Campaign Promises, Blowing Hot Air

During election campaigns, the extremely unpopular candidates are more likely to blow hot air and use populist rhetoric in a gamble to have at least some chance of winning. What they say and what they do have no real significance or substance but mainly to impress.

There is a dubious aspect of the opposition campaign in Imo State which is to encourage and even inflame the citizens to turn against the government and as we approach the November 11th governorship election in Imo State, sober reasoning should be the watchword for the voters.

The opposition is making too many romantic and unrealistic promises which are mere rhetoric, of course, not reality. They are pressing emotional buttons to try and hypnotize voters. Even so, it appears most voters already have decided: They’re voting for Governor Hope Uzodimma and nobody else and any statement to the contrary only hardens their position.

Now take the issue of insecurity as an illustration. The more the opposition latches on to this very issue by politicising it, the more resentful the citizens become against them. Innocent Imo citizens have expressed their surprise as to why the opposition is stoking the fire of insecurity at a time like this.

A lecturer at a tertiary institution in Owerri recently in conversation rolled his eyes at the rhetoric around insecurity. He said that most voters and even their undergraduate students have made up their minds to return the incumbent governor to office. First, the Governor has fought hard against this very insecurity. Second, they’ve seen how well he has worked on infrastructure and human capital development.

Another empty and pretentious talk by the opposition candidates is about job creation. This idea of creating jobs solely by the government employing more civil servants is at best simplistic and does not address the fundamentals.

Here again, Governor Uzodimma is miles ahead. His policies and programmes aim to address unemployment through
public investment, typically in infrastructure development and building institutional and human capacity to provide productive and decent work that has an economic impact.

Adequate infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth and development,
and the booming construction industry in Imo State has great employment absorption potential.

Apart from that, the Governor is tackling unemployment by
investing in knowledge development, and capacity building through the Skill-Up Imo digital skills training project which has already empowered 5,000 youths with digital skills and toolkits to engage in entrepreneurship, while a second batch of 15,000 youths are presently undergoing training.

The November election in Imo State provides very tiny windows for the opposition to squeeze through. It’s an uphill task for them, not only because of the sterling performance of the Governor but also through their lacklustre performance , which remains unconvincing and uninspiring.