A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State, Engr. Chima Akuzie, has commended the performance of Governor Hope Uzodimma in office so far.
Akuzie, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Mobilization, Okigwe zone, said Uzodinma’s first year performance was a testimony to the great things to expect from the governor.
To buttress his assertion, Akuzie pointed to the numerous projects concluded and launched by the administration in its first year of office.
One of such critical projects that Akuzie is excited about is the Chukwuma Nwoha Road, Owerri, which stretches from IMSU rear gate, crossing MCC Road, down to Mbaise Road. This long stretch of dual carriageway had been abandoned for nearly one decade.
Akuzie said: “In fact, everyone in Owerri knew that erosion cut the road in two while weed over-grew this major road about five years previously, making it impassable.
“While past governors were complaining and trading blames, Uzodimma faced the task headlong immediately he came to office and, in less than one year, he has rebuilt the road. We all saw the work when it was going on. You don’t need to be an engineer to notice the massive and complex engineering work necessary to remake the road.
“We all know that the whole area is prone to flood. In fact, that is the reason such an important road was abandoned in the first place, flooding and erosion damaged a portion of it and rendered it unmotorable. The road was thus abandoned and bush covered it completely. That was the story of this road before Uzodimma became governor.”
There is another interesting story to the road: Chukwuma Nwoha was among the Golden Eaglets squad that won the inaugural 1985 FIFA U-16 World Championship in China.
The road was named after Chukwuma Nwoha, the only Imo indigene in that squad that performed that historic feat. That is the history of the dual carriageway.
“You can now see that, as an engineer and a footballer, I am particularly interested in this road. Owerri people know that this road and, indeed, this area is peculiar for its violent flooding and erosion. The entire area is on a flood plain starting from around Dick Tiger Street and even some parts of MCC Road. All these roads were overtaken by flood and abandoned. But Uzodimma has reclaimed the entire area. He has rebuilt the roads with gigantic drainage system, which goes underground across Mbaise Road. This is the engineering aspect,” Akuzie said.
On the football side, he explained that he has played football almost all his life and owns a full-scale amateur football club in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Akuzie said, apart from these roads, there were also the refurbishment and dualisation of Port Harcourt Road, a federal road, and the total remake of World Bank Road, right into Umuguma.
He also pointed to the on-going repair and dualisation of Owerri-Orlu and Owerri-Okigwe roads.
“As we all know, these are two federal roads, which connect the three zones of the state, but they are in very poor conditions.
“People do not quite understand the import of this two major projects. Now, Owerri to Okigwe via Okwelle is 58.1 kilometers. Dualising this road from Orji to Okigwe is no mean feat. By the same token, Owerri to Orlu via Orlu Road is 37 kilometres. The road was shoddily done by the previous administration, so it had to be complete- ly overhauled now,” he said.
Akuzie added that he had known Uzodimma long before he became governor, saying: “I know him as a focused and result-oriented man. Many people don’t know this aspect of him.
“Now, let me tell you one exclusive story many people don’t know or have forgotten about Uzodimma and that is the fact that it was during his tenure as Senate Committee Chairman on Aviation that the massive transformation of all the airports in Nigeria took place.
“Uzodimma didn’t only make sure that Aviation Ministry’s budgets were approved, he gave full support to the then minister, Princess Stella Oduah, to break through bottlenecks and deliver huge makeover on all Nigeria’s airports.
“That is the kind of person Uzodimma is and the kind of transformational impact he can make in Imo State.”
