There a joke we are fond of in my household. Originated by my wife, it's called, 'nyem maa chia'. It dates back to 2015 when I had supported Muhammadu Buhari so very vehemently and abjured President Goodluck Jonathan with equal vehemence. I believed he failed as a president.

My wife was travelling the opposite direction with equal passion. We were always on a collision course all through the 2015 electioneering. Buhari eventually won (or got it if you like).

Only six months down the line, President Buhari had exhibited such acute inertia that I had written him off already. In my weekly EXPRESSO column in The Nation newspaper, I was strident in condemning the president every week unable to stomach what was unfolding. I was choking in indignant anger. All the people who hailed my railing at GEJ had become my enemies already - in just six months!

My wife of course was having a great time. Each time I complained about PMB'S ineptitude, she would retort derisively: ndi nyem maa chia, nyem maa chia! (Translated: overambitious peoplewith little acumen!). Her logic is that, for 12 years, PMB never allowed Nigeria a moment of peace: allow me to lead, allow me to lead was his deafening refrain, even violent call.

Now PMB is in power and he's totally at sea.
To constitute a mere cabinet took almost nine months. This scenario seems to be the same for Gov. Hope Uzodinma in Imo State.
Let me appeal to my readers upfront for a little indulgence here: the review of the first 100 days of Hope Uzodinma will be mellowed and tempered in a manner that may seem to negate the tradition of the EXPRESS0 column.

There are two reasons for this. One, I was a member of the Supreme Court-torpedoed Emeka Ihedioha administration and people will quickly impute bias and bitterness. Two, more than half the members of this administration are friends and acquaintances at one level or the other.

Conventional wisdom suggests that you must swat the fly perched on your groin gently lest you damage a crucial organ!
But here are what I consider nuggets nuggets that may help redirect and rediscover a gilded path for this government.

Having laid this caveat, I must say that the administration of Governor Uzodinma this short period brings to mind, my household's nyem maa chia joke.

Hope's 100 days is uneventful, lack-lustre and bereft of any marker to show a great day ahead. It's a clear signpost of a man who wanted power so ravenously but suddenly accosted by power, is nonplussed.

I am reviewing Hope's 100 days based on my experience in the Ihedioha administration and my over 30 years experience as a journalist who has carried out this manner of exercise uncountable times.

Let's take it in bullet points for more clarity:

■ Unlike Ihedioha who found every system of governance in disarray as a result of what I term Hurricane Okorocha, Hope Uzodinma met a properly organised and running structure of government. A wiser leader would have simply taken the driver's seat and zoomed off. All he needed do was to top up fuel and service engine periodically.

■ The first sign Hope may derail is the issue of the Imo pension system. If there was anything Emeka achieved, it was the reform of the Imo Pension Scheme. With about 24,000 pensioners getting payment alert every month, it was already among the best system instituted in Nigeria. It was a painstaking process and that was not because one was a member of the reform committee.

The process of data capture, biometric verification, collation and eventual payment of Imo seniors is a model any wise government would package for export. Work was to begin on working out gratuities as Rochas neglected this most of eight years. It was also to be migrated to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as the next phase.

Now, Hope is not only querying the process he's defaulting in payment. One does not claim the process was 100% perfect but all that's needed is to smoothen the rough edges without pulling down the house. To even contemplate another biometric exercise would amount to sheer suicide.

■ Before 100 days, Emeka Ihedioha had reconciled with nearly all the multilateral agencies of the UN System also known as development partners: The World Bank, the World Health Organisation, UNESCO, UNICEF, DFID, UNDP, name them.

Most of them practically fled Imo because of the insouciance of the Rochas administration. Counterpart funds which had lapsed were being paid by the Ihedioha administration and smart funds were flowing into Imo State already.

The multibillion naira Urualla erosion project is one example.The Otamiri Water Scheme is another. Examples are numerous as Emeka was aggressive on this trajectory; we expect Hope to be even more so. But all seems quiet on this front now.

■ Why has Hope found it difficult to organize his team? In spite of the utter dishevelment Rochas bequeath Imo, Emeka was among the the first governors to name a full complement of his cabinet - from special aides to commissioners. And man for man, Emeka's team is nonpareil!

But rather troubling now is that over 100 aides are appointed without portfolio. Also befuddling is the creation of such illiterate portfolio as Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, and Commissioner for Livestock, blah, blah, regardless that we have a ministry of agriculture. And here we are, appointees are milling around purposelessly collecting pay without clear function or offices.

■ The most telling of Uzodinma's groping is not pursuing the road infrastructure already initiated and procured by Ihedioha. At least 30 major roads had passed the rigours of Exco debates and approval processes. The jobs had been procured and most of the contractors had not only moved to site by January 14, when Ihedioha was toppled by the Supreme Court, some had done ample preliminaries.

As much as possible, fairly reputable contractors were engaged. Emeka insisted on that from the beginning. This was a clear departure from Rochas' days of the locusts when ghost contractors delivered China projects.

One expected Hope to pursue these projects with even more vigour than Emeka, for obvious reasons.Some of them ought to have been completed by now being the peak of construction season. But hardly any. When the rains come soon, Imo people are gonna be weeping flood, to put it lightly.

■ Another sore point has to do with the fiscal constructs of the state: from the single treasury account (TSA), to IGR, rectitude in financial management and more remarkably, salaries and emoluments. We have spoken about pension above. Salaries have already become a problem for this administration. How can that be? We hear all sorts of percentages are paid to different segments at different times.

As one wrote this, many workers had not received March pay and April beckons. Emeka had structured the state's salary system and it was dropping automatically. Yes, these are neither perfect nor are they supposed to be static, but they can actually be reviewed with little disruption. Never again should we return to the Rochas' era of toying with workers' pay and emoluments.

With planting season on-going, one expected some single minded push towards agric production to boost IGR and ward off the looming economic crisis ahead. Nobody seems to he thinking!

■ Another matter of concern is the local government affairs. In seven months, Emeka's administration had almost completed two legacy projects in each of the 27 LGAs of the State simultaneously: a modern LGA headquarters and a mini Stadium.
A few of these were already completed. Over 90%of these ought to have been ready for commissioning now if Emeka was still in the saddle.

These projects were the bulwark for the reform of the LGA system in Imo; that was the longterm plan. Only those who are perceptive would see the trajectory being designed.
Then again, for once in a very long time, life returned to the rural areas as hundreds of youths were engaged on this massive construction sites in each LGA.
It would be a regrettable mistake if Hope abandoned these worthy rural projects.

■ There's also the massive reform of sports and technical education starting with the upgrade of major sports and technical education facilities. About a dozen were ongoing. These projects are envisioned to drive the longterm reclaim of our lost youth. But they look to have been abandoned already. Pathetic!
There are many more but for fear of being labelled as bitter, let's pause here for now.

■ Finally, for a man who traversed Ogwugwu, so to speak, to wrench power, you would expect him to be up and running with it; especially if such a man was fortunate to inherit a viable template to adopt and apply.
Morning shows the day indeed and for now, Imolites would be required to recourse to fervent prayers to support this government.

It's in dire need of it.

(c) Steve Osuji
April 23, 2019lp

Good write up.

Lol..it seems someone cursed imo with bad governors,

Great write up but Emeka had guffed in some areas. Among which was in ISOPADEC. Monies belonging to the commission was taken to build roads in non oil producing places. The 60% belonging to the state remains unaccounted for right from the Ohakim day till now. That being said, he was a better man than hope. He had a plan. Hope has failed to plan. Let me stop here for now

The thing tire me ooo, my dearest state os now a laughing stock in the eyes of my people

As soon as I saw Commissioner for Foreign Affairs I stopped reading. Imo State don suffer finish.

What confronts us now is a Imo state that has been hijacked by a group of malevolent scoundrels who, on a good day, see Igbos generally as irritants who are beneath them and need to be cheated and held down! They have found a shameless crook in the name of 'hope' and used him to once again derail the train of progress in the state; the first time they did this was in 1983 when the coupist buhari first appeared on the scene! But for buhari and his wicked anti-Igbo agenda, Imo would have progressed much more than they already have!

APC has really dealt with us in Imo. Why not take another south east state if they must be in Igbo land and leave Imo State alone. We had a wonderful government under Ihedioha. A government everyone had access to. A government that did not segregate on party. Hope Uzodimma's deputy was a commissioner under Ihedioha. Everyone was happy. Only for APC with the help of evil Abba Kyari and his sharia lawyer in supreme court coupled with their prophet Mbaka sent Ihedioha away. Now the so called messiah has sent Imo back to pains and suffering. Which kind wahala be this?