Damian Duruiheoma writes on the various hurdles faced by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and incumbent governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma before his reelection in the November 11, 2023 governorship poll in Imo State.
ON Sunday, November 12, around 10 am, Governor Hope Uzodimma, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to retain his seat in Douglas House in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
That development, on a sunny Sunday morning, marked not just the conclusion of a contentious governorship election process of November 11, but also the culmination of Uzodimma’s arduous march to retain his seat.
In the election considered already won and lost, Uzodimma scored 540,308 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Senator Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senator Athan Achonu of Labour Party (LP), who polled 71,503 and 64081 votes to come a distant second and third respectively.
Anyanwu and Achonu are calling for the cancellation of the November 11 poll, alleging that it was tainted by voter suppression, massive rigging through diversion of electoral materials and officials to the homes of the APC officials.
In a joint press conference on Monday, Anyanwu and Achonu asked the electoral umpire to either review the process or cancel the election.
Though INEC is yet to respond to the allegations, some of the parties like LP, have since declared their interest to take their grievances to the election petition tribunal, as stipulated by law.
The governor, a few hours later on Sunday after Mass at the Government House Chapel, reacted to his victory, stating that his reelection victory on Saturday, had vindicated him as the real winner of the 2019 election that brought him to power.
He also extended a hand of fellowship to his fellow contenders from other parties, urging them to join him in a united effort to build and uplift the state. According to him, he would operate a government that transcends political differences for the benefit of all in the spirit of inclusivity.
Since he took office for the first time on January 15, 2020, Uzodimma’s path has always seemed to be thorny. Interestingly, he always stands firm to take on the challenge and fight to a logical conclusion.
His trajectory into active political foray spans over two decades since 1998 when the PDP was formed. He first indicated his interest to be governor in 2003, during the tenure of his kinsman from Orlu, Chief Achike Udenwa and thereafter started playing the role of a political godfather.
In 2011, he sought nomination to go to the Senate and eventually won and got reelected in 2015. He was in the Senate till 2019, when he also sought to become the governor as then governor, Rochas Okorocha was winding up his eight-year tenure. Against the run of play, Uzodimma emerged as the candidate of the ruling APC and went ahead to contest the election.
He, however, came fourth in the election, trailing then winner Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP, Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance (AA) and Senator Araraume of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). He did not give up as he believed that he won that election. And in a decision that was most shocking, the Supreme Court declared him the winner of the election.
While Uzodimma battled for acceptance after his Supreme Court victory, the #Endsars protest in October 2020 by Nigerian youths introduced a new vista of security challenge to his administration. Criminal elements took the advantage of the near anarchy created in the system by the #Endsars protesters to embark on kidnapping and armed robbery sprees. They took their criminal activities a notch further by attacking and setting ablaze security formations across the state with personnel either killed or sacked while suspects were released with arms and ammunition carted away.
The situation reached its crescendo in April 2021 when the state police command was attacked and destroyed with dozens of suspects released while the state headquarters of Nigeria Correctional Centre was equally attacked with nearly 2000 prisoners freed. That has culminated into a state of anarchy as the released criminals have since organised themselves into groups to either sack communities or perpetrate criminal activities in communities where they find themselves.
The criminals also found fervor in the activities of Pro-Biafra agitators, who recruited them to challenge the authorities. And in August 2021 when the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), declared sit-at-home to press for the release of its leader, held by the federal authorities, Imo became an easy place to attack due to the number of condemned criminals still in circulation, who were initiating more youths into their criminal gangs through the cover of Biafra agitation.
Uzodimma could be said to have felt the pains of the Imo insecurity more than most victims as his personal house was also attacked and burnt in his Ozuh Omuma village with some security personnel losing their lives in the attack.
In the face of all this, Uzodimma, however, did not give up as he took the battle to the bandits with its attendant collateral damage. While he was succeeding in ridding the state of criminal elements, his political opponents attempted to pitch him against the people as a result of the collateral damage, thus resulting in him being accused of the whole insecurity in the state.
Nevertheless, the result was that Imo, particularly Owerri the state capital and most parts of the state, became the first to ditch the agitators’ sit-at-home order in the Southeast as markets, schools, offices and businesses began to open again for businesses.
Soon, the people of the state who were then feeling the brunt of the killings and violence by the criminal group, euphemistically called, “the Unknown Gunmen,” started appreciating Uzodimma’s efforts.
As he weathered the storm of insecurity, battered image resulting from killings and violence, among others in the state, Uzodimma also began to shift attention to infrastructure and some critical reforms as well as human capital development.
The governor also faced the worst form of propaganda against his government over the killings and the general insecurity in the state. Despite all the propaganda, the governor, party’s hierarchy and all supporters of the APC remained undaunted vowing to retain the number one exalted seat at Douglas House in Owerri, the state capital.
Even in the face of provocation during the electioneering campaigns, the governor was busy preaching peace and appealing to the Labour unions and those who felt aggrieved in one way or the other to give peace a chance.
Uzodimma, a charismatic leader began to woo the opposition just before he picked his nomination form for second term, reaching out to all known political juggernauts, traditional rulers, religious, community and market leaders and asking them to join hands within him in a bid to move Imo to next level.
He did not mince words to convince them in his bid to take the state to a higher pedestal. He noted emphatically that his administration had done enough in the areas of infrastructural development, education, health, security, economy and other critical sectors in the state economy to win the governorship poll.
He also along with the party hierarchy and critical stakeholders transversed the three senatorial districts of the state for intensive campaigns.
Expectedly, Uzodimma’s victory in the election did not come as a surprise to many. This is because of the groundwork he and his party had done in the run up to the election.
The gubernatorial poll would have been regarded as the most keenly contested election by the senatorial districts in the state. But, Uzodimma proved to be rooted in all the senatorial zones of the state. Thanks to his 100 percent victory in all the 27 LGAs.
One of the biggest factors that aided the Uzodimma /APC to retain the state had to do with the APC being well rooted in Imo since the 2015 governorship election that produced Rochas Okorocha. Also, Governor Uzodimma’s promise to hand over power to Owerri Zone (Imo East Senatorial District) by 2028, became a major key that opened the door for the support of the people of Owerri Zone, which had hardly tasted the seat of power. This accounted for the reasons why the people of Owerri came out en masse to vote for Uzodimma.
Secondly, the inability of the opposition to give the voters alternative better than Uzodimma himself worked heavily in favour of the governor, who trounced his opponents by winning in all the 27 local government areas of the state.
No fewer than 17 candidates participated in the election. But only Governor Uzodimma was visible in the political arena. The candidates of PDP and LP barely managed to be seen.
Reasons given for the poor visibility of some the opposition parties were Uzodimma’s alleged stifling of the political parties and stopping them from having a robust campaign by imposition of levies for displaying of their banners along the streets of Owerri and its environs among others.
One such of such levies was the mandatory payment of N54 million before a party could display its banners.
While that lingered, the PDP candidate, Anyanwu was being distracted in his party by those who did not want him to remain as the party’s national secretary. As the campaigns became more intense, the PDP Southeast Zone unanimously nominated the former PDP National Youth Leader, Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the new party National Secretary.
At the Southeast Zonal Executive Meeting, held in Enugu, the party’s National Vice Chairman, Southeast Zone, Chief Ali Odefa noted that the decision to replace Anyanwu with Udeh-Okoye as National Secretary of the party was to allow Senator Anyanwu concentrate on his electioneering campaign in Imo State.
The party’s decision was followed by an order by an Enugu State High Court sitting in Enugu for the PDP to replace Senator Anyanwu as the party’s National Secretary.
The order was granted following a motion on notice filed by Nwabueze Ugwu, who was seeking the court to declare Senator Anyanwu’s seat vacant due to his then position as the candidate of the party in the election in Imo State.
While ruling on the motion on notice, the court compelled the defendants in the suit- the PDP National Chairman, the PDP National Secretary and the National Vice Chairman, South-East to recognise Sunday Udeh-Okoye as candidate recommended by the South-East Zonal Executive Committee to replace Anyanwu pending the determination of the motion on notice.
The presiding judge, Justice C.O Ajah held that the motion on notice was brought under order 38 rule 1, order 39 rule 1 of High Court rules of Enugu State 2020, supported by 23-paragraph affidavits deposed to by the applicant.
As Anyanwu battled to save his position as the national secretary of the party, he lost a lot of grip on the campaigns. This is as most voters saw him as not being serious with the governorship seat he was vying for. Hence, the abysmal performance at the poll.
Similarly, the LP candidate also got enmeshed in litigation over who was the authentic candidate for the party in that election. He battled for the party’s ticket with Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph.
While the case lasted it was a tension soaked period because it was the peak period for the electioneering campaigns and the election date was drawing nearer.
The Supreme Court finally nailed the coffin of the legal tussle on the 28th of September 2023 when it affirmed that Achonu was the duly elected candidate.
With the conclusion of the governorship election in Imo State, expectations are rife and there are enormous tasks ahead as Uzodimma consolidates on the achievements on security, infrastructure and human capacity development.
The 2023 governorship election has come and gone and against the expectations of many people, it went without troubles. The winner has emerged while the losers are expectedly groaning in pain as a result of scars which may take a long time to heal.
One good deed about the election was that Imo needs peace to return to its body politics to the effect that rotational governorship should be entrenched going forward. More than anything also, the state needs enduring peace to end the allegations of police brutality, extortions and illegal arrests and return the confidence of the people back to the government.
