Re-What is Prof Placid Njoku to Gov Hope Uzodimma?

By Oguwike Nwachuku

One of the books anyone who craves for a well authored legacy work will find irresistible is the autobiography of late President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

There is quote in Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom that will always strike you if your heart is pure while reading the book.

It says: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

If you spare time to reflect on the character of the man who wrote the Long Walk to Freedom, you will come to the inference that regardless of what he went through, serving jail term for 27 years, he is unarguably one of the champions of love the world has ever got.

The reference to Mandela and his quote in this intervention is necessary after reading the piece written by one Egejuru Austin which was published on the back page of the newest addition to the many local newspapers circulating in Owerri, the Imo State capital, The Onion.

Tagged, “What is Prof Placid Njoku to Gov Hope Uzodimma?, the writer chose to paint a picture of a Hope Uzodimma administration that has sidelined his deputy, Prof. Placid Njoku.

Any discerning mind who read Egejuru’s piece will automatically know that the writer was on a voyage to assassinate the character of the governor by mischievously implying that there is no love lost between His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma and his deputy, Prof. Njoku. The author  knows full well there is no iota of truth in the write-up, but he prefers to be read for the wrong reason by writing hogwash.

Egejuru not only painted Governor Uzodimma an autocrat running a totalitarian regime with all the personality cultism and censorship that goes with authoritarianism, he also described the governor in a most mischievous veiled manner as one who is intolerant of other peoples’ views, and one not caring for the well being of those working with him, including his deputy. What a way to express an all night hallucination based on hate for one.

It was indeed a potpourri of hogwash allegations, which Egejuru lined up, and I am sure those who contracted him to embarrass the governor, nay undermine his person and asked him to use his deputy as a template to sell the story line must be singing praise songs now for a job well done.

But we know what is playing out or rather we should remind them of what is playing out in the contrary.

Governor Uzodimma and his deputy are not thinking the way the Egejurus and their cohorts are thinking about governance and Imo.

If anything, yours sincerely has watched Governor Uzodimma and his deputy closely to know that Egejuru just woke up from a deep slumber that led to what The Onion published for him.

If Mandela’s saying in 2000 during the International AIDS Conference in Pretoria that, “a good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination,” is anything to go by, then Egejuru needs reminded that his attempt to twiddle the harmonious relationship between the duo is dead on arrival.

It is inconceivable that the author and his sponsors have seen the potentials of Governor Uzodimma and his deputy in working together to deliver on the mandate the good people of Imo State gave to them as a threat to their selfish agenda, barely six months in the saddle.

What they did not get through failed winding court processes few months ago, they are now tinkering with Governor Uzodimma’s relationship with his deputy, nay, aides all in an attempt to derail the vision and mission of the government.

I am very sure that the Deputy Governor, Prof. Placid Njoku must have laughed out loud when he read the piece and I am sure his mind will not stop telling him that the same characters who have been at the vanguard of keeping Imo perpetually down may have seen in him a potent variable to deploy to achieve their inordinate ambition.

The erudite deputy governor understands too well like Donald H. McGannon that, “leadership is action, not position.”

He has always been his own man and does not need excitable characters masquerading as hired writers and their shameless hidden sponsors to make a point in a government where Prof Njoku is the number two citizen of Imo.

For the avoidance of doubt, the deputy governor understands the demands of his office and I do not think he would want to shy away from fulfilling his constitutionally assigned roles, more so, in a government where his boss, Governor Uzodimma is noted for open policy in decision making and taking.

If Egejuru really understands the enormity of work which the office of the deputy governor demands of him, and the respect that ought to accrue to that office, he would have been better guided and more circumspect before sitting down to pour out garbage that would be subjected to different interpretations by those who may be ignorant of the reason he wrote.

Six months after taking up office as the Chief Executive of Imo state, Governor Uzodimma has demonstrated in unmistaken terms that leadership is team work.

He has shown that there is strength in working together and all his aides are glad imbibing that tenet.

Many of Governor Uzodimma’s aides, including his deputy shudder at the rate the governor harps on “team work”, “live and let live” and “win-win situation” in their approach to issues of state and its craft.

It is because the governor believes in team work that there is rancour-free relationship between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

Under the watch of Governor Uzodimma, unusual things that were hitherto not known in the state have taken place in the judiciary.

I am talking about restoring seniority in the mode of appointment of senior officers in the judiciary. In the legislature, bills whose deployment will impact the lives of Imo people have been passed within the short period this government has existed.

The unholy alliance to misinform Imo people is well known by the government. Those in the alliance are also known. What is not known to all of us is how God will disappoint their antics and cause their wicked and devilish enterprise aimed at undermining the vision to leave Imo better than they would prefer it to remain not to prosper.

And to answer Egejuru’s question more appropriately, Prof Placid Njoku is everything a deputy governor is to his principal. If he is a trusted ally to Governor Uzodimma, the reason they are happy working together, no deliberate effort to sow seed of face-off between them by hired writers will therefore succeed.

There is nothing to suggest that the deputy governor is not happy joining hands with his principal to pursue the vision of Reconstructing, Rehabilitating and Recovering Imo together.

Like many of us, it is doubtful if the deputy governor is not fulfilled learning at the feet of His Excellency certain things that are never taught within the four walls of the classroom.

Suffice it to say that there is nothing that suggests that the efforts the governor and his deputy are making together to better the lives of Imo people are not being appreciated by citizens who genuinely see through their hard work, sacrifice, day and night.

.Nwachuku is Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma