Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, and the entire All Progressive Congress (APC) leadership in the Southeast must be hoping to steer the region closer to the ruling party at the centre, by winning the forthcoming governorship election in Imo State. Before Hope Uzodimma emerged through the controversial judgment of the Supreme Court in 2020, the region looked impregnable to the APC. But after Uzodimma came, Governor Dave Umahi decamped from the PDP to APC, with his entire state elected officials.
With two state governors in APC, it was believed that the party has become a significant player in the southeast region, as the 2023 general elections drew near. But unfortunately for the party, it increasingly became encumbered by the tragic conflict between the farmers and herders which was vigorously interpreted by many persons as a Jihad movement, meant to exterminate the people of the region and hand over their lands and ancestral homes to the alleged Fulani invaders.
Even more regrettable, President Mohammadu Buhari, the titular head of the party, by his actions, seemed to give credence to the alleged hidden agenda. After winning the second term election, President Buhari who had contested presidential elections with vice presidential candidates from the region, by his pronouncement seemed to have drawn a line against the people of the region. So, with his skewed appointments, poor handling of the farmers-herders clashes and gaffes against the people of the region, promoting APC in the region was framed as a sabotage, with all its implications.
To add fuel to the simmering fire, political gladiators sprinkled religious incense on the burning charcoal, and the conflagration consumed many and almost torpedoed the region’s economic progress. Unfortunately for APC, Peter Obi (Okwute), after winning the presidential primary of the LP, projected himself as the long foretold redeemer of the people of the region from all their problems since after the civil war, problems allegedly exacerbated by Buhari.
Overnight, the LP which had no structure, which had no serious membership base, and operating a vehicle gotten more or less on hire-purchase, became what the Igbo would call ugbo di oma, and there was bedlam to support the party. The hoopla against the APC was fever pitched. As explained by the Minister of Works and former governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. Dave Umahi, while he voted APC, his family members voted LP. For a long suffering people, the frugal but very wealthy and soft spoken Peter Obi fitted the image of a political messiah.
In the 2023, general election, up against what can be called Obi thunderstorm, many candidates contesting on other political platforms in the southeast were swept into political wilderness, by political neophytes sponsored by the LP, whose only credential is that they proclaimed Peter Obi as their political master. The PDP which had held sway in the southeast since the advent of this democratic era in 1999 was decapitated across the region in the presidential and National Assembly elections, not to talk of the APC with all its challenges.
After the general elections, many voters realized that in a fitful moment of anger against the system, they had thrown away the baby with the dirty bath water. In the governorship election which held three weeks after the presidential and National Assembly elections, in three out of five states, PDP managed to push back the effect of the thunderstorm and retained two states, but there were still casualties in the state legislative elections. Some have since also realized that as Shakespeare wrote: “all that glitters is not gold”.
So, the Imo election will show how far other political gladiators have barricaded their terrains from the Obi thunderstorm. In fairness to Hope Uzodimma, for instance, while he entered the Imo State Government House tendentiously, he has established himself as a performing governor. Sounding out those who know the political trend in the state, there is hope that Hope Uzodimma will triumph at the polls, if performance will be the parameter to judge. Of course, the measure of performance is usually the quality of infrastructure built by a returning governor.
According to my sources, Hope is a man of class for whom only the best is good enough. So, the roads and buildings built by Hope’s government in his current term as governor are reputed to be of the highest standards. The governor also engineered the ground breaking ceremony of the Oguta seaport by the immediate past regime of President Buhari. Of note, a seaport in the southeast is a totem of political worship like the completed second Niger Bridge, which the APC-led federal government delivered.
Another plus for Hope is that he has also reasonably tamed the insecurity ravaging his state. While some may term his style as ruthless, he leaned on the Nigerian Army to confront the unknown gun men, who made many parts of Imo State a no go area for years. He also appears to have curtailed the atrocities of the armed herdsmen which many in the southeast, rightly or wrongly, believe were sent to annihilate the people of the region. How much he has contained that contagion will impact his re-election project.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Imo gubernatorial election would hold on November 11. Among the major political party gladiators, the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are the ones that should be giving the APC leaders sleepless nights. The state which started off as a PDP state in 1999, went to the Peoples Progressive Party (PPA) in 2007, with Ikedi Ohakim, declared the winner. In 2011, despite the incumbent Governor Ohakim contesting on the platform of the federal ruling party, the PDP, Rochas Okorocha, of the All Progressive Alliance (APGA) won the election.
In 2019, because of the internal crisis in APC, the PDP won back the state, with Emeka Ihedioha as governor. But following the judgment of the Supreme Court, the state fell into the palms of the APC again. So, the political trajectory of party politics in the state shows volatility, and the APC must double its effort to retain the state. At the inauguration of Governor Hope Uzodimma Campaign Council over the weekend, the chairman of APC, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, recognized that challenge, as he pleaded with the people of the state to re-elect Governor Hope Uzodimma, to be able key into the plans of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the centre.
No doubt, the people of Imo State would fare better, if the ruling party in the state is the same as the one at the centre, more so, with the acclaimed performance of the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodimma. The November 11, gubernatorial election, will show whether the Obi Thunderstorm is still potent.
