-Cautions electorates to learn from mistakes of the past
The 2015 Governorship Candidate of Labour Party in the State, Barr. Ngozi Olehi says the greatest evil that can befall Imo State in the coming electoral season is to fail to learn from the blunders that have plunged the State to the deepest part of socio-economic jungle in the State’s worst experience in governance.
In his New Year message to the people of the State, Barr Olehi said wrong considerations, which among other things preclude assessing the antecedents of public office seekers, position looters to empty the State Treasury in a deceitfully orchestrated provision of few and substandard infrastructure. He said that going by about N800 billion earned the State since 2011, the Imo State Government’s claim to “massive infrastructural development” in only purported road construction is an unprecedented scam adding that United Nations Organisation says infrastructure, which includes adequate provision of health care, electricity, water and sanitation constitute less than fifteen per cent of the duty of Government.
Barr. Olehi said that the woes of abject misgovernance in the State have become extremely excruciating because the Government has no development policy or blueprint that articulates measurable and visible strides that create employment opportunities and reduce insecurity and significantly increase the welfare of the governed pointing out that, even though the economic fortune of Nigeria has dwindled in the past few years, the inability of the Government of Imo State to attract any of the more than thirty countries that invested N9 billion naira and N5 billion naira in 2015 and 2016 respectively is a critical demonstration of the rejection of the international community of the jungle governance that has characterized mindless executive and legislative actions.
The legal luminary observed that technological developments have allowed the rapid spread of goods and information across traditional country borders creating linkages between countries and businesses but noted that Imo’s traditional staple crops – cassava and maize that have become global commodities and raw materials for over fifteen industrial commodities in more than twenty five countries could not be produced and exported because the Government is not only ignorant on all sides of development governance but appeared to have been spewed from the pit of hell to unleash wickedness and hardship to the people that made the mistake of voting for it.
He said that he is worried that executive actions of Government and comedies therefrom have brought untold embarrassment and shame to Imolites who travel outside the State and the country adding that it is more worrisome that in the face of the appalling performance and the hardships deliberately inflicted on the people, the Governor perseveres in the hallucination that he is not only the best governor in Nigeria but better than all the previous governors of the Imo State.
Barr. Olehi made it clear that any government that is not accountable to the people, not transparent in its operations and does not obey the rule of law as the present Government of Imo State constitutes a curse and impressionist actions of such government cannot secure the public confidence to mobilize economic resources for development and attract direct foreign investment without which the trending benefits of globalization cannot translate the potentials of that State or nation into wealth creating opportunities.
The 2015 Governorship candidate said under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), market development and construction of rural roads are within the constitutional competence of local governments pointing out that Governor Okorocha’s “market and rural road constructions” are obvious excuses to squander local government funds in fictitious projects and impoverish the people who would have benefited from projects duly assigned to the local governments to create jobs and improve the welfare and comfort of rural dwellers.
While doing a comparative analysis, Barr. Olehi pointed out that New Zealand which ranked second in the current 2017 World Prosperity Index is smaller than Imo State in population and does not produce oil but earned over $12 billion from tourism alone just as tourism is the major income earner of Dubai which has a population of about one million while being one of the seven Emirates of the United Arab Emirate. He emphasized that Okorocha represents Imo’s worst electoral blunders and advised the people to learn from the past and properly assess the myriads of persons, most of whom are incarnates of Rochas poised to unleash more destruction to Imo State to the detriment of the destiny of the unborn.
He lamented that while Imo State has earned about N800 billion since 2011 and is till owing more than N130 billion which nothing but unprecedented unemployment figure, backwardness, irregular payment of salaries, non-payment of pensions and insecurity.
