High Expectations As Uzodimma Second Term

   As January 15, 2024 marked the beginning of the second tenure of Sen. Hope Uzodimma in office as Governor of Imo State, expectations can be said to be a high one that the incoming administration may provide a paradigm shift from what it used to be, to what it ought to be, in terms of rapid development in Imo.

  Nigerian Daily Telegraph moved around Owerri metropolis and sampled opinion of a cross-section of Imo people on their expectations as Governor takes the mantle of leadership for second term.

  A stalwart of the Imo All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr. Charles Iwuanyanwu, said, that the first tenure of Uzodimma’s administration was eventful, adding that the governor excellently did very well in all sectors and therefore deserves support.

“I would score the Governor’s first term administration high in the areas of road rehabilitation, Civil service reform, Payments of pensions and gratuities to the retired and others”, he said.

    The President General, Okuku Autonomous Community, in the Owerri West Local Government Area,  Comrade Ike Martins, extolled the governor, Hope Uzodimma on his achievements in the first term.

    He urged Governor to concentrate on rural roads rehabilitation. According to Ike, all the Communities in the State do not have good road. “I want him to embark on massive construction”.

    On Education, expressed worry over delapidate state of government- owned Primary and Secondary schools across the Twenty Seven (27) LGAs, pleading with the governor to ensure they fixed in what he described as Governor’s second missionary journey.

   He further urged Sen. Hope Uzodimma to carry Imo youths along in the scheme of things, especially in his appointments.

   Similarly, An Owerri-based  practicing Journalist, Princess Stephanie Michaels, enjoined the newly-inaugurated governor to reconstruct rural roads, empower Imo indigent women and make sure Journalists in the State are welfared.

     A trader, in the Ekeonunwa market, Owerri, Mr. Collins Okechukwu, showered encomium on the governor, urging him ti look into the illegal taskforces that harras market men and women.

    Also, an employee of one of the five star hotels in Owerri, who prefers to remain anonymous, urged the governor to lift ban on employment.

     She disclosed that the hospital industry she works with receives over thirty (30) applications from job seekers of which, she said, shows that the unemployment rate in the State is high.

   “I also want the Governor to review the teaching job recruitment recently organized by the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB)”.

    A Director in the Njaba Local Government Area, Deacon Linus Nwigwe, said that Uzodimma did well in his first term and told The Statesman that he would like Sen. Uzodimma to hand over the General hospitals built by the former Governor Rochas Okorocha to Churches in order to make it functional.

    A religious leader and the General Overseer, Arm of The Lord Church,  Archbishop Steve Gbazie, congratulated Governor on his second term Inauguration ceremony, appealing to the governor to perform far better than what he did in his first tenure.

     ” He should sanitize the transportation system in Owerri. The taxi drivers are not doing well even when nobody is monitoring them. We expect a positive change in your second term. I also want him to deal with the insecurity in the State”, Gbazie adviced.

   The governor, Hope Uzodimma had said this during swearing ceremony, hear him:  “Let me assure you that, on my honour, I am determined to exceed my own first tenure records. As I said in my New Year broadcast, my second tenure achievements will dwarf the achievements of my first tenure. Those who followed the evangelical zeal of St. Paul in the Bible would know that he put in more effort in his second missionary journey because he wanted to consolidate on the gains of the first journey. That spirit of St Paul’s second missionary journey shall be the spirit that will drive my second tenure”.