Governance is about being proactive in ensuring the welfare or wellbeing of citizens. It is not just about long convoys with stern-looking security guards; neither is it about VIP meetings, chartered flights and globe trotting.
Severe economic hardship has hit Nigeria in barely ten months of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government. Prices of food and other goods and services have already hit the sky.
This avoidable situation has been blamed on the perceived hasty removal of subsidy on fuel by President Tinubu, at the point of of his inauguration on May 29, 2023.
In a bid to mitigate the suffering of his citizens, the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos state,as example has responded by rolling out relief packages for Lagosians. Some of the packages include reduction in Transportation Fare
The governor reportedly gave a 25 per cent fare slash across the state-owned public transport channels, including BRT, train and ferry services. He ordered that all government departments and agencies have been instructed to design modalities for immediate implementation of the measures.
Also, civil servants on Grade Levels 1 to 14 were permitted to work three times weekly until further notice. While civil servants on Grade Levels 15 to 17 would work four days in a week.
In the light of the present challenges, it will be wrong therefore, for any state governor to see the situation as Tinubu’s responsibility alone.
From what the President has been telling Nigerians, the state governments are collecting bumper revenue allocations from Abuja since the removal of the subsidy on fuel.
It is however, doubtful whether the governors have, in tangible terms, utilised the huge allocations accruing to their states for the alleviation of the present economic hardship staring their citizens in the face.
The situation in Imo is even made worse by the near-absence of serious governance for over two months Governor Hope Uzodinma was inaugurated for a second term in office.
The seeming delay on the part of Governor Uzodinma, in reconstituting his dissolved cabinet, let alone the absence of elected chairmen and councillors in the 27 Local Government Areas of the state, has not helped matters.
Imo people expect the governor to quickly reconstitute his cabinet, restore governance in the LGAs.
Like Lagosians, Imolites deserve relief measures from their government. It will not be out of place for the governor to roll out subsidised transport scheme at least, for the meantime. Or to distribute food items at highly subsidised rates for her citizens.
There must be ways Governor Uzodinma can come in to assist his people in these troubled times.
Continuous silence and/or seeming inaction in a difficult time like this, is tantamount to disservice to Imo people.
NIGERIA NEWSPOINT