By Ethelbert Okere

About a year or so after Senator Hope Uzodimma landed at the National Assembly, a former colleague of mine in our active days in journalism posed the following question before me during a chance meeting : “So, you people have this type of fellow and you hid him all these years?” Even though the question was spontaneous, I had no difficulty in picking up whom he was referring to. I cannot remember exactly what was my response but I know that among the things I said was that Senator Uzodimma went into politics rather reluctantly.
I remember first meeting Chief Hope Uzodimma,as he was then known,at the lobby of the Hilton Hotel,then NICON-NOGA hotel,while I was in the company of Chief Greg Mbadiwe sometime in June or July 1999. Chief Mbadiwe had just been appointed as Ambassador to Congo Brazaville by President Olusegun Obasanjo and we had gone to see a fellow – I cannot quite remember who – at the hotel. The two – Greg and Hope – greeted each other “Onwa!!” (Chief Mbadiwe bears a chieftaincy tittle that goes by “Onwa”, just like Uzodimma). I can still remember that after congratulating Chief Mbadiwe, Uzodimma said to him “Unu Mewa Politics Ka Anyi Noro Na Business” ( Go ahead with politics but let people like us remain in business).
Two years later ,however, Chief Hope Uzodimma went into “Politics”, thanks to a few of his friends who kept telling him that money apart, he has the charisma to be a political leader. But before finally making up his mind, Chief Uzodimma flew a kite and he did it through me. One evening at his ikoyi, Lagos residence, he called me into his bedroom and gave me a certain some of money to go and print posters to announce his gubernatorial ambition for the 2003 general election. He cautioned that I must not let anyone else, including his close friends, who were always around him then ( no need to mention names), know of the plan until the posters were out in Owerri. He gave me two photographs of his to choose from but I collected both and the following morning, I went to Shomolu, the head quarters of printing in Lagos, for the printing of 500 copies of posters to announce that Chief Hope Uzodimma was going to run for the office of the governor of Imo state on the platform of the United Nigeria Democratic Party (UNDP) in the 2003 general election.
On his directive, I did not need to return to his house in ikoyi but to proceed straight to Owerri with the posters. So, on the very day the posters were printed – which was two days after I was given the assignment – I boarded a night bus to Owerri. On arrival the following morning, I gathered some boys and gave them the job of putting the posters out in all the nooks and crannies of Owerri. The following morning, the capital city of Imo state was awash with the posters: Hope Uzodimma for Governor! And it was well received by everyone who knew him.When the news of the posters filtered to his friends back in Lagos, they were stunned; and given that he never confided in them about the posters, some of them thought it was the handiwork of Fifth

Columnists. Up till this moment, one of them – names again withheld – still jokingly refers to me as “this criminal”, for the mere fact that I was able to execute that assignment in utter secrecy.
The above anecdote is not to score any point for my self but to underscore the fact that a fellow who more or less was talked into politics by others has today become a national political AGAFE (you can’t dribble through him). Even though Chief Uzodimma ran for that election without success, it has been a story of forward ever and backward never since then. Right now, I am searching for the contact of that former colleague of mine who made the poser over Senator Uzodimma earlier referenced to again say to him: You Were Right!
Last week, the news came that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had appointed His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma, the governor of Imo state, as “Renewed Hope Ambassador”. In this role, Governor Uzodimma will double as the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Outreach, Engagement and Mobilization. With the appointment, Governor Uzodimma is to galvanize the leadership of the party and other governors for “evangelizing the Tinubu administration’s programmes”. According to a press statement issued by the Presidency itself, Governor Uzodimma as Renewed Hope Ambassador will, in collaboration with other governors, “ensure harmony, inclusiveness and strategic coordination across all levels of the party… and disseminate the party’s achievements and mile stone since 2023…”
As expected, hundreds of individuals and groups across Nigeria have applauded this appointment of Governor Uzodimma by President Tinubu, pointing out that the choice is well made because of the proven track record of the governor. In trying to interrogate these records,however, three key areas stand out namely, “Harmony”, “Inclusiveness” and “Strategic coordination”, three areas in which Governor Uzodimma has shown an uncommon flair.
Some observers may be tempted to believe that this new assignment given to Governor Uzodimma is in acknowledgement of his efforts at highlighting the achievements of the APC through his recently released book, “A Decade Of Impactful Progressive Governance In Nigeria” but a lot more is involved. However, let us see how the book was received by other knowledgeable Nigerians.In a review of the book following its public presentation on October 12, 2025 in Owerri, a well-known commentator on public affairs, Prof. Okey Ikechukwu, noted that contrary to the practice when people write about themselves or their parties while still in office, Governor Uzodimma did not dwell on ego tripping, and did not put out materials that merely said nice things about his party. Instead, Ikechukwu wrote: “The examples and data supplied in the book are verifiable. The political insights and lessons presented are poignant…”
Still,Governor Uzodimma’s preeminence as a party man, state governor and Nigerian leader transcends the

publication of the book.Neither did it begin with his selection as chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum. Senator Uzodimma had earlier shown a tremendous flair for harmony, inclusiveness and strategic planning, the three key components of his new assignment. Although he has been widely acknowledged as one of the best performing governors in the area of infrastructure, he, unknown to many, has done even much better on the intangible especially in the area of consensus and capacity building and ability to navigate highly volatile political terrains effortlessly.
As in the aphorism that charity begins at home, Senator Uzodimma began with his state, Imo. For a fellow who took over office as governor without any records of what was where and without the benefits of undergoing a transition period as is statutorily provided, not a few wondered how he was going to start in the first place. Senator Uzodimma was sworn in as governor in less than twenty-four hours after the court had restored his stolen mandate. To compound the problem, he did not receive a hand over note from his immediate predecessor. As a matter of fact, Governor Uzodimma became the biggest victim of the serial absence of formal hand over that had bedeviled Imo state for more than three consecutive transition seasons. The last formal hand over in the state was in 2011 and the fellow who took over at that time was said to have ran the state without any records. Then, given the circumstances surrounding Uzodimma’s ascendence to office January 2020, the fellow who was supposed to hand over to him stayed put in Abuja after the Supreme Court ruling on January 14, 2020. In other words, Governor Uzodimma took over the administration of the Imo state without a record of how the state was administered for more than eight years.
Yet, he was immediately confronted with challenges that required had facts and figures to tackle. Take the matter of the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in less than a month after he assumed office but with no records of the state of health care facilities in the state before him . And unlike the other twenty-three or so newly elected governors who had received allocations from the federation account for at least a period of seven months, Uzodimma had barely gotten one month. Back home, the pandemic made it impossible to generate even one naira internally. How Governor Uzodimma grappled with the problem of saving over six million lives under the circumstances to the extent that Imo recorded one of the lowest cases of the contraction of the virus has continued to baffle observers up till this moment.
Then, of course, there was the challenge of unknown gun men who were cheered by opposition elements still under the pains of defeat. At the early stage of the Uzodimma administration, Imo was, in fact, labelled the headquarters of insecurity in the entire South-east, to the extent that it was not uncommon to hear some political leaders in the neighboring Anambra state say rather condescendingly: “Anambra Aburo Imo” (Anambra is not Imo). Today, the story is different. There are still some challenges but pundits can comfortably say: “ Imo Aburo Anambra” in more ways than one. Today ,a majority of the cheerers who had openly vowed to make the state “ungovernable” for Uzodimma have returned in droves to join him and his party, after realizing

that all their perfidious acts that were aimed at smoking him out for a fight through provocative utterances had failed. Even before he went for his reelection for a second term, the so-called opposition elements had capitulated and helped in populating the teeming voters that made him win the election quite overwhelmingly in all the twenty seven local government areas of the state. Is it a wonder, therefore, that under his watch as chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, nearly all the governors elected on the platform of other political parties have crossed over to the APC. In other words,President Tinubu knows what he is talking about when he appointed Senator Uzodimma as an Ambassador for matters that have to do with “Strategy “, “Coordination” , ” Harmony”, etc, etc.
Today in Imo state, the level of elite consensus is unprecedented. Governor Uzodimma, entirely on his own volition,created at least three platforms through which he regularly engages the people to give account of his stewardship . This is unlike in the recent past when one of his predecessors in office “retired” every political actor in the state in order to avoid being asked questions.Minus a few elements who are still grandstanding on building their own political fiefdoms, a good majority of members of the Imo political and business elite is with Governor Uzodimma and his party either as members or as supporters . His emergence as the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum was not a happenstance and it is not out of place to argue that those who gave him the nod for that job took cognizance of what was happening – and is still happening – in Imo state.
One of the numerous social media “Professors” who happens to be a native of Imo state made a cynical comment on this new appointment of Senator Uzodimma to the effect that as Renewed Hope Ambassador, he will be “accredited” to Imo state. This particular professor, known for his penchant to comment on every matter in the country, and which has led some observers to label him and a few others in that category as “jobless professors “, might have believed that he shot his arrow on target but he failed. The good people of Imo state are standing tall, sharing in the glory that a fellow like Uzodimma who today towers in national politics is from amongst them. And it is yet morning on creation day!