IMO IGR AGAINST THE VANDALISM OF ROCHAS OKOROCHA AND FAMILY! By KEMKA SOLOMON IBEJI

IMO IGR AGAINST THE VANDALISM OF ROCHAS OKOROCHA AND FAMILY!

Let's cry for Imo State!
Let's cry for Imo State!!
Let's cry for Imo State!!!

In the collapse of Abia State and Rivers State orchestrated by massive violent crimes such as the spate of armed robbery, assassinations and kidnapping cases, Imo State grew as the bride of all states in the South-East and South-South especially.

Imo State took over tourism and hospitality. Owerri became the headquarters of happiness and love in Nigeria. This happened at the feet of an ungrateful Governor Rochas Okorocha.

Dr. Ikedi Ohakim prepared the ground for Imo greatness. He started the beautification of Imo State. He created waste management sector that could compare with any such across the globe. Dr. Ikedi Ohakim got the state ready for internal and state-of-the-art infrastructural maintenance outfit.

Shame on Rochas Okorocha and his family! Let's cry aloud Ndi Imo.

Today, we read that Enugu State has IGR of approximately 3 Billion Naira per month while Imo State trails distantly with about 600 Million Naira. What a shame?

In hospitality, commerce, transportation, agriculture, industry, entertainment etc, Imo State ranks far more than Enugu State. Not even education!

Imo State has more hotels than any state in Nigeria. More than Lagos State, more than FCT Abuja, more than Rivers State, more than Enugu State, more than Abia State ,more than Anambra State and any other state in Nigeria.

In commerce, there is no senatorial zone in Imo State that does not have a mega market generating millions of Naira everyday. There is no Federal Constituency that has no moderate market generating millions of Naira everyday. Every Local Government Area in Imo State has a commercial hub generating millions of Naira daily. This goes down to the towns and communities.

The country known as Malaysia came to Adapalm which is one of the agricultural processing outfits established by Imo State many years ago. Malaysia came and took some palm seedlings from Adapalm and today the entire nation's economy is built on palm. The economy of Nigeria as a nation is sustained by crude oil. We are really ready to die for the crude oil. But we do not care and have not had a reasonable government that can grow beyond our past Imo State administrations that were creative. Shame on Rochas Okorocha and his family! He has run down Adapalm. Do we also know that the red oil as at today is costlier than the crude oil? Do we really know that the price of a barrel of crude oil is far less than the price of a barrel of red oil in the international market?

I was opportune to visit the huge resources created by the government of Michael Okpara in the area of rubber. Today, the rubber plantation covers thousands of hectares of land. The Imo State rubber plantation is far much bigger or rather a 100 times bigger than the Palmol rubber plantation in Cross River State. Palmol has more than 1,000 persons in her employ today and not to talk about its value chain in terms of job creation and wealth creation.

With such rubber plantation that we have in Imo State, Imo State should have an indigenous Tyre producing company in the class of Dunlop Elite and the Michelins of this world employing thousands of Imo State citizens and giving opportunities across the state to her people. Shame on Rochas Okorocha and his family! Let's cry for Imo State.

From this point, what is very important to gift to the Governor-elect of Imo State, His Excellency Emeka Ihedioha is ideas on the necessary areas to grow Imo State. Imo already is in deep mess and really needs a supra intelligence to manage the state out of this bad state. So the first thing Chief Emeka Ihedioha must do is to attack the leakages from the state IGR into Rochas Okorocha and his family pockets.

Across Imo State, Rochas Okorocha and his family manage the markets from Ogboko to Nkwo-Orji, from Eke Ukwu market to Nkwo Mbaise, from Achingali to Afor Ugiri, Rochas Okorocha and his family have established taps running millions of Imo State resources into their wretched pockets. His wife, sons-in-law, brothers-in-law, brothers and sisters and cronies are ravaging the state from all its four cardinal points.

HE Emeka Ihedioha should as a matter of urgency check through our markets, our motor parks, our hotels, our industries, our farms and agricultural outfits, our rubber plantations, our Adapalm and much for strong IGR. He should also be looking at raising a strong Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in order to grow the economy of Imo State. The SMEs now employ more than every other sector of the economy because they encompass the various sectors. The SMEs will help the state in such crying areas as job and wealth creation, employment and poverty alleviation.

To this end, let me inform our Governor-elect that Imo State has the potentials of monthly IGR of 6 Billion Naira. It is dependent on his tact and creativity to raise the bar and tap into the values accordingly.

We therefore encourage the Governor-elect to look down and make sure he hires a solid team imbued with the know-how to paddle the boat of Imo State economy and leadership in its variegated spheres. We are watching, capable, ready and willing to help him achieve the good for the entire Imo people.

Once again we enjoin our dear Emeka Ihedioha to look deeply down and get a team to man this job because as they say "if you bend down, you see Aba".


Written by KEMKA SOLOMON IBEJI