…As State rots, lie desolate
–No, it is for our development-SA Print Media
Great concern, worries and sad commentaries are now trailing the weeklong absence of the Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma since he travelled to Abuja last Saturday.
Imolites have decried the attitude of the governor in constantly travelling to Abuja each time where he spends days and abandoning governance especially on issues that requires his active presence.
It would be recalled that Uzodimma spent a whooping 28 days absence in August shortly before the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari. When the matter attracted the ire of Imo people the governor in a release explained that one of the benefits of his frequent trips was attracting the President to visit Imo because according to him it will take the people to the centre of power.
However, the visit of the number one citizen was marred by the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) sit-at-home order which was massively respected by the people. Buhari did not fail to express his misgivings on the trip which he summed up in carefully chosen words when he said, “I will be careful in your future invitations’’
This had rattled the government as its media handlers began to fall over each other in explaining the meaning of the clear and simple protest of Buhari. While some lived in denial others contradicted themselves, thus turning the visit to one huge controversy. The 28 days absence from governance appeared a futility.
After the President’s trip, many had thought that the governor would have settled down for governance to cover lost grounds but he failed again to disappoint his detractors. It would further be recalled that in May the governor was already away in Abuja when his house at the country home was torched by suspected hoodlums.
After the fire incident, it took the governor another seven days before returning to the state even as the state was gripped with insecurity and without anyone addressing the citizens to calm frayed nerves. Some Imolites who spoke to News Echo on the issue expressed different ways the governor’s absence has affected the growth of the state.
A civil servant who works in the government house but who does not want his name in print lamented that each time the governor is on the move the state shuts down. He tasked the reporter to visit the various offices and see how casual the workers approach their duties, the unoccupied seats and how people strolled around gossiping.
When reminded that the State has a deputy governor who should step in to perform the governor’s role in his absence, he fired back, “where is that happening, in this Imo or another state, I am not sure the governor has a deputy”
Another aggrieved Imolite, a head teacher in a primary school in Ogwa, Mbaitoli who gave her name simply as Nnenna frowning at the governor’s frequent trip remarked thus, “this money this man is using to fly private jets each time, is it not a drain on Imo resources? Can it not be used to pay us our outstanding salaries? I have not been paid since October last year, is that not wickedness?”
Investigations however revealed that the cost of hiring a private jet each trip including extraneous expenses is close to N20m. If you relate this figure to the seven days the State may have squandered about 140m naira from the purse of a fragile state without strong internally generated revenue (IGR) base. When a state is bleeding like this from a singular overhead cost it not difficult to understand why it cannot clear refuse dumps, pay workers, fix basic infrastructure, and improve the quality of life.
Within the seven days of Uzodimma’s absence, students of Imo Polytechnics, Umuagwo took to the street last Tuesday to protest the manner the government has abandoned them. According to some of the students, they complained that National Diploma students ND 1 and Higher National Diploma students HND 1 admitted to the school since last year were yet to commence studies and are supposed to be writing exam October 4.
The students further allege that their school is designated as the University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Umuagwo while they are to be relocated to the governor’s home town which is not yet ready with required facilities for studies. They appear stranded. These are issues that may elude the governor’s attention as he is focused on Abuja.
But the million dollar question playing on the lips of many Imo citizens is what the governor goes to do at Abuja. What are the benefits of such frequent trips? Can the issues that take him to Abuja not be handled by any of his functionaries?
In what appears a response, Anyadike a media professional, stated the only reason the governor shuttles to Abuja is to keep his seat which according to him, he confessed he secured through the Ben Johnson way beating others to the challenge.
According to him, “are you not aware that Uzodimma has a pending case at the Supreme Court which he knows is a bad one for him. I am not a judge or lawyer but I do know that case is clear and simple and can only go one way. He is still applying the Ben Johnson process throwing away our money to compromise officials in order to stay action on the matter. Are you surprised that nothing is working in Imo?
”Which governor rules his state from Abuja if not Uzodimma. Even the governors that are doing well are not found in Abuja with the same frequency like him. What is he doing there if not to beg with our money to keep his ill gotten seat?
The governor will instruct that Council chairmen operate from their base but will himself be operating in far away Abuja. The situation is further not helped that the governor is running as sole administrator for more than five months without commissioners. It is sad”, he concluded.
When News Echo reached out to the Special Assistant to the Governor on Print Media, Sir Modestus Nwankpa, he reacted thus:
“Is there any trouble or law that a governor must administer his state from one point? There is no issue that a governor travels and comes back, it is normal. The governor has been a national player. What are they insinuating by the way?”’
When reminded that the complaint is about leaving governance for days outside the state as in the instant case of a week’s absence he had this to say.
“Abuja and Owerri are very close. The National Caretaker Committee is the governor of a state, does it mean when he is in Abuja everything stops. Now that the party is doing its Congress at Abuja the governor must be actively involved, he concluded.