By Clement Agunanne
No matter how hard his critics try to pretend otherwise, it is difficult to deny that the political profile of Dr. Chima Matthew Amadi, the Imo East senatorial candidate of the Actions Peoples Party (APP) for the January 2027 general election, is one of the fastest growing in the recent political history of Imo state. Amadi, who hails from the town of Umuekwunne in the Ngor Okpala local government area was hardly known, politically, even within the LGA, itself, as late as three years ago. Today, however, Chima Amadi has become a phenomenon in the political firmament of the state. The members of the political elite prefer to address him more formally in a bid to avoid amplifying the sweeping nomenclature with which the masses of the people prefer to describe him – Gburu-Gburu – which means, Totality.
From Ngor Okpala to the Oru clan, from Mbaitoli to Ahiazu Mbaise, from Ikeduru to Onuimo, to Oguta to Okigwe, all over, the name, Chima Amadi, resonates so intensely among the people to the total discomfiture of some so-called established politicians, especially when they ruminate over how long it took them to register their first presence in the political arena. Suddenly, they began to hear – quite persistently – of a Dr. Matthew Chima Amadi from Ngor Okpala. (Yes, Ngor Okpala) who wants to be governor. The Ngor Okpala content was the first surprise. Before Amadi’s arrival in the political turf, his people in Ngor Okpala were incessantly harassed with the question: Who do you have?
For a long period of time, political actors from other blocs used to scramble over who would control the political affairs in Ngor Okpala. At the heat of a protracted power tussle within the Imo state wing of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the easily stages of the current dispensation, a template, known as the Kashim Formula (derived from the name of the chairman of a committee – Kashim Imam – set up by the national leadership to reconcile the warring factions) was used to balkanize the state. Under the arrangement, each local government area was allocated to an influential politician in that area for exclusive control. For example, Ikeduru local government area was given to the late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who hails from there, while Oguta local government area was similarly given to the late Arthur Nzeribe. Owerri North local government area was given to Dr. Mrs Kema Chikwe, who was then a minster serving in the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Each of these leaders was an indigene of the local government area allocated to him or her.
Curiously, however, Ngor Okpala local government area was the only one that was allocated to a non indigene! The then governor, Achike Udenwa, who was the leader of the party in the state, appropriated the LGA to himself and for the remaining six years of his administration or thereabout, Udenwa was the sole determinant of what happened politically in Ngor Okpala; who got what and who went where.
Matters were not helped when Emeka Ihedioha got elected to represent the Aboh Mbaise-Ngor Okpala federal constituency in the national assembly. After Ihedioha’s first term of four years, he was overwhelmingly reelected for a second term – with strong support from key political actors in Ngor Okpala – and before anybody could know what was happening, he got elected for a third term, against the spirit of a rotational agreement between the two blocs.
That was not all. It is not a hidden matter that for the period of his second and third terms, Ihedioha not only used Ngor Okpala as a foot stool but also virtually controlled everything that happened in the area politically. Thus, a combination of the two hegemonies – one headed by Udenwa and the other headed by Ihedioha – left Ngor Okpala almost bankrupt of any modicum of indigenously motivated political initiatives.
Throughout that period of servitude, observers kept asking whether it was from the same Ngor Okpala that the late Basil Nnanna Ukegbu hailed from. Apart from building the first privately-owned secondary school in the entire then Eastern region of the First Republic, Ukegbu was one of the most outspoken parliamentarians in the Federal House of Representative between 1959 and 1966. Sampler: On January 12, 1966 on the floor of the Federal Parliament, Ukegbu, speaking on a matter of “urgent national importance” accused the federal government of nonchalance over the crisis in the then Western region and warned that the country was sitting on a keg of gun powder beside a fire. Three days later, on January 15, 1966, the first military coup in Nigeria occurred.
Fast forward to 1997 at the heat of General Sani Abacha’s military dictatorship. Ukegbu was the only prominent Igbo politician that came out openly to challenge Abacha; carrying placards on the streets of Owerri. At a point, he was arrested and detained by the military junta. Two of his sons were asked to plead that their father had a mental problem but they refused and as such, Nnanna Ukegbu remained in detention until he was charged to court and released on bail.
So, when Dr. Chima Amadi stormed the terrain with the type of courage and audacity akin to that of Ukegbu, it was a reawakening like no other for his people and the rude shock to some of their neighbours. Those who were old enough to remember the days of Ukegbu were, of course, not under any illusion that Amadi’s feet could perfectly fit into the shoes left behind by the former but there was no doubt that something good has again befallen the people of Ngor Okpala. For the younger elements who did not witness the Ukegbu era, they saw something refreshingly different from what they had become used to in the midst of the more contemporaneous political actors in the area. They saw in Chima Amadi a fellow who could stand up for the interest of their people without being afraid of being denied political patronage by influential elements outside Ngor Okpala or the government in power. It was not surprising, therefore, that it did not take long before a vast majority of political enthusiasts in the area, made up mostly of youths, decided to queue behind Amadi. Minus a small proportion of politically exposed persons, made up mostly of appointed and elected public office holders, a bulk of the people of Ngor Okapala are with “Gburu-Gburu” in his current political journey.
Amadi’s initial hint to run for the office of Imo state was quite exciting and despite the normal skepticism, here and there, he was making steady progress with his consultations across the state. When, however, he later announced that he would also vie for the Imo East senatorial seat at the 2027 general elections that will be coming earlier than the off season governorship election in November 2027, some unscrupulous elements saw an opportunity to attack him. They labeled him as being unsure of what he wanted. Some critics, even from amongst his kinsmen in Ngor Okpala, accused him of deceiving his people. He was also accused of being over ambitious. But all that was what it was: Just talk.
Chima Amadi’s decision to run for the senate got a quick endorsement from discerning minds who, contrary to the narrative to his critics, saw absolutely nothing wrong – whether legally, constitutionally, politically, or morally – in his aspiration especially as the two elections are coming almost ten months apart. Save a few elements in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Amadi’s kinsmen in Ngor Okpala see the Imo East senatorial election as a low hanging fruit that must be plucked, and nothing fires their zeal and enthusiasm better than the realization that their son and brother, Chima, has shown tremendous capacity to slug out with candidates from the other political blocs in the zone.
The just concluded women August meeting offered Amadi another opportunity to demonstrate that capacity, not only in terms of ability to galvanize and mobilize the people, but also in demonstrating that he possesses the needed physical strength and energy for the job of providing leadership in an era when presence is essential. Within a period of four weeks only, that is, between August 6, 2026 and August 31,2026, Amadi criss-crossed the entire Owerri zone. He was physically present in over fifty venues of the 2026 women August meetings across the nine local government areas of Imo East. In the few cases where he was not physically present, his team made up of seasoned politicians, media egg heads, academics and grassroots mobilizers, showed a huge presence.
Of course, this is not the first time Amadi is interfacing with women at the grassroots using the August meeting platform. But even as the 2026 episode coincided with an electioneering campaign period, the momentum was not too different from the previous ones, for the simple reason that long before now, Chima Amadi had shown a tremendous flair to pursue grassroots development initiatives that are capable of transforming the lives of the ordinary fellow.
By the time table published by the electoral umpire, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), electioneering campaigns for the January 16, 2027 presidential and national assembly elections kicked off on August 19, 2026. But before that date, Amadi and his The Mazi Organization (TMO) team had been to over forty locations where he addressed Owerri zone women on sundry issues central of which was that the time has come for them and their families to do something in order to pull themselves out of the unprecedented mass poverty caused by failing health facilities, dilapidated physical infrastructure and astronomical high cost of living.
At one of the gatherings, Amadi stated the obvious: “The poor cannot continue to remain poor while a privileged few continue to prosper from our collective resources. Our mothers cannot continue to struggle with medical bills, our children cannot continue to learn in dilapidated schools and our young and women cannot continue to roam the streets without jobs. Government must work for the ordinary people”.
It would, of course, be too pretentious to posture that such interfaces were devoid of political colorations but a scholar of Dr Chima Amadi’s standing cannot be said to be merely evoking sentiments in search of political profit. Did Amadi donate money to the various women groups he visited? Of course, he did. Besides the fact that it was not the first time he was donating money to women groups in the state, something quite different happened this time around.
Amadi discovered that almost all the women associations were talking about raising funds to provide their communities with facilities that should ordinarily be the responsibility of government; things like seats for pupils and students, reroofing of classroom blocks and, even, in some cases, funds to pay teachers that are privately procured to meet the perennial shortage of teachers in public schools. The senatorial candidate was, therefore, compelled to raise the alarm over this very worrisome situation which has resultantly put additional financial pressure on the masses of the people who are already struggling with the current astronomical cost of living.
It was while decrying this situation that Amadi reminded Imolites in general – not just August meeting women – that they should see the forth coming general elections as an opportunity to reject being gradually sent to their graves but instead restore their lives by voting credible candidates who will genuinely work to improve their lot. Curiously but not unexpectedly, that admonition was interpreted by jobbers working for his opponents to mean that Amadi was instigating the people to violence during the elections.
Of course, that ploy failed as the highly discerning people of Imo state can never succumb for such pedestrian narratives. An obviously exasperated supporter of one of Amadi’s main opponents wrote on his facebook page thus: “August Meeting Candidate”, in an evident lack of words and expressions to describe Chima Amadi’s superlative outing using the last August meeting as a rehearsal of what the people should expect as the campaigns progress: A candidate in top physical form, full of energy, intellectually fecund, suave, urbane yet amiable, skillful oratory but certainly not the usual “I Will Fire Obowo And Water Achingali”
Dr Agunanne Wrote From Emii In Owerro Local Government Area
