BY Eli Dibia , Ph.D.
Piqued by inglorious leadership style of the Imo Harmony Project (IHP) where blackmail and intimidation of H/E Governor Hope Uzodimma is becoming a trade mark by IHP on who becomes his successor. The IHP, one of the groups in Owerri zone claiming to be championing the quest for the zone to produce Uzodimma’s successor, is now consistent on reminding the governor of a certain “promise” he made to ensure that his successor emerges from Owerri zone.
Interestingly efforts by well-meaning indigenes of the state, including some elements from the same Owerri zone, to dissuade the IHP leadership to drop the blackmail has, so far, failed, apparently because it has no other argument to push forward.
One of its most handy weapons is a video clip of a meeting between the governor and members of the Imo Elders Council depicting the former expressing optimism that his successor may come from Owerri zone. In the last three months, the media handlers of the group have trended the video repeatedly especially each time the governor expresses a view that does, not strictly conform with their straight jacketed approach to the issue of succession come 2028.
Following the March 10, 2025 meeting the governor held with stakeholders in Owerri zone at the instance of the IHP, the video trended ceaselessly.
At the said meeting, the governor did not mince words in saying that power is not given turn by turn and warned that nobody should over heat the polity, to enable him render services to the good people of Imo state within the remaining period. Unfortunately the IHP group are not thinking towards that direction as anything goes for them. What they had wanted to hear from the governor was a repetition of his so-called promise to hand over to a fellow from Owerri zone.
Consequently, the media handlers of IHP began to trend the video under reference in the social media with intent to blackmail the governor. The recent reports that Governor Uzodimma had, while addressing the congregation after a church service at the Government House, Owerri, on Sunday June 22, 2025, said that what matters to him most concerning who succeeds him is the emergence of a personality who will be capable of protecting his legacy no matter which of the three zones the fellow comes from. The governor was said to have quickly added a caveat that left for him, his successor would not come from Orlu zone, his native homestead. Haba!
Its worrisome that immediately after that service, the social media again became awash with the infamous video of blackmail. One of the media handlers of IHP added an adjunct to the video: “ON ABURI WE STAND”. Of course, some commentators were quick in dismissing the group’s metaphor of “Aburi”, pointing out that the comparison is at once infantile, cheap and politically incorrect as far as the issue in question is concerned.
“On Aburi We Stand” cannot be recommended to the peace-loving people of Imo state because one of the major causes of the Nigerian civil war, which at a point had its main theatre in the area known today as Imo state, was the recalcitrance over Aburi. Without prejudice to the consequences of that recalcitrance, it would not be out of place to say that minus that hard line posturing, the civil war might not have happened. Differently put, the only usefulness derivable from the allusion to Aburi is that hardline posturing by the IHP leadership and other groups that toe a similar line will be unhelpful to both Owerri zone and the state as a whole.
I felt I should make this particular intervention in order to draw the attention of the governor to the fact that all his plea that nobody should over heat the polity so as to enable him complete his assignment has fallen on deaf ears. Is it not a clear attempt to incite the people of Owerri zone against the governor to introduce slogans that evoke the sentiments of the Biafran struggle ? . I believe that those doing this are not being fair to him. I would like governor Uzodimma to call the so-called Owerri zone ‘harmony’ people to order before they cause further damage to the polity.
Now, coming to what is believed to be an earlier agreement among members of the Imo Elders Council that the next governor of Imo state should come from Owerri zone, the truth of the matter is that there is nothing sacrosanct about that. That purported agreement (in any case between who and who ? ), there have been calls that – the agreement – should be reviewed even highly respected members of the Elders Council from Owerri zone have added their voices to that call. It's clear also to note that the entire political and traditional elite of Okigwe zone have called for a review of the so-called agreement as some individuals and groups in Orlu zone have also called for the review. To ignore all that is to live in a grand illusion Kpom .
In any case, the Imo Elders Council is just one body out of several groups or categories of stakeholders in the state. There are at least fifteen other stakeholder groups in the state covering all the strata of the Imo society especially as the Elders Council was never mandated to determine how the next governor of Imo state should emerge.
The other time, there was a debate over whether or not the Imo Charter of Equity is a law that is binding on the people of Imo state was immediately laid to rest in favour of the fact that it is not a law but an advocacy to achieve peaceful rotation of power among the three senatorial zones. It has since been revealed that though the establishment of the Elders Council is backed by law, there is nowhere the law mentioned Charter of Equity let alone mandating the Council to enforce it. Curiously, some so-called Owerri zone leaders still talk about the Chatter as if it is a law that must be enforced in favour of the zone. Such people should be told that the generality of Imolites are too sophisticated to be dragged along that line. Please, lET ALL THIS TALK ABOUT AN AGREEMENT REACHED BY MEMBERS OF THE IMO ELDERS COUNCIL cease and let the generality of the good people of Imo state be allowed to make input into the matter.
It's on record that within the last one year alone, at least several well-meaning political leaders in the state, including elements from the same Owerri zone, have been advocating for a convocation of a meeting between leaders of Okigwe and Owerri zones to iron out how; and which of the two zones will produce the next governor. A fellow like the highly respected Mike Nwachukwu, one of the best political strategists from Owerri zone, has given a template for such a meeting which he envisages might even last for days. But his people would not hear that. Others like Vitalis Ajumbe, Paddy Obinna and Bob Njemanze have also spoken in like manners but the IHP and its leaders would not hear that. The only thing they want to hear is for the governor to pass a decree that his successor must come from Emekuku! It doesn’t work that way.
The governor is right in his declaration that he must look beyond zoning and spot a fellow who will protect his legacy, not for his own personal interest but, more importantly, for the interest of the generality of the state and its people. It is to the interest of the generality of the people of the state that Uzodimma is succeeded by a fellow who believes in him and who will need no persuasion to, not only protect his legacy, but also build on it.
Ndimo must not loose sight that our bane since creation remains lack of Sustainance of laid down foundations. We are all witnesses to what happened between 2011 and 2019 when the then governor, Rochas Okorocha, dismantled everything done by his predecessor, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim. After eight years, Okorocha left the state neat and dry and the people are today the sufferers of his actions.
Just one illustration: Governor Ohakim established the Imo Roads Maintenance Agency (IROMA) dedicated to see that roads in the state remain in top form at all times, and with a special emphasis on rural roads. By the time he was leaving office in May 2011, that agency had assets worth over N12 billion naira. Owelle Rochas Okorocha came, and for reasons that are too well known to be repeated here, scrapped IROMA and all the equipment disappeared. The result was that for more than ten years, Imo state had the worst road network in the entire country .
Governor Uzodimma in his wisdom has revived IROMA with the same mandate it had when it was initially set up but it needs no emphasis to state that had the agency not been scrapped by Okorocha, what Uzodimma would be doing today would be merely to build on what it achieved cumulatively in the last fifteen years. Wouldn’t the state have been better for it ? .
Going forward, I challenge the leadership of the Elders Council, with due respect, to tell Imolites when, where and how many times, its Charter of Equity committee, headed by Chief Barr. Dan Nwanyanwu, sat. Who took the minutes of the meeting? How many members of the committee were present during which it arrived at that so-called recommendation? I also challenge the leadership of the Elders Council to tell Imolites why the chairmanship of that committee should be handed over to a man from Owerri zone who is alleged to be a governorship aspirant.
Shouldn't the Elders Council have known that it was morally reprehensible to have handed the chairmanship of the committee to an Owerri person? Were there no Orlu leaders to chair the committee? What was the rationale for this inequity? If the constitution of a country can be reviewed, why can't this obvious blunder be investigated and corrected? How can any right-thinking person ever expect people raise the dust when the governorship election was at hand? This is not in the characters of a charismatic and peace loving governor in the calibre of distinguished Senator Hope Uzodinma CON .
Every leader shoulder understand that
Power and the struggle for it is a serious affair. It is not something any fellow or group should talk glibly about. Uzodimma must not succumb to the blackmail by IHP and its ilk. As a matter of fact, I strongly suggest that his handlers should immediately begin to repudiate insinuations associating him with any agreement that was taken unilaterally by any group to cede power to one particular section of the state. Enough is enough.
DR ELI DIBIA WRITES FROM OBOWO, IMO STATE, NIGERIA..
