingly decided to deform the facts to accomplish an intention of extinguishing Ohakim’s candle for his to glow. But he must remember that the nastiest souvenir a leader would give to his followers is that of diet of lies, and lies like pregnancy become visible with time.
