I want to start this piece with an unbiased mindset and with the view to steer the consciousness of the reading public in Imo state and beyond on a particular critical issue that has become very disturbing to some of us who have watched and seen that the interest of Owerri Zone may be threatened in 2019 election. It is on this note, I wish to ventilate on what I think as a proper thing to do as stakeholder in Imo project and media practitioner is to add to the voice of reason and call on Imo people to properly digest and be more informed and enlightened on some political development happening in the state.
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I have to be blunt this time around and I wish people will not read negative meaning into it my style of write up for being so incisive, unbiased, thorough and a bit offensive. I am saying this because; I have discovered by research that some of our political actors in Imo are economical with the truth and ungrateful. I will only try to unmask as much as I can some of the issues which I have seen as knotty parochial insinuation that negate our political life as a people. I think the right time to address it is now before it becomes another re-occurring decimal that can make or mare the People Democratic Party, PDP and Owerri zone chances of winning in 2019 governorship election if not addressed and checkmated. On a reflective note, I know as Christians we cannot do without God Almighty in any political engagements, because the Bible says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge” and “Thou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” Imo people deserve to know the truth and is the truth that I am saying so that Owerri Zone can be liberated from the hands of political detractors.
We know every election has its own lessons, which could be negative or positive. The last governorship election of 2015 may have come and gone with its lessons and impacts, but it is the significant aspect of the election which this article wishes to point out without fear or favour. The election can well be described as a flip of motion movies or a case study in which the unforeseen took place and has become an important lesson for political postulations and analysis. The last election in which the Imo PDP failed to unseat Governor Okorocha having won virtually all the seats in the Federal House and the Senate and unable to secure favorable judgment at the electoral courts calls for sober reflection and a careful re-examination. Though the courts may have ruled to favour the incumbent Governor, many people still see the judgment as those things we have to grapple as a developing democratic nation and as a people who wants to promote the rule of law and respect for the judiciary not minding the make-believe issues the judgment may have raised in our minds all of which is now history.
Over the years the PDP as a party has been enmeshed in rebellion by strange elements within its fold, who seem to be working tirelessly all day plotting to clinch power or cause confusion if they fail. Their mode of operation is the use of all manner of blackmail, propaganda and intimidation to achieve their cause. The situation in Imo PDP after the last election is such that even the least discerning watcher of the political terrain in Imo State would have noticed the underlining maneuvering by some of these political saboteurs who are hell bent on hijacking the party deploying all sorts of means. As intriguing as their plot may look, many who were alleged to have been instrumental to the party’s failure at the polls at the wards and LGAs, have been seen masking without shame and making all manner of noise and clandestine efforts to assume leadership positions in the party without remorse. It is unfortunate that in every human organization, individuals with the strongest potential capacities and abilities to lead are never encouraged or may not be given the needed support by power manipulators masking as “leaders”. Some have been accused of not standing for the party or doing battles or protecting the interest of the party during the last election. Most of those who crossed over to the party from other parties while looking for political positions have been accused of working against the party when it mattered most. With the simmering crises within, it is obviously clear that the political weight of the party like Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha, the former Speaker of the House of Representative and one of the governorship candidates of the PDP is by all indication undergoing some litmus test and big challenge here. This is because many of those signs that signaled the poor outing of PDP in the last election is gradually resurfacing as majority of the PDP politicians have returned to the trenches of politics with all manner of propaganda and blackmail against the emergence of Hon Ihedioha for Imo State.
The hate against “Mbaise” has become manifest and the cheapest blackmail pattern and stock in trade of our empty-headed political detractors. They are only using this because they are afraid of losing to a better candidate for the role they played against the party. Exploring this kind of blackmail explains why Imo will continue to wallow in ignorance based on a mere perception of a few wicked men. If I may ask, Is Mbaise not Owerri zone again? Has Mbaise not produced technocrat that served Nigeria, Ndigbo and Imo State meritously before? Why should people be that parochial and ungodly fanning primordial sentiments just to dissuade Imo electorates? It is now obvious in view of pitiable economic condition of Imolites under the present administration that clannishness and sectionalism do not help anyone in politics. All the propaganda and gossip about an Mbaise man being governor of Imo State in 2015 have never helped anybody but has rather unleashed suffering and poverty on the innocent masses of Imo state who were misled in 2015. To say that Imo people would have been better today under an Emeka Ihedioha as governor, is simply saying the naked truth. Never again should the good people of Imo State be deceived with such wicked and divisive propaganda especially as the hood alone does not make a monk. Since 2015, the wind has been blowing and every Imo man has seen the fowl’s anus.
To have a look at some of Ihedioha’s landmark achievements, I urge people to visit Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education (ALVAN), Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Federal Medical Center (FMC) Federal Polytechnics Nekede, Imo State University in others which I cannot mention because of space to appreciate the massive infrastructural tune around between 2011 to 2015 when he was the Deputy Speaker, Federal House of Representative. It is on record that no previous federal lawmaker has given prominence and relevant to the Deputy Speakership in Nigeria like Hon Ihedioha. That the Goodluck Jonathan federal government then started the road dualization of Owerri-Aba and Owerri-Onitsha and near completion of Owerri-Port Harcourt remain a credit to Hon Ihedioha apart from Mbaise-Ngor Okpola ring roads which were constructed during his regime as Deputy Speaker.
This time is Imo people require a democrat who will put the people and their collective developmental aspiration first before primordial cleavages as against what is obtainable in Imo today. Across the state one is confronted by growing army of unemployed youths who in some cases have lost faith and confidence in the future and in the promises of Imo political operators. Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha is a well grounded politician with desire for details, cultured with respect for rule of law, due process and desire to give priority attention to those things that will better the lives of citizens of imo state. It was Hon Ihedioha who made yearly constituency briefing an institution of its own, always calling his constituency together yearly to present his score card. He is a project-driven politician who has passion of giving responsibilities to people with the right capacity to deliver rather than promote nepotism and clannish consideration Rt. Hon Ihedioha has passion for quality and sustainable infrastructural development that has positive impact on the people.