Imo Gubernatorial Polls: Governor Ohakim Beyond Electorates Redemption

Chief Ikedi Ohakim, Governor of Imo State


Imo Gubernatorial Polls: Governor Ohakim Beyond Electorates Redemption

Written By Njamanze Fidel


The governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim without mincing words has made himself unlikable to majority of Imo people by his untoward actions and inactions. Since the inception of his administration in 2007, I have tried to restrain myself from constructively pointing out my grouse with him hoping that he will turn over a new leaf but all to no avail.


The fact is he has earned for himself the notoriety of being a political deceiver of the highest order. A point in view was when he purportedly deceived Mr. President; Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that he has started rehabilitating the road that runs from Nkwala (one of the prominent weekly markets in Ngor-Opkala LGA), Eziama, Ntu, Umuohie, Umuneke (where the council secretariat is located) and Ngwuru. This road forms a T-junction to Owerri, Okpala and Owerri Nta road apart from numerous junctions along that axis. This T-junction is close to Ulakwo Junction and Park. It is about a kilometer if you are coming from Ulakwo to Okpala and on the right hand side.


While the governor was coming back from the airport some time ago, where he had gone to welcome the President, I gathered from a reliable source that he pointed at the road that connects Umuneke, Ugwuru, Umuohie, Ntu, Eziama and Nkwoala to Mr. President as one of the roads he was building. It is important to note here that the construction equipment was pulled out of the construction site after the President had gone back to the seat of power, Aso Rock. The truth is that what Ohakim did was to rehabilitate some dangerous spots along that road but this was not exhaustive, because from Umuneke to Nkwola where there are also potholes were left unattended. Why?


This road was initially constructed by past military regime. The road, which is a state road, was later constructed and continued from Umuohie Ngor to Nkwala Market by the current democratic dispensation. The present state of the road is better described as deplorable not minding the lackadaisical, cunning and deceptive move by the Chief Executive in Imo state to rehabilitate it.


What is most painful to me are the poorly executed road rehabilitation projects that have been captured in Ohakim’s campaign billboard just to earn the votes of the electorates in addition to other irritating attributes of his and flaws. For instance, the above mentioned road that leads to Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area has been captured in one of his deceptive billboards located at that strategic T- Junction. Initially, “Ochina falsehood” wanted the whole world to know or believe that the road was to be dualized but this was not to be as the road project was abandoned before it could get to half a kilometer. My heart bleeds for most rural based Local Governments Areas and its inhabitants in Imo State especially Ngor Okpala Local Government Area as there is virtually nothing to lift their dampened spirit up.


Is it our roads; which in great state of disrepair, school structures; which are a shadow of their former self, youth empowerment; which has taken flight, health centres; which are crawling on their knees. While some state Governors have initiated free education in their various states by even going the extra mile of providing free sandals, exercise books, school uniforms and bags to pupils and students of both primary and secondary schools, what is saddening is the increase in school fees of undergraduates who attend University of Imo State (IMSU) by Ohakim administration. The effect of the increment is gnawing of teeth by most parents who struggle too hard to pay the said fee which is allegedly put at one hundred and fifty thousand naira.


Ohakim should as a matter of urgency borrow a leaf from the governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State etc.


Again, it is most sad to observe that a federal road that runs through Okpala, Eziama, Nkwala Market and Amala to Rivers State has also been captured in Governor Ohakim’s political campaign billboard as one of the roads he has constructed. However, this is one of the twenty first century nauseating falsehood being peddled by Ochina what I do not know.


With various allegations of misdemeanor; abuse of a man of God, his subjects in the person of Samuelson Iwuoha and Mrs Elizabeth Udoudo, inability to develop rural areas for socio-economic activities, litany of corruption related petitions, deceptive politicking and so on, I do not nurse any doubt in my mind that Ohakim would be an irredeemable gubernatorial product to market to the electorate in Imo state as he has shot himself in the leg.


Jude Ude commenting in an article with the title “Governor Ikedi Ohakim: The Example Of Ondo State Government written by one Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha, Jun 07 2010 said, “The fact that Ikedi Ohakim is worse than DEJI is not in doubt. We have an acclaimed 419ner, looter,criminal and a public enemy as the Governor in Imo State. We all know that the powers that be in the PDP are protecting this fool, but for how long they will do it, then we are waiting to see. I have always said that no amount of falsehood or campaign from people like Steve Osuji, Kenneth Uwadi, Obi Okereke, Sam Uzowum, Dr. E Dibia and Mr. J. Onyeakoh can succeed in selling or imposing this impostor, criminal and 419ner on the good people of Imo State. They tell us that Ohakim has achieved heaven and earth in Imo State, but they have never succeeded in substantiating their claim.”


Prophecy: What I do know for sure is, your investigation by the appropriate authority may tarry, but the petition dossier on your corrupt practices is in a safe place for future action. By the time the lid to your can of worms is opened, either by EFCC or ICPC, your fate may be worse than James Ibori’s.


~Njamanze Fidel a political activist and commentator write from Ihite, Imo State

Ohakim’s Empowerment Application Form (Per Ward): A Real or False Bait?

Governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim


Ohakim’s Empowerment Application Form (Per Ward): A Real or False Bait?


Written By Njamanze Fidel


As the count down to the Imo state governorship and State House of Assembly elections draw close some political parties have come forward with mouth-watering promises so as to gain overwhelmingly the votes of the electorates. This move is to reelect the incumbent governor, state house assembly members or to vote them out and usher in a new governor, house assembly members from opposition political parties in Imo State.


One of such political campaign promise is the Empowerment Application Form (per ward) that is being circulated across the 27 local government Areas in Imo state which is given to prospective electorates by the People's Democratic Party’s house to house campaigners with the aim of getting their votes on the 26 of April 2011.


I do know that Imo people have not forgotten so soon what transpired when the Ikedi Ohakim’s administration advertised to provide 10,000 jobs to Imo indigenes. The question now is has the governor fulfilled that promise forthrightly not minding that majority of those who applied for the job with their hard earned money to by scratch card are yet to be employed? Is there any similarity from this Empowerment Application Form per Ward and the vehemently criticized 10,000 jobs?


The form has the following outlines under its biodata, date of birth, sex, marital status, occupation, address, Local Government Area (LGA), phone number and email address. Under its empowerment category, you will see farmers loan; 100 persons, widows loan; 50 widows, students scholarship; 20 students, youth empowerment; 10 keke/tricycles and government employment; 10 graduates, 20 non-graduates and 10 women. When you add the above figures and multiply it by the total number of wards in Imo State what will you get? No doubt, the total number of people to benefit from this empowerment scheme will exceed the 10,000 jobs which Ohakim said his administration will provide. What does this tell you? Are we not about to be hoodwinked by the political deceivers of Imo state kleptomaniac politics?


If one may ask, why the PDP led administration in Imo State did not introduce or share this form when it assumed the administration of affairs in 2007? Why is it now that the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections are very close that they remembered to distribute it among prospective and non prospective electorates whom they have faith and hope that would vote for the Peoples Democratic Party? Whether this latest political game plan of the PDP in Imo State will fly, remains only a matter of conjecture. But what I am sure of is that most Imo people are not naïve. Our governor Governor Ikedi Ohakim seems to have made enough money within a period of four years and that is why he said university education is not for the poor or everybody. What an insensitivity to the plight of the averagely rich and poor! He has as a matter of fact; increased the financial burden of majority of our parents who have their ward in Imo State University. Will you vote for him (Ohakim) if you are in the position of such parents whom the former has made their burden heavier?


The People of Imo State should vote wisely at this crucial election which will make or mar commendable governance.


Njamanze Fidel a political activist and commentator write from Ihite, Imo State

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Last year Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which runs Android, was released. Apple has put in claims that the Galaxy Tab infringes on multiple iPad patents and that the Galaxy S looks and feels too similar to the iPhone.

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Nigeria: emergency aid for people fleeing violence in the north

21 Apr 2011 21:04 Africa/Lagos



Nigeria: emergency aid for people fleeing violence in the north

ABUJA, April 21, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Nigerian Red Cross Society are responding swiftly to the urgent needs of thousands of people displaced in the city of Kano and elsewhere in the north of the country following post-election violence that erupted on 17 April.


"At least 12,000 displaced men, women and children are assembled in six locations in Kano," said Otchoa Datcharry, head of the ICRC office in the city. ICRC and Nigerian Red Cross staff have installed a 5,000-litre water storage bladder, and distributed 2.5 tonnes of emergency food rations (crushed cassava, sugar and bread) and 25,000 litres of water to 9,000 people. "Four more water storage bladders will be installed in coming days," added Mr Datcharry.


In Bauchi, the ICRC and the Nigerian Red Cross distributed 600 kilograms of food items to more than 750 displaced people, mostly women and children, who fled the violence and assembled in an open area in front of an industrial complex. A group of women among the displaced have volunteered to cook and distribute the food.


Assessments of the need for further assistance are under way in Kano, Bauchi and Kaduna and in other violence-stricken areas.


"Nigerian Red Cross first-aid workers treated a total of over 400 people for injuries," said Umar Mairiga, the society's disaster-management coordinator. "Many of the injured were later taken to hospitals."


Since the beginning of the year, the ICRC has given 104 Nigerian Red Cross first-aid volunteers the opportunity to refresh and update their skills. It has also provided training for almost 300 people from 12 violence-prone communities across six states of Nigeria, and supplied 16 state branches of the national Red Cross with first-aid kits to boost their capacity to respond to emergencies.


The ICRC and the Nigerian Red Cross had already provided assistance for victims of violence in the north of the country earlier this year. They brought aid to some 4,000 people in camps in Tawfawa Balewa, in Bauchi state. In the largest camp they installed a 10,000-litre tank to make water more easily available. At the Ungogo Primary School in Kano, where people had gathered after fleeing nearby violence, the Red Cross also built six toilets and a water facility.


"It has been very encouraging to see the dedication and commitment of the various Nigerian Red Cross branches and of their volunteers in responding to this latest wave of violence," said Zoran Jovanovic, head of the ICRC delegation in Nigeria.



Source: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)


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The Causes and Consequences of the 2011 Post Election Violence in Nigeria

The causes and consequences of the recent post election violence in Nigeria

The incessant ethnic, religious and political attacks on lives and properties in many states in Nigeria are caused by the appalling intellectual and political ignorance among majority of Nigerians.

If the terrorists unleashing their grievances on both their perceived enemies and innocent people have been educated and informed on the sanctity of human life, the values and virtues of peace and stability for mutual benefit of all the citizens, they would not have committed the terrifying and horrifying atrocities in their own regions and other places they have attacked.
The ruling political class is guilty of exploiting the ignorance of the poor majority in their power struggle and once they have secured their own families and properties, they no longer care about the fate of the victims of their political battles.

• They have misappropriated the public funds for health care and abandoned the broken down public health centres, clinics and hospitals for the poor masses and fly overseas to the developed nations for foreign Medicare and they have spent billions of naira of tax payers money and misappropriated funds on paying foreign medical bills.

• They have misappropriated the public funds allocated for education and neglected public schools and universities with obsolete laboratories and libraries and outdated curricula, broken down campuses with nightmarish facilities and utilities, because they can send their own beloved children to the expensive private schools and universities in Nigeria or in the US and the UK where they pay astronomical school fees from their misappropriated public funds.

• They have misappropriated the public funds allocated for industrial development and preferred to spend their ill-gotten wealth from looting the treasury on imported goods and services.

The list of the corrupt practices of the Nigerian kleptomaniacs in government is very long.

Corruption causes the leakages of power, undermines security and weakens leadership at all levels of human administration.
As corruption increases insecurity will become worse.

The Maitasine riots were the worst political and religious uprisings in Nigeria between 1980 and 1983, during the corrupt administration of President Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a Hausa Muslim from northern Nigeria who served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic (1979–1983) from the corrupt National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He was a weak leader and could not stop the Maitasine riots and over 4, 000 people were killed. The corrupt civilian government was overthrown in a military coup. And when the military ruled Nigeria there was relative peace in the country until the June 12 Crisis. So, whether the President is from the South or North does not matter to these terrorists who would attack their targets for political, religious or tribal agitations from the Niger Delta to Maiduguri.

The fact is, petty political reasons have been the criteria for many political appointments favouring loyalists of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and they compromised the rules of engagement in their responsibilities.

President Goodluck Jonathan desperately sent his ministers and PDP governors to campaign for him and ensure that they win their states in the presidential election. So the PDP flush with slush funds went to work to win by all means and at all costs by using political bribery and power of incumbency to manipulate the electoral process and rig the elections and many cases of PDP using National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and others to rig the elections were reported online and offline and with over 75 million users of GSM phones in Nigeria the reports from BlackBerry pings were circulated fast.

Two female NYSC members working for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were caught thumb printing in Enugu and the video of massive thumb printing by identified members of the PDP in Rivers State was circulated widely on YouTube.
The public proof of PDP rigging elections provoked millions of the supporters of the Opposition. So, when the results showed that the PDP was leading and winning, they went on rampage.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
~ John F. Kennedy,
35th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 - 1963) in a speech at the White House, 1962.


Anti-government rebels on rampage in Northern Nigeria after the disputed presidential election of April 16, 2011.

The PDP is responsible for the corruption and insecurity destroying lives and properties in Nigeria since 1999 to date. So, President Goodluck Jonathan knows the bitter truth and is only pretending.
The genesis of the crisis is the maladministration of the corrupt ruling party.

Every armed robber and other criminals in the Niger Delta are now claiming to be militants and enjoying Amnesty, but the same PDP government refused to dialogue with the Boko Haram militant in the northern region and has not extended Amnesty to them, because there is no OIL at stake in the North.

The Amnesty Programme is political bribery to woo and win the support of the so called militants. Then President Goodluck Jonathan also dangled the huge bait of $200 million fund to greedy and hungry artistes to win their support.
If Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) had the power and offered them $300 million, they would have painted the town red to act, dance, rap and sing the praises of Buhari too. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. Who is fooling whom?
President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling party are guilty of the insecurity destroying Nigeria.
Medicine after death cannot raise the dead.

The government was duly informed and warned of the dangerous states by the State Security Service (SSS), but President Goodluck Jonathan failed to address the emergency and spent billions of naira on his presidential campaign than the amount of money spent on security for INEC staff and other citizens who have lost lives and properties in the post election catastrophe.

Anyone blaming Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) is wrong. Buhari did not send those murderers on rampage to murder innocent citizens.

If the army and police already assigned in those states came out to stop the murderers, no innocent life would have been lost and no vehicle, house or church would have been burnt.

Where were the police and army when those mad boys went on rampage?

I worked for the Alhaji Bamanga Turkur Presidential Campaign in 1990 and I once carried a rifle for his Director of Publicity for use in self defence.

I have gone to the Niger Delta to address the militancy and spoke to the militant leader Asari Dokubo to bury the hatchet and he agreed, but before I knew it, the Federal Government arrested him for just openly expressing his political belief and detained him without trial and that was what provoked the emergence of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and I simply left the government to face their Frankenstein monster.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

The fact is we have an incompetent government that failed woefully to provide security, because of corruption.

The government keeps on telling lies upon lies to hoodwink the ignorant masses.

They boast that they have provided regular supply of fuel, but there is scarcity of kerosene, the fuel of the masses.

There is no regular supply of petrol in remote places in Northern Nigeria, the most underdeveloped region in Nigeria.

The majority of voters are in the rural areas and kerosene means more to them than petrol.
Regular water supply means more to them than petrol.

Any dummy government can provide regular supply of petrol.
Where is the petrol coming from?

Is the regular petrol from our refineries or imported with millions of dollars from foreign countries?

Ask the oil marketers why we now have regular supply of petrol.

Why is the world's eighth largest producer of crude oil importing fuel from overseas?

What happened to the refineries?

Is it not corruption that has made the government to turn to an importer of fuel?

The Nigeria extractive industries transparency initiative (NEITI) has indicted the government agencies supplying petrol of corrupt practices.

Many members of Nairaland, the largest Nigerian online forum display appalling ignorance that you cannot see on any forum in civilized nations. I am a well known member of the Huffington Post and participated in the online presidential campaigns of the 2008 US Presidential Election and our discussions were based on intelligent analyses of the realities in the US and not on hearsay by people who have never been on field trips to rural areas and who do not even read reports on the realities in the rural areas, but only shuttling on the streets of their urban comfort zones of ghettos posting from their PCs or smart phones and made themselves armchair pundits. But they are among the most silly supporters of the corrupt and incompetent government of President Goodluck Jonathan and his corrupt ruling party that was seen rigging on video posted on YouTube for the whole world to see and millions of northerners who are politically informed hooked on free cable TV and BBC News in Hausa were provoked to go on rampage against the PDP, INEC and innocent citizens caught in the mayhem.

You can fool them sometimes, but you cannot fool them all the time. They are rebelling against the corrupt government of the ruling party.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima