in Imo state. In an interview with Vanguard, Chief Dr Achike Udenwa, a
former governor of Imo state and also a one time Minister of Commerce
and Industryunder late Yar'dua, talked about prevailing issues in the
state and the forthcoming general election. Here is an excerpt.
Due to Gov. Okorocha's education policy in Imo state, it appears the
APC is enjoying more support from Imo people. What is your take on the
education policy?
Quite frankly, the support the present government is enjoying is
misplaced. Misplaced in the sense that it has been based on deceit.
Now many things are being done and crimes are committed and people
don't know, people are not aware of what is happening.
For example, you find out that the Okorocha's administration is not
really working if you consider the amount of money that is available
to him. Since the present administration came into government, they
have taken so much money. Most of the proceeds of the loan Ohakim
took, came over to the present administration. They have this money
and they have over N150 billion coming from the local government
system plus the normal monthly allocation which is averaging about N5
billion per month. In our time you would be lucky any time you had up
to N1.5 billion. They had all this money and the present government
has been borrowing also. In our time, we did not borrow any money from
any where. So he has so much money at his disposal and I can assure
you that the bulk of this money the administration has at their
disposal, he cannot account for it. A lot of it has disappeared in the
system and he is doing a sort of public relations project.
The general hospital buildings in Imo towns even with the ones in
almost every local government areas are dilapidated. Why not
rehabilitate and re-equip them. He decided to build brand new general
hospitals and each one is on the main road so that people will see it.
Even if the hospitals are in the bush, people will not use them
because non of them is completed. So, this is the type of project you
will get from this government and people think that he is doing well.
Come to the state capital, Owerri you have so many conference centers.
What is he even doing with conference centers? These are not priority
projects for the people. The yardstick to measure how good a
government is will be to ask questions on the livelihood of the
people. Are people today better-off than they were maybe eight years
ago? The answer is NO. In our own time, we were receiving less than
one third of what the present government is receiving but I can assure
you that if you go out and ask an average Imo man whether he is better
of now than then, you will get NO for an answer.
So most of the things that are being done are pure and complete
deceit. Today, I can tell you that our governor has the best private
residence I have ever been to in Nigeria as a whole. So these are
things that happen everyday. Check the number of estates around him,
check what they have acquired within four years. Then you will know
whether an average Imo person is better off today than he/she was
before.
Most Imo people have been saying that they are unfortunate when it
comes to governance. According to them, since the time of Mbakwe, they
have never had a dynamic government. What do you have to say about
that?
Well, I do not know whether they are saying that. But I have to tell
you that as far as we are concerned, this is the worst deceit we have
had of a government.
Read the full text of the interview at Vanguard:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/okorocha-is-deceiving-you-udenwa-tells-imo-people/
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