Hon Engr. Friday Umunnakwe Ibekaeme is a brave and daring politician whose grassroots engagement is legendary.Ibekaeme has for decades gathered enormous experience in grassroots political mobilization and coupled with his passion for delivering his party to victory in every election,he gained reputation for overseeing technical and electoral affairs of his party in Orsu Local Government Area in past elections.The most outstanding quality that makes it possible for Hon Engr Friday Ibekaeme to withstand the scorching heat of elections to deliver against odds is a combination of his daring mindset and bravety.No matter the pressure and threats that come with elections, Ibekaeme will confront the devil where and when necessary and pilot his party to victory.During the last 2023 general elections, and the off cycle governorship election that returned Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma for his second term of office as the Executive Governor of Imo State, Friday Ibekaeme was the monitor for Orsu APC.He was deemed worthy to deliver the ruling party and he did.It was a time Orsu was inaccessible because of insecurity and nobody was better equipped to handle the delicate assignment apart from the Orsu-Ihiteukwa born Engineer turned politician.At the peak of insecurity he led Orsu APC electoral machine and delivered the House of Representatives , Senatorial,House of Assembly, Presidential candidates and finally the Governor of the state in Orsu Local Government Area.
When he got rewarded with the position of the Sole Administrator of Orsu LGA, Ibekaeme was charged to provide the needed enabling environment for the conduct of the Local Government Council elections and he successfully did that amid bitting insecurity.It is on record that successive Council leaderships and staff fled the Council Area since the outbreak of insecurity in 2021.Successive Council Administrators abandoned the duty post as hoodlums occupied and terrorise the Council Area.The story changed with the appointment of Ibekaeme as the Sole Administrator.He initiated the return of Orsu indigenes who fled and scattered everywhere as refugees.And he did it by testing the ground himself.
Hon Engineer Friday Ibekaeme like the golden fish with no hiding place was figured out the second time and got rewarded again as the Executive Chairman of Orsu LGA.It was exceptional as he transited from the Sole Administrator to the Executive Chairman.It was a wise choice and a brilliant decision borne out of foresight to install a brave and courageous man that could confront and dare the ravaging and threatening insecurity and restore governance to Orsu homeland.On assumption of Office precisely in September 2024 as the Executive Chairman of Orsu Local Government Area,Hon Friday Ibekaeme addressed Orsu leaders and stakeholders and announced that he was set to relocate to Orsu and restore full-scale local government administration that would be carried out directly from the Orsu Local Government Council Headquarters Awo-idemili.He reiterated that no party meeting, official business of the Council will hold outside the Council Headquarters again under his watch.He urged staff , political leaders,party officials, Management, Councillors and traditional rulers to relocate and carry out their functions in the homeland.It is not in doubt that before his emergence,a commendable breakthrough had been recorded in the fight against insecurity by various groups like Odimma Orsu Initiative, the DSS, Armed Forces but those efforts could not translate to getting the people to buy into relocating and returning to start normal life at the homeland because of fear of the unknown.At that moment of fear and indecision, Ibekaeme stood up and proclaimed that he must return to do the Council business in Orsu and vowed never to transact or engage officially with anybody outside Orsu.Indeed, Ibekaeme returned to Orsu and others followed.The business of the Council took off in earnest within and inside the Council.
The courage to relocate to Orsu LGA for a new Council Administration was the greatest achievement of Hon Engr Friday Ibekaeme and the reason is because getting back to the homeland opened his eyes to the level of damage and devastation that befell the Council infrastructure, structures and services.If Ibekaeme had chosen to govern from Owerri as was the norm prior to his ascendancy, normal life wouldn’t have returned to Orsu by now.He shunned the status quo and jolted the leaders with his hard decision to return and restore business in the homeland.
On return to Orsu to restore and kick start a brand new Council Administration, Ibekaeme stepped into a deserted, fallowed and destroyed Council that was over grown and overtaken by weeds. He wept on his first official duty to the Council as the Executive Chairman.Ibekaeme was so emotional because the ruins that had become of the once bubbling and busy Council environment was disturbing.There was no functional office,no office infrastructure,no tables,no desks and nothing was left in the Council sacked and looted by bandits at the peak of insecurity.The Council buildings were razed down.Zincs, woods, ceilings, window glasses,doors of the buildings were burnt and carted away.Office furniture,files,cottons and everything in the offices and within the Council premises were either destroyed or taken way.Ibekaeme returned to inherit nothing than an abandoned,empty and destroyed Council Headquarters.His courage soared to high heaven and he saw the state of desolate, dislocation and despair as a challenge he must confront head-on to assert his leadership.Hon Ibekaeme engaged labourers from only God knows where to clear the ruins,weeds,shrubs and debris.The task was a tough one considering the fact that nobody was ready to follow him to Orsu to do the unthinkable.He brought bulldozers,graders,mowing machines and deployed operators and labourers to recover and sanitise the premises.In his vintage approach to doing things,he never assigned anybody without being physically present to supervise the work himself.After reclaiming,securing and recovering of the Council, Ibekaeme moved further to restore Orsu LGA Council business.As he mandated Council workers and stakeholders to resume work,he led by good example by ensuring promptness to duty and discharging his duties under tree shades, open and empty buildings. Then came the most decisive stage of the Council Administration when he took the bull by the horn to engage builders on direct labour to embark on the massive reconstruction of the Council buildings.For the first three months of his assumption of Office,Hon Engr Friday Ibekaeme turned the Council Headquarters to a construction site.Not a few wondered how he gathered the enormous resources being deployed to do the massive and total reconstruction work at the Council.Many thought there was special intervention fund for Orsu but that was not the case.The truth was that Orsu was treated equally with other Councils numbering 27 in the State.What others received was the same thing with Orsu but Orsu starting afresh and on a new slate engage it’s own fund with reconstruction works that saw all the burnt and blown building roofs re-roofed with aluminium long span roofs.After roofing came with total renovation of the buildings which involved refixing of hAlumaco windows,doors, ceilings and repainting of the structures.There were total of over twenty buildings that were reconstructed and renovated.
As the Council leadership concluded the reconstruction work, Ibekaeme braved the odds by engaging reputable Companies to provide office furniture and accessories.At the moment, Ibekaeme leadership has furnished the Council Halls and offices and the Council work is going on under a conducive, comfortable and peaceful working environment.Both the Council workers, Management, Councillors, traditional rulers conduct their official business in Orsu Local Government without fear of any type.It is interesting to note that these feats were recorded under difficult circumstances occasioned by hard decisions and determination.Ibekaeme did not do these unthinkable and unimaginable things without energizing the security architecture he met and reinforcing the operational bases and facilities.
To say that Ibekaeme stabilised Orsu and totally recovered it is not an overstatement.It was under his watch that additional operational security bases were localised and established at Autonomous Community levels with indigenous vigilante groups.It is on record that the Chairman initiated and implemented the idea of raising 20 man Vigilante squad station in each of the eleven political wards in Orsu as a quick response team that usually get deployed to move into places where soldiers conquered and dislodged bandits.This dislodge and occupy strategy was innovative and provide the last resort strategy that led to the total recovery and reclamation of Orsu.The effectiveness of this modus made it to be adopted and introduced in the remaining 26 Local Government Areas of the state.It could be recalled that at the high point of the fight against insecurity, the Council Chairman,Hon Ibekaeme usually move into Orsu with over twelve Hilux van with contingent of security personnel who usually accompany the Chairman on several occasions to the Council Area to secure our homeland and beef up the security presence.This contingent came on several occasions and as expensive as such security architecture,Hon Ibekaeme sustained such intervention despite how expensive it was.
Amid these daunting and insurmountable challenges that were surmounted by sheer courage and bravity lay the wisdom of making the wise decisions and choices.He received funds at the same level with his contemporaries despite the peculiarities of his Council Area,yet he chose to make judicious use of what he received.He knew the peculiarities of Orsu and went straight utilising the funds appropriately.Of particular note is the fact that Orsu depends solely on allocations as there has never been any form of internally generated revenue from any source in the Area because socioeconomic dislocation caused the protracted insecurity.This sordid circumstances never discouraged him from intensifying efforts to perform. Despite these feats and unthinkable achievements Ibekaeme was recently faced with impeachment threats from the 11 Councillors over allegations of official misconducts, corruption and amassing of wealth.That recent development has left many jolted and bewildered with much confusion. And the probing question is: How could a man who dared the devil to recover and reconstruct Orsu be subjected to this level of allegation to the point of being threatened with impeachment? It is rather intriguing and considering his massive impact and verifiable achievements,not a few individuals are of the view that Ibekaeme is a victim of the age-long Orsu pull him down syndrome that reared, roared and manifested in the erstwhile insecurity that ravaged the land.Orsu is not the only local government Area in Imo State or South East Nigeria but why did the Biafra insurgency and insecurity got so deeply localised there to the alarming proportion of total destruction of human lives, public and private infrastructure? It is arguably the culture of self destruction,envy, bitterness, jealousy and greed in the area that fertilised the ground for those evils to thrive.Despite Ibekaeme’s efforts, the only way some people deemed it better to thank him was to induce and deploy the innocent young Councillors as landmines to undermine and shut him down.What a world?
The pertinent question now should be: did Friday Ibekaeme perform as a Council Chairman ? If indeed Ibekaeme has performed while using the empirical evidence of the reconstruction and rehabilitation works that took place in the Council as a yardstick for the assessment,one would be prompted to ask why this impeachment threat?.why would anybody or group of persons work behind the scene to undermine his efforts and seek for his removal? What is obviously playing out in Orsu is outright politics and nothing more.That has been the formula in Orsu! The past Executive Chairmen faced similar blackmail and armtwisting.The first Executive Chairman, Chief Val Mbamala faced impeachment harassment between 1992/93.Hon Charles Okeke was harassed and got it tougher as he was threatened with impeachment and detained for over six months because of Orsu bitter politics. Hon Ndubuisu Okonkwo who was installed during Rochas time faced similar threats and harassment and came out stronger.The present threat is a rehearsal and will definitely fizzle out because the whole thing is tied to dirty and bitter politics. The Councillors are unknowingly making themselves available as tools to destabilise and bring down the Chairman at the peak of his achievements.They have been there with him in the last two years without disagreement or ranchor and suddenly as their tenure remains one month to elapse,a litany of allegations of misconduct and corruption was rolled out? It is obviously suspicious and all the Councillors are suspects! Who sent them on this errand? Whose bidding is being executed? There is no doubt that in the circumstances the Chairman found himself as a performer whose performance has dazzled and dumbfounded all and sundry, those who benefited from the insecurity which his bravery has nipped are spoiling for war and after him.Also those who shared the Council money with his predecessors that administered the Council from Owerri at the heat of the insecurity may be infuriated that he is judiciously deploying the funds without sharing it with them.Ibekaeme is undoubtedly a victim of naked political intrigue and opportunistic tendencies.Those demanding for Ibekaeme’s removal should account for monies they received during insecurity to put structures
against insecurity which they never did.They reaped off Orsu and used the lingered insecurity as a conduit to siphon public funds.
Ibekaeme’s offense is refusing to share money instead of the reconstruction he engaged in.As courageous and bravery as he is, Friday Ibekaeme shunned mundane things associated with frolicking and sharing of public funds and stuck his neck deeply into working for the restoration, recovery and reconstruction of Orsu.Orsu was in ruins when he came but today it is working.The markets, Schools, Churches, political parties,Shops, recreation Centres, Hotels, Restaurants and normal socioeconomic activities are in full swing.Orsu has roared back to life simply because a courageous,brave and daring political leader is on throne.Those calling for Ibekaeme’s removal are merely looking for excuses to distract him.The Governor of Imo State is obviously a wise leader who knows the interpretation of different drums when they are they beaten.He knows the sound of drum of calumny and the drum of envy when they are being beating.The drum they just beat which is hitting up the political space of Orsu and Imo State is that of envy,hate,greed and misinformation.Those behind it know themselves and nobody will bulge to their machinations.
