The 3R In Imo: One Year On With A Mature, Responsible And Responsive Government Of Shared Prosperity (Part 1)

STANFORD ARINZE NWOKEDI

For many who have followed the turn of events in Imo State from 15th January, 2020, when the present government under the able leadership of His Excellency, Dist Sen Hope Odidika Uzodinma was sworn in, it has been an unprecedented time of fiscal transparency, prudence, empathy and all that represent good governance. Obviously, there are tangible evidences that there were deliberate divine commitments by the Governor to engender good governance in Imo State. This is notwithstanding the many months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and its attendant shortfall in Federal allocations and near zero IGR. To do an introspection and give a credible account of the past one year of humane, tactful and diligent service provisions/deliveries, deft leadership touches and true demonstration of visionary inclination has become necessary. To do this becomes a job of placing facts against the oppositions’ fictions and laying bare a scorecard that explains all the true position of facts in Imo State, before 15/1/20 and straight up to today, few days to 15/01/2021- one year on.

Imo State received a clear divine illumination on 15th January, 2020 when after the previous day’s Supreme Court judgement, the stolen mandate of the incumbent Governor, His Excellency, Dist. Sen Hope Uzodinma was restored. The  ousted Ihedioha government got terminated legally by the Supreme Court because about 388 polling booths’ results where APC’s Hope Uzodinma exceptionally excelled were illegally and fraudulently excluded for no defensible reason. The inclusion of the excluded results by the Supreme Court and addition of same to the tally threw up the falsely  placed fourth candidate (Uzodinma) meritoriously to the first position, hence his judicious and legitimate declaration as the true winner of the 2019 Imo State gubernatorial election. Even the INEC could not explain the reason for the exclusion.  

Despite all the political insurrection coming from the sponsored imported and few locally sourced opposition elements, the stage for RECONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND RECOVERY was set in the new SHARED PROSPERITY GOVERNMENT of the emergent and incumbent dispensation.

BACKGROUND OF THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN IMO STATE PRIOR TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE SHARED PROSPERITY GOVERNMENT :

The entire State was in total disrepair. There was massive infrastructural decay; the civil service was in total mess; majority of  government assets/ properties were converted through graft and the people of IMO moped in utter consternation as the prospects for a possible reclamation of the State looked like a near-impossible task.

Prior to the legally ousted 7-month interregnum headed by Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP, there had been an 8-year government of Ex-Governor  Rochas Okorocha of the mixed political hybrid of APGA, APC and AA. The Ex-Gov Okorocha’s plan of instituting a political dynasty (by plotting that his own Son inlaw succeeded him) was artfully punctured by the combined deft efforts of today’s right wing APC in Imo led by His Excellency, Distinguished Sen Hope Uzodinma.

Between  the two immediate past governments, the public watched a Rat-race of sundry physical  confrontations and street fightings. The looted public funds and converted public assets were the issues in contentions. The Ihedioha leadership openly and in a most legally untoward manner, dramatized the public confrontations with a RECOVERY COMMITTEE headed by Hon Jasper Ndubuaku. The recovery committee Chairman escaped being lynched  by touts under the payroll of the Ex-Governor, Okorocha, along the Spibat Estate axis where he’d gone for recovery exercise. The horror of his near-naked pictures flooded the internet space.To lend a more legal outlook to the efforts in the long drawn battle to recover the massive loots of movable and non movable government assets including chairs, cutleries, cars etc, the Ihedioha government instituted a number of judicial panels of enquiries. The State was in utter  confusion. No day ended without public dramas. The treasury was completely scooped  and shamelessly carted away. It was greed galore. Only a comatose State gasping for air was left as Okorocha’s parting gift to his successor. The only lifeline was the seized #87B confiscated by EFCC weeks before the elections and handed over to Ihedioha on assumption of his illegal office.

The Ihedioha government started on 29th May 2019, being erroneously declared winner and sworn in without meeting constitutional requirements. This led to a legal battle for redress and justice that took about 7 months. All through the 7 months’ period, the state of the road infrastructure in Imo received only lip service attention. About 27 roads awarded two months before the Supreme Court ouster were only the  achievements. The excuse advanced all along was that the rains were heavy. The contractors were to later elope with huge sums already advanced to them as mobilization fees. Their sites were used by the opposition to blackmail the gov in dramatized social media videos. Typical example of such road was the Iheagwa /Poly Nekede Road, which was abandoned after sand filling and without any protection.  So, from May 29th to about the  later part of November 2019, the roads were left with little or no attention. White elephant projects like the construction of 27 simultaneous stadia in all the 27 Local Government Areas as well as the 27 administrative blocks in the headquarters provided the PDP-led interregnum the avenues to siphon away the returned #87B EFCC lifeline, also all of the federal allocations and IGR that came into the coffers of Imo State government in 7 months. No single road construction was commissioned. Not even one.

COVID19: ECONOMIC SHOWDOWN AND ROBUST PROACTIVE INTERVENTIONS:

Following the due swearing in ceremonies of the Hope Uzodinma administration on 15th January 2020 and after the Review-Reverse brouhaha that took away another one month of the 12 months under review, the entire world got slammed by the Covid19 pandemic with a resultant lockdown and economic meltdown. Also in the thick of the rains, the government was not deterred from rendering a good account of itself in providing humane leadership even in the midst of the coronavirus handicaps.

A series of very responsive and concretely proactive programs and policies got immediately underway to protect Imolites against the ravaging menace already claiming lives across the nation. Six World Class Isolation Centres were hurriedly but meticulously set up and equipped to carter for all eventualities related to Covid 19. A rugged but effective sensitization program was activated with the gists of the preventive protocols taken round the 27 Local Govt Areas. Yours faithfully toured round the State with my enlightenment team over the Covid19 protocols.

The very impetus for the inauguration of the  Interim Management Committee across the third tier of government in Imo State was to secure the rural areas against the ravaging pandemic. Each of the 27 Local Government Areas got a state-of-the-art and equipped ambulance for medical rescue operations. The government also provided food and medicinal palliatives to cushion the terrible effects of the lockdown. It is on recorded that several batches of food items were shared amidst the very economically impacting pandemic months and Imolites across party lines benefitted from the largesse.

In the health sector too, there were mobile clinics manned by competent healthcare experts (doctors and nurses) for the benefit of Imolites in the rural areas.

RECONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND RECOVERY ON ROAD/CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE:

Even in the midst of the heavy rains, the Shared Prosperity Government intervened heavily on issues of flooding with the de-silting of Lake Nwaebere and the  massive excavation of the blocked drainages in and around Owerri metropolis. This resulted to a relatively flood-free Owerri to the admiration of all. To give the issue of flooding a lasting solution, a technically guided construction of the ambitious Dick Tiger Balloon Technology Drainage was expertly begun and is now in advanced stages.  A number of roads in Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe  zones received the needed interventions. Few of these roads include the following: Chukwuma Nwoha Rd, Relief Market Rd, Aladinma Ring Roads, Control – PH Rd, Douglas Road, World Bank Road, St Mary’s Rd Okigwe, St Joseph’s Catholic Church Rd/Round-About Umuna Orlu Rd, Okporo – Omuma Rd,  Ring Roads behind Concorde Hotel Owerri including Thomas Moore and others were effectively reconstructed. The intractability associated with the  Ekemelee  road was ameliorated with drainage constructions. A long-term solution is on the way with the Craneburg contract stretching across the Ekemelee road.  Numerous potholes in all of IMO State roads  received short-term remediation attentions pending the return of this dry season when long-term measures can to  be implemented. It needs to be noted that some the above named roads were commissioned within the first one hundred days of this government.

Today, Imo State has a befitting Government House. The era when a Bush Bar served as Imo State Governor’s office is gone. The originality of the identity of Imo State Government House has been restored in its elegance and touch of class, thanks to the Government of the day.

CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS REFORMS; SALARY AUTOMATION; PENSIONS SANITIZATION EFFORTS:

The Shared Prosperity Government came with a definite vision for Civil Service Reforms. The ugly and corruption-ridden public service needed no kid’s gloves to reverse. The payroll fraud which became obvious three months into this administration needed the utmost political will and dexterity to manage and reverse. Ditto the pensions scheme. Owing to the abundant evidences of a chequered history of fraudulent activities that drain away the lean State resources, for the government to fulfil its electoral promise hinged on RECONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND RECOVERY, the confrontation of the malady became unavoidable. In doing so, the government was aware that the cabal behind the fraud would resist the transparent measures being utilized to clean the Augean Stable. Corruption always fights back. The option to play along the established corrupt norms was detested and vehemently rejected by this government in spite of all the pressures.

The opposition cashed in on the needed time lag for the automation to inundate and flood  the social/conventional media spaces with distortions of the real intentions of government. The dramatizations of sponsored protests amidst the tedious nonphysical verifications strategy (due to covid19 protocols) and the  automation exercise did not and wouldn’t have derailed the determined efforts of the government to right the wrongs.Today, to the glory of God, out of the total number of projected workforce in IMO in excess of about 46,000 , about 43,000 verified civil servants have been paid up to December 2020 of their salaries. The comprehensive list of paid civil servants have been published to attest to the veracity of the facts. The remnant few (also published) have not complied with the automation innovations or have wrong vital details or are deliberately earning multiple salaries. Hence, these unverified few have not been paid due to negligence and or other errors of theirs. With the automation, the benefit is that issues of salaries and pensions payments have become so transparent as against the manual option fraught with sharp practices. Such a monumental  achievement is enough to free IMO State from the structured cabal that line their few pockets to the detriment of the majority and the State.

 The true pensioners numbering well over 21000 have received their full entitlements, so many of them getting their 8-months cumulative all within a day. Such is rare to find in terms of government’s commitment to the welfare and prosperity of the pensioners.

Within the one year under review, the Shared Prosperity Government has also offset the pensions of all retired Judges in Imo State. The open lamentations of Rtd Justice Iberijiakor had touched the Governor to offset the long held arrears coming even from the Okorocha era. The government has also provided all serving Permanent Secretaries their brand new official vehicles as well as ensured that the serving civil servants in Imo State are provided brand new air-conditioned buses to and fro work in all destinations in and around Owerri, stretching to Nwaorieubi, Akabo, Nekede and all surrounding towns near Owerri.

The latest kick off of the two major roads in Imo State involving a first grade construction company known as Craneburg Construction company and meant for the longest stretches of Orlu – Owerri and Owerri – Okigwe roads remains unrivalled in the history of road constructions in IMO State. The two stretches are due for delivery and commissioning in 18months’ time. The latest Rural Roads Construction flagoff with earth moving heavy duty machines procured for all rural roads under the supervision of the IMC Chairmen speaks volumes of the vision for elaborate infrastructure revolution in the State. The urban renewal program is a masterpiece that aims to redefine a modern city outlook in Owerri. In just few months, Owerri shall be transformed.

With a determined team of political associates, all of  uniform zeal to deliver on the mandate entrusted on the government of the day, IMO State shall within the space of two years experience a total turn around in all facets of her existence.

To be continued….
©Stanford Arinze Nwokedi.