By Igboeli Arinze

If there is someone who has tirelessly sought to govern Anambra then the name Andy Uba will be featured within such a category. This is even when it seems that he has been unlucky starting right from the judgement of 2007 where the Supreme Court ruled that INEC should never have conducted elections in the state. Since then Uba has sought to be governor in 2010, 2013 and 2017.

Such determination may be mistaken as desperation for power by those who do not know Senator Uba well, these persons feed on the numerous sins of his younger brother, the perennial enfant terrible of Anambra in the person of Chris Uba, thus seeking to make Andy Uba the scapegoat, a sad occurrence, since a John F Kennedy was never judged by many for the sins of his father Joseph P Kennedy or a Robert Kennedy  for the errors of John Fitztgerald  and neither did Americans judge George Walker Bush for the sins of Bush senior.

This is not to say that  Senator Uba is a saint, far from it as Saints have no business in politics, particularly one as murky as that of our nation. Uba is no saint and he knows it possessing the frailties of all humans as we do too but yet possessing a spirit that seeks the best for Anambra as records and events have shown.

As Senator representing Anambra South for eight years, no Senator in old or present day Anambra State has an antecedent of performing as a legislator the way he did in those two terms. As Governor for 17 days, Andy Uba was reported to have assembled a team of technocrats to help his administration assail the developmental challenges faced then in Anambra, one only needs to have given him a number of years to evaluate his performance as governor but then haven witnessed his performance in the Senate could we then argue otherwise?

Read Also; Anambra APC stakeholders advised to back Uba

Uba remains one of Anambra’s finest politicians and though he is not gifted with the garb or oratory as a politician, he makes up for  such with a great ability to listen. Andy Uba again is one politician not given to ethnic or tribal proclivities, for many it is the,Agulu or Aguleri Cabal as witnessed in the administrations of Obi and Obiano presently, not with Uba, his Pan Anambra/ Pan Igbo/ Pan Nigerian outlook throws Uba out of that lot of our present modern day tribal warrant chiefs, Uba’s closest allies are not from his hometown of Uga but are scattered all over the state.

Uba possesses a formidable structure which he has maintained since 2007, he has a towering experience in electioneering and dots his I’s and T’s properly in any campaigns. In 2007, he recorded the singular feat of campaigning around the state twice, visiting every nook and cranny in the state, his senatorial campaigns were no different likewise his recent tour of wards and LGA’s in the just concluded primaries that saw him post a resounding victory.

For a party that has four times sought to govern Anambra ( Including the times it contested such elections as Action Congress) the APC is the only major party in Anambra not to have won the guber elections in the state. Its best opportunity came in 2017 when it fielded Tony Nwoye who managed to come second, this time around, with an Uba as the candidate, the party seems to be throwing everything it has against the game of dancing chairs candidatures of Chukwuma Soludo/ Umeoji/ Edozie Njoku from APGA and Val Ozigbo/ Ugochukwu Uba on the other hand in the PDP. The divisions in these major parties is a plus for the APC, the formidable stature of Uba’s candidature is another, a combination of both could see APC overcoming the odds to winning the election.

Even the recent attacks on his person by hired media goons and the staging of a shameful protest by bank workers is a pointer to the fact that certain persons are running scared of Uba’s candidature.  I am in the knowledge that a sitting Senator in the state has bankrolled a number of media offensives set to commence anytime soon, likewise a number of powerful figures, including the outgoing governor are worried sick about an impending victory for Uba.

But Uba and the APC need not worry much, all that is needed is to campaign on the numerous issues  bothering Ndi Anambra, all that is needed is to assemble a campaign team formidable enough to take the message of progress and development to the various towns and communities that make up the state for as I write this, Ndi Anambra are in dire need of change, they seem to be tired of APGA and the wastrel like administration of Willie Obiano did little or nothing to change such a mindset, thus, making this election APC’s to win with Andy Uba as the much needed game changer.