Hope Uzodimma, Imo State governor, is being attacked for spotting an obscenely exorbitant wristwatch, allegedly costing about N470 million.
Uzodimma wore the watch during a Sallah homage by the All Progressives Governors to President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, on Monday.
The said wristwatch, from the stables of Jacob and Co is estimated to cost $785,496.
With the prevailing market rate, the wristwatch in the Nigerian currency costs N479,247,408 million.
Uzodinma spotting such an expensive wristwatch is without mincing words, the height of insensitivity, considering that the governor could do a lot in the state in terms of development, where most of the citizens are battling with poverty, with such a huge amount of money.
According to a research firm, ResearchGate, Imo State is struggling with the triple threat of high population density- about 900 people per square meter, poor waste management, and land degradation.
The wristwatch has a value worth more than two of the $200 million world class hospital the Nigerian Sovereign Investments Authority (NSIA) is set to build in Abuja this year, as part of its plans to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system.
The cost of the wristwatch is way above the N8.5 million budgeted for the installation of solar powered street lights at 342 Obinze Barracks in Uzodimma’s Imo State.
At a discounted rate of about N300 million, the governor’s wristwatch can build more than a kilometer road to improve the state of roads in Imo State.
Imo is one of the states that draws 13 percent derivation as part of oil producing states in the federation, but the state has less to show for it.
Meanwhile, the Imo State government has dismissed claims of extravagance surrounding the wristwatch.
The state Information commissioner, Chief Declan Emelumba, claims Uzodimma has always adorned statement pieces even before he assumed office as Governor.
Emelumba said, “Go and check the pictures of the governor before he assumed office. He has always worn statement piece; he didn’t just start. If you look at what he wore during his swearing in, these are items he acquired before now, and it is absolutely unfair to now twist the narrative as though it is a new acquisition.
“Governor Uzodimma has actually redefined governance with signature projects, which is a reflection of his personality. Nobody should twist it.
“Moreover, how did people arrive at the figure they are brandishing about? I’m yet to understand how that figure was generated.”
The governor’s special adviser on media, Pascal Okechukwu, aka Cubana Chief Priest, tried to douse the narrative about the cost of the wristwatch by saying it is a fake version of the original and can therefore, not cost as much as it is being bandied around.
“No be original joor, make una dey calm down”, he wrote on his Instagram story.
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