had intentions of discussing other crucial issues in this week’s edition of Agwo-di-nuju before I made a volte-face that will be re-visiting the t “Before Imo people celebrate “Freedom Day” topic which ran for two weeks.
A reaction among the numerous text messages I received prompted me to reflect on the matter again. I would be abdicating my resolve to be given meaningful reactions fair hearing if I did not give it a mention in today’s commentary and analyse contentious views raised. 08032507181 in his reaction states; “UR ARTICLE IS A SINCERE CRITISM AND WAKE UP CALL TO ROCHAS UNLIKE D PAST MAlICIOUS ATTACKS. BUT NOTE THAT D LAST TIME I CHECKE UB,ONLY THREE STATES HAVE. TRY AND FIND OUT WHY B4 BIAMING D GOV. Also why BLAM ROCHAS FOR NON ACCREDITATION OF IMOPLY AS THOUGH IT HAD B4 HE CAME 2 POWER.
Despite the knocks at me, I cherished the sender for decency expressed in the text unlike few suspected miscreants and political thugs who would employ threats and assassination attempts to express against any write up or news item that exposes Governor Rochas Okorocha’s deficiencies in handling affairs of Imo state. The sender was civil and attacked the issue and not the person. I am not cajoled by the expression that the last article was a sincere criticism. Rather, pertinent issues raised about my “past malicious attacks” against the present regime, UBE assessment and who should be blamed for Imo State Polytechnic accreditation, attracts my attention for further comments.
On my alleged malicious criticism, I have always stated that despite false beliefs and mischievous propaganda targeted at Trumpeta editorial crew and to an extent my person, objectivity and respect to highest ethics of journalism remain my watchword. The snag forced me to also reflect on topics x-rayed on this page in the past with a few titles. The “malicious attack” snag by the sender also forced me to reflect on my past commentaries with a view to determine if they were either coloured and borne out of malice against those in charge of governance or selfish aggrandizement. After a cursory review I only discovered that I am playing my beat as a born-again social commentator and analyst. I say born-again because prior to this period, a few years ago, I was defending a principal that was a key player in governance of Imo. When my appointment elapsed, I went back to the beat to do what I know best and that is journalism. My case is not an anathema. For instance, the former presidential spokespersons like Duro Onabule who served ex-military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida and late Musa Yar Adua’s Segun Adeniyi are back to the beat by maintaining regular columns in some national dailies. While Onabule is read in Sun Newspapers, Adeniyi appears at the back page of Thisday where the ink of his biro was an authority to reckon with before Yar Adua considered him good enough as Special Adviser to president on Media and Public Affairs in 2007. At the exit of Yar Adua from Aso Rock when the former president died, Adeniyi retraced his steps to the newsroom and became a permanent feature of Thisday editorial team. Even practicing journalists like Dr Amanze Obi and Steve Osuji who worked as Commissioner and Chief Press Secretary to the Governor respectively, during Ohakim era, are back to the newsroom as they also maintain regular columns in some national dailies. Therefore what I am into is not in contrast to what some of the aforementioned senior journalists are doing after political appointments.
Again, I have searched my conscience and even discovered that part of my exposures about Okorocha’s deficiency in governance said to be “malicious attack” by the likes of the sender, have been judiciously assessed and given due attention by the present administration. Conscious of his Rescue Mission objectives, Okorocha and his co-travelers are averse to public criticism. Their desire not to experience backlash from the masses made them to give negative comments the attention it deserves. The Governor even attested to this. In one of the chanced meeting print media executives had with Okorocha, the Ogboko Ideato-born politician opined that even as there are no intentions to gag the press or seek undue overtures to woo the media to their side, he is asking for constructive and balanced criticism. For him, he does not want to be praised when nothing has been done but for what he has done to get attention same as what he has failed to do would get. Okorocha made this known during last year’s interactive session he had with media publishers of Owerri extraction to intimate us about his elaborate 50th birthday ceremony that was in October 2012. And I have not failed to toe the line of positive criticism in my weekly commentaries in my attempts to review the Governor’s action. Recently, I made a satirical remark about Imo Government popular “Imo Health at Your Door Step “program and Okorocha’s London treatment. If there was good medical services near us why would the Governor rush to abroad for treatment less than an hour after his vehicle had a road crash with another car on Orlu-Owerri Road? Is it not ironical and a mockery of the so-called “Health at Your Step” that no hospital including the apex health facilities like the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu and Owerri General Hospital, christened Imo Specialist Hospital, Umuguma near Owerri was considered worthy enough to handle Okorocha’s head injury? If the answers are in the affirmative, was my write-up a malicious attack or positive criticism? Consider that after my write-up that a section of workers especially those serving in the parastatals are in squalor as a result of non-payment of their salaries by the present government. Few days after, Okorocha invited heads of parastatals and the aggrieved workers where he promised to clear the outstanding arrears of salaries. To show that my commentaries are in line with the desire of the Governor to point out where he has not made appreciable remark, I was informed that a day after his overseas trip for the head injury treatment Okorocha embarked on unofficial visit to the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, IMSUTH, where he supervised state of facilities and later made promises to raise the services of the health outfit. The Governor would not have made such moves but for criticisms that trailed his London treatment at the expense of home-based medical outfits.
More questions will continue to be asked on the state of health facilities in the state. With most general hospitals in the state in comatose occasioned by lack of funds, the government is telling anybody who cares to listen that it is building 27 General Hospitals across the state. I can confirm as somebody resident in Imo that there are on going General Hospital structures across the state but many are at infant stages doubting the possibility of their completion before 2015. I doubt if the world class equipment and facilities would be installed before the end of Okorocha’s two years if the building cannot be completed before the end of this present regime. In God we trust as Imo is getting better.
On the issue of non-payment of counterpart funding for the state to access its own part of the Universal Basic Education entitlement, the sender again confirmed my views by stating that checks revealed that few states which Imo is part of have also not paid to access UBEC funding. Trumpeta had in one of its cover page stories alarmed the public the amount Imo state is losing following the inability of the Okorocha administration to pay counterpart money to access the international fund. Instead of getting the fund that would also create meaningful impact in the educational sector, reports of diversion of UBEC money running into several millions left behind by the Ohakim government was obtained. So what is stopping Imo from the counterpart funding? I believe that the inconsistent and meaningless stipend to pupils in the state and the money spent in buying and importing the out- of-favour school uniforms would have been properly channeled to get UBE funding. On imo Poly, the story will continue next week.
