2019: IMO PROBLEMATIC EQUATION AND IHEDIOHA’S SOLUTION

Views: 841

Considering the current status of Imo State in terms of her political, social, economic and general performance, it is apparent that only the key players in the expiring regime of Governor Rochas Okorocha and their increasingly depleted, weakened and weary supporters club still rate themselves highly. As for the rest of the good people of Imo State the performance quotient of the governor is only a tale of failure and problem multiplication.

A critical sectoral assessment of the state effortlessly exposes the magnitude of problems that the governor has created in his near eight-year dictatorial rule. The problems are multi-pronged, stretching from political to social, to culture and traditional, to economy, and to bad governance. Much of the leadership failure of Gov. Okorocha in the state is now a household knowledge in virtually every home in the state.

It is not the aim of this essay to ingratiate Gov. Okorocha with a catalogue of his catalogue of the evidence of his abysmal performance, which some pundits aver put the ship of the state in reverse gear over the past near eight years. The point in discourse here is what are the solution to the problematic equation that Gov. Okorocha has et against Imo State. Often, when Rochasmania is brought to the table for dissection, most contributors dwell on romancing the problem without providing any inkling of solution.

But what every new dawn asks is, what are the solutions to yesterday’s problems? No new dawn ever asks and dwells on what are the problems, ancient and modern? Hence, every scarce opportunity must be utilized optimally to proffer solutions to existing problems at each point in time. That is another area where Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the Imo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant is a master. He has a mindset of working out solutions to problems.

Whenever I watch Ihedioha deliver public addresses or speeches, I see plausible solutions pouring out his mouth. He never beats about bush about problems. He never adds more problems upon more problems as many so-called governorship aspirants are wont to do. What that establishes is that he is not oblivious of the inevitability of problems in the every day-to-day existence of the society. Hence, at his identification of a problem(s), he concentrates the dissipation of his energy on showing the way out of the woods. In local parlance, Ihedioha believes must die where his cow died. He believes it is useless wasting time and crying over spilled milk. He believes it takes about the same mental resources to over-dramatize problems as may be required to work out plausible solutions to identified problems.

In the build up to his first bid for the office of the executive governor of Imo State in 2015, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha published his manifesto. Now, a manifesto in simplest terms is a statement of solutions to identified, existing problems. Therefore, it is quite in order to state that in his proven, no-nonsense stance, he will, by God’s grace, hit the ground running powerfully with preconceived and predetermined solutions from May 29, 2019. The English say, a problem identified is half solved. That means that Ihedioha by identifying the problems of Imo State has already solved them by 50%.

In the problematic equation of Imo State, which a pundit described as quadratic equation, Ihedioha has applied BODMAS, Almighty formula, residual knowledge and native intelligence to arrive at the answers nay solutions. And as mathematicians would have it, Ihedioha’s solutions is quad erat demonstrates a.k.a QED! I know that because I have read and studied his blueprint of solutions to the socio-economic problems of Imo State.

In the said roadmap, Ihedioha declared his vision and mission as well as his core values and his policy thrust. He went on to do a sector-by-sector presentation of solutions to the problems of each sector. For example, after he expressed elaborately his solutions to the economic problems of the state and pledging to revamp the Imo economy, he highlighted solutions to the problems of education in the state, promising to provide a much better qualitative free education.

In the employment sector, he displayed convincing solutions which he captioned, “Job and Wealth Creation”. In the health care sector, he captioned his solutions as “Access to Qualitative Health Services”, he assured of a highly improve healthcare service delivery. In the agric sector, he captioned his solutions as “Agricultural Revolution and Food Security”. The immediate past Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives also presented solutions to the problem of insecurity and crime in the state and simply captioned it “Peace and security”.

The compendium of solutions to problems of Imo State as articulated by Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha also captured the infrastructural development sector. He captioned it “Integrated Infrastructural Development”. He expressed his approach to solving the problems of electricity, water supply, road construction and maintenance, housing, transport and other items in infrastructure. Any truly educated, informed and enlightened mind that reads that testament of solutions cannot but agree that Ihedioha knows both the problems of Imo State and he has the solutions to them.

It is wide departure from some moonlighting, pseudo-aspirants or rather pretenders, as I am wont to see them, clowning around and angling for the coveted office of the governor of the state but have no blueprint or roadmap for solutions to the problems of the state which they contributed to creating. Such aspirats will always say they are “keeping their solutions secretly close to their hearts”. The question that must be answered anyhow is, of an aspirant or candidate that opens his cards for solving the state’s problems and a so-called aspirant or candidate that always says he is “keeping his cards hidden close to his heart”, who is a true leader?

Time is now ripe for Imo people to stop sacrificing the overall interests of Imo State on the altar of irresponsible sentiments. Since Ihedioha has publicly declared his solutions to the problems of Imo State for verification and analysis, let all other aspirants and candidates for the office of the governor emulate him and make public their planned solution to the problems of Imo State. Also, let Imo people seriously consider giving Ihedioha their mandates and with item-by-item approach challenge him on any solution he is unable to fulfill in his published manifesto.

As much as I know, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha has never wavered in his pledge that his words are his bond. In fact, that is his flagship action phrase. It is only by giving the benefit of doubt and electing him as governor in 2019 that it can be established or contradicted that his solutions are efficacious or not in solving the problems of Imo State. There is no harm in trying a good product. As our people say, it is only a try will convince Imo people about Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.