@50: Ex-Imo Assembly speaker, Offor assesses progress of the state since creation

The leading gubernatorial aspirant in imo state and former speaker of the state house of assembly, Rt. Hon Chinedu Offor, has evaluated the efforts of imo to attain greatness after its creation in 1976 by the then military government of General Murtala Mohammed.

Speaking on Wednesday, on the backdrops of the recent 50th golden jubilee celebration of the creation of imo state held in owerri, Hon. Offor noted that imo has not yet attain its full potential and regretted the poor level of infrastructural development in the state in the last fifty years.

He noted also that despite the efforts and solid foundation laid by the successive administrations in the state, imo lags backward in infrastructural development in Nigeria.

According to him, enough works needs to be done by elected leaders to rescue the state from arrested development.

“I am disappointed at the level of infrastructural development in imo in last fifty years, despite the giant developmental strides recorded by Governor Hope Uzodinma-led administration in the state. Imo is a state of chartered expectations.

“There’s no reason why the state should be poor at the level that it is. Imo is an oil producing state. It has abundant human resources, and should even be better than lagos. Because, we have everything that it requires to become a great state. But we are not able to do that because of poor leadership,”The ex-speaker stated.

While identifying leadership failure as the bane of imo underdevelopment, Honorable Offor assured to engender meaningful infrastructural projects aimed at turning Imo a multi-city state if given support to emerge the governor of the state next year.

“I’m sure you know that i am running the coming imo governorship seat in 2027. I want to be the Governor of imo state. So, it’s people like us who have been around, and people like us who have gone around, who knows what it takes to take imo to the next level.

“For instance, if i become the Governor of Imo state, i will turn imo a multi-city state. Let me explain what I mean by that. For fifty years, owerri is the only city in imo state. Owerri is not even a full-fledged city, it is a half city in terms of infrastructure. Each of the twenty-seven local government areas will be a city. I will turn imo into a multi-city state unlike what it is now, a unilateral one city state. We can do better than that,”He added.

Continuing, he said “I think, fifty years, yes, there is something to be proud of, but there is still a lot more to be done. Imo has not attained its full potential. Imo needs to go higher and further. And i’m the best person to take imo to the next level”.