By Gideon Njoku
If the scene which played out at the Plenary Session of the Imo State House of Assembly, IMHA, on Tuesday, April 22, 2019 is anything to go by, then, Governor Rochas Okorocha’s problems are bound to worsen.
Seeing that he has become a lame-duck governor, the sleeping members have suddenly woken up, and are asking questions, questions they refused to ask for almost eight years. They are asking about the financial status of the state. They are also interrogating his government. And, for the first time in almost eight years, they are disagreeing with their disgustingly Okorocha-compliant Speaker, Hon. Acho Ihim.
The state is poised for an exciting time.
Flowing from the above, Ihim may be impeached. And if that happens, there may be no stopping an attempt at impeaching the governor.
At the session, a couple of hitherto untouchable areas were touched. To stave off a discussion on them, which may lead to his impeachment, Speaker Ihim did the most absurd. He ordered that the power generating set in the complex be switched off. It plunged it into darkness. But the members were unrelenting. They switched on their mobile phone flash lights, forcing the Speaker to ask that the genset be switched on again.
It started when Hon. Chika Madumere, Nkwere LGA, raised issues about the 2019 state budget. The budget presented by the governor was hurriedly passed on January 31, 2019 without a quorum. Not upto eight members of the 27 members were present. But nobody minded. Nobody said a word. And as far as Okorocha’s government is concerned, the budget has been passed, even when no committee sat on it.
But things have changed. And the illegality that was the passage of the budget has surfaced. At the plenary last Tuesday, therefore, Madumere asked about the budget, and why it has not been brought up for discussion. Taken aback, Speaker Ihim tried to give the impression that the budget had been done with. But he met a stiff resistance from the members who insisted that the Budget had not been discussed. Meaning: Whatever budget the governor is working with, and implementing, is illegal.
The trouble was compounded when another member, Hon Kennedy Ibe, Obowo LGA, moved a motion to the effect that the financial status of the state be investigated. He said the investigation should include how the bailout and, the Paris refund, funds were spent.
At the inception of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, he had released funds to the tune of hundreds of millions of Naira to states to enable them clear the salaries owed civil servants. The Paris Club refund also came in handy. But for Imo state and a number of other states, both financial interventions seem not to have helped much. Salaries, allowances and pensions are still being owed.
The financial status of Imo state, since Okorocha, has always been mired in controversy. The strong allegation is that the state is indebted to banks and other creditors to the tune of billions of Naira. And the future of the state has been completely mortgaged. But Okorocha, as boastful and mesmerizing as ever, insists the state is not indebted to any institution. That is the question to which answers members of the IMHA are looking for.
Is the state owing or not? If so, to which creditors? And, how much? If not, how much is the state worth? To what use were both the bailout and Paris Club funds put to? How were the funds deployed?
To get to the root, the members unanimously agreed to invite the Accountant General of the state, and the Commissioner for Finance, to appear before it the next day, Wednesday, April 23.
The sudden seeming tough stand of the members has got many Imolites guessing. Their thinking has gone into an over-drive. What are the IMHA members upto? Why are they suddenly asking questions?
Dubbed the most cowardly and the most subservient House of Assembly since Nigeria’s democracy, not many people take the members seriously. They only rubber-stamp. And, if the governor asked them to jump, led by the most ineffective Speaker to hold an office, they would ask: How high?
Not a few people insist that by asking questions now, some of the members want to redeem their soiled image. Seeing that the governor has become lame-duck, they want to show him their true colours. And they want to do that by insisting that the Speaker can no longer push them around, or ride roughshod over them. And they are intent on dangling an impeachment stick before him.
For that, Ihim is allegedly fidgety. And bringing out every arsenal in his bag to stave off any such action. Asking that the power-generating set be switched off last Tuesday, was one of such actions.
A source, however, told this magazine that while many members are disgusted with Speaker Ihim, their main target is the governor. They are not averse to disgracing him out of office through an impeachment. Said a member who pleaded anonymity “Okorocha is a master of impeachment. Paying him back in his own coin won’t be a bad idea. In fact, it is attractive to many of us, and we might as well do it.”
But not a few people differ. They say the members are only trying to line themselves up for a soft landing when the new administration takes off. They are afraid. Many illegalities were carried out in the House. Opposition members were suspended brazenly for asking questions. At least, two Deputy Governors were illegally impeached. Court orders were alarmingly disobeyed.
However, many discerning people insist the members are playing games. They say they are acting a prepared script. That they were neither serious in their decisions, nor in their summons of the Accountant General or the Finance Commissioner.
Proof: On the appointed day, the members disappeared after holding a valedictory session for one of them who passed on.
The next day, the invited government officials merely sent a letter, stating they were out of town, and asked for another date to appear.
Case, closed? Perhaps not. They have been asked to appear first week in May.
Whatever, as from June 11, when the new IMHA will be inaugurated, things will never be the same. Imolites are already looking forward to a more vibrant, responsible, Assembly, which members will work for the good of the people, and not for an individual.
