In a recent newspaper report, a faceless fellow who claimed to be working for the administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state gave reasons why it abandoned the flyover projects that were embarked upon by the immediate past administration of Dr. Ikedi Ohakim. According to the report, a member of the so-called Rochas Road Revolution Task Force had said that the flyover project at Amakohia was abandoned because it was not properly designed and would have, as a result, caused more traffic chaos in the Owerri metropolis if completed as earlier designed. Another reason given by the faceless aide was that the flyover project would have involved the demolition of between 25 and 30 buildings and would have cost the state government several millions of naira in payment of compensation.
As usual, these are lies for which the Okorocha administration is known. The fly over project was embarked upon after a commissioned traffic survey and engineering design by experts; unlike Governor Okorocha’s ‘point and kill’ system. The initial engineering design was done during the Mbakwe administration by a Swedish firm. The project was reevaluated, properly advertised, tendered, awarded and construction commenced under the Ohakim administration. Contrary to the claim by Okorocha’s spin doctors, no house was to be demolished because the Owerri Capital Development Authority, OCDA, strictly enforced the right of way for the road right from 1979 when it was conceived.
Clearly, the administration is putting up these lies because it has come under heavy criticism from Imo citizens for abandoning a project which even the blind knows would be of benefit to the good people of Imo state. Apart from the flyover itself, the project incorporated a mega drainage system that will handle all storm water from Orji and address, once and for all, the flood challenges around Works Layout, Akwakuma, Okigwe road, Civil Defence area, etc. With the project, by now traffic bottleneck and flooding would have become a thing of the past in the Owerri metropolis.
Curiously, the faceless aide resorted to insulting the people for genuinely expressing their worries when, according to the report, he said: “uninformed citizenry who sit at pops and on the streets passing negative comments on the issue they are ignorant of”. Apart from this blanket insult on the Imo “citizenry”, the question every well meaning Imolite should ask is why the government chose to give its explanation on such a vital matter through a faceless fellow. The fact that the report in question was attributed to an unnamed fellow is a clear admission that the government is telling lies; since none of its official could append his or her signature on the statement.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Okorocha administration decided to abandon the flyover project because its key officials wanted to pursue another agenda which would have benefitted only themselves. Imolites would recall that when this issue first arose, a top official of the Okorocha administration, the Commissioner for Finance, to be precise, claimed that the administration did not abandon the project but that it was renegotiating its cost with the contractor because, according to him, the contract cost was inflated by the Ohakim administration.
That was over one year ago. The natural question, therefore, is, why didn’t the government table the issue of poor design quality then? That is, at what point did the officials discover that the project was not properly designed? If the issue was that of poor design, is a period of twenty-seven months the administration has been in existence not sufficient to redesign the project to a better standard assuming, without conceding, that its officials are saying the truth? And which reason do Imolites now take: inflation of cost or poor design? As noted earlier, the administration once again resorted to lies in order to escape the wrath of the people who have not seen any reason why the project should be abandoned. By this recent development, the people of Imo state would see that the Okorocha administration is merely cooking up reasons for abandoning the project.
Before we go into refreshing our minds on the real reasons why the project was abandoned, let me state that this intervention is not being made in ones capacity as a former official of the administration that started the project. It is informed by the need to point out to the good people of Imo state that the story the administration of Governor Okorocha is telling about the flyover project is a cock and bull one. And I can assure our people that before long, it will come up with another story.
Agreed, an administration has the prerogative to make its priorities even if they are not popular among the people but in so doing, it does not have to bandy lies about. My worry is definitely not on the effect such lies have on the feeling of the people about the former administration. Imo people have since discovered that the governor has a deliberate policy of running down Ohakim and his administration. But this has been to no effect. On the contrary, the people have since realized that in terms of transparency and accountability, the Ohakim administration set a standard which the current administration has shown gross incapability of living up to.
I am making this intervention very reluctantly because, apart from that Imolites have since seen through the lies of the administration, raising issues with them has become for me condescending. Why should I be responding to people who have shown so much ignorance and a pathological penchant for lying? For me, it was not long when I discovered that I needn’t waste my time on these fellows. As early as June 2011, I had to respond to certain claims by His Excellency, Chief Rochas Okorocha including that he was saving N150million daily from the monies hitherto frivolously spent by the Ohakim administration. The governor had also told Imo people that he was saving N30million that the former governor was spending on drinks every day. When I came up with the simple arithmetic that N150million every day translates into N4.5billion every month, whereas the governor had earlier told the state that its total monthly income was just about N2billion, the people saw the big lie. And pronto, the governor stopped bandying figures before Imolites. Of course, I have had cause to intervene on several other issues since then but our dear people would have noticed that such interventions only came each time the administration’s insiders came up with their big lies. Ndi Imo would have also noticed that each time the officials discovered that they have been caught lying, they withdraw from the particular issue just to surface with another lie somewhere else.
This intervention derives chiefly from the fact that I use the road where one of the proposed flyovers pass through and I know the agony all of us who have to go through that spot experience. Once at traffic gridlock at Amakohia, a fellow unknown to me had screamed from his car: “Ethel, we have not heard from you on this”. That’s by the way but some other people have also called to ask why I have not been commenting on issues concerning the state. To this I have replied that there is no need talking to the deaf.
Sometime early this year, we had cause to address the issue of the abandoned flyovers and ring roads. Then, I stated that the contractor handling the project had revealed that the governor had asked him to reduce the quality of the project in order to save costs. According to the contractor, he refused to do so because he knew that what the governor wanted him to do would have resulted in a disaster and that the company did not want to compromise the standard for which it had been known. Specifically, the contractor had disclosed that he had been asked to do the following: removal of the retaining walls; removal of the underground drainage system; removal of 50mm thick asphaltic binder course; removal of street lights and the reduction of stone-base from N150mm to 100mm thickness. Up till this moment, no official of the administration has refuted those revelations. Not even the then Commissioner for finance, Mr. Chike Okafor, who had told Imo people that the reason the administration abandoned the project was that its cost was inflated, said a word to counter what the contractor said.
The bottom line of all this, however, is that contrary to its posturing, the Okorocha administration has finally abandoned the flyover projects for ordinary roundabouts. Let me pose the following question: Regardless that the administration has the prerogative to choose which project to do and which one not to do, is it really a fair treatment to Ndi Imo to abandon the flyover projects after so much money had been put into them? Do Imolites sincerely believe that roundabouts are better than flyovers one of which was over 70 per cent completed before Governor Okorocha came in?
On the claim that the project will involve the demolition of several buildings, Imolites have already seen the lie. But the question remains: why would this administration opt for destroying buildings when, as seen, there is no need for that? In other words, the people should watch out. To add to the insult to the people, the government explanation was made by a faceless fellow whom Imolites do not known how much education he has let alone being in possession of any engineering knowledge. But that has been the lot of a people, among whom are some of the most educated and knowledgeable Nigerians, in the last twenty
