By Uzoma Ogoke
Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha was born March 24 1965. He was the immediate past governor of the state. He was removed from office on January 14, 2020 by the Supreme Court which declared the APC candidate, Hope Uzodinma the authentic winner of the 2019 Imo governorship election.
Ihedioha went on to file an application to set aside the widely-condemned Supreme Court judgment. Chief Emeka Ihedioha is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and represented the Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State from 2003 to 2015. He was also the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
Ihedioha holds a National Honor as Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). In 2015, he served as speaker of the House of Representatives, following the swearing-in of Aminu Tambuwal as the governor of Sokoto State.
Early life
Ihedioha was born on March 24 1965, at Mbutu in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
He attended Town School Mbutu in Aboh Mbaise and completed his primary education at SDA Primary School Abule Oja, Yaba, Lagos State in 1976. He had his secondary education at St. Ephraim’s Secondary School, Owerri-nta in present-day Abia State and later proceeded to the University of Lagos, Akoka-Yaba, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science (B.SC) degree in Food Science and Technology, in 1988.
Ihedioha took an executive certificate course in financial management from Stanford University, and a leadership certificate course from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Political career
In 1992, Ihedioha was appointed press officer to the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Iyorchia Ayu. A year later he was appointed chief press secretary to the Deputy Senate President. Following military incursion in the polity in November 1993, Ihedioha returned to his communications practice as Chief Executive Officer of First Page Communications. He became Director of Publicity of the newly formed People’s Democratic Movement, the forerunner of the Peoples Democratic Party in 1998.
He was appointed special assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Utilities in July 1999, special assistant on media and publicity to the President of the Senate in November 1999, and special assistant on political matters to the Vice President in September 2001.
Today he (Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha) is the Man in the News for News Echo for all the right reasons as he celebrates his 56th birthday. We want to point out that majority of Imolites are still ruing what they term the highest evil perpetrated against Imolites by a highly corrupt Nigerian system and its judiciary.
When they remember the foundation for good governance and prosperous economy already laid down by Ihedioha, within the short period of eight months he lasted in office, they end up causing the day the judgment that outsted him was delivered, including all the actors who played one role or the other in making the highly detested judgment a reality.
Most Imolites have described the judgment as the most anarchist and unprogressive in the annals of the state and county at large. When Ihedioha rolled out the blueprint of his administration and started its implementation, Imo people echoed then that an “Mbakwe” had again mounted the saddle and still believe so till date, but with regret that we lost him, maybe momentarily to the evil infested Nigerian system.
What are some of the pointers to the above claim?
Some of the reasons adduced by Imolites for the above claims about Ihedioha include; the fact that he started his government by first of all constituting a transition committee made up of technocrats and professionals. The committee was made up of best brains in Imo State and beyond and encompassed all known fields of human endeavour.
At the start of his administration, he set machinery in motion to clear arrears of pension owed pensioners in the state, which included a verification process that lasted for few weeks at the end of which the pensioners started receiving their pensions.
The issue of 70 percent and whatever percentage that was used in the payment of salaries of civil servants was resolved without much ado and civil servants started receiving their full salaries. For this reason, there was no record of any single protest during the period he held sway.
Appointments into his cabinet was evenly spread, even as non of the key position such as; Secretary to the State Government, Chief of staff, Attorney General/Commissioner for Justice, Head of Service, Accountant General, Eze Imo, among others, were given to an Mbaise man.
His deputy was given a free hand to operate. He consistently chaired the state executive council meeting in the absence of the governor. His entitlements was never denied him or cut. Coming from Oguta, one of the oil producing areas of the state, Ihedioha handed everything concerning ISOPADEC to Engr. Gerald Irona and he handled it with sense of responsibility and was already implementing initiatives that had started the transformation of the areas within the short period.
At the end of Okorocha’s administration, bad road network was the main challenge facing Imolites. It was not that Okorocha did not embark on road construction. He did and in fact more than any previous administrations in the ‘new Imo State’. But the problem was that he introduced what is popularly known today in the state as, ‘China Road’, whereby the roads get dilapidated after months or sometimes weeks of their construction.
This challenge Ihedioha confronted headlong in a manner that surprised Imolites. He awarded contracts for over 30 critical roads to renowned and competent contractors. As a man known for due process, he made sure due process and the standard rule of engagement was followed. Consequently, the 15 percent advance payment for such contracts were paid across board and Imo state in the true sense of the word, became a huge construction site overnight, as the projects were moving with the speed of light.
Other issues such as public water supply, improvement in electricity, primary health care sector, erosion control projects, Rural Access Mobilization Projects (RAMP), payment of counterpart funds to attract international donor agencies’ intervention in critical areas of the state, among others, received serious attention. The state started bobbling with life and money was fully in circulation.
Gentle man in Nigerian politics
Politics in Nigeria is widely regarded as dirty, even as our politicians cherish the saying, ‘No gentle man in the jungle. They can go to any length, including instigating violence and setting the whole area, state or country on fire to achieve their selfish intentions. For most Nigerian politicians, the games is a do or die, winner takes all where the end justifies the ‘means’ no matter how dubious.
However, there are exceptions to this and Emeka Ihedioha is one of them. While not projecting him as a saint in the Nigerian political scene, his antecedents are there for anyone to judge. The way he handled the clear injustice meted against him by the powers that be at the highest level in Nigeria, through the instrumentality of the judiciary, hitherto regarded as the last hope of the common man is a testimony that he may otherwise be a saint in the midst of a very high number of Nigerian politicians.
At the pronouncement of the judgment, he quietly dropped all government properties at his disposal and quietly moved out of the government house. It was reported that he sent his aides to return any of such properties that were at his house both in town and at the village, including his official car
As a firm believer in the Nigerian judicial system, and as a man of integrity, all he did was to approach the Supreme Court to review the judgment and possibly have an opportunity to redeem its pride. Though the review did not go in his favour, as the Supreme Court obviously found it difficult to contradict or fault itself, he got a minority judgment in his favour.
However the matter is still pending at the Supreme Court, as another version of it was still taken back to it by a concerned Imo citizen who wants the apex court to explain some ambiguity in its judgment, especially as it concerns Uche Nwosu being pronounced as the authentic candidate of APC in Imo and Hope Uzodimma being declared governor as a candidate of APC by the same apex court.
Imo people are still hopeful and praying God to twist events for Emeka Ihedioha to come back and occupy the governorship seat which they believe rightly belongs to him.
