EMMANUEL MGBEAHURUIKE captures the unfolding political scenario in Imo State ahead of 2023 polls
To all keen observers of the unfolding political scenario and permutations in Imo State, there is no doubt that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) needs more cohesion and unity of purpose to remain viable ahead 2023.
If the gladiators within the party forge a common front, they would be able to withstand any opposition.
Consequently, the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, having realised this, has set in motion mechanisms to realise the objective.
Prior to his inauguration as the executive governor of the state on January 15, 2020 , Uzodinma, who by then had just completed a second tenure at the senate for Imo West, was relatively not quite formidable as the then governor Rochas Okorocha bestrode the party like a colossus.
However, the tide had since changed and Uzodinma as the leader of the party in the state now plays the piper and dictates the tune as he has turned the political grand master.
This is to the chagrin of Okorocha and Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Arararume who reportedly assisted Uzodinma when it mattered most.
However, conscious of the obvious political implications of the division within the party in respect of the 2023 governorship election, the governor had since begun a thorough reconciliation of all aggrieved members of the party aimed at building a formidable structure within the party enclave.
A reconciliation committee has swung into action to bring all party members on the same page. It was also gathered that the 27 local government caretaker committees might be sent packing in no distant time to bring in new ones which had all along felt marginalised and short changed, especially those loyal to Senator Rochas Okorocha.
Aside this, dissolution of the state executive council is also looming large to inject fresh blood into governance and for the ruling party to make more incursions in the hinterland and consolidate grounds ahead of 2023.
On the other hand, the major opposition party in the state which is still licking its wounds following its dramatic ouster from power through the Supreme Court on January 14, 2020 has commenced fresh strategies to regain power.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which suffered mass defection of members to the APC had of recent started regaining some lost members and is regularly holding meetings with major stakeholders to dislodge the APC in the next two years.
Consequently, the Okigwe senatorial bye election appears to have torn apart the political fraternity between political gladiators especially from the APC extraction.
Most affected are Sentor Arararume, Senator Rochas Okorocha and Gov Uzodinma as they have fallen apart politically.
Okorocha and Arararume for now are regretting supporting Senator Uzodimma in actualising his dream of being the governor of the state.
Supposedly, their support was hinged on being beneficiaries of the fallout of the Uzodinma administration, regrettably, somebody somewhere seems to have reneged on the agreement.
This of course has left some gnashing their teeth and regretting various roles played in the emergence of Uzodinma as the governor of the state.
