By Yinka Odumakin

When you think you have seen the ultimate in thoughtless act in Nigeria someone just emerges from the corner to raise the bar.This is what the excitable governor of Imo state,Rochas Okorocha did in the news item I reproduce below:
“Okorocha to establish college in Bauchi to help the poor” – News

“Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state has concluded plans to establish the Rochas Foundation College in Bauchi State as a way of providing education to the poor and less privileged.

Leadership report that the governor of Imo state said it was his mission to continue the furtherance of education in the country.

The governor made this pledge at the ceremony marking part of the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the creation of Imo State.

The governor was issued with a certificate of occupancy to quicken the actualisation of the project by the governor of Bauchi state, Mohammed Abubakar.

Governor Abubakar said the investment in education was the best way to produce good leaders of tomorrow.
During the ceremony, members of the cabinet of the governor of Imo state gave account of their performance during their five years in service.

Okorocha reminded his colleagues in the 36 states of the federation that it is a privilege to be elected to serve the people and so they should strive to leave good legacies for the electorate.

“I am here for the glory of the job and I am poised to change the sordid history of the people and for any governor or president to succeed in office, he must think outside the box”.

Gov Rochas Okorocha

The governor reiterated his resolution to move the state forward and urged Nigeria to have hope for a better tomorrow just as their leaders must have positive visions for a greater Nigeria.

Chief John Oyegun who is the chairman of the All Progressives Congress applauded Governor Okorocha for his performance and urged the people of Imo to continue to support the governor so that he can continue with his projects.

Mallam Nasir el-Rufai who was also in attendance described Okorocha as “the Nostrademus of the South East” who saw tomorrow and joined the APC for the betterment of the Igbo”

About 28 years ago I read The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, the nom-de-plume of Robert Noonan, a house painter. The illegitimate son of Mary Ann Noonan and Samuel Croker (a retired magistrate) who was born in Dublin in 1870 and settled in England in 1901 after a short spell living and working in South Africa. He chose the pen name Tressell in reference to the trestle table, an important part of his kit as a painter and decorator. Based on his own experiences of poverty, exploitation, and his terror that he and his daughter Kathleen — whom he was raising alone — would be consigned to the workhouse if he became ill, Noonan embarked on a detailed and scathing analysis of the relationship between working-class people and their employers. The “philanthropists” of the title are the workers who, in Noonan’s view, acquiesce in their own exploitation in the interests of their bosses.

Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell’s cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is “not for the likes of them”. Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.

The hero of the book, Frank Owen, is a socialist who believes that the capitalist system is the real source of the poverty he sees all around him. In vain he tries to convince his fellow workers of his world view, but finds that their education has trained them to distrust their own thoughts and to rely on those of their “betters”. Much of the book consists of conversations between Owen and the others, or more often of lectures by Owen in the face of their jeering; this was presumably based on Tressell’s own experiences.

Okorocha is making the people of Imo to relieve the experience of the subjects of Tressell book the only difference being that he is taking advantage of his state to service the “poor” of Bauchi in this deranged philanthropy thousands of kilometres away from the state he has governed for five years without a remarkable story to tell.

On May Day this year an Igbo socio-cultural group, Ndigbo Unity Forum issued an ultimatum to the governor to pay backlog of workers salaries in spite of bail out funds received from the Federal Government. According to Vanguard report of May 1, 2016,the President of the forum, Augustine Chukwudum described as unfortunate that after receiving bailout funds from the Federal Government, which the governors agreed was enough to settle workers,such money would still be diverted.

The statement said such action was the height of insensitivity in a democratic setting that holds a lot of good promises for the people. “On South East, we observed that Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo state notwithstanding bailout funds that runs into billions that he received from the Federal Government still owes workers in the state many months salary.We demand that Gov. Rochas Okorocha should pay workers in Imo state their salary within sixty days”.

In fact, a report in Thisday of May 3,2016 quoted a statement by the EFCC that some of officials of Okorocha were arrested on the allegation that they diverted N2b from the bailout funds meant to pay the state workers. According to a statement from EFCC, those arrested included Principal Secretary to Imo state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Dr. Obi Paschal Chigozie, Director of Finance in the government house, Uzoho Casmir, and one Iheoma Kenneth, referred to as a Treasurer.

“Their arrest followed an investigation into the alleged diversion of the said money which revealed that, the cashier had made cash withdrawal of N456.532m between September 3, 2015 and October 10, 2015 from the Government House account domiciled in Zenith Bank.”

We have heard nothing again on this case from our fantastically interesting anti -graft war which has enabled Okorocha to exhibit the kind of impunity he is displaying against the people of Imo state.When you have an unequal justice in any country the hearts of men are set to wallow in iniquity.

As at the last count workers in Imo are owed varied backlog of salaries. Doctors are owed between 4-5 months. Teachers were owed about 13 months of salaries and allowances at a point but here is their governor playing Donatus in Bauchi while those who queued in the sun to elect him as their governor are wallowing in abject poverty. Ostensibly because he is dying to play second fiddle in 2019,this “Nostradamus” who cannot yet see a good tomorrow for the people of Imo state is now seeing vision for those who have not made up their minds if they want to go to school.

If it were the Athenian days,the people of Imo should have an assembly where they would put Mallam Okorocha on his knees and ask him to explain to them the rationale behind his action with hands raised up.

But since that is not practicable for now,let organised (and even disorganised) labour rise and ask Okorocha to go to where the money to build school in Bauchi is coming from and pay their salaries. There could be credence to the EFCC charge that billions out of the bailout funds are being laundered somewhere after all!
..Acting President Osinbajo and infantile populism

SINCE President Muhammadu Buhari jetted out of the country to take care of his troubled ear,Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has hit the ground running in the wrong direction with a rash of populist actions that may not have been thought through but designed to earn some cheap accolades.

The first was a statement from his office that the Federal Government would commence the recruitment of 500,000 teachers on June 12 . I wondered if the Pastor has forgotten that the Sabbath day is not a working day in Nigeria. But far beyond that is how the Federal Government that is borrowing money to pay the salaries of its existing workers is going to add 500,000 teachers to its payroll.

What study has been done to show that teachers are the issue in our “schools” (many of what we call that name do not deserve such branding )? How many schools does the Federal Government have that require an injection of 500,000 teachers today?Is this designed to improve the quality of our education or some kind of LAWMA initiative to pack some unemployed graduates off the street ?

The second action is the plan to commence free meals in school. Again,what study has been carried out on how to run this kind of programme without it becoming just jobs for some girls who will become emergency food vendors without giving value for money. Have we calculated the cost of this?Is this year’s budget enough to fund such a programme except it is just designed for a propaganda stuff? Has the Acting President asked the governor of Osun state what happened to O’meal?

It would make more sense to use such funds to carry out projects that would create opportunities for parents to be empowered and be able to feed their children sustainably rather than just throw money down the sink.If Osinbajo gives a meal and the parents still can’t afford the other two,what does it come to?

The problems of Nigeria today require well thought out solutions and not infantile populism.