By Prof. Nathan Protus Uzorma
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King Jr. spoke those words in the furnace of the American civil rights struggle, yet they fit Imo State like a tailored agbada. Governor Hope Uzodimma did not inherit a state at ease. He walked into Douglas House in January 2020 to meet institutional decay that had become normal, a security architecture that was uncomfortable to us all, and a treasury so stressed that salaries were sometimes a matter of prayer rather than payroll. That is the challenge and controversy King described. Six years later, the honest question for Ndi Imo is not whether we have a perfect government, because no democracy on earth has ever produced one, but whether we have a government that meets the minimum duty of putting food on the table, opening roads to market, keeping children in school, and giving people the right to sleep with two eyes closed. On that test, the record shows that Governor Hope is trying, and the evidence is no longer abstract.
Government is of two kinds, and we must separate them if we are to judge fairly. Divine government is the government of peace without rancour, where justice runs like a river and provision falls like manna. Only Heaven runs that one. What men run is democracy, which is human government with all its flaws, quarrels, and corrections. To demand angelic perfection from democracy is to set up ourselves for permanent disappointment. What we can demand, and must demand, is accountability, visible progress, and effort that matches the resources available. When you place the Uzodimma administration against that yardstick, the picture that emerges is of a government that has not solved every problem but has attacked the biggest ones head-on. The man did not come to make excuses about how bad the past was. He came to put asphalt on the ground, drugs in the health centers, and teachers back in the classrooms, and the state is different because of it.
Infrastructure is where the administration’s footprint is most obvious, and roads tell the story better than any press release. The claim is over 120 major roads constructed and reconstructed, and the three signatures are the Owerri-Orlu Road, Owerri-Okigwe Road, and Owerri-Mbaise-Obowo-Umuahia Road, all dualized and linking Imo to her four South East neighbors. The Governor’s own words were blunt: “I’ve done more roads than Udenwa, Ohakim, Okorocha, Ihedioha combined.” That is a political statement, but the kilometers are not political. Beyond the trunk roads, 135km of rural roads were approved, 5km in each of the 27 LGAs, so that prosperity is not only spoken of in Owerri. Legacy works like the Assumpta Twin Flyover, commissioned by President Tinubu in September 2025, finally broke the traffic deadlock that made Wetheral and Bank Road a daily penance for motorists. Across the three senatorial zones, completed roads exceed 190km with another 375.80km ongoing. The economic meaning is simple: when you can move yam from Ngor Okpala to Onitsha without breaking an axle, or take a patient from Oguta to IMSUTH in 40 minutes instead of 3 hours, you have already improved lives.
Those roads mean little if the people using them are sick, and this is where the health record becomes important. The administration met an Imo State University Teaching Hospital that had lost accreditation and morale. Today IMSUTH has been recovered, 305 primary health centers have been rehabilitated, and general hospitals are being re-equipped. The Imo Health Insurance Scheme was set up to give residents free medical care, and while coverage is still above 3% of the population, the structure now exists where none existed before. Maternal mortality has reportedly fallen because of targeted programmes that enabled thousands of safe deliveries, including caesarean sections that once meant referral to Enugu or a death sentence. Three nursing schools regained full accreditation, meaning Imo can now train her own nurses again instead of exporting her children to other states. Add the Light Up Imo Project that is putting power into medical facilities, and you see a health system moving from decay to delivery. It is not yet Switzerland, but it is no longer the emergency ward it was in 2020.
Education is the soul of Ndigbo, and here the numbers are the most interesting because they are external and verifiable. In NECO 2024, Imo came 2nd nationally with 80.98% of candidates scoring 5 credits including English and Mathematics. Only Abia did better at 83.4%. That means Imo beat Ebonyi at 80.55%, Anambra at 70.79%, and every other South East state. In WAEC 2021, Imo posted an 86% pass rate, same as Abia and far above the national average of 74%. Literacy data shows Imo tops Nigeria in women literacy at 83.5% for ages 15-24, the very age group that determines whether the next generation is raised by educated mothers. In higher education, Imo now funds five state universities and polytechnics and hosts three federal institutions, with President Tinubu approving a N30bn take-off grant for the new Federal University, Okigwe. On objective metrics, Imo is first or second in the South East and top 3 nationally. The SkillUp Imo programme has trained 40,000 youths in digital skills with startup capital, which is why Owerri is quietly becoming a tech talent pool. The area for improvement is obvious: 80.98% is not 100%, and 3% insurance coverage is not universal. Rural schools still need laboratories and teachers who show up on Monday, not just on payday.
Security is the issue that almost swallowed Imo between 2021 and 2022, when “unknown gunmen” made nights long and markets empty. The narrative has changed. In July 2025 Governor Uzodimma told Imo citizens in America that “there is improved security in the state contrary to what was obtainable at the inception of his administration.” In January 2026 the Imo Police Commissioner confirmed that peace and security have improved, with 25 suspects arrested in one month and displaced persons returning to Orsu. Nightlife has returned to Owerri, hotels are full again, and the hospitality industry is breathing. The Heartland Resort Park along Nworie River, opened December 2025, was framed as “our reclaimed right to peace,” and that is not political poetry. When families can sit by the river on a Sunday evening, peace has returned. Vigilante networks have been recruited and equipped in all communities to support the police and army. Still, we must be honest: Imo is safer than 2021 but not the safest in Nigeria at the moment.
Fiscal discipline is where the administration has surprised even critics, because Nigerian states rarely reduce debt. Governor Uzodimma announced that Imo’s debt profile fell from N259bn in 2020 to N99bn in 2025, a 60% reduction. IGR rose 500% from N400m monthly in 2020 to nearly N4bn in 2025. Independent DMO data put Imo’s domestic debt at N155.38bn as of Q3 2024, down N3.8bn from the previous quarter, and the Governor’s June 2025 address cited a 23% reduction from N126bn to N97bn. The trend, not the exact decimal, is what matters. Less debt servicing means more money for salaries, pensions, and capital projects. Minimum wage was raised from N70,000 to N104,000 in August 2025, the most audacious by any state, and N16bn in gratuity arrears was released to pensioners who had given up. As the Governor put it, “This gives us the fiscal breathing room to invest in infrastructure and services.” Among South East peers, Imo’s debt is still highest compared to Anambra’s N88.3bn, so the job is not finished. But the direction is downward, and in Nigerian public finance, direction is destiny. That Imo can now be called “first in domestic debt reduction” is an added advantage no other state can currently claim.
With 2027 approaching, the question of succession is already in the air, and it is a legitimate one. Governor Uzodimma has said 2025–2026 will set Imo “on an irreversible path of economic growth.” If debt stays down, roads stay maintained, schools stay funded, and peace remains non-negotiable, then that path becomes truly irreversible. But legacies are secured by succession. Imo people are watching to see the kind of person he will back, because they want somebody who will continue from where he stopped, not somebody who will come to rename projects and abandon them. The next governor must keep debt low, keep the health insurance enrollments rising, keep the NECO and WAEC scores up, and keep the security gains from slipping. If that happens, then Uzodimma’s place in history is secure regardless of party or quarrel.
So, is Governor Hope trying? The evidence says yes. You do not get 120+ roads by accident. You do not rehabilitate 305 health centers by press statement. You do not come 2nd in NECO nationwide, 1st in women literacy, and cut debt by 60% by luck. You do not raise IGR 500% and minimum wage to N104,000 by wishing. These are policy choices backed by cash and political will. At the same time, he is not running a perfect government, because democracy is human and not divine. The minimum performance that brings food to the table, opens the roads to market, puts children in school, and clears the debt burden is being met, and in several cases exceeded. That is the definition of good governance in a developing society. It is not the end of the work. It is the beginning of accountability.
Critics will always have something to say, and that is the beauty of democracy. The difference now is that they will have to argue with facts, not just feelings. On roads, schools, health, security, and debt, the facts currently favour the Governor. When you walk on the smooth stretch of Owerri-Orlu Road, when a woman in Ezinihitte delivers safely because the health centre has power and drugs, when a boy in Okigwe checks his NECO result and sees five credits, when a pensioner gets an alert for gratuity owed since 2010, and when you can drive from Control to Toronto Junction at 9pm without looking over your shoulder, you are experiencing governance. It may not be divine, but it is democratic, and it is working.
The administration has taken Imo from a state where basic functions were in doubt to a state where the argument is now about the quality of the functions, not their existence. That is progress. In 2020 we were asking, “Will they pay salaries?” In 2026 we are asking, “Can they maintain the roads?” That shift in the question is the clearest proof that things have moved. Good governance is not a destination you arrive at and announce. It is a daily effort to make the state slightly better than it was yesterday. By that standard, Imo is working.
And so we return to King’s quote. The measure of a man is where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. Uzodimma stood in a burning house and chose to fight the fire instead of explaining the smoke. He met a state where unknown gunmen wrote the news, and today Imo people are writing their own story again. He met a treasury that borrowed to pay salaries, and today it is paying down debt while raising wages. He met schools that were symbols of decay, and today they are producing the 2nd best NECO results in Nigeria. Challenge came, controversy followed, and he stood. That is the record.
Democracy gives us the right to demand more, and it gives the Governor the duty to deliver more. On the evidence of 2020 to 2026, the duty is being discharged with effort that is visible and measurable. That is why the phrase “Imo is working” is no longer propaganda. In the end, history will not remember the speeches. It will remember whether a child in Umuna can go to a school that works, whether a mother in Mbieri can deliver in a hospital that has light, whether a trader in Afor Ogbe can move goods on a road that does not break his truck, and whether a retiree in Ikeduru can get his gratuity before he dies. On those four tests, Imo under Hope Uzodimma is scoring better than she did six years ago. That is good governance. So when we ask, “Is Governor Hope trying?” we are really asking whether the state is better than he met it. The roads say yes. The schools say yes. The hospitals say yes. The debt book says yes. The night life says yes. The critics will say “not yet,” and they are right too, because democracy is a continuous argument. But “not yet” is different from “not at all.” Imo is no longer at “not at all.”
And so the conversation shifts. It is no longer “Can anything good come out of Imo?” It is now “How do we keep this good thing going, and make it better?” That shift is the dividend of democracy. That shift is why, for the first time in a long time, Imo people can argue about the future instead of lamenting the past. That shift is good governance. Governor Hope Uzodimma came in at a time of challenge and controversy. He chose to stand, and to build. The buildings are not perfect. But they are standing. The roads are not all done. But they are being done. The debts are not all gone. But they are going down. The guns are not all silent. But they are quieter. That is the record. That is the assessment. And on that record, the answer to the question on the lips of Ndi Imo is simple: Yes, Governor Hope is trying. And Imo is working. And that is good governance!