Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, writes on Imo State at 40 and the efforts of the Rochas Okorocha administration in its infrastructural development.
The story of Imo State is that with different angles and interpretations. To some, Imo offers hope and promise. To others, it is an entity that is yet to live the full dream of its forebears. But all are agreed that Imo is a work in progress.
It all began 40 years ago, when the then military administration of the late General Murtala Mohammed split the then East Central State into Anambra and Imo states on February 3, 1976.
With a largely agrarian population that was grappling with displacement it had had to contend with on account of the loss of the Civil War by the Igbo six years earlier, the creation of the state came with mixed feelings.
The gesture, on the one hand, offered opportunity for the people to unbundle their energies in making something out of the immense challenges facing them. But this would not come on a platter.
Celebrated columnist of The Guardian newspapers, Luke Onyekakeyah, virtually said it all in his incisive piece entitled ‘As Imo marks 40th anniversary’.
He wrote, “At the beginning, there were few motorable roads across the length and breadth of Imo State. The only tarred roads passing through Owerri, the state capital then, were colonial roads which included the Owerri-Umuahia Road, Owerri-Aba Road, Owerri-Port Harcourt Road via Elele, Owerri-Okigwe Road and Owerri-Onitsha Road. As if by design, all the roads radiated from Owerri, which then was the biggest suburban centre in the region. “Electricity was a fairy tale seen only in Owerri. There was no airport, no telephone. The Alvan Ikoku College of Education was the only tertiary institution in the entire Imo State. The creation of Imo State was more like an assignment to the people to go and develop the area.”
That challenge appeared to be what the people needed to go to work. And they did, the result being that 40 years later, Imo has grown from being a large farmstead to one city state.
University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)-trained economist and President-General of Orlu Town Union, Festus Anuole, recounted to our reporter how the repositioning exercise commenced. According to him, though there had been military administrations that nursed the state at creation, the real agenda at giving it form commenced with the civilian government of the late Sam Onunaka Mbakwe.
“Dee (Uncle) Sam (Mbakwe) actually laid the foundation of what we can today call modern Imo. He had the foresight, the drive and commitment in building the state. That was truly the man that came, saw and conquered. Other administrations after him have been struggling in various degrees to catch up with his agenda for the state,” he said.
Fourteen leaders had at various times managed the affairs of Imo. Of the lot, however, only five were civilian governors while the rest were military administrators.
Route to power
The civilian governors had, somehow, attained their office in line with what some commentators refer to as the Imo political formula.
Imo formula for electoral victory lacks precise definition. However, beyond the horse-trading and behind-the-scene intrigues by the political parties, it also takes into consideration the personality of a particular candidate for any given position. It could also entail consideration of zone of birth.
These considerations, which do not attract headlines, had often accounted for the emergence of previously considered dark horses as governors of the state. In fact, with possible exception of the current governor, Rochas Okorocha, beneficiaries of the Imo formula had not been known to be men of immense material means, but often those whose character traits and track records could be vouched for by the leading political elite of the state. There were exceptional instances, though.
Earlier beneficiaries of the formula were Mbakwe, first executive governor of the state; the late Evan Enwerem and Achike Udenwa.
Ikedi Ohakim’s election in 2007, which was considered controversial, to some extent, benefited from the formula.
Mbakwe, who was the first to have emerged on that consideration, picked the prize essentially on account of his pan-Igbo credentials that saw him standing up for the cause of his kinsmen before, during and after the civil war.
Enwerem, who appeared to have emerged on that formula in the 1992 General Ibrahim Babangida transition, did so principally on account of the intra-party crisis in the then Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Intrigues and manipulations in the party had seen the party hierarchy throwing up an unpopular governorship candidate. This prompted the highly perceptive Imo electorate to cast protest votes for Enwerem’s National Republican Convention (NRC).
At the onset of the current civilian dispensation, Udenwa, who became governor, was actually said to have come a distant third in his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary. But he was offered the ticket due to the party’s zoning structure which had assigned the slot to his Orlu Senatorial District and on account of his humble carriage.
Passing through that track, Ohakim, who hailed from Okigwe Senatorial District, became governor essentially on account of series of understandings and mobilisations, aside the questionable role of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Also riding on the principles of the formula, Okorocha, though coming from Orlu, which ordinarily could be said to have had its turn in Udenwa, brought to bear his pedigree in being on the side of the people. In addition, the popularity profile of Ohakim, against whom he contested, was at the time below average, especially on account of his carriage and performance scorecard.
The people, the government
Each administration played its role depending on its vision and resource management in developing the state.
But there had been the trend of successive governors tilting their infrastructure developments to their senatorial districts. While Enwerem faced the allegation of laying more emphasis on his Owerri zone, Udenwa was accused of favouring his Orlu district in allocation of facilities and projects. In the process, there was high incidence of drop in governance since the forceful termination of the Mbakwe administration by band of military interventionists, incidentally, led by then General Muhammadu Buhari (now President) in 1983.
This downward trend in governance was perhaps more pronounced in the era of Ohakim. Insinuations were then rife that the government was literally on auto pilot.
Part of the indices cited for unexciting assessment was the abysmally low level of industrialisation in the state.
It was also argued that the Imo electorate had not actually benefited from local government administration, especially in the area of developing the rural areas, to discourage the unhealthy trend of people migrating to the urban centres in search of means of sustenance.
By far, however, the most daunting challenge that faced the administration and the ones earlier was the task of uplifting the state’s education system that had almost gone comatose. Next to education was the challenge of youth unemployment. Incidentally, Ohakim and his predecessors had made pledges of tackling the menace, without keeping to their words.
Ohakim, during his early days in office, had, for instance, pledged that his government would, in its first three months, create three job centres in the three senatorial zones.
The essence of the measure, he said, was for the state to have a data bank on the number of unemployed hands, their skills and job needs, with a view to having the requisite information that would influence policy direction in this area and provide timely and accurate information on available jobs nationally and internationally.
He equally gave hints of his agenda in tackling the abysmally low level of industrialisation in the state, saying that the government would, within the first three months, set up Imo Medium and Small Scale Industries Corporation to provide the platform and logistical back up for the industrial revolution of the state. Four years after, the promise was kept in breach.
Udenwa’s administration and the military regimes earlier had made similar pledges. But few had been actualised. The result was that the state, which had blazed the trail in intellectual and industrial revolution under Mbakwe, found itself progressively sliding.
With unemployment taking its toll on the youth, crime and general moral laxity became the order of the day. Some took to commercial motorcycle (okada), with its dire consequences.
Okorocha comes on stage
It was against this backdrop that Okorocha easily rode to power in the May 6, 2011 supplementary election in the state. Even with the unprecedented feat of upstaging an incumbent, Okorocha stressed that he was looking beyond the victory to fashioning ways of tackling the challenges facing the state.
One year into his second term, which incidentally coincides with the 40th anniversary of the creation of the state, the jury is out on the extent the administration has gone in repositioning the state. To the political elite, who accuse the governor of sidelining them in running the state, Okorocha is on mere showmanship.
Former Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Festus Odimegwu, for instance, in an interview with this newspaper, alleged that Okorocha had trivialised governance in the state, describing him as a cowboy. Others in his class have this impression.
But the governor scoffed at their position, insisting that his mandate lies with the people, who he said he had entered into covenant with God to serve.
He even stressed in a recent encounter with newsmen that his stewardship is not for the gains of the office but for the glory of the job.
In this instance, his supporters enthuse that Okorocha has brought development to all parts of the state. Records of his infrastructure profile in the state, perhaps, attest to that.
A particular programme of his administration that actually reconnected him with the ordinary citizens of the state is its free education policy. With construction of new classroom blocks in the 305 wards across the state, the administration has consolidated its presence in the consciousness of the citizens.
There is also the angle of infrastructural development that cuts across the state. In the exercise, Owerri, the capital, has undergone immense infrastructure and aesthetic transformation since the inauguration of the administration.
Similarly, the agenda at expanding the city through intra-city and alternative roads has come on stream and in the process eliminating perennial traffic that had rubbed off negatively on transportation in it. Okigwe and Orlu, the other two senatorial districts, are not left out in the programme.
Douglas House, the seat of government in Owerri, is also wearing a new look; a radical departure from the past where officials operated from shanties. In the present situation, state-of-the-art buildings have been erected by the administration. These include the Sam Mbakwe Executive Chambers and the 7,000-capacity International Conference Centre.
Senior officials of the government also talk of its efforts at opening up the state through construction of roads. According to them, the administration has constructed over 600 kilometres of roads in rural areas of the 27 councils in the state. The same story is told of construction of General Hospitals in all the local government areas.
Marcel Nlemigbo, former PDP chairman in the state and currently an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, is among those scoring the governor high on achievement profile. He told our reporter that Okorocha, being a human being, is expected to have his own faults and weaknesses, adding however that he has done well.
“If you come to Imo State and check the infrastructure he has put in place, I can tell you that the other two governors before him could not achieve such feat. And he is still working on new projects. He promised free education, he is doing it. He promised roads, he is doing them. He promised bringing governance close to the people, he is doing it and the factory…factory… factory issues he has been talking about, he is on top of the implementation too. So, generally, the young man is doing well as far as delivering the dividends of democracy is concerned. He deserves commendation with his team,” Nlemigbo said.
With commendable efforts in uplifting the infrastructure base of the state, Okorocha told journalists that the new engagement for his administration would be, “factory, factory, factory; industry, industry, industry; job, job, job”, adding that the state is “being repositioned for industrial development”.
Imo, according to him, is not receiving jumbo revenue but engages more in prudent management of resources.
Even when the governor’s critics observe that some of the projects are yet to be completed, they concede to him the foresight in initiating them.
