The genius governor and the unpatriotic contractors.

Ndi-Amazu Okoroigbo, an economically stable settlement in the unitedly large but separate communities that form Arondizuogu, the home of great thinkers and industrial minds, is a place from whence i came, in Imo State. For a couple of years now, due to certain extenuating circumstances beyond my control, i had not been to this town. The just concluded “Dozenous Year”, summated with the joy of Christmas, saw me headed to this community of brothers and sisters. My eyes beheld strange and inadmissible developments as regards electricity, water supply, and road network which are the hallmark of every evolved town.

I am not writing to gist of how sweet or not so sweet my Christmas was down there, nor am i here to tell of how i experienced the ever amazing and fun filled Christmas in the subject community. My reason for inditing this piece is to paint a true picture of what i saw in Imo State, which unfortunately, counters (in some areas, particularly Arondizuogu town) the one-too-many stories we hear and see on the television about the swinging changing flags of Governor Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State governor.

For fear of God and the imbibed love of mankind, i will be civil, diplomatic and objective but, also realistic in my address to the issue. A friend of mine recently communicated to my ears that even if Rochas will fail or disappoint in every of his endeavours, he will never fail in EDUCATION. This, i leave in your hands to be the judge.

As much as it will please me to leave this to you, i will however, want to state my own opinion and give account of my research and what i saw during my sojourn in the State. On the issue of education in Imo State, children are happy and more enthusiastic than they were during the time of Ohakim and many of the other governors that have led Imo State at one time or the other. From Primary to Secondary schools, modern learning facilities have been provided, enough chairs in their class-rooms, teachers who wake up every morning with joy, because they love their jobs…the list goes on. At all corners, something new is happening, the wind of true change is blowing and affecting the people of the State in positive ways. Be that as it may, infrastructural development is still receiving devastating punches from king of punch throwers. Its either the whistle blower has a cancerous mouth that made him to blow out the wrong messages, or that they are trying to deceive the general public.

My findings fault not the governor, but the mischievous local contractors who jumps on every road construction projects they very well know, they can’t deliver. From what i gathered, the governors strategy is putting them exactly where they all belong -corporate 419 crew.
His style of awarding contracts to contractors is, if a contract is awarded to you as a contractor, then there will be no MOBILIZATION fee given to you, you have to begin the project with your own fund up to at least 80% before you can request for fund from the government purse. This “style” made the contractor who was supposed to handle the road construction project from Ndiawa down to Umuna, all in Arondizuogu, to abandon it and ran away.

Other contractors in this same categories have all abandoned the various projects awarded them. The few who remained are doing what i consider “lazy and irresponsible work”. Can you imagine a road construction firm pouring coal-tar on an ungraded red soil, with no sewage path and so on…they were asked to stop work with immediate effect, in fact, the entire project will now be handled by some foreign construction companies.

Indigenous construction companies complain of foreign companies taking over everything from them, but who would blame them after finding out that they are all fraud? For the record, Governor Rochas Okorocha is doing a fantastic job of reinventing Imo State, if kicking aside these tucks of lazy indigenous contractors is the only way to go, then so be it.