UZODINMA: Has Somalia become a paradise compared to Imo State? … Imolites express fear over scary possibility of regime
In a failed state, insecurity is widespread, infrastructure is decayed, mortality rates are ever on the increase, and the citizens see their government as illegitimate. Human life, just like in Thomas Hobbes pre-political state, is nasty, solitary, brutish, poor and short.
These are things that make Somalia notorious. All the things are associated to the fact that it is a failed state. And, reduced to basics, when a sovereign political entity has feeble and flawed institutions, overwhelmed by non-state actors, incapable of monopolizing instruments of coercion, and when it is unable to deliver the dividends of governance, especially the security of lives and property, it is said to be a failed state.
What now troubles Imo people is the scary possibility of the regime of Chief Hope Uzodinma plunging the State irredeemably and irreversibly into failure and anarchy. Everything that happens in Imo State today suggests that Uzodinma has given up on governance. He has left Imo people to undeservedly suffer the consequences of his misrule. He has even resigned from governance, moving from Abuja to Anambra in vainglorious pursuit of crude power.
A few days ago, four oil workers were brutally murdered in Assa, Ohaji/Egbema LGA of the State. This happened barely a week after some hotels and residential buildings in Okporo and Umutanze communities in Orlu were burnt down and scores murdered in the wake of the onslaughts. The residents of Orlu, Orsu and Oru East now spend most days indoors. But even while indoors, a widow in Amaifeke Orlu had her house razed by armed men in broad daylight. Sightings of decapitated human heads which are recklessly dumped at various locations are now daily facts of life in Orlu. In the face of all these, not a word has been uttered by the regime of Uzodinma.
It is known that one of the drivers of insecurity is unemployment. What is further worrisome is that Imo, which after Uzodinma’s first year in office was designated as the unemployment capital of Nigeria by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, is now projected to have over 1.2 million youths who are completely jobless by November 2021. This is disastrous! Despite that, Uzodinma has resorted to perfidy, advertising that he has empowered some youths with N250,000 which has turned out to be a hoax.
And life expectancy rate, which Uzodinma met at 57 years, a year above the national average of 56, has dropped to 52, 4 years worse than the national average and 5 years worse than he met it. What health policy does the regime have? Completely nothing!
Maternal and infant mortality rates in Imo are highest in the entire South East. There is no cardiologist on the payroll of the regime and there is no nephrologist, even when 2 in every 10 Imo residents are prone to kidney and heart diseases. There is no cancer-screening center, even when 1 in every 6 women in Imo is prone to breast cancer. This regime is a disaster-in-progress!
Some parts of Imo, almost three LGAs, have now been cut off from the rest of the State by gully erosion. And before the end of the rainy season, another four may also be cut off. A survey in June 2021 by Sahara Reporters rated Imo State highest in terms of bad roads in the entire Nigeria. And the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, last month, designated Imo as the worst place to locate business in Nigeria. The question is: Has Somalia become a paradise compared to Imo State?
My name is Collins Opurozor.
