By Collins Opurozor
Two things have remained absent in the conversation about the worsening security situation in Imo state. They are patriotism and objectivity. The situation has further revealed the absence of public intellectuals within our space. Therefore, before we talk of moving Imo state away from insecurity, we must first seek to understand the directions that insecurity is coming from. We must essentially outline the drivers of insecurity and define their features, so that we may achieve success at steering Imo away from this problem and to the path of safety, peace and progress once again.
At the heart of the insecurity in the entire Southeast is simply and squarely the failure of Chief Hope Uzodinma to deliver leadership in Imo state over an issue that required prompt diplomatic intervention. Some apologists who have possibly been hired by Uzodinma to mask his failures in tackling this issue have tended to argue that Uzodinma should not be held accountable for the raging inferno in Imo, since the fire is also burning almost everywhere in the Southeast. This piece is their answer.
Let us take a quick look at how an independent source, Wikipedia, views the crisis that has bedeviled our land. “The insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria (initially known as the Orlu Crisis) is a military conflict that broke out in the city of Orlu, Nigeria when the Nigerian Army moved to crush the paramilitary wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Eastern Security Network (ESN). The conflict escalated after the ESN managed to repulse the initial push by the Nigerian Army, but IPOB ended the initial crisis by unilaterally withdrawing the ESN from Orlu. After a few weeks of quiet, Nigeria launched a military offensive in the area to destroy the ESN. On 19 February, IPOB declared that as of the day before, a state of war existed between Nigeria and Biafra,” Wikipedia.
From the above, it has become clear that the armed conflict we now see began in Orlu, Imo state, and it brewed and simmered for a very long time before searing up as violent confrontations. The question is: What was the issue in Orlu that led to the conflict? In the peak of the conflict, why were Orlu residents openly withdrawing their support to the law enforcement agencies, and publicly hailing a non-state actor which was the Eastern Security Network, ESN?
Accounts by various eyewitnesses and residents have alleged that the people of Okporo and Umutanze both in Orlu had been harassed severally by armed herdsmen. Efforts to get the government to intervene in the issue proved abortive. As a result, they decided to defend themselves by inviting and accommodating a non-state actor, the ESN.
Meanwhile, the regime of Hope Uzodinma had through the various Interim Management Committees of the Local Governments sacked the duly elected leaders of the town unions across the state. The reason for the illegal dismissal of the community leaders was simple: Uzodinma came to power without any grassroots base, and he felt the need to expand his support base by sacking community leaders and replacing them with his core supporters. This has instead backfired, as it totally cut off the regime from the real happenings at the grassroots, even as it created more enemies for the regime at the grassroots. And for the period that the crisis was brewing in Orlu, the place was almost like an ungoverned space. A traditional ruler whose community was badly affected was quoted to have said that all his efforts to get the government to come to their rescue failed.
What is very curious is that the situation in Orlu might have got so bad that an in-law to Uzodinma, who is the Traditional Ruler of Amaifeke in Orlu and who was made the Head of the Imo Traditional Institution by Uzodinma, Eze Emmanuel Okeke, spoke to BBC Igbo News during the conflict and said he was in support of the ESN, and questioned the rationale for the Yoruba nation to have Amotekun and yet the Igbo would not be allowed to have ESN. This amply proves that the absence of governance and the silence of Uzodinma had become so frustrating. In desperation, the people had begun to search for alternatives. And what they could possibly get was the ESN which Nnamdi Kanu had cobbled together to purportedly confront the menace of the armed herdsmen.
When Uzodinma finally spoke in mid February, which was on the third day of the armed conflict in Orlu, he said he had just been informed about the activities of some militants on that very same day, and vowed to crush them. Some questions immediately came up. So he never knew what was happening till that day? So for him it was just militancy without underlying motives? So for him crushing the militants would permanently solve the problem? And suddenly, he jetted out to Abuja where he arrogantly claimed that it was on his invitation that the military went to bombard Orlu. The reality is that the issue was misdiagnosed from inception by Uzodinma, and so he has continued to treat the symptoms instead of the disease.
The invitation of the military into Orlu eventually led to human rights violations which instantly exacerbated the misgivings of the people against Uzodinma’s style of leadership and pitted the people against the efforts of the law enforcement agencies. Countless arrests of persons suspected to have links with the ESN or IPOB were carried out. With the militarization of Orlu, the attacks by the so-called unknown gunmen shifted to other areas in the Southeast, and state institutions and facilities, as well as law enforcement personnel, became their targets. In the end, the Owerri Correctional Center, which was reportedly filled with the suspects from Orlu whom Nnamdi Kanu had kept reeling off on air and threatening fire and brimstone if they were not released, was attacked by unknown gun. The inmates were freed. And some reports said Uzodinma was alerted to the possibility of the attack and he did nothing about it.
In a bizarre reaction, Uzodinma began to blame the opposition in Imo state. Till this day, he still insists that the opposition elements are fighting him by creating insecurity. Has Uzodinma first sat back to observe his own litany of failures that precipitated the ugly situation? Who made Imo the unemployment capital of Nigeria? What options has he created for the youths who are willing-tools for insecurity? What is his relationship with the people? What programs does he have that embody the yearnings and expectations of the people? How well has he made Imo people believe that there is governance in the state? By what means has he sought to influence the thinking of the people and to share whatever ideology he has? Does he even listen to or communicate with the people? It is pressing to add that all the calls by civil society organizations in Imo and elsewhere for an independent panel of inquiry to unearth the actual things that happened in Orlu were bluntly ignored by Uzodinma whose only language is military force and threats of crushing even his own citizens.
And a very disturbing dimension to it is that the regime of Uzodinma has been mired in legitimacy crisis caused by the controversial judgment that brought him in and his inability to connect with the people through sound programs and laudable policies. He is the only governor in Nigeria who is never cheered by his own people while moving anywhere in his own state. Uzodinma himself knows about this and has continually lamented that he is being ridiculed everywhere, including on the social media. The people have remained eternally suspicious of his motives, and for a vast majority, he is in Imo to oppress them. Imo people can only tell of an Uzodinma whose reign is about threats and whose words are thundered with fire and fury. His approach has made it impossible for the people to work with him and address the insecurity that is ravaging the state.
So, in trying to understand what has gone wrong with security in Imo and the entire Southeast, we cannot but find a valid context in Uzodinma’s failure to deliver governance and address some skirmishes that began in Orlu. Since he has proven incapable of securing the people, Uzodinma should immediately resign so that peace and security could return to Imo state.
