Two clergymen in Imo State have described Governor Rochas Okorocha’s government as “a serious case study of bad governance and maladministration in Nigeria of today.”
The Anglican Bishops of Orlu and Okigwe South Dioceses, Rt. Rev. Geoffrey N. Chukwunenye and Rt. Rev. David O. C. Onuoha respectively, blew hot while delivering their presidential charges at their respective synods.
The two clerics were in the same plane that the government has been a total nightmare for civil servants and pensioners, who are fast becoming inured to the anguish and pang occasioned by non-payment of salaries and allowances for months.
“The added sorrow of having to watch one’s property demolished without compensation and consultation whatsoever, often creates the impression that government exists to inflict harm and pain on its citizens,” Bishop Onuoha said.
Onuoha fumed “almost all the markets in Imo State have been razed down without alternatives to the peasant traders, who are struggling to find food for their families and a future for their wards.”
Bishop Chukwunenye slammed, “Imo today is witnessing a very serious economic jihad unleashed on her by those who are supposed to work for her well-being and development. All they talk about is 2019. They are planning and scheming but God is watching.”
Chukwunenye, therefore, counseled that “rather than spend tax payers money on frivolities while the people languish in abject penury and despair in hate behaviour, which must attract hate speeches, the government should follow the path of civility and shun hate attitude.”
The Bishop said that a government which does not pay workers salaries promptly or pay pensioners “is suffering from radical hate behaviour and must reap hate speeches from the old men and women.”
He described the way Okorocha was handling the demolition of people’s properties without compensation as “punitive”, even as he pointed out that “a government which brazenly flouts court orders is guilty of hate behaviour and should be ready to accommodate hate speeches.”
Vanguard recalls that both Bishops enjoined the Anglican faithful to procure their permanent voters cards, stressing that before the church will do anything for them, they must show their PVCs.
