“WHAT DID OHAKIM ACHIEVE”? I hereby ring the bell for the debate to commence, not attack. No one should attack any person including the Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Let us debate issues and policies. From now, ladies and gentlemen, let the debate commence. Let us put our differences away and face the realities staring us in the face. I speak for posterity; I speak for ‘had-I-known’; I speak for the unemployed youths; I speak for our traders and artisans; I speak for our people dying of hunger. Our people are perishing, money is not circulating. Why must there be crushing hunger and unemployment of unprecedented dimension during this era of boom? Why must there be “sack and lock” when what we require is “deploy and produce”? Over 800,000 people today have been sentenced to unemployment and poverty through i sack, i dissolve by our brother we elected to serve us. Poverty headcount in Nigeria which was 65.% in 2010 has risen to 72% in Imo state and decreased to 61% nationally. Why? Let me raise the alarm that child poverty, involving children below age 18, has also emerged as a major dimension of poverty in Imo state. It depicts a situation where children do not have access to enough resources to grow healthy and strong, to get education, to live in a good and safe environment and to fulfill their potential. The poverty of children is a derived outcome from the poverty of their parents. I hereby ring the bell for the debate to commence, not attack. No one should attack any person including the Governor. Let us debate issues and policies. Today we have come to speak. We have come to answer the question “What did Ohakim achieve”? On the other hand, what did Ohakim buy from the market we sent him? In fact what actually did we send him to buy? How much did we give him to go to the market? These things he bought, was it for himself or for the people? What we achieved both tangible and intangible is hereby presented. We fought hunger, we put food on the table of our people. We did not close any institution of governance to send people to unemployment so that we can build monements. We created clean and conducive environment that made independent entrepreneurs including Indians to move into Owerri. If they were not forced out, by now each would have developed an industry that can employ 200 people. We constructed quality infrastructures. The central theme of our government led development framework is good governance, the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a state’s economic and social resources for development, provides the lead in the development process. Doesnt it amount to deception of grandiose dimension for anyone to believe that the kind of vision that would take the state to the next level would be guaranteed through handout and cosmetic projects that are at best, politically tinted with populist intent such as squares, roundabouts, while people are dying of hunger? We are only postponing the doomsday. Investing in public buildings that do not have economic value and lack the capacity to create jobs for the teeming youths roaming the streets, amount to a vision-less patronage of waste. Why then are we clapping when our people are dying? The whole essence of drawing scale of preference in public expenditure is it not to ensure that the benefits in real terms, justify the cost and vice versa and this becomes even more compelling in the midst of scarce resources? A writer had this to say about us in 2010: “In spending time and resources to build institutions that drive development, Ohakim administration showed understanding that when institutions of state are strengthened, governance would be seamless and made less of a cult arrangement where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing”. Today, has Imo people not been taken for a ride? Today, Nigeria is once more in a golden era like 1970 – 1977. The price of oil has been hovering around US$104 per barrel. The country’s GDP has doubled. Notwithstanding, we have had more restrictions of movements disrupting more economic activities in Imo than in any other era. At the last count, Imo State has had about 180 days wasted to numerous public holidays, massive call-up of public servants to Owerri for meetings, rallies and unprecedented traffic jam. Governor Okorocha by demolishing most governance institutions and also sacking staff of Concorde Hotel, ITC, LGAs, etc indirectly withdraws over N1.8b from the economy every month. As we look forward to a better Imo, let us thank God for His mercies. Let us thank Him for the gift of health, life and success. We all had challenges like everyone else but God did not allow them to overwhelm us. Let us demystify a government of “edifice complex”. Thank you. A concluding part of speech made by Dr Ikedi Ohakim on the day of his book launch the Legacies that Speak.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:55:05 +0000
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