Gov. Ihedioha meets Buhari, seeks FG’s assistance in infrastructure

By Lawrence Olaoye

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with the new governor of Imo state, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha behind closed doors.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Ihedioha said he pleaded with the President to assist his state in developing her infrastructures.
Asked to state specifically areas he would want the federal government to interfere, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s governor said “Infrastructuraly we have significant federal roads in Imo, most of them are not receiving attention so it is important that we begin to rebuild the state in that manner. You won’t believe that in Imo there is nowhere that we have public water running, it is strange to believe but that is the fact. So what do we do? We came in immediately we have tried to activate the water corporation so that we can get water.
So we need the Federal Government support in all facets of the economy. Government would need to support us in agriculture because government we succeeded didn’t take advantage of government policies in agriculture. So we are working towards agricultural revolution to ensure that that becomes a source of revenue. So we need federal government support in that regard. We need government support in education, we need government support in the area of Healthcare, we need government support in area of building institutions.”
On what the President’s response was to hi request, Ihedioha said “Of course I am very impressed by his response, he assured that the federal government would support us in what we are doing. I am certain that by the time we keep doing things the way we are doing, it will enhance the symbiotic relationship between the federal government and the state government.”
The governor said inherited a state with opaque accounting system with dilapidated infrastructure but disclosed that his had put measures in place to ensure transparency and accountability.
According to him, he had adopted the Treasury single Account (TSA) policy and ordered that the state Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) be revitalized to ensure transparency and accountability.
Reacting to allegation that he may have been distracted by fixating on the misdeeds of his predecessor, Rochas Okorocha, Ihedioha said nothing could be further from the truth.
According to him, what he has been busy doing was to correct the
administrative anomalies of his predecessor and place the state on the
pathway of sugar able development.