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There is an Igbo language saying, which, transliterated to the English language, means, if a road is good, you pass it a second time (Uzo di mma, a ga ya ugboro abuo). For Imo people, the road they have passed since January 2020 is good.
This is the basic reason they look forward, and eagerly desire, to pass that road again because Hope has, to a very large extent, restored their hope in government such that they are not ready to end the romance they are having with the good road.
It would be difficult for the non-Imolite to feel the feeling of the majority of Imo people about the successes of the Hope Uzodimma government since its inception. This is because, like it is said, it is only the one sitting closest to you that would perceive your mouth odour.
It means that he who wears the shoe knows where it hurts most. Looking back, the majority of Imo people are agreed that Hope Uzodimma offers a better taste of good governance and delivery on infrastructural development and rehabilitation when compared to his predecessors. His pragmatism in addressing road infrastructure across the state has impacted positively on almost all the 27 local government areas of the state.
Imo State is at the centre of the South-East states and is directly and indirectly connected to each of them by road. Imo has Owerri-Onitsha road, which directly connects Anambra State; Owerri-Orlu road, which also connects Anambra State through Ihiala; Owerri-Okigwe road, which connects Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi states, as well as Owerri-Umuahia, Owerri-Aba and Owerri-Port Harcourt roads, which directly connects Abia and Rivers states. These roads generate from Owerri town thus placing Imo at the centre.
The implication of this is that Imo is rightly placed as a centre for business and leisure. The roads also traverse through all the local government areas of the state, making connectivity with the state capital easy. For the conscious, what this means is that the state of these roads directly impacts business and leisure as well as the growth of the state. It implies that farmers are able to ferry their produce from rural markets to markets in the state capital and other states.
A further implication is a rise in estate development in the state with the Owerri-Aba, Owerri-Port Harcourt and Owerri-Onitsha roads as new real estate development hubs.
I guess this was a major consideration of the Uzodimma government in making the conscious decision to rebuild and restore those major roads, especially those that were in a very bad state at the time he became governor. Fixing those major roads has impacted more lives and more businesses than payment of salaries had done.
Get my drift here. When a government pays the salaries of its workers, it directly affects only the workers on its payroll, which is a percentage of the population. But when it makes state infrastructure like roads, hospitals, public schools, public water, and electricity functional and accessible, it directly affects the entire population of the state. This, however, is no justification for any state government to deny workers their legitimate earnings.
The political dynamics of Imo State are such that Uzodimma has attracted more support from across the three senatorial zones for his second term run through the progressively proactive delivery on his job.
It is this support that is propelling his second term pursuit. It is the pursuit of a mandate that would enable him to complete that task of restoring Imo to its glory as indeed the Eastern Heartland.
For now, his home zone of Orlu is given, while the majority of the leaders and people of Owerri and Okigwe zones are solidly behind his second term bid because of his transformational governance credentials, which have delivered and are still delivering more democratic dividends to the people.
However, no one expects every Imolite to agree with Uzodimma’s expression of his mandate. He is bound, like every political leader, to have opposition.
That is democracy. And every democratic mind appreciates the fact that plurality of opinions always helps to build a stronger argument. However, the opinions/choices expressed by the opposition in the state, counting from their primary elections, do not offer any prospect for an upset against Uzodimma in November, especially as endorsements are raining in for him in torrents.
As we all know, all politics is local. The interest of the people of Imo State, going forward, is the development of infrastructure and preservation of their state.
Uzodimma has already demonstrated capacity for this and this explains why Imo people do not bother themselves about the political platform from where Hope discharges his mandate. So, while November looks good for Hope Uzodimma, it must be stated that his transformational leadership of Imo State is yet to touch some aspects of the life of the state.
These are part of the reasons many argue that the governor deserves a second term which they insist will enable him to touch more aspects of the life of the state like revitalization of education in the state through regeneration of school infrastructure and scholarships for deserving children of the state as well as improving on healthcare development.
Besides, StatiSense, a data consulting firm with expertise in providing data services, in a recent analysis, listed Imo as number six on its table of multidimensionally poor people per square mile with 900 multidimensionally poor people per square mile coming behind Rivers state with 1,092 people, Kano with 1,279 people, Ebonyi with 1,476 people, Akwa Ibom with 1,943 and Lagos with 3,126 people per square mile.
This “900 multidimensionally poor people per square mile” have implications for school enrolment, access to quality healthcare, and good drinking water.
These are challenges that the majority of Imo people believe a second term for Hope Uzodimma will address in order to make his philosophy of “shared prosperity” come real in the lives of not just a few people, but a majority of the people of the state for whom he holds office in trust and in who, they will, in November, invest their political future and that of their state.
