1 Year after: Has Fr. Mbaka’s prophecy come to pass in Imo?
By Ambrose Nwaogwugwu
On Sunday, 14th March, 2021, the governor of Imo State, His Excellency Governor Hope Uzodimma (The People’s Governor) celebrated his one year in office as the executive governor of the state having been enthroned as the duly elected governor of the state by the highest court of the land .
Before the rattling pronouncement of the Supreme Court, the spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry of Enugu; Rev. Fr. Camilious Ejike Mbaka had prophecied that Senator Hope Uzodimma (as he then was ) was the ultimate hope of Imo State. In fact, Fr. Mbaka, like the lone voice in the wilderness, cried that he saw ‘Hope, Hope, Hope everywhere in Imo State’.
Fr. Mbaka prophecied good tidings in the state unequivocally which did not in any way go down well with the then ruling party – PDP. At the time, I was still with the PDP as I resisted every attempt to bash Fr. Mbaka for his unfavorable prophecy against us like many of my party faithful did because of my avowed stance never to publicly lampoon any man of God no matter whatever the issue maybe.
It was that newly avowed principle that restrained me from cursing Fr. Mbaka like many of my colleagues in the PDP did.
But that is now by the way, as the main cruise of this epistle is to x-ray the performance of the governor in the last one year in office as the duly elected executive governor of Imo State whether the fulfillment of the prophecy of the out spoken Fr. Mbaka has taken place or not.
Do not take my words for it —I would not want to answer in any straightforward manner whether yes or no if the prophecy has come to pass in the last one year as I will lay out the developmental indexes or otherwise then leave out for my readers to answer the questions by themselves. I am only going to guide through.
Although the yesterday’s celebration was not really the exact one year in office of Gov. Uzodimma as the exact one year was January 14th but because of the constraints associated with the Covid-19 2nd wave pandemic, the event has to be shifted to yesterday – March 14th.
According to Fr. Mbaka – “Senator Hope Uzodimma is the hope of Imo State”, he said that the then Senator Hope Uzodimma would become a blessing to Imo State, that Imo State would witness development never seen before.
As if living up to the dictates of that prophecy, Gov. Hope Uzodimma, like I noted in my earlier critical assessment of the administration – is consciously and sincerely carrying out steps to addressing the challenges of the stage.
First, and living up to one of the mantras of his campaign blueprint in the 3R which is Recovery — Gov. Uzodimma is sincerely carrying out that with every atom of honesty and sense of purpose to fulfill the yearning of the citizens.
Take a survey today, overwhelming majority of the people, if not 100%, would want the total recovery of the stolen assets looted by the Okorocha administration.
In fact, it was a major campaign manifesto in the 2019 gubernatorial election in the state as almost all the candidates campaigned with that because it was so dear to the people of the state, to dismantle the growing fiefdom of the emperor and recovery to the last drop of the looted asset.
Gov. Hope Uzodimma hearkened, and has achieved tremendous feats regarding to the recovery policy of the administration to the hailing admiration of the populace.
We now have the formerly looted Eastern Palm University (Now K. O Mbadiwe University) fully 100% to Imo people, Royal palm Spring Hotels is also recovered 100% back to Imo people as steps are being taken to get IBC Quarters, Spibat, new government house layout and others fully recovered back to Imo people.
This is overwhelming success.
On the issue of roads construction; the governor has also done tremendously well in that aspect of governance as virtually all the roads that were formally impassable before the administration came in are now reconstructed and new ones opened and fully completed to the use of Imolites.
Emphasis, I think, should also be greatly made of the emphatic political-will mustered by the governor to commence the underground drainage system in the state contained in the Owerri masterplan to contain the issues of perilous flooding. That is being addressed as the underground which was supposed to have been constructed over 30 years ago is now being constructed and about 80% Completed. When this legacy project of the 3R government is completed, issues of flooding would have been addressed.
Earlier in the interdenominational church service held, Archbishop AJV Obinna had already declared that Gov. Hope Uzodimma was the new Hope of Imo State going by his many giant strides in sincerely working for the state.
I also do think that this is the stance of majority of Imo people who are politically neutral as only those that still quarrels with the Governor’s performance are primarily those who were sent away from the government house by this administration. They still have not forgiven the governor and may never do, that even if the governor turns Imo State into a Dubai overnight – they, still will not have any good word for him.
For apolitical and unbiased Imolites, the governor has done tremendously well in the administration of the state as more performance is needed most especially in the areas of payment of salaries and pensions.
If the governor could clear the huddles the issues of salary and pensions portends for the state government, then one can conclusively say without any fear of contradiction that the Governor has performed excellently well.
Without holding brief for the governor, I will like to add that the issues of salaries are so dear to the heart of the governor. He is busy cleansing and fighting the hydraheaded cabals in payroll frauds and very concerned that payroll fraudsters are totally eliminated from the salary schemes of the state and this accounts for either the delay in payment or the irregular payment system witnessed by both the workers and pensioners.
We believe that in the coming months before the celebration of the 2nd anniversary of this administration, the issues of salary would have been totally resolved to the glory of God.
From my honest assessment, I feel that Imo people are overwhelmed by the superlative performance of the governor thereby making the prophecy of Fr. Mbaka a reality.
Most people never gave the governor a chance, not even the benefits of the doubt were given to him but today, he has performed beyond expectations as we urge him to continue on this note as reward for hard work is more work.
Ambrose Nwaogwugwu is the former Director General of Imo PDP NEW MEDIA. He wrote in from Owerri, Imo State.
