The Rochas You Never Knew: Hear him...speak: Rochas: This is my office and I can tell you that I have not entered my official office for the past two and a half years. I stayed there for about seven months and I discovered that I was being caged. They would tell me people were waiting to see me and I would be there till six o’clock and people would come to tell me different things. I just asked myself: is this what I would be doing? And I said no. This is my office (a shed like structure inside the government house called the Bush Bar) and this is where I operate. There is no file on this table. People come here and I discuss with them openly and they go. I will sit down here and I will be discussing the cost of a road with someone and another person will just say, oga, I can do it for that amount sir and I will face the man I am discussing with and tell him: can you hear that? The other man might be saying N50 and the other person will say N40 and that is it. I will save N10 for the state. But if they have taken me inside one room, bring one carton of wine and Rolex watch and create sympathy and emotions around me, and say oga, it is N300million for a kilometre instead of N60million. And because of the emotion they have created, I sign and the idiot would not do the job and run away with the money. I have trained my children the way I trained myself. I see my wife in the morning. Before I come back, she is sleeping but in the morning by 4 o’clock, we wake up and we pray and then start discussing and my children will join us. That is how we relate. But they are equally busy; trying to be like their father if not surpassing him. I don’t go for holiday… Interviewer: (Cuts in) For the past three years? Rochas: No. Even since I was born. Interviewer: How do you unwind then? Rochas: Unwind? I am unwinding now as I am talking to you. This is the best way to unwind. But you saw me when I was having my lunch here. Who says a governor should not eat outside? I don’t want to go to the dining table; they will cage me there, serve water, serve wine and that will take about three hours. So I don’t want people to cage me. This life is short so go and work because if you are not working now and sleeping, when you die, you will be awake instead of sleeping. ___________ The governor who never signs paper and who never operates from office is only a disaster for the state. Ndi Imo sorry!
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 17:57:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015