Jude Okorocha
Governor Hope Uzodinma needs to do urban renewal, development and expansion in Orlu and Okigwe urban LGAs.
Also, For cash empowerment of about N40,000, Imo Youths are drawn from the 27 LGAs to travel to and lodge in Owerri for days. Other states would conduct the empowerment program in the local government or senatorial district level.
Owerri traffic jam is becoming a nightmare due to continued migration of people from Orlu and Okigwe zones to settle in Owerri zone where public institutions and amenities are allowed – often in triples or even in quadruplets – in Imo state, while nothing is allowed outside the senatorial district hosting the state capital.
Teachers and pensioners in Imo state must pay pilgrimages to Owerri before their salaries and pensions issues can be resolved.
Military leaders created the present Imo state and demarcated the state into 27 LGAs and 3 senatorial districts primarily for even development of the state, as well as reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks in concentrating all administrative activities in the state capital.
Those leaders must be gnashing the teeth today as political leaders in Imo state increasingly reduce the development process of the state to become an affair of the senatorial district which hosts the state capital.
In 14 months, only a 1.1km urban road was reconstructed by the present governor of Imo state in the 2nd largest urban center – Orlu – of Imo state.
The present governor of Imo state has taken the idea that Owerri shall remain the only modern city in Imo state to greater heights. He has divided Owerri into six districts for refuse disposal.
Reconstruction of Owerri urban roads is his main preoccupation. It’s like the present governor reckons with only Owerri as the urban center in Imo state. If not, if turn by turn method of development is his choice, by the time he finishes with Owerri area, the current rate of escape of population and businesses from Orlu and Okigwe areas would have multiplied.
Turn by turn is not used anywhere for development of a state; infrastructural development by every government is build here and build there all at the same time.
A true politician is expected to leave aside his old prejudices against a part of his state or country once the politician rises to a high political position like state governor or president of a country; if not, he wrecks havoc on his state or country.
Even if IMSG builds skyscrapers in Owerri now or expand Owerri capital territory to the boundaries with Rivers and Abia states to accommodate population influx to Owerri, but continues to write off urban renewal and expansion in Orlu and Okigwe areas, Imo state shall be worse for that.
The idea that state capital must be finer than other parts of the state is a ruse; only the poorly informed buy the idea. Above all, the idea has no backing in Nigeria’s constitution.
Okorocha as governor dwelt much on Owerri urban renewal, development and expansion.
Gov Hope Uzodinma needs to do urban renewal, development and expansion in Orlu and Okigwe urban LGAs.
9News Nigeria (Owerri)
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