By the time Ihedioha’s administration was sacked after less than seven months, most of the mini stadia and new secretariats were nearing completion. They have remained in that state till today
By Steve Osuji
Arguably, Emeka Ihedioha is among the most regarded politician in Imo state today, if not in Nigeria. And it’s not because of his awkward green cap. It’s not because he was a three-time House of Reps member or his being Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives for one term.
It is because he has managed to garner a solid track record in his long political career; a commodity that’s a rarity in Nigeria’s political space.
Yes, solidity of character, reputation, fastidiousness, capacity for work and organizational strength, are some of the attributes easily ascribed to him. Very few politicians today can hold a candle to him in these regards.
Beyond all this, January 14, 2020 must be Emeka’s day of political epiphany. It was the day his hard-won victory in the 2019 Imo State governorship election was snatched from him by elements in the ruling party through what could be termed judicial banditry.
Emeka had been sworn in as governor of Imo State on May 29, 2019. But the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which had been nullified from participating in the ballot ab initio, and its voided ‘candidate’, Hope Uzodinma who came fourth in the poll, proceeded to court all the same. Both the election tribunal and the appellate court shredded Uzodinma’s and APC’s case.
But unbeknown to the public, the apex court was their gambit. In the dusk of Tuesday, January 2020, the Supreme Court committed hara-kiri; it self-immolated. It didn’t only rule in favour of Hope Uzodinma, the court in a bizarre judgment installed him as governor of Imo State.
The watching world was aghast. It was beyond a heist, it was premeditated judicial banditry at the apex end Nigeria’s jurisprudence.
The worst case scenario was to order a rerun election. But no. the Supreme court donning the toga of an electoral body, chose to recount votes brought to it, not by the electoral body, but by the appellant. When the numbers didn’t add up, they made it up and ruled in favour of a naked fraud.
Many Nigerians immediately surmised that Nigeria’s Supreme Court died on this day and that it would take an entirely new generation of jurists to begin to bring it back to life.
This is how it happened that certain rogues in the APC co-opted the Supreme Court to snatch Emeka’s mandate in broad daylight, not unlike armed robbers.
A man given to methods and rules, he restrained his supporters, he held back angry Imo people and he returned to the court, seeking a review, seeking remedy. But the deed had been done, the balance had been remitted, apparently and the matter was irreversible.
Not even the odium of a damaging dissenting judgment from among the panel members would sway the majority. They would rather live with the shame and infamy.
This is how come Emeka Ihedioha is not the governor of Imo State today. This is how come Imo looks like a dreary part of the sahel region today.
A trip to the State secretariat on Port Harcourt Road would testify to the aridity of the state currently. The sprawling facility which used to be the bustling engine room of Imo bureaucracy is today, a ghost town. The incumbent, Hope Uzodinma is sighted more in Abuja than Owerri leaving Imo looking like a wretched orphanage in the last six years.
Hotelry and hospitality businesses are the main stay of the Imo economy; but most of the once booming enterprises lay fallow and forlorn. It’s one thing to grab power and another to understand the essence and purposes of power.
Emeka was in office for about seven months but Imolites still compare the impact of those few months with the six years of the incumbent, Uzodinma. He was on ground, he was hands-on and he was meticulous. Ihedioha hardly missed any weekly Exco meeting and he expanded the meeting to include most appointees. Debates were robust and all encompassing.
For instance, about 24 major roads were procured and awarded in one go. Imo couldn’t afford Julius Berger so three Chinese construction firms were deployed, among numerous tested indigenous ones.
He wanted only the best in his team and he went out of his way to head-hunt them. The roadmap Emeka designed and his blueprint were the guiding lamps of the incumbent in his first term. They explain the few early wins of Governor Uzodinma in his early days.
Another testimony to Emeka’s acumen was his management of the local councils.
The abandonment of the 3rd tier of government is the bane of our country, Nigeria. While many LGAs across Nigeria have become unmanned territories, Ihedioha in a few months, managed to rev up activities in the 27 local councils s of Imo State while he was governor.
Every LGA exco was made to embark on at least two major projects simultaneously. In the first phase: a mini stadium and a purpose-built modern secretariat.
LGA chairmen who would never stay in their domains were kept busy at home. Instant jobs were created and rural economic activities began to pick up.
By the time Ihedioha’s administration was sacked after less than seven months, most of the mini stadia and new secretariats were nearing completion. They have remained in that state till today, six years after. They have indeed become overgrown by weeds.
Besides, not one hut has been built in any LGA in Imo state since Emeka was booted out.
And we dare to ask, where has all the billions in monthly allocations for the 27 LGAs gone?
In 2019, in the few days of Ihedioha, Imo was bidding to host the national sports festival. A state festival was already organized; something never experienced in the state in decades. The two major stadia abandoned by erstwhile Governor Rochas Okorocha was being reclaimed.
If Imo hosted any national event, it was in very distant memory. With vast hospitality assets, Owerri is wired to host big events. The economic importance of bringing a multitude of visitors to a state is not to be overemphasized.
But Imo seems to have been removed from the destination hubs of event planners. Nothing happens there anymore. What with the insecurity that has trailed the usurper which he can’t muster the right skills to manage.
There really is no basis for comparison between Ihedioha and Uzodinma. Well, unless we want to compare day and night. And that’s not the purpose of this piece.
This write-up is to pay tribute to a hardy politician who has come of age. Sixty years must be the best time in life to attain greatness. The dawn of seniorhood seems to be the best year of any man or woman’s life.
If Emeka chooses to rise and reclaim the mandate Imo voters gave him freely a few years ago, there’s no better time. In fact, it would seem like Imolites are waiting for him to make a move now.
After he was robbed in 2019, he remained temperate and equanimous, going about his business with dignity and nobility that has much become him.
He elected not to run in 2023, a move considered wise and perspicacious by his followers and Imolites generally.
Now that the usurper has about burnt eight years of Imo life, it seems time to reclaim and rebuild Imo.
A steady and steadfast fellow, there seems to be no better choice in Imo State right now for this job than Emeka.
Some even wager that it is just as well that Emeka’s governorship was aborted. That providence probably wants him better prepared and ready for the onerous task of rebuilding Imo. Imo has had a run of poor leadership since 1999.
After eight locust years of Okorocha’s and perhaps, another eight of Uzodinma’s holocaust, a fresh beginning led by a wizened politician and a most astute administrator is what Imo needs next.
Today, Emeka would definitely be a better governor than six years ago. Apart from the benefit of hindsight, he is more tempered, more rounded and with a better hewn mentality.
Critics of his abridged coming thought he was given to tantrums and too short of temper in his quest for results. That those were signs of poor emotional intelligence, they insist.
Great leaders manage anger as well as they manage people. The twain are not mutually exclusive, observers surmise.
Ihedioha’s capacity for work, his leadership acumen and detailed administrative proficiency have no match among his peers in Imo and even beyond.
In these last six years he has been forged in the crucibles of a baleful and bizarre era. Now he has his job cut out for him – to be a cross bearer and change leader for Imo and Nigeria.
Happy birthday, astute politician and keen administrator.
* Osuji was editor with The Guardian and Thisday among other national newspapers.