By Obinna Ndukwe
On 4 August, Imo State marks more than a birthday. It marks a moment to ask a hard question: what happened to Ohakim’s blueprint for development?
Happy 69th birthday to His Excellency, Dr Ikedi Godson Ohakim, GSSI.
History forgets most politicians. It remembers the few who dared to design systems rather than chase isolated projects, and that distinction is precisely why Ohakim’s blueprint is still discussed today. Dr Ikedi Ohakim was one of them, and Ohakim’s blueprint for Imo State remains a reference point for what focused governance can achieve.
Three months after taking office, on 10 August 2007, Ohakim did what many considered impossible. He launched the Clean and Green Initiative, a statewide campaign against dirt and disorder rather than a one off photo opportunity. ENTRACO was mobilised and citizens were engaged across the state.
Within twelve months, open defecation was eradicated. Over five million trees were planted, and paspalum grass covered roads and roundabouts throughout Imo. For four years, the state stayed clean all day, every month, all year round.
The effort did not go unnoticed. Imo was voted the cleanest state in Nigeria in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and in 2010 Dr Ohakim was named National Environmental Icon. It proved that government could move quickly when the will existed, a core principle behind Ohakim’s blueprint.
Ohakim understood a truth Imo keeps forgetting: a project ends, but an institution sustains. This thinking shaped the Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency, known as IROMA, which maintained six thousand kilometres of rural roads with equipment and personnel stationed in every local government area. Its goal was simple: connect farmers to markets, children to schools, and villages to opportunity all day, every week, all year. The programme worked so well that the World Bank gave it formal recognition.
Security formed another pillar of Ohakim’s blueprint. Operation Festival Security System linked thirty two police formations through improved technology, mobility and specialised training. Crime dropped, public confidence returned, and even the presidency acknowledged the results.
Agencies such as ISIPA, ENTRACO, ISPDC and ISOPADEC were each created with one mandate: to keep Imo functioning beyond a single administration. That was the essence of Ohakim’s blueprint, building institutions rather than monuments.
Because of those systems, a farmer in Njaba could reach the market before his harvest spoiled. A student in Orlu could walk clean streets to school. An investor could look beyond Owerri and see twenty seven local government areas open for business. Development stopped being an Owerri project and became an Imo project.
That is the mark of a statesman. He does not ask what he can commission. He asks what will still work twenty years from now, and that question sits at the heart of Ohakim’s blueprint.
Clean and Green, IROMA, the ten thousand jobs programme, municipal transport and Operation Festival all addressed problems that have not disappeared. If anything, they have grown worse.
Which brings the conversation to 2027. The question is no longer whether Ohakim’s ideas were visionary. The evidence for that is already clear. The real question is whether Imo has the courage to pick the blueprint back up.
Great societies do not discard good ideas simply because power changes hands. They improve them, fund them and sustain them, which is exactly what returning to Ohakim’s blueprint would mean in practice. That is what continuity looks like, and it is what development requires.
At 69, Dr Ikedi Ohakim reminds Imo of something important: leadership is not measured by years in office but by the quality of ideas left behind. Readers may agree or disagree with his politics, but the record itself is difficult to dispute. He governed with foresight, planned beyond the next election and gave Imo a blueprint that still holds relevance today.
Happy birthday, Your Excellency. May you enjoy continued strength, wisdom and sound health. May your ideas inspire a new generation of leaders, and may Imo find the wisdom to return to what worked.
Happy 69th birthday, Dr Ikedi Ohakim, the architect of a blueprint Imo State cannot afford to forget.
