What the "F" is wrong with Governors of Imo State, Nigeria

QUEENS, N.Y. - May 9, 2021 - PRLog -- It has nothing to do with the Hausas or any other tribes. Instead, the poor quality of governmental leadership is killing the Igbos, particularly Igbos in Imo State.

With the exception of Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe (1979-1983) and perhaps a few others, most of the governors have had lousy leadership abilities.

When Governor Sam Mbakwe was at the top echelon of Imo State, I was a shy, soccer-loving teenager minding my own business. However, I absorbed how the adults around me talked about him. Sam, they said, noticeably cried for the state he loved so much. Although he is gone, my impression of him as a governor who loved the people of Imo State has not wavered. If Sam was alive today, he would have denounced the quality of leaders we have in Imo State now.

Every day I pray and ask, "When is Imo State going to be blessed with an effective governor like Sam Mbakwe?" After Mbakwe, we've had a mixture of mediocrities, megalomaniacs, and tyrants.

Before you begin shielding Imo State's governors (past and present) or start slashing their accusers with the kind of machetes palm wine tappers use when they swing on palm fronds, consider the road conditions all over Imo State. Look at the rusty metal benches, bathrooms without water and toilet paper, and the sham security metal detectors at the state's airport. Think about the garbage-ridden market squares in almost every community, from big cities to small towns. Walk into any village clinic and you will see patients lying under leaky roofs on broken cement floors until death come to give them peace. Look at the havoc mosquitoes wreak on children, men, and women from Orlu through Owerri to Mbano, Osina, and Arondizuogu.

Today's leadership in Imo State is not preparing its citizenry for the "rainy days" ahead for one reason. I suspect they have a secret plan to escape overseas with their children, immediate families, and concubines, but not extended families, which is what they did during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, leaving others to repel and fend off Gowon's bomber planes and jet fighters.

To my brothers and sisters in leadership positions: Some of you have vowed to be defiant to the end. But, when people remember you, they will think of you with hate and disdain. They will demolish your statues that remind them of how corrupt you were.

Get it together, governors and cabinet members of Imo State, Nigeria. If you want our children and grandchildren to remember you favorably, as they do with Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe, then do the right thing; hold yourself and those who serve the state accountable for their actions.

Own a copy of my childhood memoir on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war:https://www.amazon.com/Biafran-Conscriptors-Memoirs-Niger... (https://www.amazon.com/Biafran-Conscriptors-Memoirs-Niger...)