Why Uzodinma Won With Resounding Landslide.
I had been firm that the Imo State November 11, 2023 governorship election would be a walkover for incumbent governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma. I had posted soon after the respective primaries of the different parties, enroute the election, that Uzodinma had no strong opponent going to the election. The emphatic electoral landslide he secured in that off-season poll didn't come to me as a surprise. What surprised me however, is the magnitude of the victory. This is the first time any victorious governorship candidate has won all the local councils in the state noted for its high degree of enlightenment. While I expected a massive victory for Gov. Uzodinma, I was awed by the magnitude of the victory. Again, the huge swathe of syndicated hate and negative actions and campaign the opposition had erected against Uzodinma since he came on board in January 2020 served to mellow my expectations on his assured victory. But I believed it would be massive nonetheless.
What really spiked my reading of a massive victory for Gov. Uzodinma?. This is an apt poser given the hyper-active manner the opposition hauled dirts, mucks and debris on him since he became Imo governor. But that extreme opposition tactics itself served as fuel for the gargantuan acceptance Uzodinma enjoyed all over Imo State. It takes nothing to know that Uzodinma became easy target for the opposition by the way and manner he displaced the opposition to emerge governor. That landmark Supreme Court ruling still tickles the sore wound of the opposition in Imo State. Their powerlessness to stop what they dread only worsened their pain and heightened their resolve to do him in by any means necessary. This is the reason IPOB, ESN and Unknown gunmen suddenly launched their deadly voyage in Imo. Yes, you heard me right. Before Hope's coming, IPOB, ESN, unknown gunmen were forlorn tales Imolites heard in Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi and few other places. They had no foothold in Imo. But the outward display of angst and bitterness at how Gov. Uxodinma upstaged the brief PDP mandate in Imo was the tonic that fired the launch of violent, ceaseless, impudent and reckless attacks in Imo by these hounds. And it was clear their mission was to undo the Uzodinma government by every. means.
Did he treat the challenge with kid gloves or take it up? Uzodinma took the challenge as it came and faced the bloody groups face to face. Many underated the magnitude of this battle but we have Gov. Uzodinma to thank for the relative peace Imo State enjoys today. It would have been a disaster if he was less determined! It was a deliberate, well-choreographed plot to pull down his government and make Imo State a lawless fiefdom to underscore that he had failed in governing Imo.
These bloody fiends were backed by a well-oiled propaganda unit of politicians, self-crowned NGOs and persons who provided adequate propaganda cover for the task of pulling down the Uzodinma government by every means. These are those people who gleefully celebrate the bloody exploits of these buccaneers, hoist those exploits as proof that Uzodinma had failed, while hawking the tale of genocide, mass murder and all sorts of false charges when Uzodinma government forcefully engaged these bloody groups. They fully leveraged on fake news, lies and other sinuous tactics to paint Imo State black for the period Uzodinma had been in power.
This tactics endured and had its days but when the time came for Imolites to choose who is best suited to govern them in the next four years, they waded through these huge debris of lies, fake news, specious and outlandish narratives and chose Uzodinma for another four years because they knew he had done quite a lot to protect them from the deliberate plots of the opposition and their hideous groups. So, the opposition shot itself in the feet in their hope that their strategy to impose insecurity and chaos in Imo State for four years would help their huge project to stop the governor. This strategy rather worked contrary to their intentions.
Again, going to the election, the opposition was bereft of credible policies and candidates to stand against those of Gov. Uzodinma. Perhaps, they were sucked in their intrigues to advance alternative policies and candidates to take up the incumbent and his policies. The opposition which started as a united PDP was to fracture into PDP and Labour Party variants but their strategies remain the same odd fixation with artificial insecurity and weaving gory tales contrary to what obtained in Imo State. The expectation was that as election approached, the opposition would come out with superior policy drafts and candidates to defeat the incumbent. That didn't happen as the various shades of opposition to Gov. Uzodinma drenched themselves in the pool of their obnoxious plots around insecurity and brought out candidates that suited this odd narrative. It was only natural that they would fail as emphatically as they did on November 11.
The deep fractures and schism that pervaded the ranks of the opposition, leading to the election could not have guaranteed a better result than what they got in the election. The opposition in Imo State merely submitted to the many paradoxes and contradictions in their ranks up till the election day. On the contrary, Uzodinma mended the patches and glitches in his APC, courted and brought in many more people and groups to buy into his comeback bid. He widened his court, met anybody that needed to be met, poached the ranks of the discordant opposition and built an expansive political empire that returned much flattering harvest to him on November 11.
The poor strategy of Joe Ajero and his NLC leadership was one factor that mobilized Imolites for Gov. Uzodinma. The public angst and condemnation that trailed Ajaero's desperate effort to instigate and launch a needless labour crisis in Imo State, which has enjoyed superlative industrial harmony throughout the four years of Uzodinma, so as to cause revolt against the governor and his party and benefit Ajaero's preferred candidate and party, just a week to the election, was a poor tactics that backfired in all ramifications. Ajaero's failed political hatchet, rather than hurt Uzodinma, served great impetus to Imolites to rally round him against Ajaero's invading forces.
Most importantly, the feeling of average Imolites is that Hope Uzodinma performed creditably in his first four years. In every sector of governance. This us a critical barometer an incumbent deploys in re-election contests and it magnificently leveraged the governor. In the past four years, Uzodinma put up a stellar performance that bests existing recent performance records in Imo State since 1999. He was particularly spectacular in infrastructure, urban renewal, health care delivery, urban rejuvenation, youth empowerment, security, workers welfare and industrial harmony. These have built for the governor, a formidable support base that finds expression in his tight control of Imo State political space since he came. Samples of such tight grip are that his APC won all the bye-elections in Imo State held to fill vacant senatorial, house of representatives and state assembly positions since he came in January 2020. Again, in the last general election held in February and March, APC won two out of the three senatorial seats, five out of the nine house of representatives seats and 26 out of the 27 state assembly seats in Imo, stamping an incredible dominance that hasn't been rivaled in Imo politics in recent times.
So, going into last Saturday's governorship election, Gov. Uzodinma was riding on the crest of impregnable popularity and mass approval, borne out of several factors but most especially from his own deliberate actions and policies since he came to power in 2020. While his rivals grappled with multifarious negative factors, he, via dints of hard work and deft political mastery, was on top of his game, going to that election.
It is our fervent hopes that the governor won't rest on the complacency of re-election but will continue with re-energized vigour to continue on the laudable works that endeared him to Imolites in the next four years. It is one's fervent desire that Gov. Uzodinma, having started strong, having done so well in his first four years, would strive to finish stronger in the next four years and leave his irreplaceable imprint in the governance of Imo State. To whom much is given, much is expected, going by our popular aphorism.
Congratulations to Gov. Uzodinma on this decisive and epochal victory!
Peter Claver Oparah.
Ikeja, Lagos
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