Upon the truncation of democracy rule in Rivers state and the position of the NBA on that, the NBA National Executive Council of the NBA and the Conference planning committee took the position to move the conference out of the state.
As the Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Owerri branch, I participated in the compilation of list of hotels and number of room in Owerri, which is one of the initial criteria set by the Organizing Committee for selecting which state the hosting right would be ceeded to. We innocently wished we could attract the coveted gathering to Imo State, believing our dear state has what it takes. Of course we met the estimated number of hotel rooms but the NBA NEC unanimously chose Enugu ahead of Imo.
The questions we asked didn’t make sense until we had spent these past days at the Coal City state, I wouldn’t have honestly known how backwards we are as a state. The conference in Enugu is being hailed by all attendees as superb, this is no doubt owing to the organization, neatness, planning, civility and infrastructure in place in the state.
While I drove into Owerri from Enugu yesterday, the wave of thoughts that flashed through my mind were, what if we had succeeded in bringing the conference to Owerri, claiming capacity to host, what would have been the experience of lawyers?
I imagined lawyers driving through pools and ponds of stagnant waters and large potholes to get to hotels located in the hearts of the town, the un tarred streets of New Owerri, Portharcourt Road and World Bank, the abandoned streets of Prefab and Aladinma, just to mention a few. This is against the wonderfully, smoothly and solidly tarred internal streets roads throughout the Enugu Metropolis, our major toads in Owerri are just being managed and of course our internal streets do not have any hopes of getting government attention even in coming years.
I imagined lawyers from outside the state encountering the rogue police and joint task forces operational in Imo state at the hidden creepy checkpoints they constitute at night, kept on long queues while collecting tolls from bus drivers and when they tell them that they are lawyers and are in the state for the conference, they’d probably be told that “their lawyer is for their pocket, that this is Imo state and there’s insecurity and that they can kill them and nothing will happen.” This is against the disciplined, intentional and organized policing we experienced in Enugu state. Policemen are dutifully placed at designated checkpoints, well and neatly dressed, with those immaculate white DRS vehicle, very polite, and about the safety of citizens and not focused on extorting motorists or intimidating unsuspecting individuals illegally.
I imagined the traffic police officers at Prisons, Government house, Bank road, etc, controlling against traffic lights and jumping into people’s cars, claiming they beat traffic light , the jobless beggers masquerading as traffic controllers at other junctions chasing after flashy cars and truckers. This is against the neatly dressed officers of the Enugu state ministry of transport who are at the junctions assisting free flow of traffic, without coming off as ordinary beggars or touts.
I imagine the road from Government college Okigwe road to Government house roundabout, being blocked on one lane from morning till evening and being extended from Government House to Bank road later in the evening. This against the free to all access to all roads in Enugu to all manner of persons, including the one directly at the gate of the Eneugu state government house, very close to the conference venue, free passage to all manner of persons including keke drivers, yet is more serene and neat than the entire vicinity and entrance surroundings of the Imo State Government house.
Do I talk about how neat the city of Enugu is? Even into the streets, you’d hardly find a grain of sand on the road, the beautiful view of the lawns, trees and pavements beautifying the entire city, the landmark junctions and roundabouts that have been maintained for decades, the drainage system, and the respect for the master plan of the city.
These and more are the reasons why Enugu was able to seamlessly host over 20,000 lawyer that trooped into their state for the Annual General Conference. We may not have been able to find a venue that would host lawyers just like the Okpara square and ICC did at Enugu, the Unity park which is just by Okpara square was not even touched, it remained locked in its natural state because Okpara Square was enough. I realized that such a place in Imo state would have been Balkanized by a certain governor, owing to the prevalent “land grabbing” syndrome in the state.
I make no mistake in saying that from my experience in Enugu, we are in hell in Imo state! We would have had an apology to render to Nigerian lawyers for misleading them, if we had succeeded in bringing them to this dungeon. I’m compelled to ask if we truly have a functional government in Imo state? What has the past governments in Imo state, at least from 1999 till date been doing? Why this level of backwardness, infrastructural disaster, lawlessness and disorganization?
I am aware of other factors that definitely contributed to Imo state not being considered fit to host the NBA AGC, this includes the absence of a Chief Judge or Acting Chief Judge in the state. This situation has lingered for months now, simply because the Governor does not feel okay with performing a duty the constitution compels him to. Despite demands from interest groups, including the NBA, despite the directives of the National Judicial Council, despite the announcement of appointment of an Acting Chief Judge, the judiciary in Imo state today is in a state of confusion and headlessness. The courts embarked on annual vacation since th 1st of August, no vacation court has been constituted since then, owning to this same vacancy, what this means is that there is no High Court within Imo state that one can approach as at today to ventilate their grievances.
The office of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Imo state has also remained vacant for some months now. How then do we claim there is a government in place in Imo state? The government cannot be just the Governor and his cronies!
How our dear state has become a land of lawlessness, where everyone does whatever they want without checks, the governments does not care about the welfare of her people, where the highly placed are victims, what then do we say about the masses?
To ultimately put a dagger to my heart, I got to Owerri and had no light due to the illegal secret action of the EEDC which auto regulates the hours of electricity to users of line 33, band A, especially around Aladinma and Okwu Uratta, denying residents of electricity, while other users of the same line enjoy electricity, on the ground that the students in those areas do not pay electricity bills, thereby punishing innocent residents like myself, living in residential houses who do not owe them a kobo, simply because our light is sourced from the same source. I recalled that the hotels in Enugu majorly depend on electricity and not generating sets, I burned the generator on my first night in Owerri.
Is Imo State cursed or are we the cause? This question begs for an answer and that answer can only be given through our choice of future leaders, we have been very unfortunate when it comes to leadership in Imo state, the next election is another opportunity. Are we going to remain slaves to stomach infrastructure, party affiliations and sycophancy at the expense of getting things right?
This is a wake up call to all Imolites, we have to do what we have to do to have our state back and working. I will start by commencing an action against the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, I am going to the office today to start working on that, since there are no vacation courts, I will be ready and waiting for resumption.
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