Sen. Frank Ibezim: Imo North and race against time.

A refined journalist, Tony Iwuoma has this view to share on the state of Okigwe zone and representation. 

When great things are about to happen, the devil always resists them. That is why the darkest hour comes before dawn. Nevertheless, no hand is big enough to cover the sun, and so the dawn berths, splashing its light over the earth regardless of the antics of the devil.

Such was the case with Imo North over a year ago when the jostle for who would replace the late Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, representing Imo North in Nigeria’s Senate, began.

The announcement of a by-election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stirred a fierce and bitter contest among contenders right from the party primaries. Eventually, three frontline gladiators emerged in the persons of Chief Emmanuel Okewulonu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, and the eventual winner, Distinguished Senator Chukwuma Frank Ibezim, both of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Obviously because the devil was determined to keep Imo North down, it laid brambles and thorns on the way of Ibezim’s emergence. Terrible and damning lies were concocted to stop him, including an avalanche of court cases. Some court decisions also left a sour taste and brought the nation’s judiciary into doubt and opprobrium.

The most vicious of the allegations was that Ibezim was a certificate forger. The sinister contrivance was crafted with so much wickedness and could have truncated Ibezim’s political career, considering the gravity of the offence of perjury, as alleged.

Sadly, he was found guilty of forging his Ordinary Level certificate. What baffled most was that the court gave its weird ruling without even the accusers calling the owners of the assumed forged certificates, in this case the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Uboma Secondary School, Ikperejere, Etiti, Imo State, as witnesses to confirm whether the certificates were truly theirs or forged. Moreover, names could no longer be abbreviated and so, deriving Frank from Francis, despite the consistency of the names on the certificates amounted to forgery. What a country, where anything and everything is possible!

Thankfully, truth prevailed and the Supreme Court proved that there is yet hope for our judiciary, on Friday, April 16, 2021, it affirmed Ibezim as the authentic candidate of the APC, the winning party in last year’s the December 5 by-election and, consequently, he was issued with his certificate of return by INEC.

One of Ibezim’s counsel, Dr. Chris Nwadigo, inferred that Ibezim’s triumph marked him out as a divine project. The new dawn in Imo North, also called Okigwe Zone, holds promise that it would rubbish the intractable infrastructural deficit in the zone. How prophetic!

Before now, Imo North was in the boondocks, forlorn, forsaken and rundown. Of the three zones that make up Imo State, it is the least developed. So, Ibezim inherited a zone that was bereft and forlorn. His predecessor, Uwajumogu, himself was encumbered by a litany of court cases and, after his death, it took a year and five months before Ibezim could take over, by which time the 2021 budget had been concluded without input from Imo North.

However, not to be discouraged, Ibezim went full blast towards bringing hope to his constituency. He was appointed to some committee positions through which he has been able to secure some lifeline achievements and dividends for the zone.

The first statement Ibezim made, after he was sworn in as a senator of the Ninth National Assembly, was that the only solution to insecurity is to engage the teeming unemployed youths with gainful employment, and he has been unrelenting in this area.

He quickly inaugurated constituency offices across the zone and employed people to run them. Apart from some empowerment packages, no fewer than 300 persons have so far secured employment in Federal Government establishments through Ibezim’s office.

The list of his achievements is endless. He has sponsored bills and moved motions; secured several major Federal Government interventions, such as the N30,000 Survival Funds from the Bank of Industry from which no fewer than 400 persons of Imo North benefitted; N60,000 Special Public Works Programme, with no fewer than 300 beneficiaries; N500,000 COVID-19 Relief Loan, with over 200 beneficiaries; N60,000 Job Security Stipends and N100,000 National Directorate of Employment loan, targeting more than 600 persons.

In all, over 1,000 Imo North constituents have benefitted from these intervention programmes, which have alleviated the pains and boosted the economy of many households, families and communities in the zone. There have also been digital training sessions for youths, who are to receive work tools and take-off capital after their training.

Ibezim’s love for foundation education was made manifest in his Classroom Libraries Project in primary schools in the country, using at least 18 primary schools in Imo North as pilots. He has also motivated teachers through cash awards to elicit their commitment and passion for this project.

A lover of sports, the Anglican knight and former Imo commissioner for agriculture and natural resources also promoted Okigwe youths and their football team to participate in a competition in Enugu.

Five youths from each local government, culminating in a total of 30 beneficiaries, also emerged as participants in the senator’s cinematography academy programme. The programme is targeted at training individuals to become experts in videography, documentary photography, video and picture editing and, ultimately, empowering a total of 300 youths from the zone (50 from each LGA).

Senator Ibezim’s humane side was exhibited during the flooding disaster in some parts of Imo North, especially Amauzari, in Isiala Mbano LGA. He did not only rush to the scene to sympathise with the people but also promised to mobilise help towards tackling environmental degradation in his constituency. A man of his word, Ibezim promptly wrote to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and followed up with a visit to the NEMA director-general, Ahmed Mustapha Habib, to solicit relief for the victims of the flooding that caused havoc to most businesses in Imo North. Habib, who commiserated with the communities affected, mobilsed immediate assessment of the damage for remedial action and relief extended to the victims; and promised a permanent measure to forestall future flooding, in next year’s budget, as this year’s capital budget is almost exhausted.

In the same vein, the yearly flooding challenge around Isinweke-Lowa, Ihitte Uboma LGA of Imo North Senatorial District, is being tackled permanently.

Only last month, a six-day medical outreach was carried out across the constituency during which all manner of sicknesses were diagnosed and treated.

The icing on the cake of Ibezim’s landmark one year as a senator is, perhaps, what he is doing in the power sector.

The lawmaker hit the bull’s eye when he attracted a power transmission substation to his constituency. Actually, the power station had been approved for construction alongside Port Harcourt, Aba, Umuahia and Enugu, respectively by the Federal Ministry of Power in 2003. However, while others were built, Okigwe was abandoned but curiously, none of the senators preceding Ibezim considered it necessary to pursue it but not Ibezim. He moved a motion on the urgent need to construct the Power Transmission Substation in Okigwe LGA for rapid industrial growth and drew the attention of the senate to the anomalous situation in Okigwe, headquarters of Imo North Senatorial District. He urged the Federal Ministry of Power to urgently construct the already approved but abandoned Okigwe 132/33KVA transmission substation as well as to upgrade the Okigwe power facility to a district station. The quest was successful and, consequently, three projects were approved for the area and are at an advanced stage of construction.

Additionally, the senator has installed solar panels in some parts of the constituency and donated transformers to others in order to improve the power supply in those areas.

These projects for the hitherto beleaguered area that had suffered great darkness and stunted general development, thereby leading to avoidable criminal activities, unemployment and youth restiveness in the town, are already having a positive turnaround in the area, as economic activities are bubbling.

Indeed, Distinguished Senator Frank Ibezim, has lived up to his promise that he is in a hurry to develop Imo North. In this race against time, Ibezim has put Imo North on a trajectory to recover lost grounds and could do without distraction from embittered politicians. Surely, it is evident that glory is unfurling in Imo North.