Under Uzodimma, Imo State Has Gone To The Dogs

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Let me be clear from the onset. I am neither a fan of Senator Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo, nor his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who he wanted to impose on the state as his successor. Okorocha knows that for a fact because I told him to his face in Owerri that he was a big disappointment to Ndi-Imo who preferred him to his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, in 2011.

Uzodinma and Okorocha 

I told Okorocha that if he didn’t mend his ways and provide the people the quality governance he promised while he was out on the hustings, history will be unkind to him. Of course, he ignored my unsolicited advice and doubled down on the shenanigans that became the hallmark of his administration. He capped the political tomfoolery with the attempted imposition of Nwosu. Uche Nwosu’s political ascendancy was tied to his filial relationship with Okorocha, whose first daughter, Uloma, he wedded on January 5, 2013 while he was serving as the commissioner for lands and survey.

Imo State: Between The Devil And Deep Blue Sea

By Charles Onunaiju

Never  in the recent history of any  people have their prospects of been  so bleak and in dire straits as what stares the hard working people of Imo state in the face right now, starting from the debacle of Mr. Rochas Okorocha’s near eight year comic rule to the prospects of extending the governance nightmare to another four years. 

*Gov Rochas Okorocha

The recent choice of candidates for the top job in the state by the two major parties, the All Progressive Congress, APC,  and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  is  chillingly harrowing. The two earlier contenders in the ruling APC, Mr. Hope Uzodimma, a serving senator, who first claimed to have won the primaries has nothing in his pedigree either in business, career, profession or even politics to recommend him for the top job in the state, which for all its seeming glamour is a burden for which any worthy occupant must toil in privation and humility while radiating only uncommon ideas  with the will of steel to offend vested interest and step on big rotten  toes.

Nigeria: A Hard Lesson For Gov Rochas Okorocha

By Olusegun Adeniyi

On 24th March 2012, Chief Rochas Okorocha, then less than a year in office as Imo State Governor, was in Kosovo where he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for an independent power plant, an agro processing plant and several other industries that he promised would be established in his state. There were neither feasibility studies nor any clear ideas as to where the money to finance these projects would come from but those sorts of things never really worry the ebullient governor. 

*Gov Rochas Okorocha 

A few weeks before the trip to the Balkan Peninsular, Okorocha had declared a four-day holiday for workers in Imo State so they could partake in the take-off of the Community Council Government (CCG) he instituted. And for this extra-constitutional fourth-tier of government, the governor approved the disbursement of N5 million to each of the communities in the 27 local councils from a subvention of N3 billion that was not captured in the 2012 Imo State Appropriation Bill.. He also declared free education at all levels in the state after announcing that he would be paying salaries to all the primary school pupils (yes, pupils, not teachers alone). And to be sure, Okorocha actually went to some primary schools where the pupils were lined up for him to hand them N100 each! 

As Imo APC Chieftains Defang Okorocha

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who prides himself as a political colossus was taught “Politics 101” last Saturday. It didn’t come as a surprise, though. To any discerning political observer, it was only a matter of time. While he was clowning and punching way above his political weight, his opponents were waiting for the auspicious time.

*Rochas Okorocha

And when that time came, the man who claims to have conquered Imo State and dominated its hapless people himself was left high and dry. Sublime political intrigue at its best.