HOPE UZODIMMA: Leading infrastructure revolution in Imo
Notwithstanding the fact that Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State met decrepit road infrastructure and general infrastructure decay in the state when he became governor five years ago, he has massively reversed the narrative.
Within the first one hundred days of his governorship,he turned Imo state into a huge construction site. He was firmly focused on making the state capital, Owerri accessible to all the 27 local government areas of the state within a short period of time. He also wanted to open up the state to the neighbouring states of South East and South South. That’s why the bulldozers rolled across the roads both in the day and night and during both dry and raining seasons. Soon, the difference was made.
The inner roads in Owerri were soon rehabilitated. That was done within Uzodimma’s 100 days in office. These included but are not limited to Oparanozie, Edede, Inner World Bankroads leading to Port Harcourt road and Assumpta Cathedral. Weathral road to Toronto and others. By the time he marked his one year in office, the governor had shown such capacity and commitment to road construction and reconstruction that the citizens knew that he meant.
Among the critical roads which he did and which have become part of his legacy projects is the dual carriageway Owerri- Orlu road fitted with street lights. So solidly built is the road that a first-time visitor to Orlu from the state capital will not know that he had already transversal over five local governments by the time he gets to his destination in less than one hour.
The same is applicable to the intractable Owerri-Okigwe Road, which a former Minister Prof. Chinedu Nebo aptly described as a sheer miracle. The road, used to take motorists almost four nightmarish hours to access Okigwe from Owerri. Now it takes them only forty-five minutes. From this road, Imo has become accessible to the people of Ebonyi and Enugu states. And from the Orlu axis, Anambra and other states can come into Imo for businesses and social visits.
To complete the cycle, Uzodimma commenced the dualization of Owerri- Umuahia Road, passing through the populous Mbaise nation and two local government areas in Okigwe Zone straight to Abia State. He has also built the Orlu- Mgbee- Akokwa- Uga Road opening up the businesses in that other axis of Anambra State. The remarkable thing about these roads is that they are federal roads. The only concern for Uzodimma is that Imo people and their neighbours are making use of them to enhance the economic development of the state.
He also boosted the easy access to two key federal tertiary institutions in state, namely, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, by the construction of the long abandoned Naze-Ihiagwa- Nekede road. It was mainly in appreciation of that gesture that FUTO recently honoured Uzodimma with an Honorary Doctorate Degree on Management.
But awards and recognitions are not the motivation for the building of the roads. Opening up the Imo economy to investors and easy movement of goods and people are. In fact, when the governor realized that the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport had been without night landing facilities for four decades, he felt challenged. After he dualized the road leading to the airport which he named after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the governor voted money for the provision of those landing facilities, notwithstanding that it is the responsibility of the federal government through the Ministry of Aviation. Today, planes comfortably and take off land at night at the airport.
It is instructive that by the time Uzodimma drew the curtain on his first tenure, he had delivered no fewer than 100 solid roads. It was former President Muhammadu Buhari who, on his second journey to Imo state to commission roads, declared what was happening in the state under Uzodimma as a road revolution. More than anything, the infrastructural landscape of the state was mostly responsible for the seamless re-election of the governor because, like a pregnancy, it could not be hidden with bare hands.
When the governor started the ambitious construction of the first high-tech Flyover at Assumpta Avenue in Owerri, nobody was in doubt that he meant business. In a few weeks’ time, the Flyover will become operational as a testament to Uzodimma’s vision of total transformation of the infrastructure in the state.
The International Conference Centre, now named after late Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, is beckoning on people as a sign that Imo under Uzodimma has changed for the better. As Concorde Hotel comes alive under the management of Hilton Hotels, the building of the infrastructure begins to crystalize. It only takes a man of vision to establish the linkage between infrastructure and industrialization and investments.
Interestingly, as Hope Uzodimma embarked upon this infrastructure uplift, he never lost sight of other government obligations, including human capital development, social welfare, urban renewal, and resuscitation of moribund industries.
For the youths of the state, Uzodimma is God sent. Thousands of them have been trained and equipped in digital technology. Under the Skillup Imo project, no fewer than 40,000 of them will receive this training. Some of them have been established. Others are working abroad. Their counterparts have also received various youth empowerment schemes. Life is certainly looking up for them.
Those pursuing tertiary education now have three universities owned by the state to choose from in addition to a Polytechnic and a College of Education. The health sector is receiving a boom with two tertiary teaching hospitals, scores of new and rehabilitated general hospitals.
As Uzodimma gears up in providing an uninterrupted electricity supply to the entire state through an MOU with foreign partners; as he works hard to realize the dredging of the Orashi River to the Atlantic ocean to boost the economy of not only the state but those of the South East; as he primes the state towards industrialization through the soon to be commissioned Orashi energy free trade zone and with the availability of other basic infrastructure as a percusor, the Imo State Governor definitely deserves every award in recognition of his transformative and visionary leadership.