There is something unsettling about the travails of Andy Uba. It connotes the despair of the coyote that persistently loses its prized kill to the antics of the scheming fox. The Anambra State political titan has once again, been reduced to a mere gofer in the super-charged arena of Nigerian politics by a Nigerian law court.
Few days ago, the panel of Nigeria’s Supreme Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja, sacked Ubah along with his fellow senators and members of the House of Representatives from Anambra State. The court decision also swept away the country’s former Aviation Minister who was representing Anambra North Senatorial District, Stella Oduah. Ubah represented Anambra South Senatorial District until he got sacked.
Uba, it would be recalled, allegedly won the 2007 governorship election in Anambra State and was subsequently sworn in as governor, but the court nullified his win and upheld the victory of Peter Obi who subsequently served as the state’s executive governor. Uba was enthroned as governor after a notoriously fraudulent election in April 2007, but he was subsequently removed from office by an order of the Supreme Court. He however, made history as the shortest serving governor in Nigeria. Afterwards, he contested for a senate seat and won but he eventually lost the seat by another order of the law court.
Until his ill-fated political spells, Uba served as a Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was always the first person that former President, Obasanjo, would wake up to see and also the last person that he must see before retiring to bed.
During the period, Uba was courted by the high, mighty, powerful and influential alike. To underscore his powerful position, the then Governor of Cross Rivers State, Donald Duke, allegedly stated jocularly that he preferred to be an Andy Uba in Obasanjo presidency rather than a vice-president. Uba was a conduit through which numerous appointments, contracts and favours were facilitated and channeled to friends, families, admirers and even people that were barely known to him. But even with all that has rocked the world of deposed senator, Andy Uba, he is not somebody to mull over such temporary setbacks. He is ready to rise from the ashes of his misfortune to seek better fate in greater exploits elsewhere.
