CHIDIEBERE IWUOHA in Owerri examines Senator Hope Uzodinma’s strength and failures since his occupation of the Douglas House, Owerri, for more than a year now.
He came into power precisely on the 15th of January, 2020, after the Supreme Court ruled that he had the highest number of votes in the 2019 Imo Governorship election. Thus, the promising administration of Rt.Hon Emeka Ihedioha which came into power on the 29th of May, 2019, courtesy of the the electorate came to an abrupt end.
On assumption of office, Senator Uzodinma decided to continue from where Ihedioha stopped by building on the foundation already laid, instead of introducing entirely new projects and trying as much as possible to make an inroad into the hearts of majority of Imo people who were stunned at the Supreme Court verdict, especially since he came at a time the dreaded Coronavirus became pronounced in the country.
In the last one year, there are certain things he has done right which attracted peoples praises for him and there are things he has not done right and the people are not happy about them.
Education:
Under education, nothing significant has been done. Nothing much is heard about education like during the time of former governor, Rochas Okorocha, who is now the senator representing Imo West Senatorial District (Orlu Zone) in the Red chambers. During Okorocha’s administration, the whole atmosphere was agog with free education- from primary to tertiary level, which appeared to be his flagship programme. Under Uzodinma, whatever free education that was in place under Okorocha has been discontinued. But he has made some efforts to continue with the new state university founded by Okorocha, the Imo State University of Agriculture Umuagwo formerly known as Imo State Polytechnic Umuagwo, to ensure its full university status. He has gone a step further to stop the operations of the Eastern Palm University at Ogboko, Okorocha’s hometown. It is a well known fact that the said university was set up by Okorocha with funds belonging to the state, but he gave himself 90% share, leaving the state with 10%, a move Imo people did like and have encouraged the governor to recover it. It is worthy to note that the university premises was acquired as the permanent site of Imo State University by Okorocha in his first tenure, 2011 to 2015, but when Imo people reminded him that the permanent site had been ceded to Owerri zone and not Orlu zone where Ogboko is located, he changed it to Imo European University, claiming that the university would now be actualized through Private Public Partnership(PPP), with investors coming from Europe. Later, he changed it to Eastern Palm University with his foundation buying 90% of the shares, when European investors were not forth coming. At this point, he was representing both the people and his foundation which is legally unacceptable. Later, he went and collected the instrument setting up the university from the National Universities Commission (NUC), as the 2nd Imo State University. Uzodinma has vowed to recover the university from him and majority of the people are happy about that.
Workers/Pensioners’relationship:
This is one of the areas that the governor is getting his biggest bashing. When you ask Imo people to compare the state of things as it concerns Imo workers and pensioners in the administrations of Okorocha, Ihedioha and Uzodinma, they will easily dismiss Uzodinma with a wave of hand. The only thing that appears interesting between Uzodinma and workers is the Coaster buses made available by him which takes workers to and from work. But then, workers have insisted that it was not their demand and that monies were being withdrawn from their salaries to finance the bus scheme.
They said that they preferred full payment of their salaries instead of those deductions. Again, many of the workers and pensioners are being owed months of salaries and pensions. As things stand in the state now, every month end, no civil servant or pensioner can say for sure that he/she will receive his salary or pension until he gets an alert. This is because every month people are picked for payment and that explains why even though some people have been paid up to date, say December 2020, many others are being owed six, five, four, three, two and one month salaries and pensions due to the fact that they were not captured for the months they were not paid.
Government sources have been saying that those who are being owed are those who had or keep having issues with their documentation, giving wrong or incorrect data like BVN and incomplete account number digits. Recently, the state government published names of workers and pensioners it has paid, because of too many denials of not being paid, with their BVN attached. But those who were affected did not like the move, because it went contrary to their fundamental human rights, especially as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has repeatedly warned people not to release their BVN to anybody. The government has since last week advised those affected to fill in forms on their own with a view to correcting the problem. This is also applicable to local government staff who had at one time or the other besieged the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon Mrs Rubby Emele with several complaints.
Agriculture:
Nothing much is being heard in this sector. What could have brought life to this sector was when former governor, Emeka Ihedioha sent about 500 youths from different local government areas of the state to Nasarawa state for training in various fields of agriculture. The original plan was to empower them on return but immediately Senator Hope Uzodinma came into power the programme died a natural death. Some months back, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Agricultural Development Programme(ADP), Hon Gibson Achonwa Njemanze told this writer that no cash would be given to the beneficiaries of the training but products needed in their farms and that the process would be under supervision. Towards the end of 2020, the internet was awash with stories of agricultural empowerment of youth in the state with rabbits. This story was not palatable as many who saw it as embarrassment, especially, as the animal described by many as a rich source of protein is not common in the state like goat, cow, fowl, to mention but a few.
Youth Empowerment:
Similar to the one above is the much talked about youth empowerment programme in the state. It is worthy to note that the state, through the Ministry of Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship had had two youth empowerment trainings in the last eight months, training more than three thousand youths without empowering them. Also, after the #EndSARS protests, the governor made a pronouncement of N6 billion and said he would be releasing N2 Billion in the first batch and the youths welcomed that with loud ovation. Up till now, nothing has happened. This is also the fate with the CBN/Nirsal loan scheme which the government said it had gotten its own money from the federal government. A one week training was also organized during the lockdown by the government but up till now no feedback has come from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry which supervised the training after more than seven months of that training.
Roads/Infrastructure:
On road construction and rehabilitation, thanks to the foundation earlier laid by the Ihedioha administration. Uzodinma, through his continuity policy is pursuing this vigorously but there are still many bad roads in the state, especially those linking the hinterlands. Many roads like Relief Market, Douglas road, Oparanozie etc in Owerri capital have been rehabilitated just like some roads in Orlu and Okigwe zones, while MCC, Chukwuma Nwoha with a large tunnel that would carry water to Otamiri River, Dick Tiger and World Bank roads are still under rehabilitation. Apart from the Government House Lodge rehabilitation which the governor embarked on at the beginning of his tenure, no building has been erected. But in the last two months, he has been able to mount some street and traffic lights on two major roads in Owerri, Douglas and Whethral, and pulled down some of the roundabouts constructed by former governor, Rochas Okorocha with their statues. The pipe borne water which he had promised on assumption of office is yet to be actualized.
Health:
This appears to be window dressing in the state. What has taken over this sector is Covid-19 pandemic. The governor came into power when this pandemic became a problem in Nigeria and then what is often heard is Covid-19 and how to curb it. He hardly makes a speech without talking about the protocols. In his broadcast on last Friday, he has threatened to prosecute those who do not adhere to the protocols as the second wave sets in. People were discouraged during the lockdown when palliatives did not get to them but were found in the hands of politicians. If not that several communities rallied round their people during that period, it would have been a disaster. Even the Commissioner for Health, Dr Damaris Osunkwo does not make official statements on the virus except Prof Maurice Iwu and his committee or the governor. The commissioner does not pick calls and does not like granting interviews to journalists. The governor had sometime last year announced the purchase of 27 ambulances for the 27 LGAs in the state and some mobile clinics but Imo people were not happy that none could be seen last Thursday when some passengers in a mini bus were hit by a diesel tanker and dragged into a gutter near River Nworie around the Warehouse junction in the state capital where about five of them died. Some of them died a few minutes after rescue operation.Eye witnesses confirmed that it was the siren blowing convoy of the Federal Correctional Services that intimidated the driver of that tanker and made him lose control.
Information/ Press Relations:
This is zero. It is unbelievable to know that the government of Senator Hope Uzodinma has not had any press conference since he came to office. And this is a far cry from what his predecessors like Udenwa, Ohakim and Okorocha used to do. What his Press Secretary does most of the time is to issue press releases and send to media houses, especially radio stations for airing. However, when a negative report is written against government, his Chief Press Secretary, Oguwike Nwachukwu would call the author demanding reasons for that. The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mbadiwe Emelumba appears even worse than the CPS. He discriminates against journalists by his selection of a very few to cover his assignments, This system of divide and rule is held in contempt by journalists in the state. Uppermost in his mind is his House of Reps ambition in 2023. Just last December before Christmas, journalists had concluded plans to meet the governor to iron out certain issues affecting them, but Emelumba who had met the governor came out and dismissed them, saying that he was too busy to meet them, even after reducing the crowd of journalists to six representatives from the original number of more than fifty. This has worsened the relationship. Journalists in the state are suspecting that the reason for the governor’s attitude is because he was not supported by the media during his struggles to be governor.
Security.
When Emeka Ihedioha came to power in May 2019, he introduced Operation Iron Gate and with this, security in the state was beefed up. You could easily walk through the streets of Owerri without looking for your pin. People had expected Uzodinma to continue with the security architecture put in place by Ihedioha but he disbanded it and came up with Operation Search and Flush but instead of searching and flushing criminals, criminals are now searching and flushing Imo people. During the lockdown, there were several cases of rape, armed robbery, snatching of phones, handbags and other personal effects and more recently, kidnapping. In the last two weeks, a lecturer in the Imo State University and Bishop Moses Chikwe of the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese were abducted. When these things started, Uzodinma’s security aide, a retired commissioner of police told this writer that he just assumed duty and that those incidents should not be counted for the administration.
Sports:
The non-regular payment of salaries of players and officials of Heartland FC and their general neglect have led to their woeful performances in the on-going Nigeria Professional Football League(NPFL) season. And this has put the Uzodinma administration down the ladder when compared with his predecessors. It was during the administration of Okorocha that Heartland marched into relegation waters for the first time in history and if nothing urgent is done now, the team would follow the Okorocha example. Okorocha had described sports as a waste pipe and so, did not put much interest in sports but was able to construct the Okigwe Township stadium where Heartland campaigned in the previous seasons. Uzodinma, on the other hand is rehabilitating the Dan Anyiam stadium without caring much about the players. Other athletes in others sports are not better off. They are also crying and not even sure of being in Benin for the upcoming National Sports Festival, while the proposed Imo 2022 National Sports Festival packaged by the ousted Ihedioha administration appears a mission impossible..
