HOPE UZODINMA: ONE YEAR ON

After a year in the saddle, there is little to celebrate in Imo State, writes Justin Uwaezuoke

We were on our knees praying before we were roused by the noise of thanksgiving …

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 in Nigeria committed harakiri 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; Nigerians too wept with Nd’Imo! In the last 14 months therefore, Sen. 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. So 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 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 ersatz 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 our Vice President in tow.

This is where we are in Imo State today. But this is not my story.

I have a little story to tell, a tear-jerking story: My neighbour’s father was bedridden. Let me call him Pa Onwudiwe. We all live in the neighbourhood in New Owerri called World Bank. A suffocating settlement enabled by the world finance body for the low-incomers upon the creation of Imo State about four decades ago.

Poor as it is, we the people, haven’t had anything better since then. Imagine the constraint of hatching two family buildings on one plot of land. The result is that if you moaned loud enough, your neighbour next door would bear the pain.

My neighbour’s father was therefore ridden on a bed of sickness and hopelessness for many years and we all bore their pain.

When old age, acute sickness and penury dwell in one room you can imagine how grim the atmosphere would look like.

The sick old man was a pensioner who had long been forgotten by the Imo State government. In short, it seemed he had been left for death by the state government.

Then one day in August 2019, our lane was roused by a convoy of vehicles apparently from Government House. Neighbours were all curious, many peeped from the adjoining walls as the entourage besieged the sick man’s abode!

Now what could this be? Not many visited this sick old Pa Onwudiwe anymore. In fact his people seem to await the knell of his death…

In a short while, the government team were out of the house, zooming off in the manner they had invaded our sombre neighbourhood.

What brought them? The neighbourhood was curious. They had come to effect a biometric capture of the sick old pensioner.

The Imo State government was carrying out a comprehensive review of the state’s pension system; 27 locations had been set up in all the local government areas. Those who were bedridden either at home or in the hospital were sought out and captured by a mobile team.

My friend’s father was beside himself with joy. Imo State government didn’t only remember him, they traced him to his house! This was too good to be true, he told people around him.

About one month later, Pa Onwudiwe got alert for the payment of two months pension in his phone. It took most of us restraining him; he was literally going berserk with joy.

The Emeka Ihedioha pension reform worked. Pa Onwudiwe continued to receive payment alert every month until Uzodinma took office mid-January 2020.

Pa Onwudiwe’s pension alert seized; for many months there was no alert and no clarity. Some sources said a fresh verification was to be done. A few were getting paid and yet some were getting under-paid. Majority were left unpaid. Many months passed and Pa Onwudiwe never got alert again.

Imo pensioners cried and wept but none showed them mercy. Then the final act of infamy: the senior citizens decided to stage a peaceful protest in front of Government House.

Thugs were instigated to whip the hell out of the seniors. Imo seniors wept in anguish and dispersed in humiliation. They never made a whimper since them. And Pa Onwudiwe died shortly after…

What an anniversary of sorrow it is for the Onwudiwe family and for majority of Imo people.

▪︎ Uwaezuoke wrote from Mbaitoli, Imo State