Imo politics: Sam Amadi, you can’t be Governor Hope Uzodimma

By Oguwike Nwachuku

On Thursday, February 20, 2025 a piece was forwarded to me by someone quite close but who never sees anything good in what the Governor of Imo State, Dist. Sen. Hope Uzodimma does. His, is a typical case of hate without cause.

So, whenever I see a forwarded item from the person in question I am not deceived about his intention.

As was expected, he was the same person who forwarded to me the article written by Dr. Sam Amadi, the former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that was circulated on social media same day, knowing full well it contained lines that cast aspersions on my principal.

Smart Sam had captioned his piece: “If I were Hope Uzodimma,” as if he doesn’t know he cannot be him.

Because I know to a large extent, who Sam is, including his mindset, I didn’t want to waste my time, his or that of our audience, before informing him that he cannot be Hope Uzodimma.

In the first place, Sam knows that no two individuals can be the same, no matter the method one wants to use to evaluate their anatomy and physiology, including their state of wisdom or foolishness.

Now, let us hazard a guess of who Sam Amadi is for the benefit of those who may be hearing his name for the first time.

I already said Sam was the former Chairman of NERC, a trained lawyer, who was at a time a fellow at the Care Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

He once held the position of Special Adviser to the President of the Senate of Nigeria, was Director of the Centre for Public Policy and Research in Lagos, Nigeria and Senior Legal Officer at The Human Rights Law Service in Nigeria.

Sam once worked as a Senior Counsel at Gani Fawehinmi Chambers and is an Associate with Olisa Agbakoba and Associates.

He holds a doctoral degree of law from Harvard, a LLB from University of Calabar, BL from Nigerian Law School, LLM from Harvard Law School and MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and teaches law in the University as as Associate Professor.

He has been this and that including a fellow of the Society of Project Management and Development Professionals International where he serves as a Member of Advisory Board.

Sen. Hope Uzodimma as the current Governor of Imo State is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and began his political career in the Second Nigerian Republic, joining the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), where he became the Imo State youth leader in 1983.

In the 1990s, with the aborted transition to the Third Nigerian Republic, Uzodimma featured prominently as a member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). In 1999, after the return to democracy, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he served as a member of the Party’s National Caucus, National Executive Committee and on the Board of Trustees, at various times between 1999 and 2017.

Mind you, in 2003, Uzodimma was the Imo State governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), a platform he used in contesting that year’s election when the then PDP denied him ticket.

Uzodimma was elected Senator for Imo West in April 2011 and served until June 2019. While in the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise as well as a member of several other committees including Banking and Finance; Culture and Tourism; Aviation; Police Affairs; and Power.

On January 14, 2020, Uzodimma was declared the rightful winner of the 2019 governorship poll in Imo State by the Supreme Court of Nigeria after the nullification of the election of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.

Uzodimma has several national, state, and local government honours and recognitions, including the Commander of the Order of Nigeria, CON, Chairman of Progressives Governors’ Forum, Chairman of South East Governors Forum, to name but a few.

Uzodimma holds a Bachelor’s in International Studies and Diplomacy from the Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States and an Advanced Diploma in Maritime Management Technology from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State.

An accomplished private sector player with incredible knowledge in project management and execution, Uzodimma has not failed to bring his private sector competence and experience to bear in the way and manner he conducts the affairs of the State under his watch as a tested and experienced politician of more than 40 years.

He has authored many books and delivered several lectures in reputable institutions in and outside the country.

Now that we have an idea of who both Sam Amadi and Governor Uzodimma are, and why it is practically impossible for the former to dream of being the latter, can we then examine the intent in the piece in question credited to Sam?

First, Sam’s recourse to the caption, “If I were Hope Uzodimma,” was not only pejoratively couched to deceive, but he craftily tried to hide under it as pieces of advice, knowing full well that it oozes contradiction and subtle demeaning characterisations aimed at smearing Governor Uzodimma.

Now, assuming but without conceding that Sam was out to provide sincere advice to the Governor he claims to respect, how come he digressed from the core reason for the advice if he was well intentioned, and delved into the politics of the Imo APC where a perceived crisis is only exiting in his imagination?

Does the manner Sam repeatedly emphasised on the governor being a lame duck, running a transactional government, the turn of Ngor Okpala person to succeed the governor having not produced one or a senator or ambassador, the need for the governor to dissolve his cabinet as condition for enduring legacy and for redeeming his tenure, among others, not suggest the intention of a man working Nicodemously towards a project where he appears, but economical with the truth in his so-called advice?

Truth is that Sam acted true to type – deliberately chose a convenient headline that he hid under to discredit the current government of Imo State and cast aspersions on the governor as lacking in development ideas, intellectual and managerial prowess to transform Imo and probably get a successor.

Part of the contradiction in Sam’s social media memoir is that he claims to know the governor’s strength and weaknesses, but I really doubt if he truly knows Uzodimma’s strength. Suffice it to say, therefore, that Sam is obviously one of those fellows who under rate Uzodimma, and at their own peril.

It is unfortunate that those struggling to grab power have found in the use of the word “transactional” in describing the way government of the day is run as the most potent tool to discredit their political opponents, but the reality is that when they have the ear of such persons in power that popular lexicon –  transactional – is hardly remembered talk-less of being uttered by them.

If you read Sam’s piece between the lines, you must come to the conclusion about a man whose agitation is borne out of lack of unfettered access to Governor Uzodimma.

A man who thinks he is assumed to be good upstairs, but has not been brought too close by the powers that be. Don’t forget that Sam is used to the corridors of power in the years past, despite being a rights activist, social crusader and analyst.

If Sam thinks he wants to succeed Governor Uzodimma, it is his right to ascribe to such highest office in Imo State, but must he deploy blackmail, no matter how subtle, to achieve that? Will it not amount to the same transactional government he claims to be preaching against if Uzodimma covertly endorses him as his likely successor without taking into consideration his other equally very good friends from the same zone, including from Ngor Okpala?

It is most scandalous that someone of Sam’s standing will claim to be advising the Governor on what legacy he should leave behind after seeing and feeling all the legacy projects that Uzodimma has, so far, tirelessly laboured to bring about in Imo in the past five years.

Only those the devil has condemned to perpetual blindness will pretend not to have seen Governor Uzodimma’s massive road infrastructure that has redefined the status of Imo.

May be Sam has not been coming home and should be reminded that Owerri-Orlu, Owerri- Okigwe, Owerri-Mbaise-Umuahia, Mgbidi- Oguta, Orlu-Mgbe-Akokwa-Uga roads, to name but a few are now motorable. When he finds time to visit his Imerienwe community in Ngor Okpala, I am sure he plies through the Bola Tinubu Drive from the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport. Does that corridor look like manna from heaven to Sam?

Too many city roads in Owerri have since worn new looks. The Assumpta flyover is few months away from commissioning. Same as the Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu International Conference Centre. Please, can someone take Sam to the Imo State House of Assembly Complex to see whether the edifice qualifies as a legacy project or not. I believe he must have heard about the brand New Exco Chambers built by Governor Uzodimma.

Governor Uzodimma is working day and night to light up the entire Imo State before he leaves office in 2028 using the Orashi Electricity Company of Imo State, and methinks that if NERC under Sam’s Chairmanship had done her job properly the scarce resources the government is deploying to the power sector today to give the people light could have been diverted to another infrastructure.

But unfortunately, in Sam’s epistle of advice, I did not read anywhere he singled out one project executed by Governor Uzodimma in five years for commendation, typical of critics and agitators for political office.

To him, the governor has not done anything. He is lacking in the depth of ideas and policy acumen that can only be found in a transformative leader like Sam, no more no less as the long awaited Messiah the people of Imo State need.

The pull him down syndrome (PHDS) which many so-called leaders in Imo State wear like a cloth is so nauseating and should be discouraged by all men of good will, including Sam Amadi.

The last time I checked, Sam has not given-in on his interest to be the governor of our dear State. In 2019 he tried his luck under APGA where they fleeced him to the pants his savings. Again, in 2023 his hope of leveraging his relationship with then presidential candidate, Peter Obi to clinch the Labour Party ticket got complicated.

I don’t know whether he is still in Labour Party today, what his relationship with Obi looks like, whether he has joined the others who are daily jumping out of the Labour Party, using every available space to defect to the other political parties. But whatever is the case, should there not be decorum in the way of conducting political activities?

Sam still believes, like others in his mould, that he is the best thing that can happen to Imo State, hence, no other person(s) serving or aspiring may be qualified. His hunch tells him he should be secretly crowned by Uzodimma, not by the people of Imo State whose right it is to elect who they want.

The fact that one is a good television analyst, lawyer, teacher, rights activist, does not mean the person can also be a good politician and governor. It goes without saying, also, that there are other fellows with competencies that are far better than what you may think you have and because they have refused to be willfully exposed to the kleig light, you think you are delivered from heaven to be adored.

In the build up to the 2023 governorship election, Sam was quoted to have said he will not give any delegate a kobo to vote for him, a comment which, to his supporters, was a recipe for disaster and failure.To such supporters, the bigger implication is that he is not the type who can make sacrifices for them. Yet, he sees himself as the best man for the job without knowing that being the best in politics could be relative.

By the way, who tells Sam that Governor Uzodimma is not conscious of who will competently take Imo State to the next level after him? Or does Sam think that after working so hard to restart Imo State on the current trajectory of economic prosperity and growth, Governor Uzodimma will close his eyes to who will succeed him and not fritter away the gains he has worked so hard to record?

Make no mistake about it, Governor Uzodimma will be alive to his responsibility till January 14, 2028. You can take that to the bank if you so wish. It is in your interest and the interest of your fellow political office agitators and critics to perish the thought of the governor being a lame duck, barely one year into his second term in office. Don’t even try to force him, using subterfuge, into such position the way most of you are wont to doing in the past because you will not succeed with Hope Uzodimma.

Instead, I urge you to pray to God for his good health and that of his team, because by the end of this year, the tendency is that you may not recognise Imo State, including Ngor Okpala based on the ongoing development initiatives lined up that will affect the lives of Imo people positively.

Imo people, particularly the Elders Council, are happy and grateful to the Governor for accepting their proposal for power to shift to Owerri zone from 2028. Everyone is also happy with the governor the way he is working hard to actualise the desire of the people regarding power shift. And Owerri zone, you and I know, is not only Ngor Okpala.

One thing you can be rest assure is that at the appropriate time, the right person from Owerri zone, with the support of our brothers/sisters from Orlu and Okigwe zones, who is a real and committed member of the APC, and who understands the policy framework and development blueprint of Imo State from the time Governor Uzodimma took over, and more than prepared to take the State to another level, will emerge.

But under no circumstances will those who never wished Governor Uzodimma well during his tenure, or those who covertly or overtly sabotaged his government through their actions or deeds, will be considered.

My own advice – use your tongue to count your teeth.

…Nwachuku is Chief Press Secretary/ Special Adviser Media to the Governor.