ANDY UBA AND THE IKENGA HOTEL AFFAIR

Iintend to discuss one forever recurring issue that has haunt Andy Uba: the Ikenga Hotels affair. Uba was alleged to have sold Ikenga Hotel for N5 million to himself while he was in office for 17 days. If this is not laughable, then what is? First of all, the allegation smacks of convoluted ignorance. It is sheer madness to allege that a governor sold a property belonging to the state government in 17 days in office without following the normal process. They are ignorant about the fact that the sale of a property like Ikenga is not same as the sale of okporoko or snuff in Eke Nkpor. Again, ask those who assert on the souls of their late grandfathers that Uba actually sold the property to make an inquiry on what has happened so far to it. We would then see that the dots do not connect at all.

So what indeed are Uba’s real sins? The answer may not be too clear until we look closer at the man himself. Uba’s first major sin is that he is not anybody’s lackey neither is he beholden to any godfather. He is his own man and strives to be so whenever the need approaches. What is cardinal to Uba is whether the interest of the common man is protected.

Prior to the 2007 elections, a number of stakeholders were against the emergence of Senator Joy Emordi as the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate for Anambra North Senatorial District. A number of stakeholders had even vowed to make her candidature impossible. I am talking of the high and mighty then in Anambra’s politics, the makers and the shakers, the obata osus who threatened everything short of an Armageddon should Emordi be allowed to run.

Andy Uba as at that time was the leader of the PDP in Anambra, and all he needed to do was to deny Emordi the ticket. But he didn’t, citing to the stakeholders that having won the ticket, Emordi should be allowed to run. The same thing he did for Tony Nwoye, when he took him from a student leader to becoming the state’s party chairman at the young age of 34, a feat never experienced in the history of Nigeria’s politics.

Again, Uba is hated because he is a man who keeps his word. I am sure many would become agitated and wonder aloud that such a trait is a good one and therefore deserves praise and commendation. Well, that is if Nigerian politics were practiced by the saints and the holy, for I once heard a Nigerian politician tell a group of listeners that to be a good politician one must learn how to change is to was and vice versa, that is the sad nature of our politics. Thus, Uba in this case stands like an Iroko amidst bamboo trees, he towers above them, thus the resort to lies and all known pull him down tactics.

Another of Uba’s sins is the fact that he is a lover of the youths. Uba is a believer in the youth, he is a staunch advocate of giving the youths an opportunity to lead and excel. This is the reason why till date he has helped empower a large population of youths and still is. It is on record that in the period leading to the 2007 elections, Uba ensured that 90 per cent of those who won tickets to contest for House of Representatives as well as house of assembly seats were youths; the facts are there. Had Uba been allowed to continue beyond his 17- day tenure, Nigerians would have been shocked at his list of appointments, which was to be constituted by a majority of youths. Thus when you see avowed genrontocrats, men who have sought to recycle themselves in office, talking down about Uba, do not be surprised.

Another of Uba’s sins is that he is not your run of the mill politician, he is he is a down- to- earth fellow and prefers the quiet side of politics. Politics he says is for service and not a TV show. Little wonder, he has in his six years as a senator churned out 25 bills with 13 so far passed by the Senate and a number of projects serving his constituents. Even when he was serving as an aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Uba assisted in the appointments of the likes of Chukwuma Soludo, Chukwuemeka Chikelu and a number of others without making noise. When Uwazurike was incarcerated owing to his MASSOB activities, Andy Uba pleaded with a recalcitrant Obasanjo to release him on bail without waving the I- did- it -flag on our faces. Even recently, Uba was among the few who spearheaded the demands for Nnamdi Kanu’s bail and was to sign his bail bonds but for the insistence of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe that since Kanu was from his state then the onus fell on him to do it. Igboeli Arinze, a.igboeli@gmail.com