His Excellency, Governor Rochas
Okorocha of Imo state has no
doubt lost the clout and crowd he
used to control at least within the
first two and half years of his
assuming office as the chief
executive of the state.
Every observer of happenings in
the state will no doubt attest to
the fact that Governor Okorocha
has lost grip of both his followers
and the state’s polity. This was
further proved at the just
concluded presidential and
national assembly elections
where the governor lost all the
three senatorial sits in the state
and also eight out of the ten
house of assembly sits in the state
to the PDP. This am sure was a big
blow on him though I am sure he
was not surprised as he should
have seen it coming. Yes, we all
know that no one can eat his cake
and have it back. We also know
that one can only fool people for a
while which explains why the
people of the state including his
appointees and subjects have
come to realize the kind of person
Rochas truly is. They have seen
the true and original Rochas and
they have come to realize he is a
very selfish and greedy person
who is never contented. They
have realized he is one that
believes so much in the theory of
robbing Peter to pay Paul. They
have realised he is very
insensitive to people’s plight. They
have realised he is a liar and a
scammer. They have realized he
has no respect for God, women,
and even life. They have realized
he is very corrupt. Above all, they
have realized he is not who they
thought he was. This realization
which has turned into regrets and
hatred for the man explains why
he lost these key political sits at
the just concluded elections. As a
matter of fact, it will not be
absurd to say from events that he
has lost the state political
machinery and even the
admiration plus trust which he
once enjoyed from the people and
is definitely on his way out of
office come April 11 .
To start with, Governor Okorocha
made people to see him as a very
peaceful and decent man that can
not hurt a fly. That was the
impression he gave the people of
the state. However, a few people
who have had dealings with him
before he became governor will
always tell you that the man is too
sleek and is almost a mafia lord
who adopts every method violent
or diabolic to achieve his aim or
tame every opposition or
competition. For instance, most
people have not forgotten how
our dear Owelle staged a very
violent invasion of the old APGA
office through which he got the
governorship ticket of the party
for the 2011 elections. Most
people still remember this
episode and how the then party
leadership was rough handled and
party property damaged by the
thugs commissioned by Rochas.
Another pointer to the above is
his total disregard for the rule of
law. Recall that Rochas with
impunity sacked the elected local
government Chairmen for the 27
LGAs in the state immediately he
became the governor and bluntly
refused to re instate them even
when the courts asked him to.
Again, he sacked Eze Cletus
Ilomuanya, the chairman of Imo
state council of traditional rulers
and also the chairman of
southeast council of traditional
rulers and refused to reinstate
him even after the courts ordered
him to. Today, Eze Ilomuanya is
still the chairman of the
traditional rulers in both the state
where he controls a lot of
traditional rulers and also the
southeast where he is so
respected. This has somehow
weakened the much respected
traditional rulers council as Eze
Agunwa Ohiri who Rochas
appointed to replace Eze
Ilomuanya has lost a lot of the
traditional rulers to Ilomuanya
especially since the supreme
court ruled against Rochas in the
suit filed by Ilomuanya. Today,
both Ohiri and Ilomuanya lay
claims to the chairmanship of the
Imo traditional rulers’ council.
People have now realized that
Owelle used the money of the
individual contractors to actualize
his much celebrated rural road
revolution in as much as the roads
collapsed only after six months.
Recently, the contractors under
the auspices of the Unpaid Imo
Contractors, UPIC, staged a
protest against the government,
alleging that the state
government is owing them over
20 billion Naira as regards the
road projects. This shocked the
people of the state who believed
the governor when he said all the
contractors in the state have been
paid. The road contractors
constitute a tiny fraction of those
who the Rochas government has
continued to owe. Another
instance of the above are the
pensioners who he has continued
to owe and issue dud cheques to.
People have failed to comprehend
this as no government atleast in
Imo has ever given dud cheques
to poor and weak pensioners.
Honestly, this has been happening
since last year and most people
still have their cheques or
photocopies of it with them till
today while some have lodged
theirs at the banks while
hopefully waiting for the cheques
to be honoured.
As it stands today, Governor
Okorocha’s free education policy
in the state has been totally
faulted and widely condemned as
people have discovered how
fraudulent and lopsided it is. For a
start, the so called free education
policy only favours Imo indigenes
in the Imo state university. The
other Imo students in other
institutions like Alvan Ikoku
Federal College of Education,
Federal university of
technology,Futo, and the Federal
polytechnic Nekede were not
accommodated talkless of those
in other institutions outside the
state. Even at that, the
government of Rochas Okorocha
altered the admission policy of
the Imo state university from the
original 80% for indigenes and
20%for non indigenes to 30% for
indigenes and 70% for non
indigenes. This has been
frustrating a lot of Imo sons and
daughters who would have gained
admission into the institution
based on merit. People were so
surprised and shocked when the
government after announcing the
free education policy still went
ahead to ask the students to pay
for their acceptance fee which is
#75,000 and another #20,000 to
access the funds. So every student
is expected to pay about #95,000
which means that the
government actually paid only
#5,000 for the students when he
actually claimed to have paid a
hundred thousand Naira to each
student. Today, Imo
undergraduates still buy their
textbooks and other materials
themselves without the
government helping out through
bankrolling the cost or even
subsidizing it. Be it as it may, Imo
state education system even
under the so called free education
policy is presently rated among
the poor education states in the
country. Results of both the past
NECO and WAEC were so terrible
that the state is now placed on the
34 position in the country’s
education rating. Recall that Imo
used to be among the first five in
the country under the previous
governments in the state which
has raised a lot of questions in the
minds of the people of the state.
This rating however did not
surprise many who watched
helplessly as the education
system was gradually collapsing
under the Okorocha
administration since the
government could not train or
even employ more teachers for
the state schools. Available
statistics have it that the state
schools lack teachers especially in
the science and English
departments as each school in the
state can not boast of more than
two teachers in each of the above
mentioned departments.
At the face of this mass failure,
the state government still went
ahead to announce that it has
procured school uniforms, canvas
shoes, chairs and even desks for
Imo students from China. This
contract ran into billions of Naira
which has made people to ask why
the contracts were not given to
artisans in the state who would
have given the state better value
for its money while at the same
time benefiting from this
largesse. To the dismay of the
people, no Imo student today
wear these uniforms or sandals as
they have all either faded or torn
only after a few months which has
again questioned the quailty of
the products as supplied. As a
matter of fact, most people see
this as another channel through
which the government laundered
money as it is being alleged that
the governor has a major interest
it the Asian companies that
handled the production of these
materials.
Today, Governor Okorocha has
over 605 certificates of occupancy,
C sof Os in the state alone since
he became governor. Most of
these properties are in the high
brow areas of the state. Today,
Governor Okorocha has a kingdom
in Owerri, the state capital around
the Orji axis where over 30
modern and state of the art
buildings were erected. It is
rumoured that over 60 plots are in
this estate. This is why a lot of
people including leaders like Chief
Achike Udenwa and others have
continued to shout and lament. It
was even rumoured that Gen
Buhari was also shocked and
asked if the property was the new
government house when he came
to campaign in the state. Outside
this, Governor Okorocha also
bulldozed his house in Ogboko
and built what Achike Udenwa in
an interview with verbatim
magazine called a cathedral. All
these lands and properties he
acquired in three years of his
stewardship of the state to the
shock and dismay of the people
who now wonder if he indeed was
a rich man before now as he says.
Today, Imo sate has been banned
by the CBN from obtaining loans
from any bank as the loan profile
of the state is so alarming and
terrifying. I pity the next
government of the state as it will
be in a very terrible predicament.
It is now a common knowledge
that the state government of
Rochas withheld all the allocations
to the LGAs in the state since it
came into office in 2011, a
development that has crippled the
entire LG system in the state .
These monies run into over 400
billion Naira.
At the moment, His Excellency is
so terrified of his own shadow and
atrocities in the state and has
resorted to intimidation and
fighting everybody who speaks
out on his ills. He attacked some
widows in the state who were on a
peaceful protest and smashed the
camera of a news man from NTA
who was covering the protest.
This reporter was so mercilessly
beaten and battered that he
ended up at the federal medical
centre, FMC Owerri while a lot of
the widows ended up with broken
ankles and bones. Another
pressman was also battered by his
attack dogs led by his son inlaw,
and the commissioner of lands,
Uche Nwosu when
undergraduates in the state were
protesting against the faulty free
education policy in the state.
Recall that the students broke all
the street lights on the bank road
and the okigwe road when they
rampaged.
Now he knows he can not fool
everybody all the time. Recently,
the governorship debate
organized by the Obiri Odenigbo,
an arm of the Owerri catholic
Archdiocese was aborted as
Rochas also sent his attack dogs
led by his inlaw, Uche Nwosu, The
secretary to the state
government, Prof Anwuka, The
commissioner of youths and
sports, Hon Emelu, the
commissioner of information,
Chidi Ibe and others, to personally
invade the arena with thugs and
destroy church property, wound
people and beat up priests within
the environment. People
scampered to safety during this
mad attack while a lot sustained
various degrees of injury. This
was his greatest undoing and
mistake as his predecessor, Ikedi
Ohakim was disliked and
ultimately voted out when he was
accused of beating up a priest.
Again, the same debate which he
aborted was the major platform
that sold him to the minds of the
people of Imo. Tongues have
continued to wag since then as he
is being accused of disrupting the
debate because he promised then
to go for a single term of four
years which he has reneged on.
Bearing in mind that Imo is a core
Christian state, his attack on the
church that organized the debate
has put him in a very precarious
situation as the predomantly
Christian electorate of Imo has
vowed to vote him out especially
as it is rumoured that he is an
agent Islamism in the state. Recall
that he gave his express consent
to the building of an ultra modern
mosque in the state and also gave
a cash gift of #2 million Naira to
about twelve Imo indigenes that
converted to Islam last year in
Abuja. Another reason why the
Christian people of Imo have
hated him is that he initiated and
signed the very controversial
abortion law for which many see
him now as inhuman and as an
anti Christ. Recall the abortion law
caused a lot of uproar in the state
that he had to retreat.
Governor Okorocha has obviously
shot himself on the leg and has
scored himself an own goal
through his recklessness, deceit,
fraud and insensitivity. As it
stands now, I am sure Governor
Okorocha himself knows the
game is up for him and should
have conditioned his mind to exit
Douglas house come
April, 11 .

Please try and summarise if you really want people to read and understand your write up,
That been said,i think Rochas has failed and should be shown the way out.