By Oguwike Nwachuku
On January 15, 2024, the first four years of the Governor of Imo State, Dist. Sen. Hope Uzodimma will gloriously come to an end. He has been in office for about three years and 10 months now.
But Sen. Uzodimma is in the race again for another term of four years and the election has been scheduled for this Saturday, November 11, 2023 in all the 305 Electoral Wards in Imo State.
The campaigns for Governor Uzodimma’s reelection have ended positively across all the nooks and crannies of Imo State and the signs of his overwhelming victory at the polls are quite glaring. Glaring, because what he has done already are there for every one to see.
The turn out during the campaigns was massive. The reception warm. The excitement unprecedented. The expectations for his victory and continuity in office high. The Imo people spoke loudly through the campaigns and the Governor is grateful for that.
In the main, the people of Imo State are quite hopeful that Governor Uzodimma’s tenure will be renewed in a manner that will depict coronation and suggests they see him as the man for the job in Douglas House for now.
Is it not being said that the voice of men is the voice of God?
From the political class, to the elder statesmen, the market men and women, the youths, the workers, the clergy, the physically challenged, the suckling and even the ones their mothers are still bearing their pregnancy, Governor Uzodimma has acquitted himself creditably to warrant his tenure for renewal.
But make no mistake about it, the great strides he has recorded in Imo State did not come easy as we shall find out shortly.
On assumption of office in January 15, 2020, Governor Uzodimma met a State that was almost buried without a casket, something very strange in a Christian dominated area like Imo.
He did not know where to start the exhumation of Imo State’s body after he discovered the place of her burial, but God led him to start from somewhere with his reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery mantra, the popular 3R that became the symbol of the Shared Prosperity Government of the Governor.
With a dose of courage, Governor Uzodimma put in place the machinery to drive his programmes using the reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery mantra.
As if the decayed Imo State when Governor Uzodimma came on board was not enough challenge, those who swore not to give him a chance to change the Imo narrative began to lay all manner of landmines to frustrate him. But the more the attempts to frustrate him, the more determined he was to make the needed impact and difference.
Simultaneously, he began to work on all the roads within the Owerri capital territory that reduced the State to the citadel of death trap for those traveling by road within.
Before you would say jack, the hitherto impassable Douglas road was fixed with the demolished Eke Ukwu market by a previous administration rebuilt. The Relief Market road where traders were using boat to access was fixed, Chukwuma Nwoha, Dick Tiger road and street and several other city roads in Owerri got the needed attention.
Governor Uzodimma caused public water to run again in Owerri, after many years the source of the water, Otanmiri, was turned into a fish pond by those close to the Governor of a previous administration.
He introduced the balloon technology, a strange but novel instrument with which he dealt a deadly bow to the perennial floods which were major characteristics of the town.
Indeed, within a short period in office, Governor Uzodimma caused Imo State capital to resemble one big construction site, all because he was in a hurry to redeem the State capital from the enormous decay in infrastructure status it had pejoratively acquired.
The landmines which political detractors in Imo State laid for Governor Uzodimma on assumption of office in the form of blackmail, propaganda, slander were monumental.
Happening simultaneously with the sudden outbreak of the global deadly Corona Virus, the #EndSARS# protests, and other state, national and global activities, many thought that Governor Uzodimma would be broken.
But because God’s grace was sufficient, he was not. Instead, he became more boisterous in fixing his eyes on the ball, fully aware that the destiny of Imo State is resting in his hands as God’s instrument.
Let us just cut the long story short.
Imo State under Governor Uzodimma in the past three years and 10 months has witnessed a turn around that baffles even his most rabid critics. Not a single sector has been left unattended to by the government under Uzodimma.
He struck and still continues to strike a harmonious relationship between the three arms of Government – legislature, judiciary and executive – such that a new House of Assembly Complex believed to be the best in Nigeria has germinated in Imo. In the same vein, his government has commissioned several brand new Court Complexes that now makes dispensation of justice, even at the grassroots, seamless.
Roads, youth/ women empowerment, education, agriculture, industry, health, civil service reforms, workers/pensioners welfare, security, et al, are areas Imo people are so grateful to God for sending the person of Governor Uzodimma to them at this time despite the national and global challenges.
Governor Uzodimma’s deliberate efforts to open Imo State up through the major entry points of Owerri-Okigwe, Owerri-Orlu, Owerri- Mbaise-Umuahia roads, the dredging of Oguta Lake up to Orashi to the Atlantic Ocean are indicators of what the drivers of the future economy of Imo State look like.
What of the conversion of the former Federal Medical Centre to the Federal University Teaching Hospital and the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education to the Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education?
Indeed, there are too many policies with tangible and intangible benefits to the State and it goes without saying that Governor Uzodimma has prepared Imo as a leading digitally governed State, with the Data Centre leading the charge in the automation process for competitiveness.
Everyone is in agreement that our Governor has performed. Everyone agrees that he has remained focused, determined, prepared, to work for Imo. Himself has also not betrayed his MOU with God concerning Imo.
The campaigns across the 10 Federal Constituencies in Imo State that ended on Wednesday say it all about the degree of acceptability of Governor Uzodimma’s reelection. The campaign rallies which turn out was organic signifies the preparedness of both the Governor and the governed to take Imo to the next level.
Key personalities in Nigeria have endorsed Governor Uzodimma’s reelection. Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon Francis Nwifuru, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, the Minister of Works, Eng. Dave Umahi, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Anoka-Anite, the Minister of Labour and Employment, State, Rt. Hon. Nkiruka Onyejiocha, among others, have said Governor Uzodimma’s reelection means a lot to Imo State, the South East and Nigeria.
They have simply corroborated the deluge of endorsements by Imo people and their friends across Nigeria who know that Governor Uzodimma remains the best bet for Ndi Imo today and that with him in the saddle for another four years, the desire of Imo people for a proper foundation for good governance would have been laid.
May I simply say: Congratulations in advance, Onwa Imo.
Nwachuku is Governor Uzodimma’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser
