Imo State governor, Chief Emeka Ihedioha is going down in history as the most quickly hated governor in Africa, as the first three months of his illegal stay in Government House have been characterized with protests, anger and disappointment by a wide majority of Imo people.
Civil servants across the State are protesting the failure of the governor to pay them their ‘100%’ salaries as promised. After much foot-dragging by the governor, he reluctantly added some ignoble fractions to the salaries of selected civil servants, while deducting huge amounts from those of others.
At the Specialist Hospital in Umuguma, Owerri West LGA of the State, health personnel took up placards and downed tools, as they decried what they described as the “Ihedioha’s style of deceit and falsehood’ against them. One of the protesting workers directly accused the governor of being ignorant of how a government works.
“The governor seems to have wasted his years in the House of Representatives without learning the most basic principles of public administration and governance. He speaks without having the facts and acts without knowing the rules. The governor, on taking office promised to pay us 100% salaries and as well committed to several demands of ours, but in less than three months, our condition has deteriorated rather than improved. We are receiving lesser salaries than we received in the last administration and our welfare has become deplorable.”
For cab operators, especially within the capital city of Owerri, it is more years, everyday. Some of the transporters are no longer able to pay up their bills, while some are at risk of losing their vehicles due to their inability to meet up with their hire purchase agreement. A taxi driver gave a hint of what they pass through in the hands of government agents;
“The government continues to harass us through the different task forces they set up. They are ripping us off, so badly that at the end of every business day, we hardly have something to take back home to our family, or to pay our weekly instalments to the owners of the cars, as most of them are being ran under a hire purchase agreement.”
Meantime, resident doctors across the State have served a notice for the resumption of its industrial action. The physicians have accused the government of failing to keep to any side of its bargain with them, including, failing to pay them, salaries since May 2019 till date.
IMO EMEBIELA OZO!
