Okorocha must give account of his stewardship – Ihedioha

Val Okara, Owerri

The newly sworn-in Governor of Imo State, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, on Wednesday, said that all aspects of governance in the state were destroyed and desecrated in the last eight years of All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

He stressed that the administration of Owelle Rochas Okorocha lacked due process as it degraded and destroyed most of the institutions and values in the state.

According to him, the judiciary, the legislature and civil service suffered grievous assaults.

He said: “Imo State House of Assembly was made redundant, court orders were routinely disregarded and often times government appeared to act in breach of our constitution and laws”.

“Eight years of maladministration, policy inconsistencies and disregard for rule of law destroyed literally, the foundations laid by our founding fathers, disarticulated a thriving economy, lowered the educational standards, chased away investors and confiscated people’s land”.

The sixth governor of the state observed that eight years of bad governance led to mind-boggling decay of critical public infrastructure and crippling debt burden without any meaningful infrastructural developments to show for such a humongous debt.

Ihedioha made it clear that those who recklessly plundered the economy would be held accountable as his government would not embark on witch-hunting, saying that who have held the positions of authority to should be prepared to render the account of their stewardship.

“We cannot play the ostrich pretending that all is well when indeed we are in a deep hole. Imo is broken and the climb out of the depths of despair will be steep.

They are serious, arduous and tortuous. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious, and they are numerous. They will not be met easily or in short spun of time,” Ihedioha added.

He assured the people of the state that he will run an accountable, transparent and all-inclusive administration.

“We shall enthrone appropriate due process mechanism as a cardinal administrative tool of our government in order to achieve value for money and ensure fairness, transparency and competitiveness in running government business”.

On education, Ihedioha disclosed that his administration would ensure qualitative education by taking appropriate measures for quality education control and review the present free education to ensure the people of the state get the best.

To this end, he said that a bill would be spent to the state House of Assembly to set up an Education Trust Fund that would mobilise resources to support to qualitative education and other educational initiatives in the state.

To tackle unemployment in the state, Ihedioha said that his administration would undertake a massive investment in agriculture and public works programme strategically designed to be labour intensive to absorb more people into the workforce.

He further disclosed that a job Register would be established to collate the particulars of unemployed people and jobs available in all sectors of the economy. This, he said, would bridge the information gap between job seekers and employers.

Some of the personalities that graced the inauguration ceremony to include former state governors, Chief Achike Udenwa, Chief Ikedi Ohakim; former governor of Anambra State Mr. Peter Obi, national chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, General Ike Nwachukwu, and former governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke.

Others are the wife of Biafra warlord, Mrs. Binka Ojukwu, Chief Charles, and Ambassador Kema Chike among others.