It has gradually become a norm in Imo State since 2011, that while other states are engrossed in important issues and engagements that would propel them to greater heights, Imo spends precious man hour or mundane and non productive and Economic ventures.
Throughout last week, the media was awash with the aborted birthday ceremony of Governor Rochas Okorocha, which was disrupted by Security operatives in Aba, Abia State.
It was said that the event would have taken place at the premises of Abia State Polytechnic but was aborted by stern-looking security personnel who stormed the venue and dispersed the people and took over the place.
For me, it was a shame as a citizen of Imo State, as the incident dominated the air waves and the print Media. I wondered when Imo would be noted under this dispensation for serious issues, other than “OMATTA” matters that do not have any added value to Imo State and its perplexed citizens.
It sounded ridiculous that all Imo could be noted for this past weeks was that the Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha was traversing the nook and cranny of Nigeria for his 51st birthday when there are other serious issues of state.
This was a period the Governor of Osun State Ogbeni Aregbesola was commissioning a Garment factory at Oshogbo that can produce cloths for over three hundred thousand students in a month.
Imo State was talking about the Governor’s birthday ceremony, when Governor Peter Obi was disbursing Billions of Naira to Hospitals and schools in Anambra State.
Imo dominated the Air waves with Okorocha’s birthday, while Governor Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State was busy inspecting the world class Sports Complex in Uyo.
Okorocha’s birthday was everywhere in the news in Ibadan where he celebrated with the Olu of Ibadan, while the host Gov Ajimobi, was commissioning one of the best ever flyovers in that South Western City.
Police was dispersing celebrants of Okorocha’s birthday at Aba on a day Obasanjo was commissioning projects at Sokoto constructed by Governor Wamako. Imo was busy with birthday celebration on a day Gov Fashola of Lagos was inspecting the mega city railway rails going on rapidly in Lagos now.
And you would think that Imo State is engaged in this tumultuous celebration because any of the roads embarked by Gov Okorocha in Imo State has been completed and commissioned. You would think that Imo is enmeshed in this Champagne road show because all the Houses in Urualla, Orlu, Amaraku, Osina, Isiekenesi, Anara etc that were demolished have been paid compensation for, and rebuilt.
You would think that all the round-abouts and foot bridges in Owerri that have remained uncompleted now for two years have been completed. You would think that IBC, Imo Newspapers pensioners and other pensioners in the state have received their pay. You would think that all those past political appointees owed by Imo Government have received their Severance Allowances? You would think Imo people were celebrating in Abia State because all those Imo-born civil servants sacked by Gov Orji have been re-absorbed by Okorocha even after Anambra State has re-absorbed theirs. You think Imo is celebrating because JPross has returned the Billions of Naira he ran to Lebanon with. You think Imo is rolling out the drums because players of Heartland FC have received their long owed salaries. Mark you, this heritage of Imo State is about going extinct as the Club is dying. So, what are all these celebrations for?
Don’t misunderstand me. The Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has all the rights in the world to celebrate his birthday anyhow he likes. But today as a public servant and number one citizen of Imo State, all his outings should be moderate because he is under the scrutiny of all the citizens, as their torch, who leads, and they follow.
The masses, by their mandate urged him to lead them, as number one among equals, which is what democracy is all about. Indeed, every Kobo in Imo coffers belongs to the people. Therefore when such celebrations are going on in the midst of abject poverty, people must talk.
Since the history of Imo State, the citizens have never celebrated the birthday of their Governors with pump and pageantry, because it is a private affair and not in the legislative Act of the state to warrant a shut down of all Institutions in the state for them to troop out and celebrate the Governor. It ought to be a voluntary ceremony for those who wish to attend.
From Dr Sam Mbakwe until now, not a single Imo citizen can tell you when these Governors celebrated their birthdays. If any thing, the people may only know through Adverts in the Media from their friends, relations or Aides.
But Governor Okorocha has elevated his birthday to a level that before he leaves office, he may manipulate the present Legislature to promulgate it for the ceremony to join October 1, May 1, and May 29th as some of the special days in the state’s official calendar.
Why should Gov Okorocha and his Abia counterpart, Chief Theodore Orji engage in this fight of supremacy, if not that some people gathered in another state, Abia State to celebrate Okorocha’s birthday? Can any of those people in the dispersed gathering remember when last Theodore Orji shut down Aba, Enyimba city to celebrate his own birthday, much more going to Owerri to celebrate it?
From experience, Governance is a very serious business because you give it all it deserves and all you have. Let me state unequivocally here that having spent some years at the centre of Governance in Imo State, no Governor that is serious minded and dedicated to his job could afford the luxury and pleasure of throwing a birthday party for more than a few hours.
The duty of a Governor is too enormous that the only time they have is when they travel oversees. For as long as a Governor is in these shores, either in your state or Abuja, it is work, work and work. It also affects those Aides that are immediate staff of the Governor. They too suffer these tight schedules that give you no private time for leisure, including having ample time with your family.
So, what happens to the administration of Imo state, while these “Owanbes”, last? So the state would be abandoned for the Chief Executives private parties, at this harsh times that including the Federal Government is finding it hard to meet its financial obligations to states?
Therefore, I am shocked that a Chief Executive of a state could afford the time to move from one state to the other to celebrate a birthday when internally generated funds are dwindling, and Federal Allocation not coming forth.
I am not saying it is not possible. It is absolutely possible if the main priority of such Governor is to traverse the entire Nigeria to celebrate. But what it meant is that some man hours must be wasted for this Governor to carry out this unproductive private parties to the detriment of the state and its masses.
Every day counts in the life of any given entity. Therefore, there is no time to waste. That is the reason the constitution starts counting for whoever is Governor from the day he/she was swore-in.
Why one is worried with the Okorocha’s birthday celebrations is that there was no time I thought a Leader like Okorocha could engage in such “frivolity” looking at the pedigree he exhibited prior to the Imo Governorship election in 2011. He was a serious-minded astute business man, looking alert and focused for important matters than for such mundane things.
Honestly speaking, Okorocha came across as a man shun of the razzmatazz for which unserious politicians were known for. I had believed that the Okorocha we knew had seen it all, and out to mend Imo State for both the elites and the down trodden in the villages. That he has no time for parties.
And this belief was even made more manifest with his appearances and serious mien during those campaign hay days. But it is not only me that is surprised with what is happening today. “If you want to test a man, give him power” says Abraham Lincoln.
Not even Dr Ikedi Ohakim, a former Governor of Imo State, whom many thought because of his suave and urbane appearance would love the good things of life, could be compared with Gov Okorocha today on things that cannot benefit Imo State like his yearly birthdays.
The last celebration in 2012 shook the foundation of Imo State with Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai and over Ten Governors and former Military Heads of State, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdusalami Abubakar in attendance.
There was public Holidays that day as Offices and shops closed business while the guns boomed at the Heroes Square. Honestly speaking, I was embarrased with that development because I knew that all the visiting Governors present at the occasion including Babangida recently had their own birthdays but none of them made a headline, except a few Advertorials. But they were all there at Heroes Square grinning from ear to ear as if something extra-ordinary was happening in Imo State, while Imo State burnt her scarce resources. The occasion was beamed on AIT, Channels, and NTA, which ran into Millions of Naira that would have been channeled into other projects for the state.
I had felt that Gov Okorocha would have used that occasion to commission some of his projects to justify the invitation of such galaxy of Nigerians. But nothing of such happened as all these personalities drank our Champagnes and headed back to their states.
Following the bad press that outing attracted, I had hoped that this year’s celebration would be low-key, because of the “famine” in the state where life is getting brutish and short following poverty ravaging the rural communities. But instead the Governor upped the ante.
The celebration took another shape this time and took him to the Western part of Nigeria, where the occasion was shown live on prime time in AIT and Channel Televisions running into millions of Naira as usual. Infact, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP accused the Governor of allegedly squandering Hundreds of millions of Naira on the birthday.
Having finished the Yoruba leg of the birthday, the celebration began again in the South-East until it ran into a hitch in Aba, Abia State, which turned out a ridicule to many of us who saw the Aba debacle as a slight on our Governor.
However, one would not blame Gov Theodore Orji for stopping the Aba ceremony. Although his Media men said Orji had no hand in the disruption. They can go tell that to the Marines!
Anybody who attended Late Ikemba Ojukwu’s burial at the Aba Township Stadium will know why Orji develops phobia whenever he hears Okorocha’s name.
That day in Enyimba City, right in Abia State, the State Governor was pelted with “Purewater” by the mourning crowd, as he, Orji had to sneak out from the venue. And he pointed accusing fingers at the direction of his Imo State Counterpart as the fellow who incited the crowd against him that day as Owelle! Owelle! rent the air at the Abia Stadium.
Therefore, if it were you, would you allow that “celebration” at Aba, by “Rescue Missionaries” to take place? It was even said that it was because of that Aba Stadium show of shame that Theodore Orji sent Imo Civil Servants in Abia packing.
So, Orji felt that Okorocha may want to use his birthday celebration in Aba to remind him of the forgotten Aba Stadium incident, and therefore, he ordered it to be stopped. After all, Orji is not like my Governor who takes birthday seriously, when other state functions that demand more serious attention are begging for funds. Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burns!
