“As former U.S President, Theodore Roosevelt aptly captured, The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it .
It is now becoming self evident that the known history and habit of collective excellence in service is gradually disappearing in the governance of Imo State. The so-called Rescue Mission in Imo State is no longer team driven. The logic of the mantra is now lost. As Andrew Carnegie said, No man will make a great leader who wants to do it himself or to get all the credit for doing it .
Leadership by definition cannot be a one man show. Anybody who does not possess the humility and desire to enable him praise others and give them credit is severely handicapped as a leader. To insist on getting the applause and attention solely by the governor is what is impeding governance in Imo State today. The governor has forgotten so quickly that leadership is not a power trip, but about giving power to the people under him and giving them the tools they need to do the job. He has forgotten that his credibility depends on this. The failure of the governor to display integrity to the people who work for and with him is increasing by the day. The fundamental flaw of the Rochas personae is that he does not believe in his own people. This manifests in his inability to empower them to work.
In little over five months in office, the consistency of governor Rochas inconsistencies in building a management team for his administration appears troubling to the average Imo person. Clear evidence of this tendency is the hasty dissolution of newly constituted boards which were inaugurated by him not so long ago. The state Oil Palm Plantation [Adapalm] whose board just functioned for less than three months before being dissolved comes to mind. Also within 24 hours of their inauguration by governor Rochas himself, the board of the Imo State Oil Areas Producing Commission [ISOPADEC] was sacked. It will be recalled also that after merely two weeks in office, the transition committee members set up by Rochas in the local government areas were disbanded and sacked. even his own political party, the APGA executive in the State has been sacked through the machinations of this one man called Rochas.
Previously, the governor went on rampage of dissolutions of organizations, boards, commissions and agencies under the excuse that they have PDP members. Today his cutlass has been unleashed on his own appointees. Over 100 persons appointed by Rochas within his short tenure in office has been shown the exit door. One of the affected Rochas acolytes has this to say about the gale of dismissals ravaging the administration. He said, the problem with Owelle is that he is consumed with image and not productivity, and it is looking certain that Owelle’s motives, priorities, values and goals for Imo people are very suspect. This is a major indictment against the governor coming from a member of his team.
According to Vincent Lombardi, if you are going to play together as a team, you have got to care for one another . This point of view was equally harped upon by John Craig who said that , No matter how much work you can do, no matter how engaging your personality may be, you will not advance far if you cannot work through others. Clearly there is a great weakness in Rochas relationship with people and an accompanying deeper sense of mistrust.
The emerging inconsistencies of the Rochas administration can be seen from his present accumulation of two jumbo loans from commercial banks to the tune of six billion and twelve billion naira respectively just less than six months in office. As of today, the breakdown of the uses and projects to which the loans will be applied has not been disclosed to Imo people. The irony of it all is that the same Rochas shouted hoarse during the campaign that he was opposed to the bond that was accessed from the capital market by the Ohakim administration for selected signature projects.
The present government in Imo State has become so ridiculous and empty that the governor proclaimed the payment of 100 naira per month per elementary school pupils and secondary school students. When divided into the thirty days of the month, this will amount to less than one kobo per day per student. Pray, what on earth can be bought for one kobo? But this epitomises the depth of frivolity governance has dragged down to in Imo State under the Rochas illusionary and delusionary regime. This is another wonder magic from the Rochas comical basket. But all these pale into insignificance when compared with the mother of all abracadabra, which was the 4th tier of government earlier created by the government and said to have been financed with 100 million naira each in the twenty seven local government areas of the State. Where this massive 100 million naira has been sunk into is yet to be seen. And the story continues.
It has now taken the tragedy called Rochas to awaken the Imo people to the monumental hopelessness that lies ahead for them. Today the level of hunger in Imo State has assumed a status not seen even during the civil war. Nobody wants to go home again for fear of their lives due to insecurity. Traffic gridlock has brought commercial activities in Owerri the state capital to a halt. Lack of patronage has seen massive movement of businesses and manpower out of the state. The local contractors are groaning because they cannot access any contract from the state tenders board.It is now regret galore all over Imo State.”
Author Unknown.
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