The college of APC governors, known as Progressive Governors Forum, is a powerful group in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The governors are important components of the decision mechanism in the APC and a force to be reckoned with.
Leading the Progressives Governors Forum is Chief Hope Uzodimma, governor of Imo State and a former senator.
Born on December 12, 1958, Uzodimma attended Mgbidi Secondary School in Omumu, Oru West, Imo State, Nigeria, for his secondary school education. He obtained a bachelor’s degree, after earning an advanced Diploma in Transport Studies. Also, he has a degree in Political Science from the University of London as well as a master’s degree in Human Relations.
Uzodimma’s sojourn into politics started in 1983 when he joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), during the Second Republic. He became youth leader of the party in Imo State.
He was also a member of the United Nigeria Congress Party during the transition programme under the military government in the early 1990s.
In the currenct democratic dispensation, which started in 1999, Uzodimma first joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and served as a member of the party’s National Caucus, National Executive Committee and on the Board of Trustees.
He defected to the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2002, and vied for the Imo State governorship seat, which he lost. He returned to the PDP in 2004 and unsuccessfully contested the PDP governorship primaries, two years after.
In 2011, Uzodimma was elected senator representing Imo West on the platform of PDP. He was reelected in 2015. At the Senate, he was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, among others.
Uzodimma joined the APC in 2019 to actualise his governorship ambition. He won the party’s ticket and came fourth in the election, which had Hon Emeka Ihedioga of the PDP as winner. He went to the Election Petitions Tribunal, claiming that some of his valid votes from 388 polling units were excluded from the result, asking for their inclusion. He lost at the tribunal and Court of Appeal, but was declared the duly elected governor by the Supreme Court in January 2020.
Uzodimma was sworn in as Imo State governor on January 15, 2020, with Placid Njoku as Deputy Governor of Imo State. He was reelected governor and sworn in for the second term on January 15, 2024.
Uzodimma emerged as chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum on May 31, 2023. He is a strong force in the party in the South East, where the party is struggling for a foothold, and nationally.
As chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, he has led his colleagues to have a good working and harmonious relationship with the national leadership of the APC.