The best governor of Delta State that never was. Nigeria where men with sense and conscience go to waste away.

Nbote:
Which kind of visionless ppl do we have running dis country sef? Other ppl are targeting renewable energy sources and alternative fuel and we are still bent on digging more crude... Jus recently we read a report of Nigeria suffering a crude glute becos buyer no dey and yet we are still bent on looking for more crude and producing more and more crude... Wen will we target self sufficiency in petroleum products? If we put d energy we put in looking for more oil and increasing crude export into getting refineries working at full capacity, dis country for don beta since

"By fire, by force we must be like our Arab counterparts. OIL! OIL! AND MORE OIL!" Aso Rock Policy Makers

Trying to make sense of our idiotic government will only lead you to an early grave. Sorry in advance. Just try to make it day by day and weather the storm.

Keep us updated as this continues. Rochas must pay!

Who is chopping all these onions?

Great post

She only writes trash articles about Nigeria and other African topics through a colonized scope. A true efulefu in the flesh.

It's looking bad.

#optics

By Steve Osuji

That the eight-year reign of Governor Rochas Okorocha left Imo State a wasteland is common knowledge to most Imo people. Our people are not stupid. Indeed, they are witnesses to the vandalism callously meted against their state. They are also aware of the vicious vendetta Okorocha unleashed on our mother land in the two months after he lost the guber election. Since he never planned for an exit, the loss at the polls sent him into what one wants to describe as a paroxysm of plunderation. It’s something that is also called scorch earth policy in war: which means that you don’t just conquer an enemy, you raze him to dust. Okorocha did not only conquer Imo, he tried to obliterate her.

Imo people are of course witnesses to the frenzied last minute pillage of the state’s physical assets; meanwhile more debilitating and unseen havoc were unleashed on the state by an exiting band of barbarians. Here are some of them.

One, about 150 (yes, that isn’t and error) garnishee orders are hanging around the neck of the state right now. A garnishee order, for those who may not know, is a judgment entered against a person or state which must be forcefully executed. It is often borne out of lawlessness of the state and also, criminal collusion by officials of state against the state.

Recall that in eight years of outlawry, Okorocha never obeyed any court order or judgment. And there are dozens of them. Most of these cases, especially the contractual ones had gone their full courses and judgment passed and in some cases, execution is being levied.

The result of this catalogue of garnishee orders are liens running into billions of naira.

Right now, many of the holding bank accounts of Imo State government are under liens. This means that whatever funds may be in these accounts are on lock-down by the courts. The state government would have to show cause quickly why these sums should not be handed over to some of the litigants.

One hundred and fifty garnishee orders! This cannot be heard of anywhere else in Nigeria or even the world at that. Okorocha and his gang practically ‘garnisheed’ Imo for supper!

Another baleful bequeathal of Okorocha to Imo people is the use of concession to hijack and acquire some of the most lucrative and revenue-yielding businesses of government. Some of these outfits dubiously acquired include the inimitable Concorde Hotels Limited built by Chief Sam Mbakwe about 40 years ago. Billions of naira of state fund was deployed to renovate it a couple of years ago yet the edifice is in a shambles now; yet the hotel is said to be under concession and the new government cannot have access to it. Not ever a few rooms to be allowed as a holding bay for new appointees invited from outside the state as was the practice.

Water works, some hospitals, state transport company and Adapalms Limited; to name just a few. All the new government of Ihedioha can find are concession documents but not cash or a trace of it from the numerous concession arrangements.

The story of Adapalms is particularly pathetic. Probably the biggest integrated palm oil estate to be found anywhere in the world, Okorocha immediately hijacked it on assuming power in 2011. He claimed to have concessioned it to a hurriedly set up foreign firm Roche. But as it turned out sooner, Roche is the alter ego of Rochas.

This unbridled brigandage remained so for eight years. Okorocha was by proxy, feeding on the cadaver of Adapalms. He milked the remains of the massive palms estate without adding any value through this period. No revenue from concession, no proper management, no new seedlings planted and no fresh technical input for an enterprise that could easily yield more revenues to the state than funds coming from federal allocation.

Did you know that Imo State had a large rubber plantation? Did you know that Imo had Cocoa plantation? Is it not common knowledge that Imo State is one of the centres of cashew nuts production in Nigeria? All of these common wealth were being exploited stealthily by Okorocha and his rapine gang. But just last week, Governor Emeka Ihedioha inaugurated committees to review and revamp both the Adapalms and the rubber plantation. More to come.

A third atrocity committed against Imo people by Okorocha which many may not notice is the states’ pension racket. For eight years Rochas did not only fail to pay substantial pensions to freshly disengaged and retired civil servants, he damage the entire record of the states’ pension scheme. No trace is left for the in-coming government.

As it stands now, it is almost impossible to determine the status of the pension system in Imo State today. The implication of this in terms of finance and psychological well-being of the service is better imagine.

But more dastardly is the fact that Imo is among the few states in the country not to have keyed in to the national Contributory Pensions Scheme (CPS) being managed by National Pension Commission (PENCOM). According to the commission, Imo State had not commenced the remittance of contributions and had not funded the accrued rights either.

Imo is the only state in the south east not to have done this. Imo State University had to unilaterally commence the scheme in spite of the state government. Of course there is no doubt that through his eight woeful years Okorocha would have deducted workers’ pension contributions but never remitted them. Such is the disdain he had for the workers of Imo and his people.

Now this, at a recent Extended Executive Council meeting, the management of the Imo State Ministry of works confessed that they were never allowed to do any projects for all of eight years Okorocha held sway. Most damning is the fact that the extensive underground Owerri flood channel built by Sam Mbakwe was never de-silted for eight years, they reported.

The result is that today, Owerri is under a deluge of flood at the slightest rain. Apart from the flood-prone Chukwuma Nwoha by Dick Tiger roads in Aladinma area of Owerri, Port Harcourt Road by Assumpta, Okigwe road and several other parts of Owerri are no-go areas when it rains. Ihedioha’s Exco has decided to begin by de-silting the entire underground channels.

Most of the so-called roads built by Okorocha are being rapidly washed away by the rains. Hardly any road is save and easily pliable. The fourth inland road has lost one lane to erosion and it is cordoned off. The flyover across Okigwe Road by Orji is now closed because a portion is caving in. It was built by Roche, a firm synonymous with Rochas and redolent with fraud and odious shenanigans.

For the first time in recent times and under the watch of Okorocha, Heartland Football Club, went into relegation from the top division and managed to return to top division. It took the intervention of a newly sworn in Governor Ihedioha to pull back the club from the precipice of another relegation. Heartland FC played away from its home turf, Dan Anyiam Stadium last season. Okorocha’s government could not maintain his number one stadium.

In fact all the sports facilities are in utter decay.

Such is the state of Imo under Owelle Rochas Okorocha for eight years. He literally ran Imo State aground. Yet, to cover his shame, he is in the media daily to extend his lies and propaganda. But he seems to forget that Nigerians know that tweaking the truth is an integral part of Okorocha’s life? No amount of lies and propaganda can cover his baleful legacy in Imo State.

-Osuji is Special Adviser, Media to Governor Emeka Ihedioha

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/06/23/how-okorocha-garnisheed-imo-for-his-last-supper/

eziokwu

MADNESS!!!

Kingosytex:
the way tinubu managed to convince lagosians to ditch ambode still baffles me.


like play like play the old man go become president. tinubu is really a strategist..

He tried to do the same thing to BRF but he won the population's respect by achieving so much and "carried along" the party members. Ambode alienated everyone and played into Jagaban's plan of Godfather politics. We'll see what happens in the next 4 years.

Ah yes deflection and more deflection. As if all these statements can't be true? The race to the bottom continues.

FRONT PAGE PLEASE!

These are gonna be some rough times.

Get this half a white boy outta here!

A man with sense has spoken. But who will listen?

I don tire o...

Delivar:

Many of us think it's only the white man who says blacks can't do certain things. Unfortunately even blacks themselves even believe he can't do things and that's shameful. What is the essence of crying of racism when the black man looks down on himself? Even if we don't have enough experienced individuals to handle the job like some people would say as an excuse, why not improve our standard of education then? Continuously depending on foreigners to handle our projects is only a disgraceful self admission that Nigerians are dumb. Another one that irritates me is when the elites travel overseas for medical care just because of headache.

Everyone else can see/harness & utilize our greatness but somehow Nigeria just can't/won't get it right. This thread is one of my saddest experiences on NL. That last thing I was expecting was all this self-defeat.

In a country with 180 million+ people and countless billionaire not one world class hospital has been built? We might have some of the most gutless & visionless upper class to ever exist. To blame governance is a tired excuse. In sane climes, when government fails that is when the private sector intervenes to fill in the gaps. But in Nigeria's rare case the private and government are in co-hoots to keep everything in a failed state.

One of my favorite things in life is when I bump into a like minded individual by chance. BLESS YOU! We are on the exact same page! Rather than fortify and strengthen our institutions all we do is say, "they are better" but the rest of the world is busy poaching or so-called sub-standard professionals.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/nigeria-medical-brain-drain-healthcare-woes-doctors-flee-190407210251424.html
https://www.thecable.ng/how-saudi-officials-wooed-nigerian-doctors-in-lagos-abuja

Eventually, all these old bastards will die and we'll have our tiny window to take back our country. Until that day, let's stay alive and keep preparing for the moment. Blessings fam.

Asour:



Really? I seriously didn't know Arabs are referred to as whites.

Generally though I don't know of a truly Nigerian (Read: Senior Technical Staff/Experts) Road Construction firm that has effectively delivered Landmark Large scale road projects. Again I am no Road expert just mere observation.
Setraco looked like the Nigerian unicorn in this regard(even though they are partly foreign owned), Alas, they obviously underperformed in their (I suppose) most landmark project: AKA the uncompleteable East/West Road.

Yep yep! Kardashians, Bin-Ladens, Putins & Divacs are all considered white folks.

What you are discussing is looting. The problem is that the indigenous companies that get these contracts are owned by stooges with no competence. You honestly believe that no Nigerian company can complete a major project? Because I did a quick search and found these companies.

https://interkel-group.com/
http://megastarnig.com/
http://www.constructionkaiser.com/
http://www.bluelineprojects.com/
http://brickhouse-ng.com/

You mean to tell me an Executive Governor, NASS member, MDA head or other official who is equipped with a full staff can't find more?

coputa:
Numbers doesn't count but the values of the people.To get one in Nigeria is like looking for a needle in a haystack, that's the truth.

In less than 15 minutes, I found some needles. Look on their sites and check their projects.

https://interkel-group.com/
http://megastarnig.com/
http://www.constructionkaiser.com/
http://www.bluelineprojects.com/
http://brickhouse-ng.com/

coputa:
Name one sustainable infrastructure that was built by a Nigeria firm.Those buildings collapsing all over the country were built by our bow tie engineers

In less than 15 minutes, I was able to find multiple INDIGENOUS companies that have done a plethora of jobs.

https://interkel-group.com/
http://megastarnig.com/
http://www.constructionkaiser.com/
http://www.bluelineprojects.com/
http://brickhouse-ng.com/

Delivar:

I thought I was the only one irritated by this.

THANK YOU! It's the height of disrespect! Read through and see the gutless self-defeated responses I received.

That's the very reason I don't respect the Eko Atlantic Project. With all our brilliant mind we outsource our crown jewel mouth piece project to a Lebanese company. We have no pride whatsoever!

This is embarrassing. Everyday I log in and see pot bellied governors shining teeth with foreigners after selling us out. All the looting that has been done if re-invested like people do in sane countries this $50 million "investment" would be looked at like the joke/insult it is. Instead, we are clapping for our "saviors" who are easing self-induced unemployment. Then people will complain about mistreatment in the workplace.

coputa:
They are the only one's who can deliver

This is disappointing to read. Please never complain about unemployment, the state of the country or the perception of Nigeria & Nigerians again. Your inferiority complex is beyond repair.

Pavarottii:

Is like u don't like better thing abi?

So in your opinion, Non-Black = better ?

ALLNIGERIANSMAD:
Nigerian issues tire person, if you give Nigerian engineer the same contract, as soon as he collect mobilisation fee. He will disappear to Dubai and buy Range Rover. He will return after a new government take over and parade himself as engineer again or they will do substandard job that will kill people at the end.

That's an issue of the governor not being thorough enough to study the company's track record or follow the progress of the project. The reason things like that occur are because the governor just stole the money and used the company to siphon the funds. Are you saying we go to school for no reason? Or are you calling the rest of the world crazy for hiring our graduates?

Asour:


White?

Those aren't whites.

Arabs/Middle Easterners/Mediterranean People are considered white/Caucasian.

blizzers:



Please our many homegrown construction companies do we have that are competent enough to handle projects that can stand test of time.....So long they can handle it well, no bigge

In a country that is facing massive unemployment and monumental brain drain to the rest of the world, you genuinely believe there aren't hundreds of competent companies among 180 million+ Nigerians?

Agugbadin:


Because they are very thorough and don't cut corners. They were not the builders of any collapse building in this country, they abide by international engineering standards and applied world best practices. Go back to history when Amechi was governor he tried local contractors and they failed him woefully

So in a country of 180 million people there is no company that doesn't cut corners?

freemanbubble:


Bros
Our engineers nor know anything. Them dull finish. Be it electrical, civil, chemical, mechanical, petroleum, computer,structural engineer
All of them dull finish. Give them the contract and you will see how they themselves will award that same contract to a white man again because they have no Idea on what to do

When I left secondary school way back then I worked in one electrical project in Edo state
Could you imagine the contract was awarded to marubeni engineering West Africa limited (MEWAL)
The stupid marubeni because they were dumb now seek the service of ECS ( one electrical company in Asia)
And behold ECS now use their people from India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to carry out the job
So most of the workers were now expatriate
Assuming marubeni know what they are doing and how to go about the project. Don't you see most of the workers would have been Nigerians
So which means our government is not only the people causing unemployment
Our engineers are also causing unemployment because they are young and dumb

So you're telling me in a nation of 180 million people no one is qualified?

Only white foreigners get construction contracts? Embarrassing...

Dog and baboon tings...