Imo state Governor Hope Uzodinma is always in the news for the wrong reasons. From his haphazard, incompetent handling of the state of affairs in Imo State to his newly adopted method of ruling in absentia after he absconded from his state to Abuja for multiple weeks in a row during the crises with the Eastern Security Network and the allegedly unknown gunmen.
Imo state’s backwardness began the very day the Supreme court announced Senator Hope Uzodinma the Governor of Imo state. From shady Government contracts, neglect of infrastructure, owing of salaries, the spate of wrongdoings in Imo State have skyrocketed under his tenure with the new inclusion of the menace of insecurity which spans the activities of the Eastern Security Network, Fulani herdsmen and other unknown hoodlums in the State.
Imo indigenes no longer sleep with both eyes closed as the news of attacks and killings filter into the news every day from all corners of the state. The new daily greeting has turned to attacks in Orlu, soldiers pushing bandits back in Orji, Fulani herdsmen sighted in Nekkede or pandemonium breaking out at different points in the State’s capital, Owerri. It is even worse to note that admist all these, the man who is supposed to restore ‘Hope’ to Imo State indigenes has already taken the first flight out of Owerri for fear of assault, not from the hoodlums or the bandits prowling the state but from his own constituents who he has betrayed and left on their own to suffer and perish. His right hand men and sycophants were not left out in the exodus as they cowardly took to their heels to exotic locations while leaving their state from which they embezzled and pilfered from to burn.
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Without mincing words, Governor Hope Uzodinma’s government holds the unenviable record of being one of the worst administrations to ever grace the seat of power in the State. For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Hope Uzodinma is as qualified to be governor of Imo State as any of the former governors or many others in the State. Imo State is a galaxy of stars at whatever level. He was in the Senate of the Federal Republic and had made marks in other spheres of life too but it should be known that beneath that facade of a well-experienced statesman also lies a wardrobe-full of fraud, lies and shoddy dealings which he cut on his way to the top. His clueless administration is filled with rubber-stamp administrators who know little or nothing about Governance in Imo State. They are only good at counter-accusations and embezzling State funds as fast as they can.
Come 2024, Governor Hope Uzodinma has already started making moves and political alliances to show how he plans to retain the apex seat for himself in the State thus destroying the State even further. He has begun by destroying other opposition parties in the State by luring their staunch members with the use of mouth-watering monetary bribes, plum undeserving positions and political gratifications. After that, he went ahead to monopolise the Judiciary and House of Assembly in Imo State by ousting former office holders and replacing them with those who have sworn an unwavering alliegance to him. To make sure his plans are foolproof, subtly, he is gradually putting in adequate plans to terminate the idea of Gubernatorial zoning politics in Imo State while pushing laws to make sure he has little or no opposition from any quarters in the State.
Governor Hope Uzodinma is nothing short of a dictator who has little or no regards for his wards in Imo State. From terrible State infrastructure, owing of salaries and pensions to the embezzlement of State Internally Generated Revenue, Governor Hope Uzodinma and most of his cronies are rapidly turning Imo State into a personal bank account just like the erstwhile corrupt administration of Owelle Rochas Okorocha did. His government has been nothing different from a maladministration where peddling falsehood has become the order of the day. After making bogus claims that Imo state was owing over 60 billion naira in arrears from 4,800 ghost workers and later positing that his government had resolved the issue, Imo state workers and pensioners are yet to receive their arrears. The labour in the State even recently went on an eight day warning strike as a protest for owed salary arrears. According to them, they have been owed salaries from February to December since Uzodinma assumed office as Governor after Supreme Court sacked Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP who was paying salaries and arrears owed by the APC administration of Rochas Okorocha.
Governor Hope Uzodinma has blatantly refused to disburse salaries and pensions to those deserving of them and he has turned a deaf ear to the numerous protests and petitions by civil servants on the issue of salaries and pensions. He has also joined the bandwagon of Governors who take pride in the diversion of state funds into personal accounts while his state deteriorates into utter poverty.
It is terrible that the crises in the state have degenerated from financial misappropriation to security issues and insecurity in the State. Imo indigenes are being killed daily and all the Governor has done is to pour out blames without making any particular efforts at sorting out issues in the State. This kind of leader does not deserve to be at the State’s helm of affairs anymore. If in his first term where he is supposed to leave a good impression, he has decided to loot the State’s treasury and pay a deaf ear to the insecurity issues in the State then imagine what he would do if he eventually gets his second term bid.
It would be in the best interest of Imolites if they join hands together to thwart Governor Hope Uzodinma’s plans for re-election in 2024 and then, they also have to make him pay for everything he has done to Imolites to make them suffer. Imo State has suffered under bad leadership for so long and it is time to take a stand and put an end to this tenure that does not hold the welfare of Imolites at heart.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
