The reactivation of the Avutu Poultry is one of the items being broadcast to the world as one of the achievements of the administration of Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Imo State within his three years in office.
Having just visited the Poultry Complex and seen that the television footage is a big lie, this is inviting His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha to immediately order the discontinuation of that unnecessary falsehood and summon whoever is responsible for the inclusion of the Avutu Poultry in that photo parade for explanations.
If the person is a civil servant, he should be reprimanded, demoted and redeployed.
If it is the work of a consultant, the contract should be terminated to demonstrate the anger of the Governor and his condemnation of that public deceit.
The physical structures put in place by Governor Okorocha in Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe are there for even the blind to see. So why the ridiculous photo trick with Avutu Poultry?
Those close to Owelle should let him know that his achievements and credibility are terribly dimished by that single act of deceit. Avutu Poultry is clinically comatose. Many buildings there are buried in thick bush.
Avutu, the home of Imo State’s first Civilian Governor, and the greatest so far, Barr. Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe, Ph.D, has practically become synonymous with the Poultry Company which Mbakwe’s government set up during his four-year tenure from 1979 to 1983.
The Poultry Company was such a business success that it attracted patronage from far beyond Imo State.
The company produced eggs, dressed birds, feeds and even manure from the fowls’ droppings and all these were sold to ready markets.
Hotels and other establishments from outside Imo State procured their needs from Avutu. The little village of dee Sam was practically vibrating.
It was what some economists would call a “run away success.”
Successive administrations, particularly the military, plunged their corrupt and dirty fingers into the Avutu honey pot and soon ruined it.
Since the return of civilian democratic governance, beginning with Achike Udenwa’s administration from 1999 – 2007; Ohakim’s (2007 – 2011) and Okorocha’s, since May 29, 2011, strident efforts have been made to revive Avutu Poultry.
This piece is not intended to pry into why those efforts failed.
Of more concern to this writer is why any official or professional advertising or public relations practitioner should deliberately want to concoct a flagrant falsity and mix it up with visible, tangible, and commendable achievements of a Governor who, in barely 100 days in office, already showed his messianic mission to transform Imo State.
To the eternal credit of Owelle Rochas Okorocha, both the landscape and the skyline of Owerri have been transmogrified.
He should be free to flaunt such an achievement, even if it is all he can boast of in four years.
He has no cause whatsoever to allow any sycophantic gimmicks to intrude into what is visible and tangible.
He should advise himself against gravitating towards what he condemned in the regime he dislodged.
These include gigantic larger-than-life images of the Governor at every nook and cranny of the city; the internet broadcast of heaven-on-earth that Imo State has become in the brain of its sponsors and the unnecessary preoccupation with repeated and boring proclamation of a government’s achievements as if it is not the duty of a government to improve on what it met on coming into office.
Rochas, like any other Governor, will be judged by what he achieves during his tenure which is four years.
Let him not deceive himself into believing he is impressing anybody by giving us hope of performing wonders if given another chance to do a four-year stint.
The constitutional tenure of the President and the Governor in Nigeria, for now is four years.
Let every incumbent plan for four years and accomplish so much that the electorate may want to “put pressure on” him to return and “do more.”
Rochas’ administration has done very well in structural upliftment of Imo State.
In areas of industry and agriculture, and indeed in human development, this government is yet to make a mark. And it is too late to want to hoodwink the citizenry to the contrary belief.
Perhaps this could be the pitch for a campaign for second term of office if the Governor should torpedo his 2011 averment to go to Abuja in the next dispensation.
Propagandists of the Governor and indeed other consultants in the employ of political office aspirants should strive for the truth at all times.
They should emulate Sam Onwuemeodo who, incidentally, and ironically, is the Senior Special Assistant, SSA, Media, to Owelle Rochas.
Onwuemeodo has distinguished himself in his professional outings as a mature and astute pen craftsman with a heavy dosage of good upbringing in the way he rebuts and replies critics.
It is very difficult to associate him with the incandescent lie over Avutu and the television claims.