By Collins Ughalaa KSC
It appears we have not heard the last of Emeka Ihedioha's post-defeat stress disorder. Yesterday, the Emeka-nized Imo PDP released another cocktail of lies titled IMO ASSEMBLY: UZODINMA AND REIGN OF TYRANNY. In this propaganda, the deserted party tried to project Governor Hope Uzodinma as a tyrant. They tried to clothe him with every vice commonly known to have characterised Ihedioha's seven-and-a-half month misrule in Imo. Ever since this haughty Emeka was cast down from power, he has tried relentlessly to inflict Imo with his delusions to no avail, yet he continues to try. Although fully aware that the said write-up, as usual, was prepared for the diaspora, with a view to discouraging investment (the party is despised at home since it adopted Emeka as sole heir) we respond for the sake of posterity.
Did you know that despite posing as Governor for 231 days, Imo people never forced Emeka Ihedioha to return his illegitimate salaries and jumbo allowances? Terrible mistake. Actually, the thinking was that with all his talk of integrity "my word, my bond" and all sorts of borrowed mantras, Emeka would promptly reimburse the state, issue a tearful public apology and proceed on sabbatical. Emeka's illegal reign was nothing short of an insurgency, a rebellion against the voice of the people and the voice of God. In other climes, impostors like Emeka are stripped naked and hurled into exile. In transport parlance, riotous passengers like Emeka are immediately off-loaded. Here we continue to harbour him because of our good nature as a people and the magnanimity of the new Sheriff, Governor Hope Uzodinma.
How does Emeka repay this unmerited favour? Sabotage, blackmail, and hate preaching.
Not only has he bullied the PDP into zombie mode, that party now churns out barefaced lies, untruths, and hate sermons targeting the government and people of Imo State. All at Emeka's instance.
Desperation, and mass hysteria have become the defining features of the political opposition in Imo State.
In any case, the claims of the PDP are, as usual, patently false. The PDP does not even know the meaning of tyranny, otherwise it would have sensed that the ill fated Ihedioha regime was the epitome of tyranny. The facts speak for themselves. It was the Ihedioha regime that slapped the wife of Uche Nwosu, former governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA), and invaded the private residence of former governor Rochas Okorocha, now Senator Representing Imo West. The PDP chased Okorocha out of the State and declared him persona non grata. As if that was not enough, the Ihedioha regime led thousands of thugs chanting warsongs to the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, to waylay Okorocha. The thugs, led by the former Secretary to the regime Barrister Uche Onyeagucha (we dislike to associate him with barristers) also stormed the IICC, blocking the ever busy Warehouse Junction in search of Okorocha.
This same Ihedioha slapped his security aides, (those who put their lives on the line for him) and ordered them to frog jump because "they did not salute him".
But in its hypocrisy, the PDP glosses over these acts of tyranny by its Messiah - Ihedioha - and chooses to describe a thorough democrat, consensus builder, a performing governor Hope Uzodinma, as a tyrant, when he has not displayed any act resembling tyranny.
On the contrary, it was Emeka who handled the House of Assembly like his bunch of keys. The moment he laid hands on the certificate of return in 2019, Emeka put up key positions in the House on sale. As so-called governor, he presided over the literal bargaining of principal posts of the legislature from one auction House to the next under the cover of darkness. At some of these meetings brave House Members rebuked him for daring to pollute the sanctity of the legislature and fights broke out.
In the end, Ihedioha single handedly selected the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly and the entire leadership of the House. He was a regular visitor to the Officer of the Speaker and he pocketed the House. The House did his biddings so much so that the speaker at the time relocated to the Government House and was consequently dubbed Follow-Follow Speaker. Ihedioha whimsically removed elected Chairmen and councillors of the 27 Local Government Areas of the State. He also whimsically removed tenured appointees. If these were not acts of tyranny, what else are?
If not that the party has lost its conscience, it should leave the room when corruption is being discussed. The PDP is known as the 'share the money' party because of the callous manner in which the treasury is pillaged under its watch. True to form, Emeka epitomised this. In the seven and a half months that aberration endured, Emeka seized hectares from communities in the pretext of looking for contiguous land for state farms. His wasteful overseas trips (purportedly to secure foreign investment) yielded only promissory notes after gulping hundreds of millions of public money.
Emeka undertook an ambitious expansion of his mansion in new Owerri, ordered a brand new premium luxury Mercedes bus worth N280m at the time, and appropriated One Billion Naira to renovate his office, while pensioners starved. While he spoiled himself with brand new toys, he acquired second hand vehicles for the Imo State House of Assembly and re-sold at two times the market value to House Members. For almost five months of that regime, he subjected pensioners to a dubious verification exercise after which he declared that he would not pay any inherited arrears. Under him, the government ceased to be a continuum.
Under Emeka, the reporting of IGR was consistently padded apparently to impress lenders while he disbursed billions of state funds to prop up his flacid case at the tribunals. What about the billions spent chasing awards all in the pursuit of legitimacy? What about the mindless looting of the Local Government purse? When will Emeka show Imo people where he buried the N19.6bn siphoned through the Bureau of Local Governments under his watch?
When Imo people complained of bad roads under Ihedioha, the PDP either told them to wait for the next dry season, or referred them to Buhari. Ray Emeana, a member of that government and current Secretary of Emeka's PDP, went on the radio to chide Imo people for demanding good governance. He said Mr. President ought to come and fix the critical Owerri-Okigwe, Owerri-Orlu roads, etc. Imo wailed but Emeka hunted unicorns. PDP, the share the money party, cheered as Ihedioha began to share the money to cronies through a so-called 27 stadia project. Nothing could be more irresponsible. What says tyrant than feasting while the people starve.
Utterly engrossed in profanity, Emeka failed to see the handwriting on the wall. He had his shot. He blew it. Today, he wants to distract a performing governor. He wants to draw Imo into mourning. He wants his sorrow to be our song. God forbid! Emeka, and his circus, should know that as long as he continues to put his interest before Imo, as long as he seeks to eclipse the peoples' Hope, as long as he seeks the downfall of Governor Hope Uzodinma, God's universe will continue to resist him.
Prosperity has come to stay.