The Fourth Shall Be the First: Hope Uzodinma versus Emeka Ihedioha -By J. Ezike

The people of Imo were hurled into disbelief by the foreseeable declaration that enforced the removal of the former Governor Emeka Ihedioha and the immediate enthronement of Hope Uzodinma. Even the most apolitical amongst us felt that the judicial pronouncement was shocking to the extreme. And some would say that there appeared to be a “political motive” behind the “abrupt removal” of a man who to a certain degree had brought back sanity to Imo in his eight months as Governor.

Just before the gubernatorial elections of March 9, 2019, Imo had been beaten beyond repair. It was in absolute ruin, empty of merit and undeserving of praise and state-worship. It was the exact animation of a corrupt empire driven by the egoist and the vainglorious. The entire citizens were left flat on their knees and their faces forced to meet the dust of hardship in the characteristic manner a local fowl in Ihioma would greet the land before picking on stray worms.  Every public institution, every traditional service of government, became the private investment of the notorious criminal politician Rochas Okorocha. It was his leadership that brought forth “Iberiberism” upon the land. The “Okorocha effect” was so organic, so perceptible that even the blind musicians of Mbaise could see the glaring decline of Imo Civilization and its drift towards mediocrity. As a result, our fortunes as Ndi Imo lurched from frying pan to hell fire!

Imo, since May 6, 2011 became the “glorified ghetto” of the Eastern region under Okorocha’s watch. Also, under the banner of the APC, the “nerve center” of the entire Igbo land began to suffer a slow, excruciating fall from grace and glory. Unpaid civil servants in every hovel, in every dark recess of the land were ignored and their empty plates filled with the abstract supply of poverty. Some of the youths marked by terrible unemployment suddenly turned into vegetables and pimps who peddle university whores to notorious criminal politicians in the red light districts of Owerri’s multiple hotels and “chapchap brothels.” The scars of corruption and government negligence were written all over the face of Imo and all that was once its pride seemed blown into abyss.

Biafra aside, there is something inherently wrong with Igbo leadership and this madness is not something Shakespearean English can cure. It is not something Mbaka’s prophecy can wrestle. It is not something Igbo Intellectuals can maneuver with vague rhetoric. This is why many Igbo youths, the awakened ones have chosen to stroll into the danger of being identified as “the voice of the people,” of “growing up quickly” to attend to the plights of their citizens, of addressing the topical and pressing issues that inflicts and afflicts the progress of the entire Igbo race.

For record purpose, let me announce that I am neither for Hope Uzodinma nor Emeka Ihedioha. I do not know both leaders and I honestly do not care to know them. I have never been a subscriber of Nigerian politics and do not consider myself a Nigerian both literally and metaphorically because Nigeria from a “legal standpoint” is “non-existent” and to credit it as a “sovereign nation” is a misnomer when in fact the amalgamation clause of 1914 is an expired document. I am only trying to jump on this controversial case as a “citizen of Imo” and to react to the recent political events from a dispassionate, apolitical point of view.

The fact and figures from the gubernatorial elections of March 2019 have multiple accounts that seem to differ and contradict each other. Some people believe that the ascension of the fourth to the first position defies logic. And that there is a desperate attempt by the “federal or ruling party” to entrench its power in Imo and ensure that it becomes its stronghold. While many believe that there are infractions on the electoral verdict others have likened the Supreme Court’s reversed judgment as a voodoo pronouncement and within this circle of sentimentalists and critics are those who strongly believe that the decree passed in favor of Hope Uzodinma is a pure act of God.

In this case I will rather deal with facts and figures rather than sentiments and beliefs. If Hope Uzodinma had indeed lost his constituency, in a place considered his “stronghold” and had claimed that his votes in 388 polling units were flushed down the waste pipe by the notorious Fulani-controlled INEC then, through what arithmetic did he jump from 96,000 votes or thereabout to over 300,000 votes? Can the Fulani Supreme Court of Nigeria explain the logic behind the “inequality” between the number of accredited voters and the recent vote results that struck Emeka Ihedioha out of government house? If 109 votes were determined and decided as the missing or excluded votes, then what mathematical formula was used to add up 109 votes with 96,000 votes or thereabout to arrive at the conclusive but controversial amount of over 300,000 votes in favor of Hope Uzodinma? If Emeka Ihedioha needed to garner spread to win the elections and if indeed Hope Uzodinma’s excluded results were unaccredited votes then, why did INEC declare the former as winner of the elections in the first place and why is the Supreme Court now disputing the past result in favor of the latter? If Hope Uzodinma had lost his constituency but claims that his votes are genuine and not manufactured then, why did INEC rig the election in favor of Emeka Ihedioha? If the erstwhile Chief of Justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen, an alumni of the University of Ghana, had found the elections to be free and fair then, through what logic did the poorly educated, sharia-court judge Ibrahim Tanko and his legal extension arrive at a supreme decision in favor of Hope Uzodinma?

It is obvious that the Imo gubernatorial elections of 2019 had produced no “credible winner” and what had been validated as genuine results reflecting the will of the people is in fact fictitious and concocted. For me, neither Hope Uzodinma nor Emeka Ihedioha is the governor of Imo. Both men, both parties, whether APC or PDP, are two faces of the same coin and are guilty of the same infractions they both pretend not to know. Any reasonable person would have suggested fresh elections as the logical resort in deciding the fate of Imo. Certainly, it would make sense if every candidate were to return to the polling units and allow Imo citizens decide who deserve the key to the government house. But wait a minute! That would amount to political suicide because any election conducted under the 1999 military constitution is in fact a renewal of the people’s misery and enslavement. In other words, enough of all these nonsense! No more elections on all levels. Nigeria is a fraud and its constitution is the basis upon which the expired union is considered sovereign, politics is made commercial and the citizens rendered as prisoners of the British contraption. Reasonable people on the other side of the divide have had enough!