It was over breakfast with former Deputy Governor of Imo State, Sir Jude Agbaso when he said to me, "Obinna, if there is one thing I am certain about, it's the fact that Gov Hope Uzodinma really wants to work for Ndi Imo. We have seen governors come and go and you don't need a soothsayer to tell you that Uzodinma wants to leave a legacy behind by the time he leaves office."
I agree with Sir Jude Agbaso.
Listening to Gov Hope Uzodimma flagging off the Owerri to Umuahia road the other day, I heard a man with a passion to work for his people. A man who is not distracted from the mission to give his people they best he can offer to give them.
Gov Hope Uzodinma became governor of Imo State at a very peculiar time, when the insurgency and banditry we used to read on the pages of newspapers as regular occurance in the North, suddenly decided to come down to the South East.
From Chief Achike Udenwa to Dr Ikedi Ohakim, down to Senator Rochas Okorocha, it has never been this bad and Imo is not peculiar. It is all over the South East.
A lot of people have their opinion over how the matter would have been handled but let me ask you Mr armchair critic, if you were governor and a band of armed men who aren't ready to reason with you, decide to hijack a part of your state, what would you do?
Would you allow them have a field day or will you invite those who's job it is, to handle such situations?
Gov Hope Uzodimma is not a security expert so he invited those who we employed to protect us when such situations arise. Admittedly, there have been some wrong calls by our security operatives leading to loss of innocent lives, but should we blame Uzodinma for their mistakes? The people we should blame are those of us sponsoring the banditry. You should blame yourself if you are amongst those protecting the bandits and criminals who started this madness in the first place.
I saw videos of people cheering the "unknown gunmen" that terrorised Owerri some time ago and we failed to realise that they were laying the ground for the Insecurity we are experiencing today.
If there is another way you think Gov Hope Uzodinma would have taken to arrest the situation, I'm yet to see your detailed submission on the matter. All we see is your criticism without proffering any solution.
When Okorocha was in charge, the sincere ones amongst us who tackled his excesses, did not do so because we expected something from him neither were we agents of political parties, hired to attack Okorocha. We did so as concerned citizens, proffering ideas and ways Okorocha would have done better and save himself the disgrace he has since been attracting to his name because of his misrule in Imo.
What Gov Hope Uzodinma needs from you is advise not attack.
He is not without faults as none of us is faultless and as such, he needs guidance and support from you to aid he get the job done.
When all he gets from you is attacks, how then do you expect him to work according to your desires? He is not a magician to know what you want or don't want and since you aren't talking to him, he's left with no option but to do what he feels is right, sometimes at your disapproval.
But then, you didn't give him the avenue and opportunity for communication.
We landed into the disaster that was Okorocha because we refused to give Ohakim the avenue for communication even when he gave Ndi Imo the opportunity to relate with him.
We are at it again with Uzodinma.
Those people telling you they are better might turn out to become our greatest nightmares if they finally get into power.
Our experience with Okorocha should have taught us a lot. Unfortunately many of us are gearing up to make the 2011 mistake all over again.
Hope Uzodinma is governor and until he leaves office, what he needs from you is your support.
Your support can come through advise or through constructive criticism backed with solutions to help guide him.
Good governance goes beyond being a member of a political party. If PDP for instance made people become saints and administrative gurus, how then did somebody Okezie Ikpeazu become the worst governor in Nigeria? Party doesn't make a man good or bad. You're either a good administrator or you're a bad administrator.
In the area of infrastructure, Gov Hope Uzodinma has demonstrated a desire to give Imo the best.
He met a state at the brink of infrastructural collapse and some people expect him to be a magician and fix what Okorocha spent eight years destroying in less that three years.
Let's be realistic and stop playing to the gallery. The regime of Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha spent 8 months and no road was built because he had to access the mess he was walking into and understand where to start addressing it from.
We were patient with him yet with several infrastructural achievements by Uzodinma since he took over, we refuse to he patient with him. That's being unfair.
With all the bailouts, Paris Club refunds, bumper allocations, massive borrowing Okorocha had, he didn't leave a single motorable road in the whole of Imo State when he left in 2019.
Today Nigeria is almost cash crunched yet Uzodinma is going to Abuja begging everyday like the late Chief Sam Mbakwe did, to make sure he can get more things for his people.
O, so you think he is going to Abuja to do jamboree? Nwoke is going there to beg on your behalf yet what we pay him back with is disdain.
Very soon Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri to Umuahia roads would be completed while he addresses the inner roads one after the other and God willing, recover Imo to a considerable level before he leaves office.
In the area of penisons, I know a lot of pensioners now receiving their timely pensions. There may be some people who haven't been captured but I am hopeful that they would all be captured and receive their dues.
For eight years of Okorocha, no penisoner got a Kobo yet the man who is doing something about it is being crucified by the people he is working for.
This is usually how we move from frying pan to fire.
Ohakim was paying salaries and pensions but we didn't like him and brought in the "man of the people" who ended up asking pensioners why they were still alive and refused to pay them for eight years.
I am confident that every legitimate civil servant who has because of errors they brought upon themselves probably due to wrong documentations, would be addressed while the ghosts would all be weeded out.
Imo State is not about Hope Uzodinma. It's not about APC or PDP or any political party. Imo State is all about you and I. Ya riri mma oriri la mu na gi. Ya rikwanu njoo, na still all of us to cry. How can we make the state better? Lend your support let's stop insecurity and foster development and growth in the state.
It lies in your hands to move Imo forward.