Imo needs Araraume now

There is no doubt that another cross roads, when Imo citizens would have to take a critical decision that would either make or them, is around the corner. Since the enthronement of democracy in 1999, Imo
has suffered ups and downs owing to the decisions taken by the electorates in the election. Maybe, this is why that of 2019 is most crucial because issues which had never arisen in the polity are now starring the people in the face.
Looking at the unfolding drama in the political hemisphere of the state, one would like conclude that Imo people have become wiser and shrewder with their time and their votes in both the polls of February and March. But by far more important to the people is the governorship election scheduled to hold March 2, because the next occupant of the famed Douglas House, would play a pivotal role in aking or marring them and the future of their generations.
Borrowing from hindsight, it is said that when a man marries two wives, he can better chose which is better of the two. Having seen administrations from the Governorship of Chief Achike Udenwa from 1999 to 2007, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim from 2007 to 2011 and Owelle Rochas Okorocha from 2011 expiring in 2019, one can confidently declare that the both the electorate and non electorates were better placed to assess them critically.
The critical analyses by the electorates would play a big role in defining what the action of the people would be next and how these events by the preceding and incumbent administrations would inform the
way forward. This is because the heads of the former and incumbent administrations are either running in the race or seeking to install themselves by proxy.
However, of the three previous governments, none has endeared so much talk, tongue wagging, hissing, and name calling like the present administration. It is the administration where pensioners have had reasons to cry out the most, it is the administration where the civil service seemed to have been turned to the right, to the left and back to the right again, making them look like nincompoops, it is the administration where traders have been chased to this place, to that place and back to the same spot without reasons, it is the administration where many have complained of their lands been grabbed
without adequate compensation, it is the administration where agreements between stakeholders in the state have largely been sent into the dustbins, where contractual agreements have been torn to
shreds and the affected contractors living in squalor and penury, it is the administration where Imo students are said to be enjoying free education, but have had to suffer quota in order to offer admissions to those who will foot the bill.
From the discussions by pundits and political analysts in the state, what the electorates are going to be looking out for in the March 2, 2019 governorship election is no more the political party, but the
candidates and their pedigree. Of course, this is germane to having a well grounded personality to pilot the affairs of the state, bring her out of the doldrums and wash off her tattered clothings and present
her to the rest of the comity of state as a beautiful bride ready to take her rightful place in the gathering of people.
In the past, outsiders had largely affected the desires of the people of the state in electing the person they want. It is either, these hired mercenaries are brought in to tell the people ‘your people say
you dey do like this’ a situation that clearly robbed Imo people of the opportunity to test a brilliant and highly accessible individual, impeccably in family and private. Had the night travelers that meant
no good for the upliftment of the state not bared their fangs because they were in a position to do so, perhaps the story of Imo would have been entirely different from what it is today.
But the then candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Sen. Ifeanyichukwu Godwin Araraume, who won the primary against all the hiccups put out in the way to stop him including being declared by the
Supreme Court as candidate of the party, was denied by the man and the people that swore on oath to defend and protect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since them Imo has never been the same, neither the people, nor the spirits have had peace. Today, he has presented himself again under the banner of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA as the governorship candidate.
The time has come to right the wrongs done to an innocent man, who neither offended man nor the gods, but whose only sin was that he dared and dares to stand on the truth and uphold the truth all the
time. Throughout his dealings with the political class prior to the 2007 general elections, he had been seen as a team player, one who holds his grounds irrespective of whose ox is gored, a man who will
never speak out against any man, even when he was the one been maligned, a man who upholds agreements and never breached any, a man who was ready to go the extra mile to defend his own.
To say that Imo people hate Sen. Ifeanyichukwu Godwin Araraume is to put truth on its head and those who had swept truth under the rug and who had orchestrated the downturn of economic prosperity of Imo for their selfish purpose have largely enjoyed the large dose of the venom of the locust unleashed on the state in the hand of the present government. The saddest part is that where the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
It is time for the electorate to refuse those who sweet talked them into taking wrong steps in the past to rear their heads again because they had failed in the past and would fail again and plunge the state
further down the precipice. It is time for the discerning people of the state to retrace their steps back to 2007, when they freely and joyously gave their mandate to a man they trusted and still trust, the
man they loved and still love and begin their journey to economic and social recovery from there. There is nothing wrong in admitting that a mistake had been made and to correct the mistake and move forward. The time to act is now because tomorrow might be too late.