By Barr. Obidike Nwagwu
Insecurity seems to have become a selling topic for everybody campaigning to remove the Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma from office come 2023.
From their radio jingles to their campaign promises, everybody claims to hold the key to ending insecurity in Imo State.
It has become their only campaign promise. Nobody is campaigning about good roads; Uzodimma has already solved that. Nobody is campaigning about youth development and empowerment; Uzodimma has already done that. Nobody cares about the health sector; Uzodimma has already offered free healthcare through the Imo Social Security Scheme. Nobody is talking about agriculture, social development, transportation because Gov Hope Uzodimma seems to have all those covered and there's nothing bad they can say about him in those areas.
The only campaign tool they have has become insecurity; using the lives and safety of our people for their selfish political aspirations.
But these desperate politicians refuse to tell you that the Insecurity we are currently experiencing, isn't limited to Imo State alone, but is a South Eastern problem, occasioned by the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, which led to his disciple, Simon Ekpa, sponsoring unknown gunmen to wreck havoc across the zone in his rather myopic crusader of forcing the Federal Government to release Kanu, by grinding the South East to a halt.
Clearly, these politicians claiming to have the key to the problem, don't even understand the beginning of the matter and since they don't even understand it and only use the word as a political tool, how can they fathom lasing solution to it?
Maybe they are somehow telling us that they are directly or indirectly sponsoring Simon Ekpa and his band of unknown gunmen, to unleash mayhem on our people in furtherance of their selfish political aspirations.
You claim to hold the key to solving Insecurity in Imo State and you are willing to keep your key to yourself till November, not minding how many people die from now till then.
I don't know about you, but for me that sounds like a typical manipulative politician cashing in on the sufferings of the people to sell a sweet lie.
You tell the people exactly what they want to hear, just like Okorocha told the people what they wanted to hear in 2011 to make them trust him and hand over power to him.
You know what became of that trust.
I even saw one joker "promising" to stop Insecurity in Imo State within 100 days in office.
Funny.
To address the type of insecurity we have right now isn't just an Imo affair, it involves the South East. So how can you address it only in Imo State when there are elements still active in Enugu or Anambra that will return back to Imo if they are not stamped out across the entire South East?
Governor Hope Uzodimma, if you ask me, is the only person who has shown proactiveness towards curbing insecurity and he has never made any excuses about it.
Despite the insecurity in parts of Orlu and Okigwe zones, Uzodimma did not use that as an excuse, to halt the road construction projects he carried out in those areas, neither is it stopping the Owerri to Umuahia axis construction, despite the fact that Mbaise axis has in recent times, become a hotbed for Insecurity.
Governor Hope Uzodimma is the only one addressing the matter both locally and nationally, and making those tough decisions which he is being attacked for, but if we are sincere to ourselves, is the only way to address the situation before things get totally out of hand.
When you allow criminals to ground the economic activities in the region with forced sit-at-home, what does that make you as a governor.
Yet those campaigning against Uzodimma will condemn Uzodimma when he takes firm actions to stop the trend.
Take a look at Enugu which is PDP, what different tactics have they deployed? Anambra is APGA while Abia is Labour Party and we've not seen anything different other than the fact that they agree with Gov. Hope Uzodimma on the military option to address the insurgency situation facing the South East.
Yet somebody will wake up and tell you the kind of stories Rochas Okorocha used to tell and promise you that he will rid Imo of insecurity within 100 days.
Tell us something else. Tell us other areas you think you will do better but if you're not ready yet to share your secret weapon against insecurity until we elect you, nwanne, you have nothing to offer.