ORTUANYA’S OHODO ELECTRICITY PROJECT AND GLORY PARASITES (Part 1) History will be made in Ohodo on the 13th day of September, 2014. This, as the popular Negro freedom spiritual goes, is the day the Lord has made we shall fully rejoice and be glad in as it is indeed the day, in all of its full imports, purports and purposes, we are experiencing our second rebirth. It is the glorious day the Maker of all mankind and the entire universe, the Creator of the sun, the moon and the stars, God Almighty has bellowed to the hearing of all: LET THERE BE LIGHT IN OHODO, and there is light! In marking our re-beginning, God has shown us both the Promised Land and the path that leads to it. He started through a most glaring revelation by showing to us our pathfinder He had most adequately prepared for the arduous task ahead. He graciously answered our prayers at a time the leaders we had proved they had neither ambition nor drive; the clue to attracting government patronage nor political attention to have been of any use to us. We had sadly watched as they bumbled and clowned their way through to the end of a plum appointment that had the capacity to reinvent the destiny of an entire people. We moaned and mourned in unbelievable shock as we asked in true bewilderment what could have happened. How could this happen to us God, that we had a mighty post, Senior Special Assistant (SPA) to the Governor on PROJECTS, and there was no single project sited in our place nor awarded to us, even if it was to cut the grass in the fields of our community school, for a whooping four years? Whose projects, God, were they busy monitoring that nobody remembered us, the overseer-in -chief? And mark you, four years of waste of any people’s prime opportunity is indeed a grave tragedy that is as unforgivable as it is unforgettable. God asked us to go back to His Holy Book and re-read Mathew 7:7. Then we knew what had happened! Our post was mighty indeed but was occupied by weaklings! The occupiers of our position lacked the capacity and (social, administrative, practical, political and technical) will it demanded to ask for anything and so got nothing. And what is that we often say about will? Where there is a will; there is a way! And where there is none, you remain in the woods. And so we remained in the bush. And there is no place this is most profound like in politics. In politics you demand, drag, scramble, struggle, fight and appropriate. The least you can do, that is expected of you by those that dispense the favours, is to ask. Even if you are refused, let it be on record that you did ask. Now, when you don’t ask, especially in a situation where a lot of people are stepping over themselves to scramble to get, who do you blame if you remain unattended to? The truth is that if Ohodo had gone into extinction by that singular misadventure, we would have all gone to hell! Whoever said you send faint hearted, clueless, deaf and dumb fellows to represent you in politics? Now, having realized our mistakes and collective naivety which was most excused by the fact that we really had no input as to the caliber of representation we could have offered in that disastrous outing, we begged God to forgive us and He so did and chose to give us a second chance in Professor Simon Ortuanya who more than any one right now in Ohodo understands our hopes and aspirations and the new destinations these are taking us. Professor Ortuanya knows the way and direction. He had been where he saw the map. He also understands the topography and is adequately equipped to offer the journey all that it demands. It was during his internship, for that was what his Commissionership is, in preparation for this main job that is coming, that we saw the true leadership we had been denied. He made us know the difference between khaki and leather. He made us know what it means to ask, demand, fight, struggle, drag for, protect, promote and push for ones interests. As a member of the Enugu State Exco, he boldly told the Governor the light in his community could only cover a small place; that as a matter of fact, he had no light in his compound, and thus thought it as of a necessity that he should as a privileged member of the state cabinet have the power expanded in his community to reach all the nooks and crannies in other to get to his place that borders the town and one of its neighbors. His argument was persuasive, right and just. And as he had asked, His Excellency, Governor Sullivan Ihenacho Chime, graciously approved the project. But before it was tabled before the Exco, as one who is ever meticulous and detailed and who understands how his environment operates, he had privately funded the cartographic survey and design of the project which led to a drawing of a line map which put a final quantity profile that helped the State Rural Electrification Board arrive at a cost. Our late brother Peter Eze, Sese, coordinated this. Apart from this, he played the politics it demanded by lobbying his colleagues who wasted no time supporting him as he was one of the most eloquent and influential ones among them whose words could restore the life of any dying project before them. Having secured Exco approval, the project was put on queue of those to be executed once they were funded. That is, once money was made available to fund their budgets. That is how government works. And in between, there is also politics. I know because I have been privileged to design a project here in Rivers State I live and another one in Enugu State I come from. The Rivers own succeeded after it ran its full course through the system and was implemented. I had gone before the State Exco to defend a micro credit implementation administration we had earlier proposed to the Hon Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon Vivian Braid, who tabled it, gallantly played the politics and succeeded after many months in the cooler. That of Enugu was different. I had come up with an idea to package an Igbo culture themed beauty pageant and wanted my state government to partner me. I muted my idea to Sir Peter Ezeugwu, one of our illustrious sons who knew a lot of people in government. He took me to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and we met Sen. Ayogu Eze, a friend of his who was then in that office. After my presentation, the Commissioner who was obviously thrilled immediately set up a committee and we went to work. I was to spend the next few months commuting between Enugu and Port Harcourt. We came up with a broader proposal which he took to the Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani. He told me that the Governor liked it. The Commissioner most vigorously lobbied and robustly defended it before the Exco. Then politics interposed. The Governor had asked where the promoters came from and was told Nsukka. That was the end of it. He had serious political axe to grind with the zone and he openly said he would not empower who would fight him. Sad as it was, it is the reality of our politics. Even Governor Amaechi who later invited me for lunch on account of our success praised my ideas but regretted I was not from Rivers State for full engagement! This was in 2008 and his mantra then was Rivers money for Rivers people! Well, he knew where that eventually took him. I am saying all of these for us to know that projects, especially in a state as ours with lean resources, are not what you go to Enugu with two gallons of Ohodo palm wine and secure after some drinking bouts with some middle level beaurocrats at the basement of the secretariat building as some charlatans are busy peddling before the gullible public Now, this electricity expansion project Professor Ortuanya conceived, designed, promoted and pushed through Exco approval process however could not be funded before his exit from the Cabinet. This was not the only one. There was another and yet another, all approved. One was the road that ran from Ekwegbe through Echara and through Orie to Lejja. It was to be tarred. Another was a water project that was to see the drilling of a new bore hole and expanding the supply network of the existing one. But they grew cold with his exit, principally caused by those who today sought to hijack his glory as the purveyor of this one that God managed to rekindle with its funding by the State government. It cannot work. As Chief Zacheaus Ngwu would always say, we now know better. This shameful attempt should be condemned by all. If for nothing else at least for decency and for the sake of truth. When somebody answers another’s name he becomes an impostor. When somebody pretends he is what he is not, he becomes a charlatan. When somebody tries to steal another’s glory, he becomes a pathetic victim of inferiority complex. Our town is so deprived that we need many more heroes that can go on their own quests and conquer the world for us. We shall give you a heros welcome. And so get me right. I am not and have never said Professor Ortuanya should be the only person we should have. I am saying he is the only person who has so far shown capacity, clout, erudition, inclination, cosmopolitanism, contacts, sophistication, exposure, colour, class, believability etc to lead us beyond Ogbede where the others run around in confused circles like rodents trapped in a warren of hopelessness. That’s why the youths, the men and women, the young and old are genuinely clamouring for him. So, any other persons who can bring in further projects are welcome. We know how this one we are celebrating now came. We are going to give you the detailed facts soon. Any attempt to distort history will not be allowed in our community. The era of politics of deception has gone for good. So when this electricity expansion project brings light to your house, know who brought it. Ignore glory parasites. You know a parasite is as good as the host by whose grace it exists. Now we are swatting them off our body politic for good.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:51:16 +0000
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