IT IS FAR FROM OVER

Zik Zulu Okafor justifies why Andy Uba defected to the APC

Emmanuel Andy Uba is a long distance runner. For this reason his closest companion seems to be endurance. At only 17, he had kept vigil with his mother for two nights at the gate of US Embassy in Lagos just so that he may secure a visa to the United States. In that land, providence smiled on him. He found fortune and lived an incredibly happy life.

It was there in America that his path and that of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo would intersect. For while Obasanjo was in late Sani Abacha’s prison over trumped up charges in a phantom coup, Andy encountered his wife, late Stella, in the US and they soon bonded like a big sister and a younger brother. When Obasanjo came out of prison and became President, Stella did not forget to tell him the story of a young, prosperous Nigerian running a successful corporate organisation in America and importantly someone who proved a dear brother to her.

Invited by Obasanjo to join his government, Andy was reluctant. He did not want to abandon his thriving business. He had been away for over 25 years. The ways of Nigeria were no longer his ways. But Obasanjo’s inspiring monologue on patriotism, the call of fatherland and sacrifice would touch the inner recesses of his soul.

Back home at last. Andy would serve Obasanjo for eight years as his Senior Special Assistant, Domestic Matters. No holiday for eight years. Andy was close to Obasanjo.

The Uga, Anambra State born Andy was also perceived by many to be powerful and to wield a lot of influence. And they may not be quite wrong. His friends then included Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Seyuu Dantata, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, Tony Elumelu, Nuhu Ribadu and Wale Babalaki, among many others, people who held sway in Nigeria’s political and economic bloc. He was also a member of PDP’s Board of Trustees.

Like every era, Obasanjo’s two terms of eight years soon came to an end in 2007. Andy had set another political agenda for himself. To contest the gubernatorial election of Anambra State. His declaration to run plus the fund-raiser was historic.

His powerful friends gathered under one roof and raised more funds than he needed for the election. A most generous soul, Andy soon began to use part of the money he raised to support other fellow Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members going for various electoral contests. He did not only donate money, he gave cars, buses, all to ensure PDP’s victory in Anambra State.

Then came April 14, 2007. Andy contested the Anambra State governorship election and won a landslide victory. And he was duly sworn in. Ironically, this victory would mark a turning point in Andy’s political odyssey as he came face to face with the morbid gladiators in the eerie political arena called PDP in Anambra State.

Peter Obi, the then incumbent governor of Anambra State had gone to court to challenge the election that ushered Andy into Anambra’s seat of power. Obi’s contention was that since he was only sworn in as governor in 2006, courtesy of Supreme Court judgment, three years after winning the election in 2003, the cause of justice required that he should be given extra three years to complete his four-year tenure.

The Supreme Court, the final court in the land, on the somber morning of June 14, 2007, upheld Obi’s argument. Andy Uba’s election was thus nullified. And the gentleman walked away with heavy feet from the exalted office he had barely spent two weeks. It was the first time a court would expel a sitting governor. It was tragedy in its most harrowing form.

For Andy, it was his darkest hour. A political career that promised boom had become anoxeric.

Now, in every annulled election, parties often encourage the candidates involved to go for the re-run. It is usually without any contention. But Andy’s case was treated differently by PDP. First of all, his election was not really annulled in the real sense of the word. It was simply rendered impotent because Obi’s tenure had not lapsed. Andy was so sure that when the election eventually comes up, he would run again.

You would even expect that in line with what seemed like a political tradition, Andy would be given the opportunity without any squeaking to run when the gubernatorial election came up in 2010. Because of the resources he expended in his first election and the financial support to PDP that saw the party winning nearly all the contested elections in the state in 2007, many political observers were sure that Andy would be PDP’s candidate. It turned out a mirage. The political titans in PDP blocked him. Andy was left in political wilderness.

That was not only the sin of PDP against Andy. As if to crown his misery, the National Chairman of PDP, then Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, without giving any reason, removed Andy Uba’s name from the PDP Board of Trustees.

To save himself from a debilitating political limbo, Andy accepted the invitation of the Labour Party to run for the 2010 Anambra governorship election on its platform. It was an honourable way to tackle shame, to tell PDP that politics was not all about its umbrella.

He indeed contested the February 2010 election and lost but he did not lose his passionate followers. He returned to PDP and was nominated as PDP candidate for Anambra South Senatorial district in the April 2011 elections. He won this election with 63,316 votes beating Chukwuma Nzeribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who had 43,798 votes and the incumbent Senator, Ikechukwu Obiora, who under Accord Party garnered 24,724.

However, contesting the election was another political crucible for Andy. Between the primaries to his electoral victory and post -election period, he faced about seven different court cases against members of his own party. From questions of the legitimate primary contest, through eligibility and the issue of who was the right candidate for the election among many other frivolous challenges, the reticent gentleman practically spent all his financial resources on paying lawyers. In fact, he almost became an emergency lawyer as he now knew practically all the legal lingo, legalese and Latin and could almost argue cases with his lawyers in what looked like mock trial.

When Andy returned in 2015 to seek re-election, what he met in Anambra PDP, was war by another name. Although gentle, he has an irrepressible and spunky spirit. He was ready to dare the PDP political gulf and to cross it. He did and he won re-election into the Senate. But this was not a battle to forget and the bruises were mind thumping. The party was polarised. Over 10 different court cases from the legally recognised chairman to the bonafide candidate, two different primaries, two candidates, the election was simply bizarre. It took over 15 months after he was sworn in before some of the suits filed were resolved. And some are still banefully silent in the files of the judiciary.

Now, having spent two terms as a senator, Andy may want like to take another shot at the governorship contest, to seek a possible return to the office. But Anambra PDP today is a convoluted mystique, a poster child of disintegration and web of complex and entangled legal battles.

Okafor, journalist and film maker wrote from Lagos