It has been six long months since the Supreme Court had finally shown former Deputy Speaker of Nigerian’s House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha the way out of the Imo State government house by declaring Senator Hope Uzodinma as the substantive governor of the State.
In the unanimous judgment of the seven-member panel, read by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawfully excluded during the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo State.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said with the results from the 388 polling units added, Mr Uzodinma polled a majority of the lawful votes and ought to have been declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Consequently, she voided and set aside the declaration of Mr lhedioha as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in the South-East state.
What is however not known to most is that, the ruling may actually have put paid to any future political ambition of Emeka Ihedioha.
His vindictive, arrogant, proud, and greedy character was what actually facilitated his ejection from the gubernatorial seat and the low number of protests as to his ousting was also as a result of this.
All through his seven-month reign, Ihedioha made sure he marginalised developments in Imo State and made it a core Mbaise-Ikeduru-Owerri affair leaving out most of the major communities and areas that constitute Imo state such as Orlu, Orji, Oru-East, Nekkede, and other major parts.
Maybe he was trying to focus on the most dilapidated communities or he was trying to attend to the affairs of the areas where he garnered the most support during the 2019 elections but there is no doubt that the other places saw little or no developments during his short tenure.
There was also the problem with his predecessor Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
Ihedioha had a tough time with Okorocha as he vowed to retrieve every Imo asset, which he claimed were looted by his predecessor. He also set up many commissions of inquiry to investigate every aspect of Okorocha’s administration.
In all ramifications, this distracted him from looking into more important affairs of the state, painting an image of him being a major witch-hunter for the Okorcha administration.
Ihedioha also assumed the mantle of leadership at a time some of the infrastructures in the state, especially roads were in a bad shape. The rainy season then did not help matters as flooding created craters on almost every road. So as the days wore on and he was not able to do much because of the rains, he was hurled a barrage of criticisms.
Despite the initial hiccups, however, Ihedioha was able to set up an administration that he could work with. He also appointed several aides and set up a structure that appeared smooth sailing.
However, when he has about to gain some level of stability, especially with many ongoing road projects, the apex court struck.
For the people of Mbaise nation – Ihedioha’s home – this was the most unsettling of all, given that they were looking forward to having a civilian governor of Imo State of Mbaise extraction, which had eluded them since the creation of the state in 1976.
But for the generality of Imolites, the situation is akin to the Igbo adage, Ndi n’ochi, ndi na akwa (while some are laughing, others are crying).
He was also accused of using Government funds to expand his mansions In Owerri, Aboh Mbaise, and Abuja.
The Imo state government squarely accused Emeka Ihedioha, used his seven months in office as governor, to expand his mansions in Owerri, Aboh Mbaise, and Abuja.
The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, spoke in Owerri, on My radio FM, while responding to the state Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Raymond Emeana, who said that Governor Hope Uzodinma, has failed in his hundred days in office and that there were nothing to show to Imo people.
Emelumba, replied by saying: “You can see that my friend, Raymond was having difficulty answering these questions on how Ihedioha expanded his mansions within 7 months in office, because he knows that it is a fact.
“If you go to the civic centre, people who are living there can testify that from day one of the inauguration of the Ihedioha’s administration, he started expanding his three mansions in Owerri, Mbaise and Abuja.
It is possible that if Emeka Ihedioha had played a more conciliatory politics after he was declared the winner by INEC, the forces that were arraigned against him would not have been as determined to unseat him as they were.
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