On Monday, March 29, 2022, one of the media personalities I respect and my former boss in Champion Newspapers, Emeka Omeihe, published a piece he tagged: When Buhari summoned Uzodimma in his column in The Nation.
As often as Omeihe writes, I read him for two main reasons. One is his knack for deep analysis of issues. Secondly, there is always something to take away from older colleagues like him who still find time to vent their views on matters of national concern.
As usual, I had looked forward to reading in Omeihe’s column an evaluation of the recently held All Progressives Congress (APC) Convention in Abuja where Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Omeihe’s governor, shone like a star going by the way he credibly acquitted himself as the Chairman of the Technical Committee supervising the convention to the admiration of party members, chieftains, including President Muhammadu Buhari.
But I was wrong.
I shall return shortly to Governor Uzodimma’s role at the APC Convention which has today become the talk of the town and brought him accolades. If Omeihe were to be a younger reporter/columnist, I would have said someone was using him to do poisonous intervention against the governor with the intention of undermining his person and work.
For those who were not privy to Omeihe’s piece, the former Editor and later Executive Director of Champion Newspapers Limited used his piece to pick holes in the invitation President Buhari had extended to Governor Uzodimma on the recent and festering security situation in Imo State.
In the wake of the attack and destruction of the country home of the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Prof. George Obiozor, the continuing attack on policemen and burning of police stations, among other devilish activities of bandits in Imo, Mr. President sought to hear first hand from the governor. That was not the first time such meetings between the duo were taking place.
Omeihe had a problem with the report Governor Uzodimma gave to State House reporters on the outcome of his meeting with Mr. President, particularly as regards the approval the governor got for additional security personnel, arms, and ammunition to deal with the Imo insecurity saga.
No doubt, Omeihe understands quite well that the security situation in Imo is critical, but he would prefer that the governor does not request facilities – human and material – from Mr. President, that would help sustain the gains already being recorded by his government in curtailing what ordinarily would have been a daily uncontrollable sad situation.
What is even more worrisome is that Omeihe was more interested in playing up matters that the opposition has continually canvassed for their own political conveniences such as the alleged role of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) in the orgy of violence in Imo and southeast; the place of Ebubeagu in dealing with the insecurity in the region; the role of masterminds/politicians in the festering security challenge in Imo, as well as the role of security agencies in getting the perpetrators to face justice for their evil deeds.
It is also amazing that Omeihe could suggest that security agencies compel the governor to make known the names of those suspected to be behind the spate of killings of innocent citizens in Imo.
I do not know who told Omeihe that the security agencies may not be privy to intelligence or even in possession of the names of those suspected to be fueling the killings in Imo. By the way, was it not the security agencies that arrested some suspects who gave them the strong feeling of the persons likely to be behind the killings and wanton destruction of property in Imo?
It amounts to mischief on parade for anyone to imagine that Governor Uzodimma should be the one in custody of the suspects when the security operatives have not denied knowledge of them based on their investigations.
Then you wonder why Omeihe would use Governor Uzodimma as the target of his writing if it was not for a preconceived aim?
As far as (in)security is concerned in Imo, Uzodimma has not done this, Uzodimma has not done that, has become a refrain. The question some of us should be asking ourselves is what we have done as stakeholders in Project Imo to bring lasting peace to our dear state.
Or do we think there is nothing we can do to complement the efforts of our governor besides thoughtless fault-finding, and odd and odious interventions?
Most of us have even gone to the ridiculous extent of thinking they should be isolated from efforts to achieve peace in Imo.
I do not think Governor Uzodimma does not know that the security situation in Imo is peculiar. And that explains why he takes peculiar steps to deal with them. Is it not said that he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches? Have we suddenly forgotten that he took an oath of office to protect the lives and property of the people? Are we then suggesting he should treat such oath with levity because of what people may have to say about the tactics he deploys to achieve the result?
At the last count since coming on board as Governor, Uzodimma has called six stakeholders’ meetings. His is the only government that meets with stakeholders every quarter and he has remained religious about it.
Omeihe is still in a better position to answer the question he posed as to whether we are to believe the current security situation in Imo could be a result of the 2019 election.
Let me help you, sir. We are on the same page with you that those who lost power in 2019 are hell-bent on frustrating, derailing, and stalling whatever efforts the APC government in Imo State under the supervision of Governor Uzodimma is making.
Some of us are worried that informed people like Omeihe are cajoled to believe that Governor Uzodimma is the problem of insecurity in Imo. His (Omeihe’s) should rather be a strong voice preaching political inclusiveness, collective efforts on peace, unity, aimed at achieving good governance, progress, and development in Imo after electioneering and not to hide behind his fingers to ask questions he knows what the answers are. To the best of our knowledge, the average Imo citizens who have eyes and ears have seen and heard about the developmental strides that are associated with the Governor Uzodimma administration. Not only are they verifiable projects, they are also devoid of the usual politicking of “the more you look, the less you see,” that Imo people were served in the past.
Despite the fact that Governor Uzodimma took an oath to protect the lives and property of the people, security should also be everybody’s business. Outside volunteering credible information and making reasonable suggestions on how to secure our environment, one also thinks that it behooves us all to assist the government in creating an enabling environment for our lives and property to be protected.
Omeihe should ask himself how well he has helped to do so as an elder, elite, opinion molder, and stakeholder from his senatorial zone in Orlu which he suspects is the epicenter of the insecurity destabilizing Governor Uzodimma’s good intention for Ndi Imo.
To what extent has he helped to rap the people from his community to eschew violence in order to ensure that government does not take steps to “mismanage” their peace?
Governor Uzodimma has proven that he has the capacity to deliver on the mandate the people gave to him. He has demonstrated that much in his intervention on Owerri/Orlu and Owerri/Okigwe roads, among others that are now wearing a completely new look.
By the time the rainy season returns fully this year, floods in any part of Owerri, the state capital would be history because of the magic done by Governor Uzodimma with the balloon technology-driven flood-fighting tunnel.
The capacity Governor Uzodimma has demonstrated in road infrastructure, urban renewal, health sector, agriculture, education, water resources, et al as encapsulated in his 3R-mantra (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Recovery) against the expectation of the naysayers played out again at the APC National Convention last Saturday where he was Chairman of the Technical Committee responsible for the smooth conduct of the event.
Governor Uzodimma was not only the rallying point for critical decisions and consultations by a cross-section of delegates, but Imo State Pavilion became a Mecca of sorts because of him.
There was no Imo delegate/observer as well as South East delegate/observer who was not proud of Governor Uzodimma because of the candor, efficiency, equanimity, zest, and boldness he brought to bear in discharging the responsibility his party thrust on his shoulder.
Onwa, Onwa kept rending the air as a group after a group called at the Imo Pavilion to consult Governor Uzodimma for a solution to one knotty challenge or the other. A prophet, they say, is with honor but in his land.
The question is: When will our people come to terms with the hidden talent that is called Governor Hope Uzodimma which other ethnic groups have since discovered and are taking advantage of due to the many years of experience he acquired in private and public service? •Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma writes from Owerri
Oguwike Nwachuku
