By Collins Opurozor
Through his words and deeds, a leader should promote an honest and virtuous life. It is abhorrent for the opposite to obtain. In short, society itself is in danger, and widespread social vices will be the outcome, when leaders take to perfidy. The words and deeds of a leader matters.
Last night, Chief Hope Uzodinma appeared on Channels Television to peddle some demeaning lies against himself. He was asked to explain how the insecurity in Imo might be addressed, and, out of lack of what to say, he suddenly derailed and began to talk about the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) of the State.
According to him, what he met when the Supreme Court brought him to Imo was an IGR profile that was below N400 million. He however said he has been working so hard to increase it.
The first conclusion to be drawn from this fallacious claim by Uzodinma is that Imo’s commonwealth is being funneled away from the treasury by Uzodinma and his allies, hence the underreporting of the IGR. Uzodinma accidentally became Imo’s helmsman in mid-January 2020, and in the preceding month of December 2019, the IGR declared by the Ihedioha Administration stood at N1.1 billion, which was made up of N988,314,351 from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and N143,411,750 from Imo State University (IMSU), and N53,019, 370 from Motor Licensing Administration.
When the PDP took the reins of authority in May 2019, the IGR of Imo State was a paltry N253 million. But by plugging revenue loopholes, winning investor confidence, combating public sector corruption and implementing the global best practices in financial administration, the PDP under the stewardship of Ihedioha grew the IGR of the State by almost twelve times within six months. This and other things were what Uzodinma saw when he came that made him to vow to continue with the template of his predecessor. It is unfortunate that today the State has been run aground, and the resources of Imo people frittered away, and the governor finally adopted lying as both an article of faith and a state policy. Imo shall prevail at last!
