[size=13pt]Imo State—between a foul mouth and a populist
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THURSDAY, 09 JUNE 2011 00:00 OKEY C. IHEDURU   
There is tremendous excitement about the efficacy of ‘people power’ in Imo State. The former governor, Ikedi Ohakim was not only voted out, but was compelled to flee the state and skip the May 29th inauguration ceremonies. The ovation is high and the new governor,  Rochas Okorocha is clearly enjoying hitting the headlines at every opportunity. Ironically,

Ohakim had unassailable programmes and policies, but he destroyed them and his legacy with his ‘foul mouth’ and intransigence. Okorocha, on the other hand, could exacerbate the on-going ‘class war’ in the state with his populist, rabble-rousing ‘revolution.’ Could there be a middle ground before things get out of hand?

The latest headline reads: ‘Okorocha Declares Imo Bankrupt, Dissolves Councils’ (*ThisDay*, 7 June 2011). The governor, who declared that the state is indebted to the tune of ¦ 100 billion, ordered the immediate dissolution of all the 27 local councils in the state (elected last December to run for two years) and all the Development Centres and the State Council of Traditional Rulers. About 106 autonomous communities and the staff of office and certificate of recognition issued to their ‘monarchs’ by Ohakim would be reviewed because ‘traditional institutions had become an arena for playing politics.’ To popular applause, he also suspended—and would review—all contracts awarded by Ohakim.

Past military regimes failed because each new thug sought to wipe the slate of his predecessor clean and start their own often ill-considered projects.

They lacked appreciation for continuity in government. Ohakim’s ‘foul mouth’ should be distinguished from the many remediable projects and policies he started, including the 10,000 jobs he offered to *Imo indigenes* through the state’s Civil Service Commission. As I write, beneficiaries of this policy have been demonstrating all over Owerri against Okorocha’s ill-considered decision to suspend them. Unfortunately, this is small potato compared to the big fights he will soon have with thousands of now ‘jobless’ Imo political class most of whom belong to the People’s Democratic Party which the Okorocha crowd believe they can sweep aside so easily.

Okorocha’s plans to fund ‘free education’ in Imo State with part of his security votes is laudable; yet, it typifies ‘planning without facts—the

very definition of populism. What if the problem is bigger than his security vote? Also, is merging of 264 health centres in the state a solution for their non-functionality? Similarly, dissolving the board of state-owned oil palm industry, Adapalm is not likely to ‘strengthen the company,’ just as his planned ‘reinvigoration’ of the moribund Avutu Poultry established by the late Sam Mbakwe is 30 years behind the end of the era of governments running chicken and egg farms.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Okorocha’s ‘sack all sackables’ is his suspension of Osita Nwebo, the vice-chancellor of Evan Enwerem University, now Imo State University (its original name) for ‘un-academic conduct.’ My dried-fish seller customer at Eke Onuwa market angrily alleges that Ohakim had installed a ‘fake professor’ as head of the institution. Her daughter who graduated five years ago cannot get a job because people now associate all degrees from IMSU with this ‘useless vice.’

Perhaps, they’re all referring to the fact that Nwebo’s curriculum vitae indicate that he obtained ‘a Ph.D in international law from Dover Delaware University U.S.A (distance learning).’ I don’t know whether ‘Dover Delaware University’ is a degree mill; or that it even exists. There is a Wilmington University, an accredited online university situated in northern Dover serving the Greater Dover and Kent County in the State of Delaware, United States, but it does not offer online programme in ‘international law.’

[b]Any action aimed at cleaning up the beleaguered state university is commendable. However, Okorocha must ensure that he is not acting out a vendetta scripted by some of the people around him. One of them started it all by illegally promoting Nwebo and scores of other master’s degree holders at IMSU to the rank of ‘Associate Professor’ a decade or so ago, simply to use them to consolidate power as the then vice-chancellor. These ‘professors’ are now deans, department heads, and automatic members of the University Senate, and hold other important decision-making positions in the university.

Besides, Nwebo may not be the only ‘vice’ to worry about, assuming the ‘fakeness’ of his Ph.D. can be authenticated. The IMSU chancellor, Chidi A. Ibe is a distinguished former director-general of the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research, Lagos. Although he has a doctorate from the prestigious Imperial College, University of London, he is not—and has never been appointed—a professor by any university, contrary to his claims.[/b]

Instead, he has held intermittent ‘visiting senior lecturer’, ‘visiting Reader/Associate Professor’ or ‘Visiting Professor’ positions of no more than a year each at the University of Calabar and at the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), respectively.

Revolutions have a way of sweeping away their instigators. That’s why Governor Okorocha should spare us a return to a ‘militocratic’ Nigeria of populist governors locking out tardy civil servants or disrupting classes in schools. Okorocha is not certified to teach in Imo schools, and so had no business barging into Akabo Secondary School and usurping and ‘teaching’ an economics class. We have laws against such unwarranted disruption. What if the Nigerian Union of Teachers decides to investigate and make necessary representations to the Police and to the Government House?


http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/analysis/columnists/22787-imo-statebetween-a-foul-mouth-and-a-populist

Dover Delaware University does not exist. Wilmington University is not in Dover, and does not offer a PHD Program in the suggested area of study. Delaware State University, which happens to be the one main college in Dover does not current offer such a PHD Program. See 419!!

University of Delaware maybe but not a Dover Delaware University, Wilmington University or Delaware State university.

Kobojunkie:

Dover Delaware University does not exist. Wilmington University is not in Dover, and does not offer a PHD Program. Delaware State University, which happens to be the one main college in Dover does not current offer such a PHD Program. See 419!!

Please do not quick to conclude or dwell on the junk information journalists in Nigeria offer on printable media. Granted Nigerians have tendency to be hyperbolic with academic achievements, there are numerous online outfits that offer any degree program a person desires.

^^^ Yes, I know that but I also know for a fact that there is no Dover Delaware University online offering such a PHD program, recognized by the US Education System.

Pity that the essence and message of the writer has been shoved aside to discuss a mans supposed misdemeanor. The truth is Imo state is beginning very swiftly to rot and slide back to what it was in the pre Ohakim days while the entire state is doing no more than applauding.