Against the backdrop of sustained media attacks on Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, by his former cabinet member, Dr. Fabian Ihekweme, the State Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy, Hon. Declan Emelumba, sets the record straight in this interview with correspondents in Owerri.
Q: In the past few months, there have been heated exchanges of brickbats by your government and a critic believed to be a former commissioner in the state. What actually is the issue?
A: Well, I can describe what is happening as frustration and even hunger occasioned by unmerited and unmet expectations from a failed government appointee. Someone gave you a job to do. Because of embedded incompetence and fraudulent tendencies in your DNA, the job was taken away from you. Now you turn around to attack the benefactor for no just reason. That’s the summary of what has been happening.
Q: Are you saying that Dr. Fabian Ihekweme, the man in question, was sacked by Governor Hope Uzodimma for incompetence and corruption?
A: Yes, categorically, yes. All of us were appointed commissioners at the same time in 2020. The governor told us that we have been given a rare opportunity to prove our mettle. He was explicit that after our assessment, those who failed to add value to the administration would be shown the door. After about two years, we were all assessed, and those who couldn’t meet up were dropped from the cabinet. Fabian Ihekweme was one of those who were dropped. But his own woes were compounded by the fact that he was accused of dismantling and selling off government property at the Avutu Modern Poultry in Obowo. He did the same thing at the Okigwe Water Scheme. A fellow commissioner from the same Obowo wrote a petition against him for fraud. The police investigated it, and it was found to be true. This same man was detained in Abuja sometime ago for fraud. It was even Uzodimma who facilitated his release on bail. The case files on his illegal dismantling and sale of Imo State government property are still open, and I believe that one day, he will have his day in court.
Q: But the man has been leveling weighty allegations against the governor, including that of non performance and waste of Imo peoples money on frivolous activities?
A: If you ask me, the only truthful and genuine complaint of Dr. Fabian Ihekweme is that he has not been paid his severance package. Just like all of us who served in the first cabinet, we have not been paid. But who says it’s too late to pay. The good news is that His Excellency, a few days after his second tenure inauguration, actually directed the secretary to the Government of Imo State to compute those allowances. I believe that has been done. However, let me make this clear, the payment of salaries and pensions to civil servants will always take priority over allowances of about 50 people who served in the administration. At any rate, I am not supposed to say this, but the bulk allowances the governor availed members of his first tenure cabinet far exceeded the severance package in question. But like I said, the SGI is working on it. As for the other allegations, none merits my attention and comment because they are, like Shakespeare will say; full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He who alleges should prove. The courts are there. EFCC is there. Imo State House of Assembly is there. So, recourse to social media can only serve selfish ends.
Q: Hon Commissioner, you mentioned unmet expectations as being responsible for the attacks on Uzodimma by Ihekweme. Please explain.
A: The man was sacked from the cabinet in governor Uzodimma’s first tenure. In October, just a month before the last governorship election on November 11th, 2023, he waggled his way to the campaign team of Hope Uzodimma. I have him on tapes where he campaigned vigorously for the governor’s reelection, describing him as the best man for the job. The same man is now saying that Uzodimma has not done anything in the last five years. So why did he campaign for his reelection? Unknown to many of us, that was his last ditch effort to reintegrate himself into the system, hoping to be recalled to the cabinet. In fact, some people have come out now to say that he told them that he had been promised the position of secretary to the government in Uzodimma’s second tenure. I know some of the people he told so, but I never took it seriously because I know him to be an irredeemable perennial liar. Of course, no one made any promises to him. No sane mind would have done that given the man’s battered reputation. So are you surprised that it was after it became glaring that all appointments had been concluded that the man embarked upon these attacks on Uzodimma? The question to ask again is this: Did he not notice those anomalies when he campaigned for Uzodimma? Logically, you would find out that he is not motivated by the public good but selfish agenda. He is like a woman rejected. Shakespeare captured it excellently when he said that hell knows no fury like a woman scorned.
Q: But the man justified his actions, saying that he is protecting the interests of Imo people?
A: That’s a facade. He is protecting only his own interest. This man is a career blackmailer and extortionist. He has worked with and betrayed virtually all the key politicians in the state. Fraud and betrayal are the major components of his DNA. Even before Uzodimma appointed him a commissioner, he had betrayed him. But he was forgiven. This time, he was not excused because he got himself involved in corrupt practices. So, Fabian Ihekweme can’t fool Imo people that he is fighting for them. This elaborate grandstanding is just to attract attention and see if he can arm twist the governor to “settle” him.
Q: But is it possible that the governor may still forgive him and get him back to the government, that is, getting him back to the cabinet?
A: That one is the prerogative of the governor. But the Uzodimma that I have worked for for many years would never allow anyone tainted by corruption and incompetence to be part of his administration. That is why I laugh when some uninformed and misguided elements accuse him of corruption. He has a covenant with God to serve Imo people honestly and diligently. To the best of his ability as a human being, he has kept faith with that covenant. He has even gone further to set up a Stakeholders Forum where he gives his account of stewardship periodically and allow the members, some of whom are in the opposition, some clergymen, some traditional rulers, some retired judges and lawmakers and even market women and students, to interrogate him on his policies and programmes and financial dealings. So, for Ihekweme to talk about corruption and incompetence, Imo people just look at him as a frustrated man seeking relevance on social media.
Q: Has the man made any attempt to settle this matter amicably, maybe through those of you who are his erstwhile colleagues?
A: I don’t really know what is there to settle. This is a man who just woke up one day to decide to bite the finger that fed him. He suddenly became a born-again crusader, a facade to cloak his ill intentions and malice towards a benevolent and innocent man. Maybe when he learns from the prodigal son in the Bible, he will seek restitution. This is not the first time he is engaging in this kind of antics against Uzodimma. The last time he was forgiven. Recently, he lamented that he didn’t know the kind of sin that he committed that is unforgivable. Maybe his conscience has been resurrected from the dead. To answer your question directly, he has not contacted me. Instead, we discovered that he had approached some people asking them to broker a deal between him and the governor. He is audaciously asking for Five Hundred million Naira to cease the media attacks on Uzodimma. Can you imagine the impudence! That’s why I told you that he is no longer fooling anyone with his razzmatazz civil rights ranting. Do you know how many youths the governor can empower with N500m? Do you know how many pensioners that their gratuities can be settled with N500m? That is the character pretending to be fighting for Imo people.
Q: Away from these allegations and counter allegations, it appears that your principal has slowed down the tempo of development in the state?
A: That is certainly not true. Let me shock you. There was really no transition between Uzodimma’s first tenure and second tenure. Instead, we had a seamless continuity. If you listened to his second tenure inaugural address, Uzodimma pledged to work even harder than his first tenure. If you look at the infrastructural landscape in the state, the tempo is higher. The Assumpta FLYOVER is nearing completion. Several roads across the state are going on simultaneously. In fact, the impact is astonishing. In the next few months, the 27 local government areas of the state will have an uninterrupted power supply. The governor is going ahead with the dredging of Oguta Lake to the Atlantic Ocean, which will enhance the economy of not just Imo State but the entire South East. The Orashi energy free trade zone, approved by the federal government, will soon take off. His emphasis now is the opening up of the economy through industrialization and agriculture without neglecting the core mandate of the administration, which is the welfare of the citizenry.
Q: Unlike in some states of the South East, the din of political activities ahead of the 2027 elections is not loud in Imo. Is the government muzzling the opposition?
A: Far from it. I think Hope Uzodimma is the most tolerant and Liberal politician you can find around here. Let me not say that he is the most abused. But the good thing is that as a democrat, he takes the verbal attacks in his stride. He is never and would never be distracted. This is democracy and people are free to express their opinions irrespective of the political divide. Our own appeal is that let your criticism be factual. Don’t use lies and propaganda to manipulate the emotions of the people and thereby set the state on fire.
Q: But recently, the government was accused of causing the arrest of one Nonsonkwa, a well-known critic of your administration?
A: That is a fallacy. The government had no hand in his arrest. He offended the laws of the land, and the police arrested him. You can check the charge sheet. The matter is in court, so it is subjudice for me to comment on it.