The conventional thing in assessing the performance of public office holders over a period of time is to tabulate the length of roads, electricity cables and the number of running taps that surfaced in the period under review. But celebrating roads, water and electricity is as old as politics in our part of the country. There is this joke about a certain politician in the First Republic who used to say: “I will fire Achingali and water Obowo”. Meaning: he will bring electricity and pipe borne water to those areas. Five decades later, it seems that the preoccupation of our politicians and the expectations of the people have not gone beyond “firing” and “watering”.
Thus, in this season of assessing the 100 days in office of His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodinma, the governor of our dear state, the approach by many, particularly his aides and supporters, has been mostly to make a list of ongoing road rehabilitation projects. Of course, Governor Uzodinma has taken some steps towards infrastructural development, especially by continuing with ones initiated by his predecessor but if I were him, I would not resort to the conventional method of listing projects. I would have, instead, let my people see the intangible achievements I posted especially in terms of returning social and political harmony in the state against the backdrop of the highly controversial Supreme Court judgement that paved way for his emergence.
In this essay, I would like to draw more attention to the non physical achievements of Governor Uzodinma, what is usually referred to “intangibles”. Those who know insist that over 70 per cent of good governance is on intangibles, that is, those things that are not seen by the eye physically. And they include, the comportment of the fellow being assessed, in this case the governor; his attitude to criticisms, his relationship with other members of the political elite, the articulation of his policies and vision etc. A governor or president may pave the streets with gold and still rate very low in good governance. Which means that the physical infrastructure the governor and his administration put in place was unable to improve the standard of living of the people and enhance social harmony or make people generally happy.
We had a recent example in Imo state when a governor came in and began by erecting buildings at every nook and cranny of the state capital, Owerri. Before we knew it, his spin doctors went to town with the mantra: “Ona Eme Ihe Ana Ahu Anya” (He does what the people can see with their eyes). Of course, majority of our people bought into that, not knowing that that governor merely suffering from an “edifice mentality”. Yet, for the eight years that governor was in office, over 90 per cent of those buildings were not but into use and even till today, are not of much economic value to the state. The governor in question ended up being completely alienated from the people simply because he came up with policies and agenda which, though were not physically seen, were considered inimical to the overall interest of the state and its people.
Policies are not physically seen but they determine how far a government can go. For example, a well articulated policy on job creation will determine the future of younger members of the society who constitute a greater percentage of the population. For example, Governor Uzodinma came up with his policy of “Shared Prosperity”. Since nobody can decree prosperity, it means that the focal point of his administration is to create a conducive atmosphere that will enable people to prosper through engaging in legitimate and profitable business endeavours. Needless to say, the policy of shared prosperity is a big achievement of Governor Uzodinma in his 100 days in office.
The next intangible achievement posted by the administration of His Excellency is social harmony in the state. Whether some people would like to admit it or not, the atmosphere in the state following the January 14, 2020, Supreme Court judgement was susceptible to erupting into social upheaval. With a sitting administration which many Imolites, nonetheless, saw as promising, it took a fellow like Senator Uzodinma to pull the necessarily strings to immediately restore social and political harmony.
Recall that members and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), together with pro-Ihedioha elements, embarked on open protest marches in Owerri and some parts of the country. Had it not been properly handled, the protests in Owerri had the potentials of snow balling into unrest that might have led to loss of lives and property. For example, it took wisdom to prevent a planned welcome match by the PDP for Rt. Hon. Ihedioha from the Imo Airport into Owerri. Of course, some people criticized that move as “anti democratic” but only God knows what would have happened had the welcome match been allowed. I can state without any fear of contradiction that criminals would have hijacked it no matter how well intentioned the PDP might have been.
Agreed, Imolites are generally peace-loving and law-abiding but the situation at that point in time was volatile. That the transition from the Ihedioha administration to that of Uzodinma was almost effortless with the state witnessing total tranquillity is, for me, a major achievement of Governor Uzodinma in 100 days. Coming close to that is the decision to continue with the projects began with by his predecessor. Yes, the projects are things that can be seen physically but the decision to continue them was what mattered. A non people oriented governor would have discontinued with some of the projects and come up with entirely different ones. Apart from helping to douse tension in the state, that decision helped endear him to some ofhis political opponents in the state.
This is one intangible achievement that can be built upon by the administration for the overall interest of the state and its people.
Concomitant to that is the decision to continue with the investigative panels set up by the immediate past administration to look into some state matters in the recent past. Nothing stopped Governor Uzodinma from disbanding the panels to reconstitute them with his “own men”, as many in his position would have done. He knew that the setting up of the panels by Governor Ihedioha was not only a wise decision but also popularly among the people. Hence , he gave the panels the go ahead with the necessary support. This is why the thinking in some quarters that the governor is, ab initio, out to rubbish his predecessor may be difficult to sell. If Governor Uzodinma had any personal misgiving against Hon. Ihedioha, the first thing he would have done would have been to dismantle everything the latter set up. There might have been some over enthusiastic steps taken by some of his aides but overall, I do not believe that Governor Uzodimma sees his immediate predecessor as the big trophy to go for.
Finally, the challenges of COVID-19. A typically fellow would have been completely overwhelmed by the challenges posed by COVID-19. Governor Uzodinma was just about five weeks in office when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. He had not even constituted his cabinet when the trouble began. Yet, witness the level of composure with which he has gone about the entire thing. It took some time for the state to record its first case. The government might not have done anything extra ordinary but it is, nonetheless, a collective achievement by the people with Uzodinma on the driving seat.
In the course of enforcing the restriction on movements, there has been no reported case of abuses of the people by security agents; unlike in some of the neighbouring states where clashes between the people and security agents have even led to deaths. The comportment of the security agents in the state is not by accident. It can only be because the governor worked with heads of the security agencies in the state to properly brief the operatives on the rules of engagements. That is a no mean achievement.
Then, of course, there has been the palliative measures taken by the state government under His Excellency. As I noted in a previous article, palliatives are only meant to provide relief. Like others, the Imo state government under Senator Uzodinma does not pretend that it can give the people all that they need in this trying period. There have been no cases of protests or agitations over the sharing or distribution of the palliative packages.
It would be wrong, however, to proceed as if there are no grey areas but for an administration that was struggling to settle down when a crisis of a nature and dimension that has never been seen before in modern times,a generally appreciative citizenry is bound to throw some accolades at this fellow who has lived up to the saying that Mgberede Nyiri Dike (It is at an emergency that you will know the true worth of a man). I believe that for Imo under Uzodinma’s watch, it is yet morning on creation day.
– Okere is a public commentator and analyst