By Comfort Obi

On Monday November 16, 2020, the bulldozer meandered, with its frightening jaws, and moved in. Its destination was the uncompleted Somto Hospital, a project of the past Governor Rochas Okorocha’s administration.

The job of the bulldozer was simple: Pull down an uncompleted building, designated as Somto Hospital.

As the building gradually went down under the force of the bulldozer, it reminded one of the sad story behind the Somto Hospital. It brought mixed feelings. Feelings of sorrow and helplessness, engineered by the raw and reckless power of Government.

The same way the bulldozer moved in this Monday, was the same way they moved in on August 20, 2017. The difference: The bulldozers of 2017 brought along with them booming guns, tears, blood, gnashing of teeth, destruction and losses to the tune of hundreds of millions of Naira. That of Monday brought a combination of anger against the Government and contractors that insulted the people’s sensibilities, and spat on the grave of the person in whose memory the project was started, by doing an unimaginable shoddy job.

The story of the Somto Hospital began in 2017. The land on which it was built used to be the sprawling Ekeukwu Market Owere. The market is an ancestral, iconic market which Owere Nshi Ise people pride themselves with. It is as old as Owere. Over the years, it grew in leaps and bounds, taking over a large chunk of a number of streets adjourning it.

Located in the middle of the capital, it became an eyesore, accommodating all sorts.  And  it, also, became a no-go-area early morning, and from early evening, to late evening. Pick pockets reigned supreme. And so did substance sellers and abusers. A number of idle youths became nightmares, bullying early-morning petty traders from nearby villages and towns, mostly, women, selling vegetables, pepper, tomatoes and the lot. They subjected them to paying levies morning and evening. On the Ekeukwu Owere market they fed and feasted.

But the situation was not an Ekeukwu Owere exclusive. Most ancestral markets in Nigeria are like that. Yet, it does not strip them of their iconic status.

In fairness to Okorocha, the Ekeukwu Owere was worrisome. Something needed to be done. The whole area, with its filth, sort of defaced Owerri, and was a minus to its State capital status. A couple of Governors, before him, it is said, had agonized over what to do with Ekeukwu. But none of them had the courage to take any action.

Only Okorocha had that courage. But he went about it in an untidy manner. He disobeyed the law.  Owere Nshi Ise indigenes were in court with him over the market. There was a Court restriction order on his Government over the market.

But  Okorocha is not a man given to patience, protocol, or obedience to court orders. A couple of other times where he disobeyed court orders abound in the state. Otherwise, why was the hurry? Why did the Government not wait out the Court case or got the injunction lifted?

Owerri people have an answer to why he disobeyed the  Court order. They say he has a pathological dislike for Owerri zone. They reeled out instances to back their claim. He humiliated two Owerri sons, one after the other, out of office as Deputy Governor,  based on concocted and deliberate false allegations. He, also, humiliated a Secretary to the State Government, another Owerri son, out of office. All the humiliations, because he felt they were threats to his succession plan.

Okorocha’s demolition squad moved in with tongues of fire. The squad was accompanied by armed men. Some said a combination of Soldiers and the Police, with a large dose of, alleged, armed cult boys.

So, as they demolished, guns boomed. Blood flowed. At the end of the exercise, a 12 year old boy lay dead. He was a victim of stray bullet, many claimed. His name: Somtochukwu.

His devastated father, a trader, according to sources, said he sent him to go and retrieve some of their wares when he was told that the demolition of the market was underway. Why the young boy should be sent to such an errand remains a puzzle to me.

The Government denied complicity. It put the blame on Owerri Youths who, it claimed,  took  over the area, armed,  in readiness for a showdown, a claim the natives vehemently denied.

Outrage against Okorocha and his Government followed Somto’s killing.  Till date, the identity of the person who pulled the trigger has not been confirmed. Nor has the state publicly apologised.

Okorocha visited Somto’s family on a condolence, and among other things, promised to immortalise him. He said he would build a structure at the site of the demolished Ekeukwu market, in memory of Somto. For months, whatever he dilly-dallied.

Speculations went wild over what he wanted to do with land. Some said it was going to be a school. Others said a Mall. Others said the Governor, a man they claim has a thing about any empty land, wanted to appropriate the area to himself, and build an estate.

But, finally, Okorocha settled for a hospital to be known, and called Somto Hospital. So we clapped. Great, we echoed.

Construction began. Billions of Naira was budgeted. But it was abandoned. I cannot confirm, but I am told that in the last months of the Okorocha administration, the hospital was one of the projects commissioned by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. If so, the questions are: how could he? What did he commission?

Was the Vice President taken round the project? Did he look at the back of the building? Did he really inspect it?  My answer is: hardly.

The  project, of course, was a good one, a great idea. But it went awry. The structure and its design did not quite look like a hospital.  But that was not the problem. There was worse. Integrity.

Whatever, then, happened to the billions of Naira,  budgeted?, many, legitimately, asked.

When the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha became  lmo Governor, succeeding Okorocha, he set up a couple of Judicial Panels, including one  on Contracts,  because of the deluge of complaints against the Okorocha Government which greeted him on assumption of office. The Contract Panel had just started when he was replaced with Governor Hope Uzodinma by a  Supreme Court judgement.

Uzodinma surprised not a few when he refused to succumb to  tremendous pressure  to disband the Commissions of Inquiry, especially those on Lands and Contracts. He, instead, strengthened them, and told members to do their work without fear or favour. “Like you people, I am an Imo indigene. So, like my predecessor in office, I am interested in knowing what happened to our State”,  he told the Chairman and members of the Contract Panel, during a meeting, to plead with them to stay on. He promised non- interference. He kept his promise.

Somto Hospital was one of the Contracts investigated. Commission members and appropriate Government Engineers, and Contractors toured and inspected the very much uncompleted project. It was a sight to behold.

The whole of the back was ”hollow”. A painted sepulchre. The walls had deep cracks all over. The inside of the building, and all of its environment, had been reduced to one huge toilet facility. The whole place stank to high heavens.  Miscreants held  away. Many, they say, sleep there. So, the stench was a combination of faeces, urine, indian hemp, and its “lesser and bigger cousins.”

The building failed every integrity test, just as the other projects inspected –  tunnels and flyovers, roads,  the Police Command Headquarters, all of which Government engineers, the Nigeria Society of Engineers, and other  professionals described as tragedies waiting to happen.

The fear of the Somto Hospital building collapsing, and taking with it lives of those who had converted it to toilets and abode, and hangout was strong.The only option, sad as it is, considering the amount of public funds claimed to have been spent,  was a demolition.

On Monday, November 16, the Uzodinma Government took the option to demolish.

Bulldozers moved in, and brought back the sad memories of July 20, 2017.

As they demolished, it was as if the memory of the late Somto was being wiped off Mother-Earth. Not surprisingly, apprehension set-in.

Arguments for, and against, the demolition reached high heavens. And so did the politics of it.

Some saw the demolition as a waste of scarce public funds. What would those against it have wanted done to a project which failed every integrity test? Leave it? That would be suicidal. No Governor would keep such a project, or continue with it. It had no head or tail.

I don’t quite know what the Government plans to use the sprawling expanse of land to do. I hear it is a new modern market with a mall and stalls,  parks, and restaurants, with a Police and fire service stations to the bargain.

That would be nice, and it will give the Capital city a more modern outlook, an outlook which Okorocha started.

In fairness to the former Governor, he opened up Owerri. Until him, the State Capital was no better than a glorified Local Government Headquarters. He had good ideas. But the problems associated with the ideas were many. The finishing and the quality of the projects he embarked on – roads, bridges, tunnels, flyovers, schools, hospitals, malls, stadia, International Conference Centre, Libraries, hotels, the beautification of Owerri, and more – were very poor. At the end, they cast a slur on his ideas, and became a huge waste of money.

But I have an unsolicited advice for the Uzodinma Government. Every new Government loves to start new projects. They abandon the ones started by their predecessor, and most times, duplicate projects.

Each of them wants to embark on new schools buildings, stadia, hospitals, the lot. I beg to differ.

To Uzodinma, I suggest the Governor Nyesom Wike style. Wike did not mind talks like: “They were my projects. He only finished them.” What’s that? Wike finished every project he met on ground, and embarked on more gigantic ones, changing  the face of Rivers state. It is the state’s money. The projects are for the people.  So, why not?

My advice to Uzodinma then: Ignore the temptation and pressure to start new projects. Finish all the badly executed projects embarked upon by Okorocha. Use quality materials. Use good contractors. It doesn’t have to be  Julius Berger. The State’s purse is lean. Monitor the contractors you use. As was the case with many of the contacts investigated, don’t publicly name good contractors, and end up using direct labour. That has killed the state, almost.

What to do?  Re- award the Contracts. The monies used for them are gone, unless you get hold of the Contractors, and their enablers.  Imolites pray that  you do. The money is huge.

Ihedioha started with roads. Continue from there. When the chips are down, it is our state. As they say in local parlance, “na we-we.”

But back to the late Master Somtochukwu. His memory must not be rubbished, or forgotten. He should be honoured. He died over Ekeukwu Owere. There must be something there in his honour.

So, let the name of the Market remain Ekeukwu Owere. But, please, aside from fulfilling all other promises made to his family, the main Mall should be named after him. Somto lives on.

*Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]