Andy Uba: Understanding the Defections

OBI TRICE EMEKA

One of my favourite scientific tales is that of Archimedes, a renowned scientist from ancient Greece, who spent a considerable amount of time trying to discover the density of Gold.

It happened that one day, in the bathtub, it struck him and he screamed Eureka as he ran out of the bathroom to write down the solution unconcerned that he was naked. This discovery went on to become one of the greatest scientific inventions that revolutionised the world.

I have retold this tale of Archimedes to buttress a point. When people ask me what it is about Sen. Andy Uba that is triggering the defection of major political players to his camp, I simply reply: they just found Eureka! And so possessed with the Archimedes’ fate they had to run out unconcerned about what anyone would say.

For several years now, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA had projected itself as ‘the Igbo party,’ selling in the process ridiculous and parochial sentiments to the gullible.

But while they busied themselves doing this, the Igbo man fell from grace to grass in the political ladder of Nigeria, only to become a pauper in the politics of scrambling for group interest – with barely crumbs left for them.

In Anambra where the APGA supposedly holds forth for the Igbo, infrastructural decay of a never-seen-before magnitude became the order of the day, leaving the economy of the state to begin a spiral into indebtedness.

This became the Eureka: if they are the Igbo party, why then impoverish the Igbo that they are meant to lead?

The scales soon began to fall off and they sought redemption.

The defectors soon came to the realisation that APGA is not properly suited to lead Anambra and the Igbo nation to economic emancipation.

To lead the Igbo nation to a new era of infrastructural and economic renaissance, therefore, the Igbo must get involved in the politics of Nigeria and not the seclusion politics that APGA has come to represent. Thankfully, the APC has offered to the South East infrastructural growth and welfare programmes that no government in the history of Nigeria ever did.

But to get more, for the benefits of our people, more and more Ndigbo must play the politics of Nigeria.

This, seemingly, is the Eureka the defectors found and ran to the APC to nurture. Their actions are the most important sacrifice anyone could have done for the growth of the Igbo race since the return of democracy in Nigeria. Though APGA propagandists seek to demean the personal sacrifice of the new entrants into the APC, their altruistic decision remains commendable.

One other Eureka, perhaps,is the trustworthiness of Sen. Andy Uba. At a time when Anambra is in peril with infrastructural decay and economic stagnation only a man of Sen. Andy Uba’s calibre has the capacity to rally deep rooted intellectual solutions to the Anambra situation. While other candidates struggle to find their marker, Sen.Andy Uba is already a household name in Anambra, with his Igwebuike brand which literally translates to “there is strength in numbers”. Sen. Andy Uba has never projected himself with the messiah complex as the other candidates have done; rather he has sought to appeal to everyone to join in the vision and contribute their quota to rescue Anambra from a gluttonous regime greatly asphyxiating the state. And they agreed.

Indeed, Sen.Uba has come to represent the ideal candidate every onye Anambra desire: humble, focused, diplomatic, homegrown and most importantly, passionate about the development of the state. These virtues have kept winning him an infinite number of converts.

Just like Archimedes revolutionised the scientific world with his Eureka movement, the new comers to the APC have found an Eureka – one that will restore the dignity and pride of Ndigbo in national politics, as well as trigger endless economic and infrastructural growth for the South East region.

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