Gov Okorocha Receives an Open Letter From An Unsatisfied Member of His State

Dear amiable and hard working governor of Imo State, His Excellency Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha.
I would have sent you this letter personally or officially but because of the attitude of some civil servants and some political aides and appointees, who might prevent it from getting to your hands, I have decided to make this letter, which is about the local roads your administration is constructing in all the 27 councils in Imo State, an open one so that you will see it and the world will also bear me witness that I wrote you about the condition of roads in my state, especially as it affects my Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State.
This letter is mainly on roads in Amaokwe, the headquarters of Orsu Local Government and their continued negligence by past administrations in the state since about 20 years ago the council came into being.
You can use the Amaokwe example to appreciate the negligence of a marginalized but important segment of the society you administer, especially those that do not have people in your government or important persons or politicians to speak on their behalf.
I have elected to use this medium to speak for my village people who donated enormous land and resources to house that council. I am also speaking on behalf of other villages in Imo carrying the same burden as ours. Permit me sir, once again, to congratulate you for embarking in opening up the rural areas of the state hitherto neglected by the last two administrations in the state before your esteemed rescue mission come on board.
If the rural roads, free education, rebuilding of primary and secondary schools and health facilities are what you can achieve in your first term in office, such is commendable. If you faithfully execute these rural roads very well and not as ones that will be washed away in the next rainy reason, you would have written your name in gold and Imolites will never forget you.
If you remain focused to your rescue mission, you would have surpassed other administrations in the state. The hundreds of roads itemized in your May 29 scorecard as advertised in the Daily Sun especially on rural roads in each of the 27 councils in the state is commendable.
I have not gone round the entire Imo State to confirm the veracity or otherwise of those roads listed at the various stages of work. I do know that you have opened Orlu urban so well that governors Udenwa and Ohakim combined would wonder how you are performing such earth-shaking projects. Your free education is still a wonder, although there is need for improvement.
People from Okigwe and Owerri zones have also confirmed your good performance in the last two years which I have earlier endorsed in my tentative assessment of your administration in this column some time ago. Dear Owelle, I am proud of all that you have achieved so far in the state and you have my support and encouragement to do more. I am particularly interested in your free education at tertiary level in addition to primary and secondary level as well as free uniform, meals and others.
This is history in the making. All my years of schooling from primary to university, it had never been so. The only time Sam Mbakwe gave Imo Students in higher institutions bursary award of N500, it took me several trips to Owerri to collect it and before it was collected I had spent almost half of the sum in transport.
I advise you to focus on all the projects you have so far embarked upon and complete them before the expiration of your term which is two years away. Taking more and more projects in the next two years may prove counter productive except mopping up operations to address some lapses in your local roads distribution as this article will illustrate using Amaokwe the headquarters of Orsu council as a typical example of such lopsidedness.
I do not know the criteria for distribution of the roads but I know that Orsu council did not get a fair share of the deal. Even at that, the council headquarters, Amaokwe was the worst victim having not witnessed any of its roads tarred since inception of the council. I do not know of any sin or sins we committed to be treated like this in a government we are the landlords.
This is an imbalance that the corrective Owelle administration should correct. Your Excellency, Amaokwe, the headquarters of Orsu council is about the only local government urban town without any single tarred road, twenty tears after its creation.
Udenwa and Ohakim utterly failed to address these lapses instead they tarred some few roads outside the entire Amaokwe that led to the door-mouths of their cronnies and their affluent friends, especially in Orsu North area leaving the entire Orsu south (Amaokwe) that houses the council offices without tarred roads. I thank you sincerely for embarking on about four roads in Orsu now but alas, you also missed important roads that will give the headquarters of Orsu council (Amaokwe) a sense of belonging.
Your four roads like the ones done by mostly Udenwa directly favour those in your government from Orsu who I believe detail these roads to you to favour their villages without giving consideration to the economic needs of other important roads and people that make up the council. I don’t want to mention their names but none of your appointees is from Amaokwe Village in Awo-Idemili.
Hence the utter neglect and since the inception of the council, an Amaokwe indigene has not headed the council either as elected official or as an appointed sole administrator or chairman caretaker committee. Nobody from Amaokwe has been appointed a supervisory councillor and we are not lacking in educated men and women.
Despite the mistreatment, we have voted for any government in power in the state. In your own case, our people gave you all their votes in the same manner they gave your predecessors hence this appeal for your urgent attention and remedial action.
Now that we are in a rescue mission and a corrective one at that, I appeal to you, our dear Owelle, to come to our aid and address the 20 years of glaring injustice and neglect my people have suffered for having nobody to speak for them.
For a start, one of the roads you list that come near to the council is the main gate road at Ogwugwuegbe or St Simon’s Church Awo-Idemili on Orlu/Ihiala highway where you flagged off your campaign in my area as the former regime in Imo refused you access to use the council headquarters.
That road is not up to one kilometer. There are about three short roads that that you should construct to give the headquarters of Orsu council a befitting head start. One is the road from Nkwo-Idemili that passes the council headquarters to Eke Awo. Two is the Nkwo-idemili-Ezimebu to Amaokwe Town Hall road and third is Eke-Awo to Amaokwe Town hall to Ozuru-Akabo in Eziawa.
The Eke-Awo to Amaokwe Town hall road will have a spur at John’s Church to link the council headquarters. These three roads will make for easy accessibility to the council headquarters. Let me also add that the Ihioma-Umuhuokabia road to Ekeututu is also very vital for economic development of Orsu council. Road building should not be for the purpose of massaging the ego of the politicians who are mostly driven by pecuniary and selfish interests. Roads should be built for the overall development of an area.
Roads should not be constructed simply because a politician, who probably rigged himself into power, hails from that area. My idea of development is that it should be even and equitable and geared towards overall development of the entire Orsu council. All the roads I have mentioned for your attention were former roads constructed and maintained by the defunct Orsu County Council and later by Orlu council until Orsu council was carved out of Orlu some years back. These roads have suffered from terrible neglect.
I hope that as a listening governor on a rescue mission that you will come to Amaokwe, the headquarters of Orsu council and rescue our people from years of neglect and disdain by successive Imo administrations. Thank you sir, Your Excellency, as you do so in the name of God and humanity, Amen.