Fashola wake up, Ohakim catching up
By Godson Offoaro
Monday, August 16, 2010


Gov. Ohakim
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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I had gone halfway into the construction of a story about Owerri - my new place of abode-when a new thought struck me. Yes, about the city of Owerri and its alluring attributes. Its beautiful landscape typified by unending rolling plains that stretch and stretch until it meets the bottom of the blue sky somewhere far, faraway.

About the lush green plains decorated with wide boulevards well manicured. About the exotic buildings made possible by the class conscious people of this city. The imposing new and stylish buildings exclusively built, near the Concorde Hotel area called Akanchawa. A standard plot of land there, I hear, sells for over forty-five million naira.

Those new and southern European-mimicked exotic buildings, which make statement of opulence, located around and about the new Imo Housing Estate known as Extension XA. A standard plot there, I hear, sells for nearly ten million naira. About a unique delicacy named Ofe Owerri (Owerri soup) exhaustively eulogized in many folklores and music lyrics.

King Owigiri, in my mind, is the best thing in the highlife industry now. Listen to his vibes as epitomized in the album OGECH (God's time). About the preponderance of hospitality business derived from the ability of its indigenes to make good dishes; about the city of Owerri's serenity-drenched atmosphere; about the ongoing dredging of River Nworie, yes, that river, which like an overfed python you could, for a whole day view as it flows unobtrusively and empties its whole content into the Otamiri River and from there, down into the Atlantic.

What a beautiful waterfront the banks of this new and improved river would be up on completion, you wonder in delirious soliloquy. Above all, you reckon with Owerri's relative attribute as a safe haven for those who want to run away from the hustle and bustle of life as typified by what obtains in the surrounding cacophonic cities of Aba, Port Harcourt, Umuahia, Onitsha and Enugu. It is also a haven for writers, creative artistes, the home to Kanu Nwankwo and hometown to Genevieve Nnaji and a horde of other Nollywood actors and actresses. To be sure, Owerri has about five degree awarding institutions located within walking distance from one another. Rejoice with me brother, Owerri is now, my home.

Yes, I was in my mind, paying tribute to this place fancifully and appropriately called the capital of Igbo Heartland -a fine place to live and do business, east of the Niger - when I came upon its newest enchanting vista. A city, which has consistently been voted the cleanest in Nigeria. Yes, and about its other alluring and attracting vicissitudes which are not fit to publish (lest my wife gets a fit) when suddenly, I came upon a new story line that I thought would please my editors and the reading public. Quickly, I crowded my previous lines out in order to now, present you with this. The writer must be mad. Can't you see for yourself?

Driving up Ugwu Orji on my way to Okigwe a few days ago, I came upon bulldozers, earthmoving machines, graders, pay loaders, men in pink-colored uniforms, road superintendents, surveyors and all manners of men involved in road construction. It was a beehive. It quickly reminded me of similar activities that heralded the construction of a similar road project at Cele Bus Stop in Lagos some years back.

Those endless hold ups that stretched into Oshodi and sometimes, to Mile 2. It was vintage Raji Fashola. But this, now, is Owerri. And this, vintage Ohakim. When I looked deeper, I noticed that a road which the previous day was occupied by mechanics and roadside vendors had been torn open and apart. I looked further down to observe that overnight, the sprawling new road filled with red earth is the latest in Governor Ikedi Ohakim's peculiar initiative to transform Owerri.

The workers were busy, scraping, mowing on a road that had lain fallow since I started coming into Owerri many years ago. Upon investigation, I was told that Governor Ikedi Ohakim was at it again. He wants to open a new road which will connect Orji town with Onitsha and Port Harcourt roads, thereby creating a by-pass that inevitably would reduce expected traffic jam on the already crowded downtown roads of Owerri municipal. This bypass which is captured in a fanciful self explanatory billboard that gave a photo prototype of what the road would like on completion depicts a new road network encompassing a flyover and that which would circle Owerri like a belt. It is the beginning of the Owerri new ring road.

It made me remember one rainy Saturday morning in mid June 2010. That day, residents of Owerri woke up to witness the worst traffic jam in the history of the town. Reason: the people of Julius Berger had rudely caused untold hardship as they blocked some major roads, thereby causing inexplicable diversions, without warning. They began to excavate concrete slabs buried in one segment of the Owerri Port Harcourt Road. Because nobody knew what was amiss, people rained curses on the person of Governor Ohakim and his administration.

Over a pepper soup discussion that evening with people in my neighborhood who ought to know, the argument went even fiercer. “Ohakim is disturbing the lives of his people” said one person. “Ohakim is a destructive person” said another. “What is he doing tearing up a road network that has done nothing to him and thereby disturbing the lives of the people?” I was furious, blaming my pepper soups mates that we Nigerians are imbued with the disdainful attribute of impatience. Yes, there may be an emergency road reconstruction going on, but it did not ask the people to stampede and drive against traffic thereby compounding a situation that was already bad because of the newness of traffic diversions, which actually, had caused an untold gridlock. In Lagos, Fashola would have arrested such people and taken them, to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

I admonished that understanding and a wait-and-see attitude should be the way to go being ignorant myself about what was going on. I was sure that whatever construction or reconstruction work that was going on would eventually be in the best interest of the people. I was emboldened by my inner intuition. Sighting Julius Berger (JB) earthmovers and machines at work further strengthened my resolve. This JB people, I reasoned, do not go to where nothing concrete was happening or was about to happen. Julius Berger people are people of action. They make things happen. Few days later, the statute of strength which adoned the colonially-designed roundabout at the frontage of Maria Assumpta Cathedral was carefully moved and relocated to a smaller roundabout, along Sam Mbakwe Avenue.

To cut a long story short after those initial traffic congestions caused by the frenetic staff of Julius Berger, I beg to report that the JB people have finished their job. The road is now wider. I understand that the JB people had to properly reposition the roundabout leading into Owerri, because work was about to resume on the dualization of the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road up to the boundary between Imo and Rivers State.
Now, entrance into Owerri either from Port Harcourt, or Onitsha or Aba is a spectacle. It is a cake walk. The long delays we witnessed and that seemingly un-ending traffic gridlock has now given way to a smooth ride into Owerri. Lesson number one learned: No pain, no gain. To reconstruct, you must deconstruct.

I had in a previous essay said that Governors Ikedi Ohakim and Raji Fashola are men of similar destinies. That was about two years ago. Then, both men were locked in what seemed like a race to outdo each other performance wise. When Fashola began to deface Lagos in order to repair it, Ohakim embarked on what seemed an anti-people policy, in order to reposition Imo. Then suddenly Fashola tore away. Then there was a lull in Imo.

Now it is like a new dawn in Owerri and to large extent, Imo State. Since, the middle of March, Owerri had known no sleep. Day in day out, night in night out, Ohakim has marshaled out his team. They are busy tearing apart the whole city. No part is spared. The dualization of the Owerri Okigwe Road is almost complete. The beautification plank is seen in motion as street lights, traffic lights, flower and tree plantings are in furious gear - everywhere you go to in Owerri. Every nook and cranny of the town is having its own share of renovation, reconstruction and rejuvenation.

The machines are humming non-stop. An army of street cleaners modeled after what is seen on the streets of Lagos, is now seen everywhere in Owerri, the capital of Imo. Men and women are working tirelessly to open up this heartland of Igbo, hitherto neglected. Looks like someone is egging Ohakim to overtake Fashola, after all, competition should be the hallmark of democracy. Prompting me to now alert Fashola that Ohakim is close on his heels.

Fashola and Ohakim are visionaries. When I wrote about them the first time, I had opined that if the two men were Americans, public opinion polls would have aided voters to urge their respective political parties to draft them to run for the highest political position in the land. If they belonged to the same party, either would be president the other, a VP.

Unfortunately, it is not so here. Here is a land where mediocrity rules over merit. Here is a land where offices are zoned based on tribe and or the highest bidder. This is a land where the best is relegated to the background while the half-baked over-run the system in brazen arrogance and ugly display of wanton ignorance. May I crave your indulgence to go to bed? My tired fingers are aching.


Offoaro wrote from Havensgate Owerri. Offoaro@yahoo.com