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Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State recently celebrated his one year anniversary in office as a Governor. The ceremony was held with all pomp and pageantry as the Vice President of Nigeria, State Governors, Senators, Ministers, Local Government Chairmen, Businessmen, Celebrities and a host of other creme d l’ creme in Nigeria all trooped into the Freedom Square, Owerri to celebrate with the Governor. But there was something wrong with the celebration and it was very noticeable.
A majority of Imolites were not happy with the way things have turned out for them since the inception of Governor Hope Uzodinma’s shared prosperity Government and thus many Imolites felt slighted with the celebrations when Governor Hope Uzodinma has done nothing but make things worse for Imolites.
Read Also: Buhari To Visit Imo As Gov Uzodinma Marks One Year Anniversary
After the January 14, 2019 earthquake in Imo, and the attendant charade at the apex court, many Imo people of goodwill had resigned to fate and moved on with their lives. Many more lapsed into prayers and supplication, believing that nothing was beyond God to handle. Of course, on that day, the judiciary rubbished the true meaning of Justice when it blatantly yanked off the elected governor of Imo State in the person of Emeka Ihedioha and supplanted his administration with a non-contender who came a distant 4th in the Imo guber election.
Imo people wept at the bold-faced injustice and Nigerians too wept with NdiImo. In the last 14 months, therefore, Senator Hope Uzodinma, had pretended to govern the State since then.
But a snake can only give birth to a long creature. A snake cannot sire a lion. Governor Hope Uzodinma has been running Imo like the interloper he truly is – with neither road map nor compass. He does what he is adept at: governance by make-believe; overarching deception, shilly-shallying and a total lack of basic institutional prescience. This explains why a small matter like a first anniversary is being celebrated on the 14th month. When did 14 months become one year?
But the truth is that it’s not that this incompetent government forgot its anniversary, no. The truth is that there was absolutely nothing to show the world after 12 months. In fact, 12 months came to the Uzodinma government by surprise!
So they needed the last two months to paint over some public buildings abandoned by the Rochas Okorocha government and dress up age-old roads built by Sam Mbakwe in fresh asphalt. Now they commission these things with fanfare, with drumming and dancing; with Nigeria’s Vice President in tow.
Governor Hope Uzodinma is nothing short of a dictator who has little or no regards for his wards in Imo State. From terrible State infrastructure, owing of salaries and pensions to the embezzlement of State Internally Generated Revenue, Governor Hope Uzodinma and most of his cronies are rapidly turning Imo State into a personal bank account just like the erstwhile corrupt administration of Owelle Rochas Okorocha did.
His government has been nothing different from a maladministration where peddling falsehood has become the order of the day. After making bogus claims that Imo state was owing over 60 billion naira in arrears from 4,800 ghost workers and later positing that his government had resolved the issue, Imo state workers and pensioners are yet to receive their arrears.
The labour in the State even recently went on an eight day warning strike as a protest for owed salary arrears. According to them, they have been owed salaries from February to December since Uzodinma assumed office as Governor after Supreme Court sacked Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP who was paying salaries and arrears owed by the APC administration of Rochas Okorocha.
Governor Hope Uzodinma has blatantly refused to disburse salaries and pensions to those deserving of them and he has turned a deaf ear to the numerous protests and petitions by civil servants on the issue of salaries and pensions. He has also joined the bandwagon of Governors who take pride in the diversion of state funds into personal accounts while his state deteriorates into utter poverty.
His one year anniversary celebration only spells doom for Imolites because Governor Hope Uzodinma has made it clear that he plans to ruin Imo State as much as he can before he leaves office. It is only sad that he would do it while rubbing it in their faces with an anniversary to mark his wickedness and non-chalant attitude to Imolites.
THE EASTERN UPDATES
