Former chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi, has described Imo state under Governor Rochas Okorocha as a Hollywood theatre and apprentice workshop with scattered tools. He said the seven-year reign of Okorocha has experienced more of destruction than consolidation, which has adversely affected the socio-economic condition of the state.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the first distinguished public lecture of Paul University, Awka, Anambra state, Amadi who is vying for the state governorship seat under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), promised to take the state away from the ‘theatre’ if voted into power.
He said he would not have contemplated contesting for the position but for the numerous anomalies existing in the state. “I’ve fully declared to run for the governorship of Imo state under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). A friend of mine called me and said I am too decent, ethical and moral to be involved in politics, but I told him that politics is at the heart of transformation.
“I’m contesting because there is the need to rescue the ‘rescue mission’ which has turned out to be a ‘destruction mission’. I’ll galvanise the best experts in fields and other unbelievable human capital being wasted in the state,” he said.
He blamed the abysmal performance of the state to wrong political choices, as well as the culture that made those choices, but added that, “once you change the political culture by bringing technocrats, those with experience and integrity for that matter, the narrative will automatically change.”
“We’re going to sanitise leadership, take it away from the theatre. In the last seven years, governor Okorocha has promoted the concept of leadership I call leadership as theatre and criminality. It means that a leader is a jest master and chief comedian, the biggest actor Hollywood master.
“Governance is all about rolling your sleeves, sitting down, reading the reports, talking to constituents, finding problems and thinking about how to solve them.
“As the NERC chairman, people said I did extremely well, but it wasn’t by only divine sort of powers. It was simple. I went through refresher course every morning in my office. I sat from 7 to 9 with an expert from Canada who pushed me through the basics.
“But in Imo, there is a rally every morning at the Hero’s Square by school children as if that’s what governance is all about. Imo is an apprentice workshop, scattered tools, digging up roads in rainy season. There is some level of insanity in the heart of misgovernance in the state,” Amadi added.
Comparing himself with former Governor Sam Mbakwe who he said governed the state using the experience of a civil rights lawyer, defending abandoned property, the ex-NERC boss said he would reset the state as a human rights lawyer, development scholar and technocrat using his integrity, competence experience he garnered from his previous assignments.
“Imo presently has only 5.9billion as IGR, as against 5.8billion in 2011. That means only 100 million was added. Jigawa had 1.5billion in 2011, but increased to 5.4billion in 2017, adding 4billion. Rochas has retarded by destroying rather than building means of livelihood.
“By destroying markets and means of house-hold income, he has succeeded in destroying means of IGR for the state. Before now, Imo was top in education, but the story is now different with other states in the South East doing better than us.
“How can we have all these constellation of stars and untapped potentials and someone feels he can impose his family members and in-laws on us? We’re coming with the New Imo Movement to clean the state,” he asserted.
