A few weeks ago, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), announced that the next gubernatorial election in Imo State will be held on the 11th of November, 2023. This was a confirmation that following the January 2020 Supreme court magic, Imo State has now joined the League of Nigerian states that now hold off-cycle governorship elections.
As expected, the cloud is gathering and the rainmakers are smiling. The usual gladiators have commenced their usual games and this time, they are not prepared to leave any stone unturned for any reason. The prize is Douglas House and it seems worth the fight. It is presently occupied by the incumbent Governor, Hope Uzodinma who is not getting ready to vacate it anytime soon. On the surface, the upcoming battle looks tough, but it shouldn’t be because Uzodinma is not supposed to be in the conversation. If Uzodinma was sane, he wouldn’t seek re-election but how sane is he? He is determined to contest and if the praises from his sycophants and bootlickers are anything to go by, then there might be no need for an election as he will record a landslide win. Alas, reality is always different from fiction, and such delusions are nowhere near the corridors of reality.
The first question any honest observer will pose to Uzodinma the day he presents himself to Imolites for re-election is, on what basis will he be seeking sich mandate? Will he be seeking it to extend the treasury looting which has been normalised under his government? Will he be seeking the mandate to take the outrageous bloodshed, Imo State is witnessing to another level? Or will he be seeking the mandate to continue to frolic with politicians while Imo groans under acute maladministration? On what basis will Uzodinma be presenting himself? If he still had some shame and conscience in him, he will be apologising to Imolites for the many mistakes he has made and not seeking a second chance to further destroy them.
Senator Hope Uzodinma
As he has severally owned up, Governor Uzodnima smuggled his way into the Imo State Government House using ‘Ben Johnson’ tactics. But rather than settle down to work for the people who never liked him from the beginning to win them over, he resorted to arrogance. Arrogance shows them that he never needed them in the first place and wouldn’t be needing them. What Uzodinma has, however, failed to realise is that by the next time he will appear on the ballot, Abba Kyari (who is now late), President Muhammadu Buhari, and his criminal Attorney General – Abubakar Malami will no longer be occupying any government position. He probably thinks he can steal the same mandate twice and Imolites will be docile enough to accept it. Delusion at its finest!
Imo State under Uzodinma has not witnessed anything with the semblance of growth in the past three years. The state is at the lowest rung of any ladder as far as any KPI is concerned. Uzodinma has so badly governed Imo that the name of the state always pops up for the wrong reasons. While this is going on, Uzodinma has remained consistent in trying to deceive Imolites and divert their attention, a mission he has failed woefully in.
Just recently, BudgIT, which is a highly respected civic organisation published its ‘State of States Report’ report for 2022 and it rated Imo State as the worst in the South East as far as fiscal performance was concerned. Uzodinma does not give a hoot about transparency and accountability. Under him, Imo State has received over N600 billion in remittances from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), LGA allocations, oil derivations, locally and internationally sourced debts, and other internally generated funds. Of these funds, over 70% of it has been thrown into recurrent spending and overheads that added no value to the lives of the good people of the state.
Despite not having any landmark project to point to, the debt profile of Imo State under Uzodinma has risen by over 120%. Many people do not know that the indebtedness of Imo State now stands at a whopping N210 billion! Most of these funds have been wasted on sustaining a long list of unproductive aides, maintaining and adding more vehicles to long convoys, flying private jets and chattered planes and junketting around the world, buying expensive champagnes in Abuja, and servicing a long list of mistresses by Uzodinma and his cronies.
Under Uzodinma, governance has been relegated to the back seat while politics and frivolities reign supreme. The common man on the streets of Imo has been totally cut off from governance. The LGA system that is supposed to allow governance to get down to the grassroots can barely breathe because Uzodinma has sworn never to allow them enjoy any sort of autonomy, at least financially. Billions of Naira are appropriated to these LGAs monthly and none of them is being accounted for. There is nothing on the ground to prove that no local government area in Imo State receives anything less than N200 million monthly. Uzodinma should be getting ready to face anti-graft agencies and not seeking re-election.
Oftentimes, Uzodinma has boasted that he has performed well in the area of road construction. This is nothing but a lie, a fraudulent one at that! Under Uzodinma, no road project worth a mention has been conceived, initiated, implemented, or completed. In his quest to deceive Imolites, Uzodinma has at different times, flagged off the construction of MCC-Uratta road, Ihiagwa-FUTO road, Toronto-Road Safety road, Naze/Timber Market road, Chukwuma Nwoha/Aladinma road, Toronto-Orji road, Umuguma road, and many others, but 30 months later, none of these roads is 100% complete. So which road worth a mention is Uzodinma referring to?
Governance is about service to people and the people of Imo State deserve answers. How many school blocks have Uzodinma built over the last three years? How many Hospitals has he built and equipped? How many industries has he attracted to the state to provide jobs to the teeming unemployed youths? How many skill acquisition centers, where has he provided? How many rural roads has he constructed in the state despite receiving humongous allocations for over 30 months?
In conclusion, Imolites must send Uzodinma packing because he is an obvious failure that does not have any iota of conscience. Governance is a serious affair that should be left to only serious people. No serious Governor will abandon a state groaning under acute maladministration and be dining with politicians in Abuja on taxpayers’ money. Uzodinma must be shown the way out of Douglas House in November 2023 for posterity’s sake.
