A former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and former Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Ukachukwu Awuzie, has asked the state governor, Hope Uzodimma, to improve the state infrastructure in his second term in office.
The professor of landscape architecture who briefed journalists in the Owerri, the state capital, on Sunday also asked Uzodimma to appoint a new secretary to the state government.
Awuzie, argued that going by the state Charter of Equity as advanced by the state Council of Elders, the next SSG ought to come from the Isu clan in the Imo West senatorial district of the state.
Saying that he was not in the race for the position of the SSG, Awuzie, said that the Isu clan which is made up of Nwangele, Isu, Nkwerre, Njaba and part of the Orlu Local Government Areas had been marginalised since the return of the fourth republic.
He said ” the degree of deprivation and marginalization of Isu clan remains obvious and incontrovertible. How has the present Imo charter of Equity addressed this injustice?.
“The Isu clan, comprising of 41/2 Local Government Areas, which by the current distribution of LGAs n Imo state equals half of Owerri zone more than two third of Okigwe zone and more than one third of the current Orlu zone, has not produced a governor, deputy governor, a senator or a speaker of the Imo state House of Assembly or the Secretary of government of Imo state or an Attorney General in the past 24 years of the fourth republic which is from 1999 till 2023.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that for Imolites to buy into the charter of Equity as advanced by the Council of Elders and for the Charter to bring social justice and fairness to all zones, Loca Government Areas and wards, Federal constituencies, more work needs to be done to strength it, particularly in terms of content, implementation and enforcement facets.
“The situation of Isu clan in the scheme, makes it mandatory that a team of patriotic, knowledgeable and understanding Imolites be assembled to fashion out a new holistic charter of Equity that guarantees in words, letter, spirit and content, equity to all sections of Imo state.
“The governor should be encouraged to invest the resources of the state towards providing good roads and relevant social infrastructure in Orlu and Okigwe zones. Efforts must be made to upgrade the status of these zonal headquarters of Orlu and Okigwe into befitting towns through comprehensive master plans be worked out for Okigwe and Orlu and new layouts be created and developed in these two zones. Future new Federal Government investments in areas of educational facilities be located in Orlu and or Okigwe zones, example, the Federal University of Owerri Teaching Hospital.
“Going by the history of Imo state, starting from the Dr Sam Mbakwe’s era, secretaries to government, until Rochas Okorocha’s era, had come solely from the governor’s zone. However, during Okorocha’s tenure in office, he distributed this to the three geopolitical zones. This appeared like a deviation from the norm. As means of returning to the norm, governor Hope Uzodimma is urged to rectify the current situation by appointing the secretary to the government of Imo state to come from Orlu zone and preferably from Isu clan to give them a sense of belonging.”
