Governor IHEDIOHA’s Laudable Leadership Examples in Imo State

The leadership qualities of Imo State Governor, His Excellency, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, CON, cannot go unnoticed given the immense laudable capabilities he has shown in a little time of his government by re-positioning the State to be counted among states with huge potentials that can stand out in the Hall fame of states to watch in the future.

The word leadership or leader is derived from the word to lead. According to oxford advanced dictionary, to lead means to show the way and make people go in the right direction. A leader therefore is seen in the dictionary as a person who is the best in the organisation or a country. What that means is that a person who is seen as a leader is assumed to have been above board, adjudged to be better among others to be able to lead the rest in the appropriate direction. The aggregate of all, the leader is what people refer to as leadership. Be it religious, traditional or political leadership, this group of people are expected to be role models.

The leadership of the people are considered experienced, rational and expected to consider the feelings of the people they are leading before taking decisions. What that means is that the decisions of the leaders or leadership as in political organisation are expected at all times to be unbiased, honest, transparent, selfless, fair and right in determining the direction of an organisation or where those they are leading should tilt to politically, in most family most heads of household are expected to treat members of their household equally irrespective of economic, political or social status. The manner a leader treated or handled a particular situation is expected to be replicated at every similar situation. To the political leaders they are expected to call a spade a spade and stand on a position of justice, truth and fairness for peaceful co-existence of all.

The leadership qualities of Imo State Governor, His Excellency, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, CON, cannot go unnoticed given the immense laudable capabilities he has shown in a little time of his government by re-positioning the State to be counted among states with huge potentials that can stand out in the Hall fame of states to watch in the future. His developmental programs is gradually becoming a gaint stride with the warm impact it's generating on the lives of the rural dwellers that contributed the over 94.5 percent votes the Governor garnered to win his election in 2019. An election which was adjudged the most peaceful and transparent electoral exercises in the history of Imo State. In clear terms, the landslide victory which was unprecedented in spite of the fact that it was the second time the state went to the polls as an opposition political party. Winning the ruling party at the state level was indeed a referendum on the governor’s outstanding leadership qualities, performance and acceptance in the state. The outcome of the 2019 governorship election went beyond parochial sentiments in proving that the overwhelming majority of the people of Imo State are desirous of good leadership and change for the better, as well are yearning for a good leader with uncommon panache of humility, peacefulness, godliness and inclusiveness, which he, Governor Ihedioha had brought to bear in the governance of the state.

Standing on his vision to channel the bulk of development projects to the rural areas, Governor Ihedioha during his campaign promised to pay a special attention to rural development; open up the rural areas; create more urban centres; develop fresh economic opportunities and reduce pressure on the capital metropolis for socio-economic expansion. The governor’s policy direction, which has became the fulcrum of his administration’s success story, made it possible that citizens/communities in the State who have not felt the positive impact of governance for many decades will be opportuned to have one in an ambiance of peace and harmony. It was indeed a deliberate step anchored on the core values of justice, equity and fairness in an uncommon zeal to take up the gauntlet of the struggle for the emancipation of the Imo people from where our heroes past stopped. On Ihedioha’s modest achievements, in spite of the recurring decimal of paucity of funds, coupled with the inherited huge debt profile and other enormous wage bills to be serviced, considering the state’s status as a large and among the older city in the South-East, Governor Ihedioha’s administration has started the 100 percent regular in payment of state workers’ salaries and paying pension arrears after the ongoing verification exercise without receipt of federal allocations.

The leadership of Imo State, under our amiable governor, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha is rated high in the delivery of dividend of democracy, who believes firmly that the greatest objective of government is to alleviate the sufferings of the people and make life more meaningful for them, initiated the rural development policy to take good governance to the doorsteps of the dwellers. His vision and passion for the well-being of the people of the state, irrespective of class or social status, as major stakeholders in the development project, gave birth to the newly flagged off RAMP projects of 380.7 Kilometres, massive infrastructural rebirth which will ignite massive rural road networks in the rural communities soon by his administration. Governor Ihedioha’s grassroots development initiatives have truly ensured more concentration of infrastructural developments to rural areas, the 27 local government areas across the states than in urban centres. This reverse in the development strategy, which is novel in the annals of the state and seems to be alien to some urban residents, was in view of the fact that past administrations concentrated development largely in urban city, neglecting the majority of the state’s population who live in the rural areas.

The governor’s rural development agenda have no doubt addressed to a reasonable extent, the unorthodox imbalance between urban and rural dwellers in terms of distribution of infrastructure and other basic amenities. With the leadership acumen of governor Ihedioha and the mirage of institutional development framework his administration has embarked upon, it’s obvious Imo State has come alive in terms with genuine foundation for proper development. Imo state indeed has been liberated from the shackles of mismanagement and recklessness of the highest order institutionalized by a reckless and vision-less misfit in the person of Governor Okorocha. Real leadership has been enthroned and the dividend is what we now see play out in the state. We can only wait patiently to celebrate the multiplicity of dividend of good leadership resulting from the rural development strategies he has introduced.

Following the recent odd security challenges, which attempted to undermine the enviable status of Imo as one of the most peaceful and secured states in the country, Governor Ihedioha has grabbed the bull by the horn by initiating measures and strategies to decisively tackle the situation with the re-organization of the Imo Security Network, Imo Vigilant Watch groups and appointment creation of Security Advisor; appointment of a retired, DSS Director as Security Adviser to the state government and purchase of 27 security vehicles for community policing, among others. The weighty reports of the Transition Technical Committee (TTC) ad-hoc committees set up by his administration on assumption of its office to evaluate, review government’s programmes, policies and activities in the past and make recommendations that would assist it to reposition the state’s public service for optimized service delivery and advancement of good governance is yielding result. Governor Ihedioha has commenced more aggressive polices and strategies with what are on the ground today. These are expected to usher in further rapid development and take Imo State to the next level of development. Imo State is truly in the hands of God.