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Governor
Okorocha,Imo State Assembly
Speaker and the 10,000 disengaged
workers
By Kenneth Uwadi
Newsdiaryonline Mon Aug 29,2011
Some Nigerian politicians play the ostrich
game; hard to hear, hard to see and hard to smell trouble
brewing in the air. Days ago, Invitation started spreading round
for a 50,000 man
march In Owerri in solidarity for the 10,000 disengaged Imo
State graduate
workers. But Governor Okorocha is not losing sleep. He sticks to
his usual posture. What is it? Pay no heed to the hypocritical
sanctimony of these 10,000 job
folks .He got into a plane and jets out of the country
on a two week visit
to Asia. To him,the 10,000 sacked workers should go to
hell for they deserve unemployment.
On this trip, we are told that
Okorocha
intends to attract foreign investors to Imo
State to develop the areas of
power, agriculture and tourism. Oga Patapata, thank you
for gracing
the Asian countries
with your
saintly presence. Did I hear anyone say he is out there to
attract foreign investors to Imo
State ? For where? Oga Patapata
Okorocha has
no intention to draw investors
from anywhere. He is just unnecessarily indulging in
junketing not giving a damn about the problems in Imo State.
Okorocha
has increased the number of Nigerian Governors
that have turned their office into a tourism ministry by
going on too many travels out of the country.He is failing to
attend to pressing issues in
Imo State because he is always traveling out of the
country. It is disappointing that Governor Okorocha
has decided to pay a blind eye to the challenges the
10,000 disengaged workers are facing and has instead
focused on attending to every international event that comes up
in his diary.Maybe this time
he has gone
to Saudi
Arabia and Iran to help resolve the differences between the two
countries or gone
to Pakistan
to talk about ways to resolve the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria
with Al Qaeda. Oga Patapata,please stop this your useless
foreign trips.
Can someone help me tell Owelle to
first try to resolve the problems in his home State of
Imo. He should make himself
a welfare conscious governor by
re-engaging the 10,000 Imo state citizens that he sacked
from work since June 6th this year rather than
junketing round
the globe.Here is a Governor who during electioneering
campaigns promised that before his first 100 days in office, he
would create jobs for youths. Sadly just three months
of his government, he has thrown back into the labor
market 10,000 highly qualified youths. The Governor’s actions
are callous.
You may write me down
with your bitter, twisted lies.You may trod me in the
very dirt.But still, like dust, I'll rise
and continue to say
it that
Okorocha has no reason to sack the workers
other than he is anti-people and anti-workers conscious.
Does my assessment of the governor upset you? Why are you beset
with gloom? You may shoot me with your words. You may cut me
with your eyes.You may arrest
me with your hatefulness
,but still, like air, the truth must be told. last week,
over 8,500 Imo state graduates applied for 20 police cadet
positions assigned to Imo State. You can see that the situation
is very pathetic and we must speak to help these poor
graduates.
Dr Emenike Nwankwo said in an article I
read earlier ‘Imo
State was a war zone and these poor kids worked hard to do
whatever was legal under Ohakim to get their jobs. If the
new body did not like how they got it, they should
quickly make changes that does not affect those who must work by
impoverishing them the more. They need jobs whether by Ohakim or
any other”
All these are happening in Imo state
because the Imo House of Assembly has refused to do their jobs.
Dr Emenike Nwankwo also
said “what regulations and what steps have theImo House
of Assembly taking
to protect the interest of the powerless 10,000 workers. Saying
they are not qualified does not create a job for them. We
elected a new governor and house to give them jobs or make their
jobs legitimate.”
It is true that a Speaker of a State House
of Assembly plays a key role in the governance of a State and
has a very big stake too but Oga Yafunyafu Uwajumogu has totally
made himself a Yes man to governor Okorocha that we from outside
the corridors of power
see him as a
weak Speaker
In his Acceptance Speech as Speaker , Rt.
Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu pledged that the House will enact
people’s oriented laws and motions through effective legislative
responsibility which will put smiles on the faces of Imo people
in a bid to bring
to the grassroots the impact of the “Rescue our pocket mission”
of the government of His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
But we are yet to see
laws sponsored and approved by the Speaker
that is
of
help to the growth
of Imo state. All what we hear in Imo State is dissolution upon
dissolution. We are yet
to know
the notable things that the speaker
has done beside
receiving one politician or
one traditional ruler or
paying empty courtesy visits . Sir, na your turn ooooo.
It is good and commendable that you spend valuable hours on
courtesy visits, instead of wasting your time attending to the
need of Imo state. The more courtesy calls the more developed
Imo will become.
When I read Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha’s
defense of the Imo Assembly Speaker on the 10,000 job issue,I
laughed.Iwuoha is an activist gone soft. If it were those
days,Iwuoha would have been in the forefront of the fight for
the re-engagement of the 10,000 workers.Iwuoha told us
that so far the present government has taken back about
4,500 people out of the 10,000
into the system. I immediately made phone calls to some
of the 2035 workers that the government shortlisted their names
on paper but refuse to fix them on payroll to ascertain Iwuoha’s
story.
In Umuapu, 28-year-old Ukachukwu said he
is still at home without a job since his sack in June .
Ukachukwu
has had "on-and-off jobs" since losing his job, most recently
driving taxi cab for his uncle.He is one of the 2035 workers
shortlisted but has not been asked to resume work.In Emekuku,
Nta, 26, has also worked for a short period of three months
with the Imo State Civil Service before receiving the
shocker sack from Governor Okorocha.Now he work
for a gardening contractor to feed
himself and his aged mother but is still hoping that
Governor Okorocha will reinstate the 10,000 workers so that he
can go back to work
Last
week, Imo state alone received over N14.5 billion in
allocation for the month of July excluding local government
allocations. What about the allocation for excess crude for Imo
State? Then, tell me why we can't help these poor youths. I join
others to call on the government of Imo State to immediately and
unconditionally recall the 10,000 workers who have been unjustly
sacked by the government
since June
2011. We do not want 10000 youths in kidnapping and armed
robbery .I also join others in calling
on the leadership of
NLC in Imo
state to defend the rights of the 10,000 workers.
Kenneth Uwadi writes from Mmahu-Egbema,Imo
State,Nigeria
Related
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