10 Reasons President Buhari Shunned Hope Uzodimma During Imo APC Presidential Rally By Johnbull Chikwe

No matter how hard, hired revisionists try to twist the very clear actions and speech of President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to Owerri for the Imo State leg of his presidential campaign, every Nigerian, especially, Imolite who followed the President’s visit to Imo State either on television, social media or who was in Owerri at the time of this visit, knows that the President has put the final nail on an originally non-starting governorship bid of Senator Hope Uzodimma. In the words of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, there is no MEKWATANCY for Hope Uzodimma.

The current Senator representing Imo West is alleged to have succeeded in mobilizing the little support he enjoys among Imo’s rejected elite as a result of his influence peddling strategies. He is accused of telling whoever cares to listen that he is President Buhari’s most trusted ally in the entire Southeast and that the President has assured him of doing everything possible to ensure that he wins the governorship election ‘by hook or by crook’. He is even alleged to have boasted that the President has given him a blank cheque to deliver any candidate of his choice in the coming election by giving him unfettered access to the security agencies, INEC and every other machinery of State that may make him take over the State and even have total control over the entire Southeast. This falsehood is said to have attracted men of alleged  dubious livelihood as major financiers of his gubernatorial aspiration. These men known as the ’19 boys’ a local alias for consters have returned from every part of the world to join the governorship campaign of the outgoing Senator.

Uzodimma deployed every trick known to him and in conjunction with his acolytes like Adams Oshiomhole and his houseboy, Mallam Isah-Onilu who impersonates as the National Publicity Secretary of the APC to ensure that Governor Okorocha is stopped from being part of the Imo State leg of the APC Presidential Campaign rally. Their strategies included; last minute fake news claiming that the governor who is also the Senatorial candidate of the Party for Imo West Senatorial District had been removed as the coordinator of Buhari’s Presidential Campaign in the Southeast and other half baked propaganda that failed to fly.

As a result of these conspiracies, Imolites and indeed majority of Nigerians were more anxious over the President’s visit to Imo State than most of them are over the election date itself. Any political analyst worth the signature knows that any statement or body language of the President would go a long way in determining what would happen on the election day. Had the President unequivocally endorsed the candidature of Senator Hope Uzodimma like he did and still does for every other governorship candidate of the Party in every State he visits, then, it would have meant a lot, politically. Hope Uzodimma would have gone ahead with dropping the name of the President wherever he goes in order to secure some systemic mileage with an aim to rig the entire electoral process in his favor.

From the time the President landed at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport from where he departed to Abia State for campaign, it was obvious that Governor Okorocha and the Rescue Mission political structure was in full charge of affairs. The governor was the only person allowed in the President’s official vehicle and aircraft from the time the aircraft conveying the President touched down in Owerri till they departed. Every effort made by Adams Oshiomhole and the dangerous cabal hell-bent on distorting the President’s image to the art the President’s itinerary fell through. The governor led the President to the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Convention Center also known as Heroes’ Square for a formal reception and some refreshments. At the Heroes’Square, the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu and his ambrosial wife treated the President and his team to a lavish reception. From the Heroes’ Square, Uche Nwosu, who actually won the governorship primaries of the APC, before it was stolen from him, joined the President to the Palace of the Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, where the President’s re-election bid received resounding endorsement from all traditional rulers in the State. In all, the President spent about six hours in Imo State on that day. Five hours out of these six hours were spent with Ugwumba Uche Nwosu in very strategic meetings and venues, while about thirty minutes were spent at the stadium where Hope Uzodimma was present.

At this point, any political analyst worth his pay would have known where the pendulum is swinging to, politically, going by the President’s body language and choice of reception venues and places to pay courtesy visits. However, anyone still entertaining any little doubt about whom the President wishes to support as the next Imo governor got that doubt cleared with the President’s unequivocal speech at the stadium, where, standing beside the purported governorship candidate, the President advised Imolites to vote whoever they want across Party lines. Adams Oshiomhole was clearly frustrated with the President’s speech and as the President made to leave without raising Hope Uzodimma’s hands, he literally forced the President to raise his client’s hand. There have been several critiques on why the President made this declaration in Imo State and the following reasons could be handy;

1. The President saw with his own eyes the passionate and far reaching support enjoyed by the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, across the length and breadth of the State. From the airport to every street he passed through on his way to Aba and Owerri, there were crowds of passionate  Ugwumba Uche Nwosu supporters cheering the President and his team as they drove past. There was not a single Hope Uzodimma supporter anywhere along the road. The President is a fair minded leader who hates cheats. There was no how the President could have declared support for a Hope Uzodimma whose pariah status in the State was so glaring all through the President’s visit.

2. Senator Hope Uzodimma is one of those whose names are on the travel ban list gazetted by the Federal Government few weeks ago. 

3. Senator Uzodimma is facing criminal prosecution by the Federal Government over alleged contract breaches, corruption, wrong declaration of assets and sundry criminal infractions.

4. The President is aware that Senator Uzodimma did not win the governorship primary of the APC, rather he was foisted on members of the Party in the State by Oshiomhole after allegedly paying millions of Dollars to the former Edo governor.

5. Endorsing Hope Uzodimma would have cast a serious doubt on the President’s avowed fight against corruption, considering the several cases of corruption hanging on Hope Uzodimma’s neck.

6. The President may be aware of Senator Hope Uzodimma’s alleged tainted reputation in several quarters across Nigeria, especially in the Southeast. 

7. At the Dan Anyiam Stadium where the main rally took place, the unpopularity and total rejection of Senator Hope Uzodimma by Imo people was even more glaring as even among his own hired crowds in the stadium, his uncoordinated speech was greeted with jeers.

8. The President wanted to make it clear before the world that he is not involved in any illegal and desperate antics of the dangerous cabal doing everything to sabotage the President’s efforts at ridding Nigeria of corruption and impunity.

9. Hope Uzodimma as a product of the dangerous cabal is one of those who cases dents on the irrefragabble integrity of Mr. President.

10. The President could not have endorsed failure, as that is what endorsing Hope Uzodimma would have meant.

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