A PEEP INTO SENATOR HOPE UZODIMMA'S JOURNEY TO DOUGLAS HOUSE
A PEEP INTO SENATOR HOPE UZODIMMA'S JOURNEY TO DOUGLAS HOUSE
My records show the first time Senator Hope Uzodimma made efforts to be governor was in 2003 when he was the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). His deputy governorship candidate at the time was Chief Ikedi Ohakim who has since served as Imo State governor in the period 2007-2011. This means that his deputy governorship candidate in the 2003 governorship election has since served as governor and is even frantically demanding to serve one more tenure.In spite of the crises that trailed that election of 2003, Chief Hope was prevailed not to challenge it in the court. He simply moved on.
2007:Again, Chief Hope Uzodimma was in the governorship race in the 2007 election . In the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). which held at the bowl of Dan Anyiam Stadium on December 13 th, 2006. In that primaries, Senator Ararumr polled 2061 votes; Chief Hope Uzodimma polled 1649 votes; while Tony Ezenna polled 1388 votes. There were 30 aspirants who were cleared to participate in that rescheduled primary of December 13th, 2006. However, the rules of the PDP at the time was that a winner in the primary must poll at least 50 % of votes cast to become automatically qualified as the governorship candidate. So, everybody was expecting a rerun between Chief Hope Uzodimma and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume in line with the party’s rules and regulations. But, by a sudden twist of fate, the rerun did not see the light of the day. Rather than conduct a rerun for Senator Hope Uzodimma and Chief Hope Uzodimma, the National Executive Council(NEC) of the party submitted the name of Senator Ararume to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) as a tentative candidate to enable the party to beat the dead line for submission of names of candidates. Most watchers of the issue were surprised that Chief Hope Uzodimma who was a PDP chieftain at the time did not kick against the decision of the NEC of the PDP to skip the re-run which might have culminated in Chief Hope Uzodimma emerging PDP candidate in the 2007 governorship poll. In a rare show of maturity, Chief Hope Uzodimma gave the decision a nod and a wink and moved on. I do not know any other politician in Imo State who would have accepted such decision with philosophical calmness and equanimity. In spite of pressures mounted on him to challenge the decision of the NEC in court, Chief Hope Uzodimma accepted the harsh decision of the NEC with philosophical calmness and equanimity.
On further enquiry, it was discovered that Chief Hope Uzodimma voluntarily decided to step aside because of the mood of Ndi Orlu zone. The then Governor, Achike Udenwa, as well as top members of Orlu political elite was very vehement in rejecting any move that would make an Orlu zone person to succeed Achike Udenwa. It was on account of this decision that Senator Hope stepped aside. I am surprised that politicians who often describe Orlu Zone as Hausa Fulani of Imo State seem to have forgotten such rare show of humility by Hope Uzodimma and the politicians in Orlu zone. In spite of the controversy that trailed the 2007 governorship election, no candidate in Orlu zone was involved in the election tribunal. It was a three-horse race between Senator Ararume and his kinsman, Ikedi Ohakim, from Okigwe zone and Chief Martin Agbaso from Owerri zone. So, why are they referring to Orlu zone as The Hausa/Fulani of Imo State? Chief Hope Uzodimma who would have been involved quietly opted out of the race because Orlu zone decided to allow other zones to produce governor.
2011 GUBER POLL:Again in 2011, Chief Hope Uzodimma did not participate in the governorship race because he felt that his former deputy governorship candidate in his 2003 guber race, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, who emerged governor in 2007 would complete his second tenure. Unfortunately, the electorate voted him out on the grounds that his performance was less than satisfactory. One of the major reasons Ikedi Ohakim was voted out was caused by his untrammeled penchant for loquacity. In the Governorship election which snowballed to a supplementary poll, both Ifeanyi Ararume and Ikedi Ohakim voted themselves out thus donating victory to Governor Rochas Okorocha from Orlu zone. In that 2011 governorship election, the three major contestants were Chief Rochas Okorocha from Orlu zone as well as Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and Chief Ikedi Ohakim from Okigwe zone.
WHY IKEDI OHAKIM LOST 2011 POLL:
Ikedi Ohakim polled 290,496;
Ifeanyi Ararume polled 107,068;
Total polled by Okigwe zone=397,564 votes
Owelle Okorocha polled:336,856
So, if both Okigwe candidates had worked for the interest of Okigwe zone, they would have defeated Owelle Okorocha by 60,708 votes. In summary, both of them worked against Okigwe zone thus facilitating Owelle Okorocha’s victory of 2011. But in spite of this unassailable fact, some misguided so-called analysts describe Orlu zone as the Hausa Fulani of Imo State. One of the newspaper editorials said that Ikedi Ohakim in was voted out in 2011 because Ndi Orlu zone used their population to defeat Ikedi Ohakim. This sort of report comes from armchair analysts who have no data bank. So, on the strength of the simple Arithmetic above, how did Orlu zone contribute to the defeat of Ikedi Ohakim in 2011?If both Ikedi and Ararume had partnered together to produce a higher score, would ndi Orlu zone have protested? In summary, it is now clear that those who accuse Orlu Zone of complicity in the 2011 defeat of Ikedi Ohakim are only flaunting their crass ignorance of Imo State politics. Furthermore, Hope Uzodimma also opted out of that 2011 guber race on the grounds of the mood of Ndi Orlu zone to allow other zones to produce governor. However, he decided to run for the Senate and won and became Senator representing IMO WEST Senatorial zone(a.k.a ORLU ZONE)
2015 GUBER : Again in 2015, Hope Uzodimma did not participate in the 2015 governorship race on the grounds that , once again, he was restrained from participating by the top hierarchy of Orlu zone politics. As a result of the opposition to his guber agenda by top politicians in Orlu zone, senator Hope Uzodimma did not participate. He went back to the Senate. In spite of this apparent setback, Senator Hope Uzodimma fully participated in the governorship campaigns of RT.Hon Emeka Ihedioha of Owerri zone. Senator Hope Uzodimma’s decision to step aside from the governorship race in 2007, 2011 and 2015 is a classic case of humility and moderation in the quest for power.
PDP 2015 GUBER PRIMARIES: In the same 2015, Ikedi Ohakim and Ifeanyi Ararume competed Okigwe zone out of the Governorship race when they cancelled the Okigwe votes in the guber primary which held on the 8th December, 2014. In that controversial primaries, the major contestants were Senator Ifeanyi Ararume of Okigwe zone; Chief Ikedi Ohakim of Okigwe zone and Rt.Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of Owerri zone. In the result of the primaries, senator Ifeanyi Ararume polled 336 votes, Ikedi Ohakim polled 213 votes while Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha polled 346 votes. So, both Okigwe aspirants polled a total of 549 votes. If they had partnered and presented one person, they would have defeated RT Hon Emeka Ihedioha by 203 votes to produce the 2015 governorship candidate of the PDP in Imo State. Again, in their selfishness, they fluffed away the chances of Okigwe zone in producing a guber candidate for the PDP in 2015.Funnily and sadly enough, if you ask them why they failed they will point in the direction of Ndi Orlu zone, even though there was no Orlu zone candidate in that primaries. There are numerous reasons why Ikedi Ohakim lost his second tenure bid but not even one reason is traceable to Ndi Orlu zone.
IMO 2019 GUBER:
Records show that senator hope uzodimma was not enthusiastic in joining the guber race.He was having a swee time in the Green Chamber of the Senate where his peers had already been given automatic ticket for fror the 2019 Senate.As a ranking senator from the South East and member of the All Progressivews Congress(APC), Senator Hope Uzodimma was well positioned to become President of 2019 Senate. However, as a result of a concatenation of events that trailed the APC guber primaries in Imo State, there was a clarion call on SENATOR Hope Uzodimma to relocate to the home front in order to confront Governor Rochas Okorocha who was alleged to be terrorizing the political space with impunity in a frantic bid to make his son in-law the next governor of Imo State. There was pandemonium in the State when those who were thought to have the capacity to wrestle Governor Okorocha fled the arena because he was too rugged for any of them to handle. As Governor Okorocha’s AGBURU Group swallowed the politicians in the So-called ”Allied Forces”, delegations and Save Our Souls (SOS) messages were sent to Senator Hope Uzodimma to join the guber race .It was under this pressure that he he left his comfort zone in the Senate to pick Governor Okorocha’s gauntlet. So, many people are of the opinion that a senator who was responding to the calls from his people and who succeeded in snatching the guber ticket from the lion’s mouth should be rewarded with the 2019 Governorship crown.
JOHN MGBE
johnmgbe@yahoo.com
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