IHEDIOHA’S TEAM-THEIR EYES AND THEIR SERVICE! ~ IKE C. IBE

When I write, I do not seek relevance and I do not seek opportunities. I write because I’m relevant and have opportunity to write. When I penned my article last week titled ‘Ihedioha and the burden of history’ I didn’t know it will go extremely viral as it did. There is no blog I know of that has not republished it including some newspapers. It’s been shared on social media platforms by hundreds of handles. I’m glad people appreciated the candor in the article and it excited people inside and outside government.

My focus today is on political appointees directly. The success of any government depends largely on how the appointees behave. More often than not in our society, many appointees see themselves as daily companions of Governor or president or their appointer. A commissioner or Adviser or Assistant is employed to do all they can to generate ideas and programs to ease the Governor’s burden of administration. Sometimes appointees get lost in the trappings of office and loose focus and direction. Many appointees think they are paid to follow the governor or president around everywhere he goes. They struggle to get a seat as close as possible to the Governor or president at public events. There are people who are paid professionally to follow the governor or president 24 hours like his personal and protocol aides, security details, the media people etc. There are enough of them so the governor won’t be lonely in public events. Political appointees are paid to sit in their offices and do the actual government work. They are also paid to be out and about creating and supervising work of their departments hands on. They only follow the governor out when a specific program or project related to his or her ministry or department is being visited or inspected by the governor where their inputs will be needed.

By appointing you and swearing you in, the governor knows you already. All you need to do to get closer or relevant to the governor is by excelling in your assignment, not going everyday to ask the governor what to do but by creating ideas and initiating programs and projects that endear you to the governor and helping him to lead well.

Quite frankly, among the first set of appointees of Governor Ihedioha, I’ve noticed quite a number of them very visible and committed in their assignments and doing exactly what is expected of their positions. Alex Emeziem of Entraco and Emeka Okpokoro in Waste Management. Eze Ugochuwu in public enlightenment, Ogu Bundu in research, Abba Chimaroke in ICT, Estella Mbadiwe in health, AIC Akwaradu all over the new media, Rex Okoro in youth programs etc. I see these appointees trying to make their mark already in a terribly depressed and traumatized society not caring whether the governor is watching or not. But I believe he is seeing their activities.

The other cadre of appointees (Commissioners) have just started work and it’s too early to notice them. But I’m glad that I’ve seen some of them already out there on the beat. I’ve seen BEN Ekwueme inspecting the terrible roads, Chuma Nnaji at water installations, Vin Udokwu motivating staff at the teaching hospital etc.

We hope to keep seeing all the 17 Commissioners (Attorney General is more of office) and all advisers and assistants more at sites all over Imo state than at the side of the governor. Of course, I give kudos to SGI Uche Onyeagucha, COS Chris Okewulonu and CTA Paschal Madu, all accomplished lawyers for helping the governor maintain a steady ship so far. From my investigations, I think Ihedioha has a Deputy, Gerald Irona, who is hands on and providing the much desired balancing effect for effective governance. An effective Deputy Governor is sine qua non to efficient administration of a state. The biggest disservice to the governor is if any of the team members pretend and dance surugede music around the Governor all the time. You must always let him know when things are going wrong or right and owe him truthful advice all the time.  The stakes are high, the road is long, the work is tough and the times are rough.

All said and done, we have a long way ahead of development in Imo. Any government that parades only appointees that dwell more on eye service does not succeed. For all members of Ihedioha team who have all been noted as competent square pegs, IMO people and the governor are more interested in your SERVICE than your EYES. The success of Ihedioha and his team will be the joy of all of us. Our EYES are watching your SERVICE.
God’s speed to all of you.

Ike C. Ibe
Syndicated Columnist
Ikeibe2@yahoo.com

They Detained Us Again In Indian ~ El-Zakzaky Speaks From India

Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, has alleged that the condition at the Indian hospital where he and his wife, Zeenat were taken to, is worse than that of Nigeria.
According to him, they were only brought to another detention facility and they do not feel safe there.

This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, who said the group had received an audio message from El-zakzaky in which he told them of the “terrible condition” they had been subjected to in India.

Full transcript below.

We are now here in New Delhi, India. As you all know there was an arrangement for us to come here to seek medical care regarding the ailments that we have, myself and Malama Zeenah.

She, Malama Zeenah has a full bullet lodged in her body(that needs to be removed), also she is in need of a knee replacement surgery in addition to other problems. As for me, there are shrapnel, very small fragments in my eyes, in my hands and some in my right thigh that were slowly releasing toxins into my system which caused a lot of complications, which we later discovered that they were the caused of the mini-strokes I have had, both the first and the second time. So we were thinking the first thing to be done is to remove the shrapnel, which is a procedure that couldn’t be done at home and the doctors suggested that we should go abroad where it will be possible for the procedure to be done.
Then the second thing would be to clean my body of the toxins, which I was told are deposited in the bones and some in the flesh and this normally takes time to be done.

I also have a problem with my eye which the doctors that attended to us since after I had a second operation and my sight weakened, suggested that I should be taken to better facilities to have it tended to.
After all this, we were all happy that we are in Delhi and we would be going to a suitable hospital to receive appropriate treatment. In addition, the doctors that came to visit us when we were in Nigeria advised us to come to this hospital called Medanta. That is why we requested to be brought to this hospital.

So before we left Nigeria we heard the news that the American embassy here in India was pressuring the hospital not to admit us when we arrive. And that the hospital had agreed to refuse admitting us. So we were considering going somewhere else when we arrive. But we were later informed that the problem had been sorted out and we would be admitted to the hospital. So we set out from Nigeria.

As soon as we arrived here, we were met with some hospital staff at the airport that escorted us to the hospital.
Since we were in the ambulance they informed that there were a lot of people at the airport waiting to see us even if just when we are boarding the ambulance. But they have evaded them and distracted them by placing two ambulances at that exit claiming we will be boarding those but they decided to bring a different ambulance and leave through a different route so the people at the airport didn’t even get a glimpse.

And they also said that there was a lot of people at the hospital entrance to see us arrive. But they informed us that if we arrive we will be taken in through a back entrance. They said they did this due to the high number of people, they were concerned that in people’s attempt to reach us in the crowd some harm can be done to us, that’s what they said.

After we arrived we realized that in this hospital, or better yet someone working in the Nigerian embassy here told us that before we came, they had carried out a meeting with the hospital staff, the workers from the Nigerian embassy and some security operatives on how to go about things once we are here.

So we saw that we were practically brought to another detention facility which is even stricter than the one we were in back in Nigeria. They came here with police armed with guns and a lot of staff from the Nigerian embassy. And we also noticed we were brought into another detention that we only came based on trust.

Even in Nigeria, they agreed where we were detained that we would be treated only by the doctors we choose and are comfortable with allowing to treat us. But here we understand that the doctors that advised us to come here are blocked from having any say in our case. They even told us when we spoke to them, they are only allowed to advise but the hospital reserves the right to decide the course of our treatment. So I told them that, we came here based on the trust we have in our doctors, we cannot just see any doctor that we don’t know, or trust to treat us.
And without recommendation from those we do trust, we cannot allow a stranger to treat us, lest not what couldn’t be done with bullets be carried out in a different way.
Due to this, we think that based on everything we have seen so far indicates to us that we are not safe here. We were just brought to another detention.

I have been detained now for a collective total of about 13 years but I have never seen a detention like the one I am in now.
Even at the door, they have placed armed police. Even between one room to the next we are not allowed to move. Then I see that even where we were, and of all the times I have been imprisoned in Nigeria, I have not seen anything like this. When I was in an actual prison They used to lock us up around 9:00 pm and open the doors at 7:00 am, and we could move about where ever we wish within the prison facility we were detained in.

I see here that even when I was in kirikiri prison it wasn’t as constricting as in this situation. So I feel that it is not reasonable to leave detention in order to seek medical help and we be placed in a different detention and on top of that, we be handed over to be treated by people we do not trust.

So, based on this we are thinking that Insha Allah by all apparent indications that there is a need for us to return home since we were allowed to travel abroad for medical care and India doesn’t appear to be a safe place for us. We would have to return home, afterall, there are other countries that offered to receive us if we could go there.

These countries include Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey, we can convene to decide which one to go to and then go there Insha Allahul Adheem.