<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Henry Ekpe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a few days\ntime, the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma would enter his seventh\nmonth in office. That means that five months from now, he would have spent one\nyear on the seat, leaving him another three years before facing Imo electorate\nfor a renewal or not, of his second\nterm. Time they say waits for no one indeed. It is ticking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it was\njust some days ago that the Governor officially appointed his Aides, his\nDisciplines or Apostles, with whom he will lead Imo State to \u201cProsperity\u201d land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although he had\nmonths ago inaugurated these Aides, but they had no appointment letters,\noffices and portfolios. Now, with these three items provided for them by the\nGovernor, it is proper to say that Uzodinma is now set to deliver Imo State to\nanother level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile,\nbefore now, the Governor had assembled his Commissioners with which he have\nbeen piloting the affairs of the State all these months until the Special\nAdvisers SAs and Senior Special Assistants SSAs were officially brought on\nBoard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Special\nAdvisers are thirty two (32) in number, while the Senior Special Assistants\nSSAs are sixty three (63) in number. That makes it a total of Ninety Five\n(95)Aides. However, there are indications that they number is more as there are\nothers whose names were not publicly published or announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these\nnumber of appointees, Uzodinma has set up the engine to power his\nadministration, and then provide the needs of Imo people. And with this\noverwhelming number of Aides, Imo people have no reason to entertain any\nfurther excuses from the Governor because it will take some chunk of Imo\npeople’s money to maintain these Aides that are expected to deliver. Therefore,\nto whom much is given, much is expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Already, the\nGovernor has created employment opportunities by appointing such number of\nAides, and it is now left for Imo people to see how far these people will\nimprove their lives through their assignments and output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is now a\nchallenge to some of these Aides, who may have thought that they were called to\n\u201ccome and chop\u201d. The situation is more than that because the Economy everywhere\nis bad, including Imo State that is biting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, to\nsustain such a great number of people in their various offices and assignments,\nthey must realize that Imo people are watching them and would want value\nfor the task payers money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although, the\ngeneral belief is that the Governor used the opportunity to appoint his Aides\nto compensate those who stood behind him while the fight for Imo Governorship\nseat raged, but that should not be the major qualifications, as competence and\ncapacity to manage the offices given to each Aide must count. It is the\nproductivity or not of these legions of Aides that will prove how good or bad\nthe Uzodinma administration will fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the judges\nin this case will be the Imo masses who will deliver the verdict based on how\nthe Uzodinma era touched their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the\naggregation of the inputs of these Aides in their various stations that will be\nthe sum-total of what Uzodinma’s administration would be scaled as having\nperformed or failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Already, the insinuation\nis that Uzodinma packed his Imo State Expanded Executive Council with mainly\npeople of his \u201cCampHope\u201d Campaign organization. And the \u201coutside visitors\u201d who\nmanaged to make the list allegedly greased some powerful palms before they\ncrossed the hurdle . This allegation of populating his Imo State Executive with\nonly his core followers has been dogging the Uzodinma regime, without any\ndenial or confirmation coming from any quarter yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the\nbeginning, the likes of Senators Ifeanyi Araraume, and Rochas Okorocha were\nremoured to be big factors in the Uzodinma Supreme Court battle, and therefore\nwould be compensated during appointments as they would suggest some names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reality\non ground showed that among the plethora of appointees in the Uzodinma’s\ncabinet, loyalists of these top shots could be found. Not even members of Imo\nCoalition led by former Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere. Even when the\nGovernor delayed issuing appointment letters and offices to the Aides, the\nstory was that he was waiting for these people to make their suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in the end,\nnothing of such happened as the same old names were officially given\nportforlios. That showed that something is not adding up somewhere. Which may\nlead to political \u201croforofo\u201d fight sooner than later. Well, that is a story for\nanother day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another issue\ntrailing the Uzodinma appointments in the lack of spread and sharing formula to capture the\nzonings found in some areas in the State, confirming the story that Uzodinma\nonly cares about those who worked for him, and not ready to open his wings to\naccommodate other political cells outside his core followers in Imo APC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, in\nsome cases Uzodinma appointed husband and wife from the same family. He gave\noffices to people from one village and Ward. The Governor appointed people from\nthe same political zones without bothering what the masses of such areas say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He appointed a\nmother, daughter and inlaw from one family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, every\nGovernor and administration have their own style. This could be Uzodinma’s own\npattern and since he holds both the knife and yam, the bulk stops on his table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, what\nconcerns Imo people is to give them the proverbial dividends of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uzodinma\nchristened his own policy thrust \u201cProsperity\u201d and Imo people are earnesting\nwaiting for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With all the\norganogram of his administration now set, Uzodinma should focus on delivering\nthe goods to Imo people, and not allow side distractions dominate his\nattention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It could easily\nbe said that this last six months were devoted to pursuing opposition and\narguing about what and what not was published or read about his person or Imo\nGovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He should be\ncareful so that the political Hawks around him do not use him to line their\npockets, by heating up the polity while Governance suffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For six months\nnow Uzodinma’s administration has not even completed one project, just like\nOkorocha and Ihedioha did in their time. Imo State is a difficult place to\nGovern, because the people are a highly sophisticated population, and well\ninformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Governor\nshould devote more time in tackling the major problems confronting Imo State,\nand should not allow abstract matters dominate Imo politics and News, as such\nhardly present Bread on the table for the masses, which is their major concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What most Imo\npeople had expected by now is completion of some important roads in the State\ncapital as the raining season approaches. The masses had fore-warned about the\nsituation, praying not to face the ugly scenario they passed through during the\nOwelle Rochas Okorocha era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That the\npensioners demonstrated this week over non-payment of their allowances is a big\nminus to the Uzodinma administration, as the Government had enough time to have averted the shameful outing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue of\nsalary of Imo workers is disturbing. The Governor had said that a responsible\nadministration must not count salary payment as one of its achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this\nstatement, Imo people had taken payment of salaries by the Uzodinma\nadministration for granted only for the matter to still become a burning issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Government\nhad appealed to both workers and pensioners to bear as it was carrying out\nverifications exercise of workers. Therefore, six months is enough for this\nexercise and pensioners could not bear it anymore and then took to the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Already, Imo\nState is getting choked with lack of liquidity cash in circulation. There is no\nhow you fail to pay workers in a State like Imo that is a Civil Service State\nwithout the effects throwing up financial crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, it is\nunfortunate that Imo LGAs are easily getting moribund again as against the\nbursting life in the Imo LGAs a few months ago.Imo LGAs are the foundation of\nthe State and the State Government should release funds to the grass roots so\nthat pressure can reduce at the Government House Owerri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seven months\nago, Imo LGAs were executing gigantic projects and carrying out various\nfinancial commitments which returned life to the re-rural communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these large\nnumber of Aides at his disposal, Imo people will hold the Governor responsible\nif he did not meet their expectations. Imo people are a restless lot and they\nare waiting and watching Uzodinma and his \u201cApostles\u201d. Will they deliver the\ngoods? Time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Henry Ekpe In a few days time, the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",672,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2-300x179.jpg",300,179,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",640,381,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",640,381,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",672,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",672,400,false],"elegant-magazine-featured":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",672,400,false],"elegant-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",638,380,false],"elegant-magazine-medium-small":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",300,179,false],"elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":["https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ekpee3-2.jpg",50,30,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Imo Trumpeta"]},"category_info":"Last-Line<\/a>","tag_info":"Last-Line","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29019,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29018\/revisions\/29019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}