By Austin Uganwa,

1) Ihedioha is imbued with immeasurable leadership inclinations and potentials. This was inherently instructive in his short-lived 7-month stint as Imo Governor. The regime was unprecedentedly remarkable with clear vision, impeccable roadmap and touchstones accomplishments

2 ) Within his first 100 days in office and subsequent
six months of his administration, he expeditiously changed the sleazy narratives Imo was hitherto known for by bagging three eminent awards for the state including the least corrupt state laurel awarded by the National Bureau of Statistics and some international development agencies. Other awards were: Best ICT and e-government developed state awarded in December 6, 2019 by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isah Patemi and the state with the fastest growing economy awarded in December 2019 by Business Day Newspaper, the most influential business print media in the country

3)He enthroned fiscal discipline, accountability and due process in governance. He was at that time one of the four governors in the country to introduce Treasury Single Account regime through Executive Order 005 in July 9, 2019. As a result he collapsed the 250 accounts that were previously in existence to one account thereby blocking horrendous frauds in government.

4 ) He created new revenue sources for the state which led to the expansion of Imo income base. This verifiable fact coupled with Treasury Single Account regime boosted the state monthly IGR by over 350 percent within six months. The monthly IGR moved astronomically from N250m in May 29, 2019 to N1.2b in December 31st 2019. His realistic projection was to raise the monthly IGR to over N3b by June 2020 and use it as a major revenue base to fund infrastructural development instead of restort to undue borrowing

5 ) He revitalized the Bureau of Public Procurement and Intelligence and the easy of doing business. These moves opened fresh foreign and local investment interests in Imo and brought back due process in the procurement process under his watch

6)His administration enthroned infrastructural development revolution in the state. Within his 100 days in office, he awarded the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 25 federal and state roads in Imo. Most fundamentally and uncommonly, he mobilized the contractors to sites and they commenced work earnestly and concurrently

7) With earnestness, he understook expansive pension and civil service reforms during his short-lived administration. He restored monthly payments of pensioners entitlements after more than five years of non-payment. Full and regular payment of workers salaries were reinstated. Prior to his administration workers were receiving 70 percent of their salaries

8) He restored sanity to local government administration by instituting full financial autonomy to the 27 local councils. Ihedioha established Joint Accounts Committee involving the state and the councils with a mandate to ensure that all the local councils allocations from the federal government go to them in full without being tampered, a fiscal discipline that is second to none among the states in the country. The result was that the local councils were able to build a secretariat and stadium each within six months

9)Agricultural rebirth was unlocked by Ihedioha through the launch of agricultural roadmap on 29 August 2019, flagging off rice seed cluster on the Imo River Valley at Amumara, the same 29 August and sponsorship of the training of over 500 Imo youths at Nasarrawa on modern and commercial agriculture under his pet program, Imo Youths in Agribusiness. His goals were to secure lmo food security and to ensure that Imo exports agriculture products to other states and nations

10) It’s therefore evidence-based that Ihedioha has a clear vision imbued with the most pragmatic roadmap on how Imo can get to the topmost development chart among the states in Nigeria and also Africa. Ihedioha has accordingly been tested and amazingly trusted by Imolites because he makes things happen. This is instructive in his historic and record accomplishments in just 7months. This makes him the incontrovertible pearl of Imo. The clamour for his return is therefore well-based. His acceptance of this persistent call to offer himself for re-election would be the best thing to happen to Imo people. It would offer him another veritable opportunity to continue the implementation of his great vision for Imo which was cut short by the brazenly controversial Supreme Court decision of January 14, 2020.

Volume 2 will follow soon

• Austin Uganwa, PhD is a public affairs analyst