Uzodinma: Imo Stinks And Sinks After Seven Months ~ By Collins Opurozor

Uzodinma: Imo Stinks And Sinks After Seven Months ~ By Collins Opurozor

It was on January 15, 2020 that Hope Uzodinma was sworn in as governor of Imo state. A bizarre verdict of the Supreme Court had a day earlier pronounced him winner of an election in which he trailed behind three other contenders. So, today, the man is exactly seven months in office.

The scorecards of this disputed rulership are interesting. The biggest achievement Imo has recorded in the last seven months is that the state now occupies the first position in all the indices of social misery in Nigeria. In a recent release by the National Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate in Imo now stands at 48.7%, the highest in Nigeria, even with a national average of 27.1%. We have it on the authority of the NBS that the first and second quarters of 2020 witnessed this sharp rise in the unemployment miasma. When the figures of underemployment are included, Imo is recording well over 79.6% of unemployment. About 2.4 million people walk the streets of Imo state with nothing to fall back on! This is a travesty!

However, what is more worrisome is that the government continues to mock the people with their worries and woes. A while ago, it was claimed that the Imo State Palm Plantation, known as Adapalm, has created 35,000 jobs under this regime even when in truth no single person has been employed in that establishment.

It was further claimed that the regime saves N2 billion monthly from ghost workers, yet most workers in Imo state have never been paid since the regime began its misadventure and ruinous misrule.

It was also claimed that the regime has built three thousand housing units, a thousand in each of the three senatorial districts of the state, even when the regime has not built a single bungalow anywhere in the state.

We also heard that contracts have been awarded to Julius Berger for the construction of Owerri to Okigwe and Owerri to Orlu expressways, and that work would commence in July. Later, we heard that it was no longer contract but MoU. However, till this day, there is no contract yet between the government and Julius Berger, and Orlu and Okigwe roads remain in disrepair.

We were also told eight pensioners steal N330 million annually. This claim also turned out to be completely false, and even the poor pensioners whose names were bandied by the regime have vowed to drag the regime to court over defamation of character.

It was also claimed that before the misrule began, the ISOPADEC funds were looted and shared. But till date nobody in Imo knows where all the allocations to ISOPADEC for the seven months are kept. The whereabouts of the LGA allocations also remain an unfathomable mystery.

Ndi a akujashiala Imo state!