It baffles Imo citizens that a government that prides itself as being education friendly, brazenly destroyed the State Library and moved whatever it could salvage to an obscure location in New Owerri. The government replaced the library with a church!

By Onwuchekwa Ogundu

One of the first things Governor Rochas Okorocha did as soon as his tenure commenced, was to resurface some major roads in Owerri municipality. Some of the roads included, but not limited to Bank Road, Tetlow Road, Royce Road and Wethedral Road.

The sorry thing about this initial “road work” was that not long after, the resurfaced surfaces started giving way and what remained were the more solid construction executed decades ago by the Chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe administration. With the possible exception of the Governor and some of his lieutenants, nobody knows who the contractors were.

Pitfalls in Owerri

Another thing the Governor hurriedly started with relish, was the construction of gates in several streets in Owerri. Over 95 percent of the gates have not only defaced and destroyed Owerri Master plan, but has also remained unfinished and abandoned till date.

Mention must also be made of the thin film of slabs the Governor commissioned a contracting firm to use in covering the solid gutters built by Monier Construction Company, MCC, along some major roads in Owerri.

These thin slabs eventually turned into booby traps, especially for big trucks and first timers to Owerri. None of the destroyed slabs have been replaced till today.

Governor Okorocha then took time to dismantle the concrete road dividers, which were installed when the administration of Chief Ikedi Ohakim expanded some of the roads in Owerri. Okorocha replaced these concrete road dividers with something lower than nine inches high.

The thought of widening federal roads soon took the centre stage of the administration. Several houses, cash crops and other private properties were demolished.

Owners of properties situated at Amaraku, Anara, Amakohia, Akwakuma, Ubomiri, Umuaka and other communities, suffered varying degrees of painful loss, while nothing was heard of any palliative measure or compensation. Most of these road projects have remained uncompleted till date.

The administration is also reputed for building and destroying projects it initiated and built. The pedestrian bridge which Okorocha built at Imo State University/Okigwe Road roundabout, is a typical example.

Similarly, the pedestrian bridge constructed for the safety of the staff and students of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, have also been destroyed by the Okorocha administration.

Government never disclosed how much was spent on this bridge. It remains a guarded secret. The destruction of the pedestrian bridge has however thrown up a new conclusion.

Was the building and eventual destruction of the bridge planned? How many people ever used this bridge before it was destroyed by government? How much of the public fund was wasted by this singular act? Was the road expansion that engineered the destruction of the bridge programmed ab initio? If yes, why was the bridge shorter than the size of the road?

One other nagging issue is the 27 general hospitals, some of which were sited in places that are far from human habitation. Although the construction of these general hospitals started during the Governor’s first tenure, none of them is completed and functional.

Also disturbing is the destruction of the Imo State Library, Owerri, built by the defunct East Central State Government. It baffles Imo citizens that a government that prides itself as being education friendly, brazenly destroyed the State Library and moved whatever it could salvage to an obscure location in New Owerri. The government replaced the library with a church!

There is no way anybody will talk about road construction in the state without mentioning how several of such projects were abandoned.

Stories have been told about how some contractors were paid upfront, but later absconded with about N1.5 billion. Nobody knows if this staggering sum has been recovered from the fleeing contracting firm or not.

Currently, government is building chapels in all the 27 local government areas of the state. They are at varying levels of completion but the question on the lips of Imolites is: How many unemployed citizens will these chapels absorb?

Not minding that a good percentage of his administration’s projects are uncomplicated and abandoned, Okorocha remains bent on destroying the ancestral Ekeukwu Owerri Market. It would be recalled that if not for the timely intervention of Imo State High Court, this market would have long become history.

Meanwhile, government has commenced the construction of a new market at Egbeada, Mbaitoli local council area of the state, where Okorocha plans to move Ekeukwu Owerri Market.

In the last quarter of 2016, the Governor completely destroyed the Orji Mechanic Village in Owerri North local government area and ordered all the artisans there to move to a virgin area at Avu, Owerri West local council area.

In one of the encounters the Governor had with journalists in his palatial Spibat Road Estate, Governor Okorocha said he was determined to finish all that was needed to be done in the state, stressing that “by the time I leave office, my successor will be jobless”.

For now, it is water everywhere but none to drink!

… Okorocha’s achievements

Bad as the foregoing may seem, it would not be right to leave out some of the things the Governor may have attempted to do right.

The free education policy of the administration is worth mentioning. It formed the major plank of Okorocha’s electioneering campaign in 2011. This won the heart of Imolites and they gave him their mandate.

School uniforms were made outside the shores of Nigeria, shipped back home and distributed to primary and secondary school children. Shoes, textbooks, sandals and other writing materials were equally distributed to school children.

Collection of school fees, parents/teachers association fees and levies were banned. Collection of monies from pupils in place of handiwork was outlawed. No student was sent out of the class on account of not possessing textbooks and writing materials.

The frenzy that followed the development was palpable but only very careful observers realized that the materials could not go round. Parents gradually returned to buying textbooks, uniforms, shoes and other writing materials for their children and wards.

At the tertiary level, fees were limited to the acceptance fee and other minor charges. This remained so until the current economic recession. Non-indigenes now pay varying degree of fees. The same is also true of Imo indigenes.

Okorocha introduced the distribution of pocket money to school children. His administration doled out this money a few times before it fizzled out till date.

A couple of road traffic crashes have truly occurred at the Concorde Hotel/Port Harcourt Road junction, which claimed lives. The same is also true of the Imo State Assembly/Port Harcourt Road junction.

To stem the loss of lives at these two points, the Governor started building tunnels at these junctions. It was a very bright idea, which was applauded by the people, despite the hardship hoisted on the people while the project lasted.

It must however be mentioned that the contractor did a shoddy work, as the tunnels turned out to be huge reservoirs during the last rainy season.

A standby pumping machine was stationed at the tunnel to drain the water. Following people’s outcry, government closed the tunnel and commenced remedial work on the tunnels. Only the next rainy season will determine whether the anomaly has been arrested or not.

Okorocha has religiously maintained the long vacation he prescribed for the state civil servants every December.

There are water fountains close to the two entrances to Government House, Owerri. The Imo International Convention Centre, IICC, Freedom Square, Heroes Square, Ojukwu Convention Centre and the retouching of the five-star Concorde Hotel, Owerri, stand to his credit.