By Kenneth Uwadi
The Yorubas have the habit of greeting.Yoruba people are very good when it comes to greetings. It is a very significant part of their culture.The women sometimes kneel down to greet. You will hear them say ,“E pele sir. Ek’aro, Ek’asan, Ek’ale, Ek’abo. Ten times in one hour. I like my Yoruba friends. When one of them waved at me and said “ inudidun Corona Virus oh. Happy Coro”. it threw me off balance. I stared at her with one eye. In my mind, I said, back to sender.COVID-19 as it is designated by the World Health Organization is worse than Ebola so don’t play with me with “happy Coro” .
When talking about the Corona Virus, I do remember the green cap man, Emeka Ihedioha, a man who was stamped into office as Governor of Imo State by a band of renegades and rough necks .Ihedioha’s seven months as governor of Imo State were devastating to the economy of the state like the deadly Corona Virus. It is only the less intelligent that would forget the havoc caused by the IIhedioha pandemic.
Having been a former deputy speaker of the house of reps, observers believed that he would do very well as governor but he turned out a disaster.He turned out the most corrupt governor Imo had ever had. In terms of primitive accumulation and kleptocratic tendencies, Ihedioha may be comparable to some dictators like Eyadema of Togo, Mobutu Sese Sekou of Congo Democratic Republic, Sukarno and Soharto of Indonesia and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.The looting of Imo State by the Ihedioha led administration in just 7 months in office was like mad. No state, no matter how under-developed and ideologically leprous can tolerate a kleptocrat like the green cap man who more than any governor damaged the ship of the state. But thanks be the Lord, he was removed by the Supreme Court.
Senator Hope Uzodinma won his landmark judgment actualizing his mandate to govern the State and was sworn-in, in obedience of the Supreme Court ruling. Today, Uzodinma is doing well. Since he was removed as governor, Ihedioha has been rolling on the floor. His political goons go about sponsoring street protest here and there. They plant fake news all over the media just to paint governor Uzodinma black to justify the flawed administration of Ihedioha. As I write, fake news planted by the political goons of Ihedioha are still running on social media, blogs, newspapers and Magazines. That’s how deceitful the man can be.
Few weeks ago in a demonstration of lazy optimism, cheap publicity and an obvious recidivism of a known precipitous and premature thrill, Ihedioha’s political goons put up a roadshow of his return from a self imposed exile. They came out with drums to welcome him as he rides around Owerri.He is now the man they had all been waiting for. The man who will deliver Imo in 2024, the Messianic man. He is now the man to give food to the foodless and water to the waterless. He is suddenly the one with the Midas touch, the man whose name precedes him and who everything he touches turns to gold. Ihedioha is now the God sent who shall lead Imo to the promised land in 2024. And I laugh when I see the hate-mongers trying to repackage him as the new ‘Man Friday’. But the question however is: what is in his history to make history? You want to take over Imo in 2024 and you are projecting Ihedioha. Is it not hard to sell rotten tomatoes in the market?
What did he do when he was governor for seven months but mindless looting of the treasury. When he was governor he introduced political gangsterism, over dose of intolerance, crass and unmitigated ambition. When he was governor he behaved as if he was a resurrected Sani Abacha . To achieve this untoward ambition, not a few had to pay the unnecessary ransom. The first set of people to taste his Abacha like style of intolerance were local journalists who were not used to deceitful style of governance which is-report what you did not see or be attacked by government goons.Some were even banished from their communities.
Are we also going to forget how he became governor in an election better forgotten as it was so massively rigged? His party scored 98 percent of his total votes in Mbaise . Do we now forget that he left office with tales of corruption trailing him? Billions looted in our LGA’s, billions looted in Isopadec. Indications that Imo people entered a one chance vehicle began emerging early in the life of his administration as in less than two months in office, the man started building private hotels in Owerri and in Abuja. The whooping finances left in the State by the past administration developed wings.
Today, his goons are sponsoring protest against governor Uzodinma, sponsoring fake news. You want to rule Imo and you are this deceitful. They expect the style of fake news of the ‘Ohakim flogged a Reverend Father” to work in the present day Imo. And in their kingdom, they are the absolute Monarchs, dishing out untruth in robes labeled truth to their subjects too ignorant to know any better. Even when they are unapologetic in contravening a basic rule in humanity’s quest for sanity. They expect us lesser mortals to automatically endorse it by joining them in chanting Ihedioha. Tufiakwa! Governor Hope Uzodinma is presently doing well and we will support him. Ihedioha and his political goons can continue in their Yanyanpu. Imo must move forward.
-Kenneth Uwadi lives in Mmahu-Egbema, Imo State.
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