If being greedy had another meaning, it would Liyel.
If self-serving has an apt synonym, it would be Imoke.
Over the years Liyel Imoke has been very deliberate in building a messianic image of himself as the ever-perfect leader.
For many who aren’t in tune with facts, he was a great governor and a marvelous politician in modern times.
But the records are there to show that he is in fact, the very worst, greedy and self-serving by a thousand miles.
I have read people severally, blaming only Duke for the bulk of the state’s indebtedness, but Liyel Imoke borrowed monies with nothing to show for it.
His legacy road construction CV project, the parliamentary extension road, which cost Cross River taxpayers over 15 billion Naira, was made of clay.
Shortly after his departure from office, Faithplant started serious maintenance work on a road that was commissioned less than two years before. They still do to date.
So Cross Riverians are asking if it’s the same road Liyel constructed with 15 billion Naira or another.
The Shongai farms project in his local government is another white elephant. At least Donald’s Agro projects lasted a little while before mismanagement from his successor (Liyel) crumbled them, but the Shonghai project collapsed before it started.
Under Imoke’s administration as Governor, billions of taxpayers’ funds were sunk into Shongai, in his own LGA and the state couldn’t make a dime out of it.
It is so bad that I understand Ayade’s government brought in Agro investors but they all refused to get close to it with a pole. One of them even suggested that the person who conceptualized it should be jailed.
Several of Liyel’s projects are like this, but all he does is berate his predecessor (Donald) and his successor (Ayade) behind and never himself.
Some days ago, he was in an occasion apologizing for making the mistake of supporting Ayade in 2015. Imoke himself is a well-known mistake. A total misfit. A petty thief, an Igbo man who found himself in Abi.
It is on record that he was the dullest of the children of Pa Dr. Imoke. He always took the last position in the class. If it is a lie, we need to see his result sheets from university and possibly secondary school.
Providence smiled at him and that’s why he got to where he did in life. But the evidence of his childhood ‘last position’ signature, abounds in his performances in governance as Minister of Power and as Governor.
Courtesy of him, Cross River lost a litany of firsts. Our position as a first-class tourist destination, our status as an oil-producing state, and by extension, a critical stakeholder in the oil and gas industry and the NDDC.
Imoke should have started by apologizing for these and his other numerous failed projects before mentioning Ayade, who has spent the better of his seven and a half years in office, bearing the brunt and burden of Imoke’s hundreds of billions of Naira of bad debt without blaming his predecessor.
Liyel should be ashamed for turning around to support 2 people he sacked as his Commissioners to now become governorship candidate and state party chairman. What a shame!
Liyel suddenly forgot how the same Sandy Onor challenged him to his face, calling him all sorts of names before the then National Chairman of the PDP, telling the former Chairman that the people of Cross River were tired of his manipulative politics and that they didn’t want him ever again.
We all still recall how Sandy, Vena, Ndoma Egba and Jeddy Agba fought and disgraced him.
While Donald is always fast to call Liyel out over poor administrative handling, Ayade has a bigger heart. He has never responded to any of them and this is what has endeared him to many.
I am a patriotic Cross Riverian from Liyel’s local government. I worked actively under Liyel as a political aide. I have some dossier that can rewrite him both as a failed minister of power and our worst governor.
I wouldn’t want my brother to languish in a bad light even though that is where he belongs.
But if Liyel continues with his campaign of calumny against Ayade who is an angel compared to him, I will make good my promise by telling who he truly is, that was before now classified.
So that the people know how wicked Imoke is and the kind of saints Donald and Ayade are.
Elder P. E Osim is a Cross Riverian and writes from Los Angeles, United States of America.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Elder P.E Osim, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.