A university don and social critic, Prof Protus Nathan Uzoma, has warned Imolites against reducing politics to loyalty to individuals and political camps, insisting that the state belongs to all its citizens and not exclusively to those who control political power, appointments or financial resources.
Uzoma made the submission in an article captioned “Who Owns Imo? Political Loyalty and Intellectual Accountability,” where he argued that every Imolite has a stake in the political, economic, moral and intellectual direction of the state. He asked: “Does Imo belong to the political class alone? Does it belong to those who control government appointments? Does it belong to those who have the financial capacity to dominate political structures?”
Answering the questions, the professor said: “My answer is simple: Imo belongs to all Imolites.” He argued that the state belongs equally to the university professor, trader, farmer, student, professional, artisan, civil servant, traditional ruler and young person who has never occupied political office.
Uzoma, while examining political loyalty, warned that allegiance to political leaders becomes dangerous when it requires citizens to defend everything done by their political allies. He distinguished between supporting a politician because of a belief in the public good and defending the politician simply because he belongs to one’s political camp. “When loyalty demands that conscience be surrendered, loyalty has become servitude,” he said.
The social critic also challenged intellectuals, academics, journalists and professionals to abandon silence whenever speaking truth to power becomes politically inconvenient. According to him, intellectuals must be able to “speak to power without becoming enemies of power; who can praise achievement without becoming sycophants; who can criticise failure without becoming destructive; and who can defend truth even when truth is inconvenient to their friends.”
Uzoma said governance should ultimately be judged by the experiences of ordinary citizens, rather than by the volume of praise offered by government supporters. He argued that roads, government buildings and political appointments were important, but should not overshadow issues such as education, employment, healthcare, livelihoods, security and the effectiveness of public institutions. He called for politics in Imo to become a contest of “ideas, programmes, values and visions” rather than a struggle over political positions.
He further warned against applying different standards to politicians depending on their political affiliations, saying such conduct undermines democratic consciousness. “An act does not become right because it is performed by our preferred politician, just as an act does not become wrong merely because it is performed by someone we dislike,” Uzoma said. He added: “Justice must not wear party colours. Truth must not require a political uniform,” insisting that Imo can only develop when its institutions become stronger than individual political interests.
