It was Thursday afternoon; Bunmi was drinking coffee and talking about my job, asking why I did not go to work. She was talking while I was nose deep in a big fat book, reacquainting myself with the classics. To tell the truth, each interruption from her, broke my concentration. I was not paying attention. Bunmi is a dark lady, of Yoruba lineage and with large brown eyes.Her legs kept moving, as if she was doing a slow rhythmic dance. She was wearing long shiny earrings with bracelets on each arm. Her cloth hugs her body; the lightest of cotton. Everyone in the neighbourhood admire her and she knows it. She stared at me. “You are not paying attention, are you?’’ I sigh and put the book down. Why now? Why is she talking about a job that hasn’t paid me salaries for 9 months? If you work in an establishment like mine, you will eventually get used to the petty insults, the nonpayment of salaries and the endless avoidable bureaucracies. Your aesthetic senses will become dull and you go blind to the decaying pea green paint and the vomit beige fabric partitions between office cubicles.
“How about Senator Hope Uzodinma’s governorship campaign that will begin on Monday, will you attend?” Bunmi asked. Her change of topic hit me like a bucket of cold water. She will not stop asking questions, with the same high, rhythmic tone. Ladies will always be ladies, wishing to know all about a man like dogs hungry for bones. ‘I will love to attend’ I said. I am supporting Uzodinma for governor because I know he is on a divine mission to rebuild Imo. God is using him for a deliverance mission. The word deliver causes many different dramatic pictures to flood our minds. It stirs our emotions. We need this deliverance, and we love heroes. But this is not about being a hero. This is about God hearing the cries of his children and sending a deliverer, a leader to build our houses on a rock. The great Nnamdi Azikiwe had his own special “political anthem” when campaigning in the old Western Region populated by the Yoruba. He often sang in Yoruba, to the applause of his audience, a song saying we should build our house on a rock because the one built on sand gets easily washed away.
Hope Uzodinma is god-sent, sent to correct the fumbling and wobbling of the present administration in Imo. He is sent to deliver Imolites and he has won round one by defeating Rochas Okorocha and his son in-law and picking the apc governorship ticket . God delivers his children in many ways. God send the flood and Noah and his family were saved. When an evil is contagious, God’s people will be in danger. He will always send his light to deliver his people. His grace shines through. His love persists. The Light of God will shine bright in the darkness, and with one word the mouths of lions against his children will be shut.
For 8 years now, Imo state has been made a place where so many able-bodied youths have turned beggars due to unemployment. The present governor and his visionless team have grown fat and sleek on our sweat for they have captured and tamed us in a zoo. In an immoral manner, the present governor and his thieving cabals have looted our collective wealth and arrogantly displayed the products of such loot before the very people they have stolen from. Many of our graduates at all levels and across disciplines today drive danfos, molues, and keke for a niggardly amount. Others settle for the “Area Boys” specialties and dark alley businesses of assorted brands. One man has looted Imo and made our unemployed youths in their thousands to become wild, homeless and socially disinherited. One man has looted Imo and made our elderly hungry. This same man wants to rule Imo for another 8 years by struggling to make his son in-law governor! Tufiakwa!
We will never forget the government of Rochas Okorocha, a government of nothingness, the years of embezzlement, the reign of misplacement of priorities, the rule of ineptitude, the term of enthronement of cronyism, the period of crass nepotism, the era of corruption. A government that destroyed the houses and businesses of the citizens without compensation. A government that conducted council election after 7 years, a government without plans or focus. God has stepped in , bringing Hope Uzodinma and giving Ndi-Imo the golden opportunity to be free from the political zoo that Rochas has put us. Uzodinma is the answer. Will you take it? This is the best opportunity to stop the bull in the china’s shop now, or risk losing the shop, the wars and the bull as well. The Lord has spoken. Hope Uzodinma is the solution! Take it. Imo ga di nma ozo.
-Kenneth Uwadi writes from Mmahu Egbema, Imo State and can be reached via 08037982714
