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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Governor of Imo State and Director-General of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, Hope Uzodimma, addressed the group’s leadership meeting in Abuja on Saturday, outlining its mandate to spread President Bola Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” message nationwide.
The organisation aims to inform citizens about reforms, their necessity, initial pains, and emerging dividends, including easing inflation, stabilising the exchange rate, and boosting foreign exchange reserves.
“It’s a formal meeting of the leadership of Renewed Hope Ambassadors,” Uzodimma told reporters at the end of the meeting. “Renewed Hope Ambassadors is just an outfit that is designed to create awareness and get citizens to begin to understand the reason for the various reforms introduced by Mr President and also educate them on the necessity to embrace it, and then also inform them of the dividends as they trickle in.”
He highlighted pre-Tinubu challenges: failed subsidy removal attempts by past presidents, a minimum wage of N30,000, and millions of out-of-school children.
Uzodimma noted progress: “As I speak to you, as I did last time, we have over a million students being trained through NELFUND (National Education Loan Fund), a government programme. And this couldn’t have happened without the various reform policies.”
He added that rice prices dropped from nearly N120,000 per bag two years ago to around N50,000 currently.
The governor accused the opposition of using misinformation: “Now members of the opposition cannot play politics with everything, including developmental programmes. That is why the only weapon they have is misinformation. And if we don’t get up to begin to inform the people properly and rightly, this government will be misunderstood.”
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He instructed ambassadors to reach grassroots levels: “So that is the essence and the reason for setting up this outfit to create awareness and enlighten our people and let the information trickle down to the grassroots, to the commonest man on the street, in the market, at the motor park, so they will understand.”
Uzodimma gave an example: “When somebody tells you, ‘Oh, the cost of transportation is getting high because of the subsidy removal,’ tell him no. The government has introduced the CNG initiative, that these buses are being replaced now with the CNG-driven vehicles, and that the cost of transportation is going down. Simple like that. So we will use facts to counter misinformation.”
The meeting included zonal coordinators from six geopolitical zones, 36 state coordinators, Deputy Director-General Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya as Secretary, and Deputy Secretary and Governor of Ondo State Abiodun Faleke.
“We have started very well. Today, I have in this meeting, zonal coordinators in the six geopolitical zones, the 36 state coordinators, and then the leadership, me as the Director General, Governor of Gombe as the Secretary, Honorable Faleke as the Deputy Secretary, and our deliberations went down well, and there is a new enthusiasm, and government is being embraced by all of us,” Uzodimma stated.
He linked APC successes to government work: “You can see we have 31 governors of APC and still counting. It means that the government is doing work. You cannot cover light with blankets. Light must be light and must be seen by the people.”
Earlier, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani, Deputy Director-General, called for amplifying the Tinubu administration’s successes with subnational efforts, such as primary healthcare upgrades, and for these to be disseminated to the grassroots.
Gombe State Governor Inuwa Yahaya urged coordination, noting that synergy would aid the task of spreading the successes of the administration, including efforts to tackle insecurity in the North-East.
