…Says governor is working hard to rebuild state after Okorocha, Ihedioha misrule
From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Chief Enyinnaya Onuegbu is the chief political adviser to Governor Hope Uzodimma. He is also the head of Political Bureau, Imo State government.
Onuegbu, who is a lawyer by training in this interview, expressed his mind on salient issues in the state, including insecurity, giving reasons his boss should be re-elected for second term in office. Excerpts:
All eyes would be in Imo State as your boss, Governor Hope Uzodimma seeks re-election for a second term in November, how confident is your team for victory?
In law, there is a maxim called Res ipsa loquitur, that is a thing that speaks for itself, the achievements of distinguished Senator Governor Hope Uzodimma speaks for itself and that credit and capacity will carry him through the election and by the grace of God it shall come to pass with the support of the Imolites.
What are these achievements you mentioned?
First thing you would have to remember is that when Governor Hope Uzodimma came to power it was like a collapsed state in terms of infrastructure, workers motivation among others, and the first thing that came to his mind was returning the pride of the civil service, he did this in the following manner, firstly he gave a facelift to the state secretariat, he rehabilitated it, he provided vehicles for the permanent secretaries to use as official cars, he provided buses for the civil servants to come to work and return home with no fee attached, this checkmated absenteeism, enthusiasm to work , and complaints by civil servants about workiing environment, he also through legislation from the state assembly created a data centre that takes care of the enumeration of workers in the state ,this digitally provided information about every workers in the state ,it helped to know the time they were employed and length of time of their service, this has helped us to regularise the payment of workers in Imo State ,workers are now serious, happy as they go and return to work. Other ways he has impacted in the state is infrastructural development ,Imo as everybody knows was broken down ,little or no infrastructure to boast about ,it was abandoned by eight years of Governor Rochas Okorocha and seven months administration of Emeka Ihedioha ,Governor Hope Uzodimma has rehabilitated the state assembly now that if you go there, it’s digitalised, in fact, you will think you’re not in Nigeria ,if you’re a traveller you will be familiar with the Orlu, Okigwe road, you know how it used to be, but now you can travel on them in less than 20 minutes because it’s now a dual carriageway with drainages and it was done in 18 months; Owerri-Okigwe that is 46 kilometres is done and completed up to Okigwe road with streetlights; the Owerri-Umuahia road that passes seven local governments is under construction in two phases ,the first phase is from Owerri to Enyiogugu to Umuahia boundary spot ,this has aided our farmers to bring their goods to town to sell. And what about our labour force, you will find out that since Governor Uzodimma came on board there has never been a strike either by the academic staff, labour union or by NULGE, what has these achieved, the calendar of the schools are in place ,even when ASUU went on strike, the state did not join ,despite the length of time the strike took, Imo State tertiary institutions were getting paid ,if we move from there and talk about employment, His Excellency copied from past President Muhammadu Buhari adminitration, the ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship ,the ministry is headed by a technocrat, Dr Chimezie Amado, who rolled out youth skills programmes in the state ,it has graduated 100,000 youths in digital skills. As I speak to you we have about other 20,000 undergraduates, once they graduate, they’re given starter packs to start their own business ,this will also reduce the number of youths searching for jobs in the labour market ,we can’t say that things are all that rosy in Imo State, but we’re trying,we have functional health centres,we have commissioned three General Hospitals in Ohaji/Egbema,Oguta and Orlu East ,these hospitals are world class, you remember during the COVID-19 period ambulances were bought to attend to people in the rural areas. Today, Imo is at the centre of Southeast politics ,we have a governor who has been noticed by the centre because of the humility he has brought. Imo suddenly is a pride of place in the Southeast, this is a governor who is the Chairman of Progressives Governor’s Forum in Nigeria, a governor that’s the Chairman of Southeast Governor’s Forum.
Alright, before you go into that, let’s look at the insecurity challenge in the state especially the attacks on the royal fathers, the recent killing and burning of security personel, what is really going on?
First thing I have to say is that security is an apparatus set up and controlled by the Federal Government, Imo State government has no police of its own, has no army of its own ,has no DSS,Road safety, all these are Federal Government agencies, the state can only benefit with the collaboration of these federal agencies, but there is something about this insecurity challenge we have in the state, you will notice that those who are victims are either members of supporters of APC, or officers of APC or otherwise sympathisers of the government ,like a traditional ruler who is recognised by the government ,as he’s praising the government for doing good work and he’s kidnapped ,who did he collect his farmland? So, when people identify with the state government they become a target ,that is why we suspect that there is more to it than ordinary, that’s why we said it’s politically contrived, you found out in a situation where members of these opposition parties will transverse the state without problem ,but APC members cannot do that,they said they can burn anywhere in the state, including us. An APC person cannot go to Orsu wearing APC regalia ,the truth is that it’s been tied to secessionists agitation, people tend to forget that some people went to the prison and set free about 1,887 iinmates. Imo State is not in charge of the Correctional Centre, and this escaped prisoners went back doing what they used to do ,they can’t go back to their families because they have rejected them and this thing is domiciled in about five local governments in the state . Imo State is led by a peace-loving man, it pains him when one life is lost ,if this was in the past it wouldn’t have been like this, it would have been an outright war ,the aim of those doing this is to truncate this administration. Before he became governor, he was known as man of philanthropy and kindness,those who try to paint him as a violent person will never fly because Imo people know him as a peace-loving man. Note that more than five occasions he had offered the olive branch, he has offered amnesty ,he has cried, gone to churches and begged for our brothers in the bush to come out and embrace peace ,but they refused, they refused because it’s orchestrated as a political agenda ,not because Imo is a no man’s land, not because Imo is a place where agitators can ooccupy but because these things happen in our communities and you can’t tell me that our communities do not know who this bad boys are ,nevertheless, we are still calling for collaboration and because security is for all of us ,Imo is not the only place peculiar with the insecurity challenge, America has it with terrorists here and there, so I will say that insecurity in Imo has abated a bit ,political opponents are just making unnecessary headline out of it.
Now, let’s go back to the charter of equity, what’s your own opinion about it?
It is what will bring peace instead of competition and agitations from other zones. The governor has agreed on that, the elders council led by Eze Cletus Ilomuanya has passed this as a resolution that after the governor who is from Orlu finishes his tenure, he will hand it over to Owerri zone ,that is why we believe any contestant from Owerri zone should step down for the governor to make this charter work .