IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

Sir, you came into office popular and loved by an overwhelming majority of the Imo people which is obviously the reason you defeated a sitting governor, a no mean feat in our country. You made so many promises all of which you have kept but none of which have been fulfilled. Disregard all the sycophancy; the people are no longer happy with you. It is not a good thing that the people should be unhappy with you because in a democracy such as ours, it is the public’s opinion which should drive the nature and direction of your policies.

Here are the reasons the people are not happy.

You gave free education from the very basic to tertiary level to every child in Imo State. Yet, they end up paying so many surcharge fees that would be easier for parents if they were honestly told they were actually paying for their children’s education. Teachers whom you bought elegant suits with red ties to match and whom you graciously doled out Christmas allowances to have since started complaining that you no longer pay even their statutory salaries on time. Pensioners are groaning in pain and are forced to accept part-payment as their full pension after going hungry for so long. The one-storey primary school blocks in every ward in the state are all there quite alright but some have had their roofs blown out and their windows slip off even before they have been used.

You have scraped virtually all the roads in the state on your bid to do massive road construction or to convert them to dual-carriageways, one of which has left my community without electricity since you assumed office. The people call the few completed or half-completed ones China roads because they are so substandard that the layer of asphalt can barely cover the gravel and now your men have started patching up the roads even when the original contract is yet to be completed.

You are building a General Hospital in each of the 27 local government areas of the state on lands you literally snatched away from the owners without going through the statutory acquisition process or paying any dime in compensation to the owners.

Your own kinsmen are complaining that all that vast area of land where you are building a new university campus in Ogboko, the five-star hotel and the Police College in Obiohia, the Command Secondary School in Mgbee, you didn’t pay the owners any compensation.

Lately, you have started the demolition of marketplaces in stiff defiance of the people’s wish. The Nkwo Umuchima and some others are in rumbles and traders now have to make do with makeshift tents and umbrellas. Traders in Orie Akokwa are hastily evacuating before your bulldozers arrive. I

I therefore strongly recommend that you use the remaining part of your tenure to put things in order and most importantly, listen to your people and follow due process, if for nothing, for posterity’s sake which you always speak of.

Uzoaganobi Ebuka ,Imo State.

The Nation