Why Uzodinma rules Imo through fake, Non-existent groups — By Collins Opurozor

His coming has not only bequeathed to Imo state a battered economy, tattered infrastructure and shattered security, Chief Hope Uzodinma has further injected a new menace into the governance of the state. The use of shadowy, fake and nonexistent groups by a supposed governor to spread falsehoods and levy attacks against respectable citizens has today been elevated to the status of state policy in Imo. This is new low and a shameful twist in Uzodinma’s wobbling regime, and it is also preparatory to the eventual collapse of that very disaster-in-progress often wrongly described as government.

The first thing that confronted Uzodinma when he took over the reins of power was legitimacy crisis. The mandate he got from Abuja never reflected the electoral wishes of Imo people, and so the people lost interest in civic participation upon his bizarre imposition on them by the Supreme Court. The regime therefore became alienated from the rest of society.

In a bid to coerce the people into accepting him, Uzodinma invaded the communities, and through his appointed Local Government Interim Management Committee Chairmen, he sacked the duly elected town union leaderships and ordered that their replacements must first join the APC and pledge to support his regime before they could be allowed to operate. This move was however vehemently resisted by most of the communities. That move was what set the stage for the crisis in very many Imo communities today.

In a desperate search for validation, support and legitimacy, Uzodinma also moved into the Imo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and broke the leadership into two. He adopted a non-journalist, a retired photographer, as chairman of his own faction of a purported union of journalists. As the crisis was raging, he went and created his own faction of the women journalists, NAWOJ, and appointed a factional chairman.

Further, he moved into the Imo newspaper publishers’ association named INPA. He created his own faction and brought a non-member of the group as factional chairman, and swiftly congratulated him.

Uzodinma has done these to see if he could manage to control the state or find a footing for the alien power which he obtained from faraway Abuja. Simply put, he has been trying to consolidate power, and his efforts have been embarrassingly counter-productive. He became increasingly confused. It has dawned on him that in a representative democracy, political power inevitably comes from the people on whose behalf it is held. And this is the reason no union, no civil society organization, no sociocultural group, no interest group and no professional body in Imo till date can ever lend any support to his regime.

But as a last resort, as the very last kick of a dying horse, Uzodinma came up with a more self-defeating idea. He began to create fake online associations so as to deceive those outside Imo state into thinking that there might be those actually supporting his disputed and chaotic regime in Imo. Today, you hear of “Global Association of Imo This and That”, “International Union of Imo This and That”, “Worldwide Forum of Imo This and That”.

All these groups are one and the same. They are nonexistent. They have no addresses and no members. They are run at a beer parlour by one person, who is always typing chaka chaka chaka and attacking Imo people on behalf of Uzodinma. A so-called governor creating fake groups, funding same from public treasury, to misinform the people and attack private citizens! This is the height of abuse of public trust! This is the miserable and decrepit level which Uzodinma has reduced the noble art of political governance. Imo is now a museum for primitive jesters and charlatans and a full-blown theatre of absurdities.

But then, and joyfully too, all these point to a tyrannical regime in crisis which has broken down completely and is irreversibly approaching its terminus! Imo ga-adi nma ozo!