Imo, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again!
The great literary icon, Prof Ola Rotimi, in one of his renowned dramas captioned a politically attuned play, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, and therein brought the concept of madness into political terrain.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defined madness or the state of being mad, not only as mental disorderliness or insanity but also as a state of being completely restrained by reason and judgment, being carried away by intense anger, and being marked by wild gaiety and merriment. In any of the states or cases, madness underscores silliness, foolish attitudes and craziness that is cyclical. That is why it is associated with the moon (in Latin- Luna); thus the Latin origin of the Englishlunatic.
Madness as indicated above is not mental disorder, but the restrain of (balanced) reasoning and (sound) judgment. These are the powers of the human soul that enables man to act in virtuous manners and thus distance his comportments from public misconducts. Again, madness as being overwhelmed by intense anger or fury is an irascible, grouchy and petulant disposition of the human mind that tends to push one to vindictiveness, and thus seeking revenge, being spiteful and embarking on vindication. Similarly, being marked by wild gaiety and merriment entails excess hilarity, thus the state of being extremely funny, boisterous and high-spirited, lacking control and as the great Greek Philosopher Aristotle, said virtue lies in the middle of excesses and deficiencies.
These three categories of mental dispositions can be situated in Imo State today in respect with its leadership. The Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, truly is not the father of State but its husband. By husband, I mean not a male partner in marriage, but the Master of the house or Householder, as in the old French etymons (hus- House and bondi- Holder, bonder, thus husband as householder). As the Master of the house or Householder, the Governor is supposed to be a frugal (or virtuous) Manager of the State and is bound to manage prudently and economically the resources of the State.
Whenever I reflect on the economic situation of the State at present and certain economic ventures and strides taken so far by the Imo State Governor, I tend to conclude that Our Husband, the Imo State Governor- Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has derailed from his statutory function of the frugal or virtuous Manager or Householder of the State who is bound to manage and use the resources of the State sparingly and frugally, to extravagancy and spendthrift. This derailment is pure madness as explained above, and the madness could be caused by any of these three stands: Restrain of balanced reasoning and sound judgement, vindictiveness or excess hilarity, and not pure madness as insanity because he knows fully well all he is doing and feels very contented doing them, pure sadism.
If not madness as any of these three states of mind, how can Rochas justifiably decide to throw Imo State into 20 years debt despite his knowledge and conviction that the economy of the country is speedily dwindling? At present, Imo State is disposed to be indebted to the Federal Government of Nigeria to the tune of N60bn- A total of the N34bn and N26bn Federal Government bailout that is repayable in 20 years. Despite this N60bn, Our husband within one month of the Federal Government bailout N60bn has gone to borrow another N20bn that is repayable monthly by N403million for 7 years- outliving his regime, and drawing debts of 3 years to the next State Governor after him.
The worst is that none knows or could foretell the economic situation of the country in the next 7 years, and thus the debt plus its interest will certainly inhibit the next Governor after him from working and thus or most probably ill-disposed to any sound socio-political and economic governance. This is bewitchment of the society and utter lunacy. The Igbo Gospel singer, Patty Obasi, once sang of an Okoro Mamiwota whose house is burning and instead of quenching the burning house, he puts head into the bush pushing a rat that ran out of the burning house for safety against the heat and dangers of the burning house, just because the rat had in the past put its household in noisy torture.
When I reflect on the reasons he gave as the direction for the utilisation of the N20bn besides the Federal Government bailout, as for the completion of old and new projects in the State, I nod approval with Prof Ola Rotimi that this Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. And it is utter lunacy that despite these N80bn with two months, he has listed 20 parastatals in the State for concession and concession of these parastatals gives him big economic relief that ought to save for further economic investments, yet he goes ahead to borrow on the head of the unborn children and government of the State. Even these concession acts are also instantiation madness.
If not utter lunacy, how can a Husband and Householder and Master or frugal Manager of the State resources, with sound judgement and reasoning, fizzle out that the best approach to solving the economic quagmire of the State is through the concession of 20 State parastatals at a stretch, heavy taxation placed on unnecessary spheres of public life in the State (through his viral taskforces and committees that i called Locusts and Hoppers), outright sale of the 27 General Hospitals in the State and privatisation of all the local primary healthcare centres in the State where the poorest of the poor in the State, manage to take treatment from?
Is it not utter lunacy that to pay the salaries of workers as directed by the President of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari, the corruption fighter that God raised for Nigeria as our epochal angel in distress, Governor Okorocha has to select vindictively the category and sections of parastatals, commissions, ministries and agencies he has to pay and then go ahead to pay workers he owes 10 months salaries, just 7 months each and compel them to forget about the remaining three months as grand services to fatherland, while he himself boasts publicly to them that he has amassed wealth for even his tenth generation who will never lack in the State?
Tell me, is our Husband not mad again, when the whole country is in turmoil over the rate of unemployment in the country, and to solve the problem, he has to sack the whole youths that he maliciously engaged under N20, 000 monthly salaries for all graduates and non-graduates engaged in his Government work? Will the sack provide employment of increase criminality in the State, as idle youths are the most productive devils’ workshops? This madness came first when he sacked the 10,000 youths lawfully engaged by Governor Ohakim and people saw criticisms against their sack then as mere pillories from political opponents. I want to remind Imolites that during the just concluded elections in the State, Our Husband promised Imo that his second tenure would be: Job, job, job; employment, employment, employment; industry, industry, industry. Now, the fulfilment of the promises has turned to extreme funniness, which is one of the significances of madness seen
above.
In his extreme gaiety, which is another form of madness too, he has sacked the whole youths working, sold off hospitals and poor people’s primary healthcare centres, positioned taskforces even in pissing corners in one’s homes, placed 20 State parastatals on concession, planned to emerge ancient kingdoms that existed before the birth of his ancestors in order to save cost of governance, borrowed N80bn for the unborn Imo, and after selling these parastatals, promised to build in each of the over 500 Autonomous Communities in the State that he has politically multiplied, an industry. Has he asked himself the withal of the I kula nkwu industrialisation he sarcastically embarked upon a year and half ago? This is utter madness, a lack of sound reasoning and judgment. Where I have heard of such madness before was in the reign of the old Roman Emperor Nero, who burnt the old Rome, in order to build a new Rome before him in a sketched plan, and Nero truly
was mad and thus set Rome ablaze as Imo is now.
This is utter lunacy that even despite these, no single road, State or Federal in Imo State is smoothly motorable again. If you are coming to Imo from Anambra State now, you will be held by hold-up from Orogwe to Irete, a distance of nearly 1 kilometre; just because of a 20 yard pothole of the expressway that a good-willed State Governor like Godswill Akpabio would put ordinary chippings on it and thus make it motorable, causing the State less than N50, 000 and thus save the hardship of the people he governs. This road for the past 3 weeks has consumed the lives of not less than 7 Imolites ranging from the ones in front of Senator Araraume’s Destiny Foundation to the Irete potholes for Shoel transmission, and Our Husband is borrowing money for us to pay back 7 years later, while he amasses wealth for his tenth generation unborn. This is utter lunacy and an adjusted-cum-modernised contemporary money laundering act. The same thing is applicable to the
entrance from Imo to Rivers State (Port Harcourt) road and Owerri Aba road (Abia State). Which old and new projects are Okorocha building and completing? The whole Primary and Secondary Schools in the State are understaffed, each having less than four teachers and parents are pulling their children and wards to private schools, and to solve the quagmire, his best approach too, is to impose heavy taxes on the private schools and hospitals as perspective deterrents to parents that want their children to escape the planned brain-drain for future Imolites not from Rochas’ tenth generation. This is utter lunacy and a vindictive act, as he openly tells Imolites today that he bought his second tenure with his money; that Imo did not vote him, consequently he is bent to punish all- Vindication and madness.
The time has come for us all to rise and join President Buhari in his fight against corruption in Nigeria and thus fight the chief corrupt officer in our State, Our Husband who monthly turns into one form of madness or the other. Silence entails consent, and consenting further implies participating in the saga at hand. These are abnormal behaviours and governance that we need to fight against, and thus either make ways of restoring our erring Husband to normalcy or drag him to public court for vote of no confidence. Imo, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, truly and finally, let’s catch him before he stripes himself naked and goes gaga and wilder.