Re: Leadership as service to our people , by Andy Uba
The Guardian newspaper of Tuesday January 30, 2007 carried an article titled “Leadership as service to our people” written by Mr Andy Uba. For the uninitiated Andy Uba was the erstwhile Senior Special Assistant – Domestic to President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2006 and currently the PDP Gubernatorial candidate in Anambra State. But more appropriately, Andy Uba is the older brother to Chris ‘Eselu’ Uba the former PDP hatchet man in Anambra State that was rewarded for pulverising his state as member, Board of Trustees (BOT) of PDP, sitting alongside the likes of Chief Alex Ekwueme, Chief Tony Anenih and Commodore Bode George to name a few of PDP greats. Whilst Anambra State was being pulverised by Andy’s sibling, Andy kept silent. Silence is consent.
The gist of the said article by Andy Uba is that leadership is a service to the people, that leadership is bottoms up rather than top bottom and that leadership should be underpinned by social justice, servitude and humility with democracy at the heart of it all.
Democracy is a divine right by man to choose his destiny, divine right by man to choose who governs him, divine right by man to forge a better society for himself and posterity. But what happens when this divine right is taken away from man by force? When this divine right to forge a better society is trampled upon? When instead of a better society, what obtains is a society ravaged by hunger, unemployment, hopelessness, uncertain future, massive corruption, HIV ravaged, ethnic militants terrorised, infrastructure dilapidated. The question for Andy Uba is, where is that service to the people? What has PDP done for Nigeria? What has Andy done for Anambra State?
Politics is a collective game; it is government of the people by the people for the people, that is democracy, Nigeria is supposed to be running a democratic government where everybody is involved and in the case of party politics, in the case of PDP, all party members are involved in the affairs of the party and the polity but most importantly in the affairs of the nation. This said article by Andy Uba is an exercise in playing to the gallery, an exercise in laying blame to the ‘fall guy’s’ of which he is a grande beneficiary, of which he is one of them - the fall guy’s, a prime player and primary beneficiary any way you perceive it. Perusing the said article, Andy Uba is trying to distance himself from the failure, the calamity, the despair, the desolateness that is President Olusegun Obasanjo, that is Andy, that is PDP on whom platform he wants to govern Anambra State, the state that he hates to love.
Andy started the article with these opening statements “Having traversed various villages and towns and cities of our beloved Anambra state and having deliberated extensively with a broad spectrum of our society on how to turn around the fortunes of our homeland by modernising it ….” Beloved and modernising indeed. This is a state that has no federal presence whatsoever, a drive from Bridge Head, Onitsha to Ogbunike Toll Gate will tell any sane person how Andy Uba so beloves the state with his access to imperial power. Modernising, in terms of what?
Andy further went on to write “It is a pity that there are still people in the political class who seek power not to do good or fight for the common good, but for self-aggrandisement. All this is in spite of Federal Governments spirited effort since 1999 to create a new social order by fighting corruption and abuse of power with all the resources at its disposal. The understanding of political power by some politicians does not go beyond amassing wealth and living like conquerors of their own people. They delight in such trappings of office as use of sirens (even when they are not entitled to use) and moving around with a battery of fierce-looking security agents” The above statement quoted verbatim from a member of the Uba clan is the joke of the century. I am of the opinion that this article was written for Andy because there is no way he can in all seriousness deposit such a statement unless he is a jester.
Andy went on further to compare himself with statesmen like Dr Alex Ekwueme and even further than that, to Pope Benedict XVI. Andy, the statesman, the clergy, the saint all rolled into one to liberate Anambra State, the state he hates to love. Why the state he hates to love? Governor Donald Duke was quoted in the press as saying that the most important office and person in Nigeria after President Obasanjo is the office of the Senior Special Assistant – Domestic and in the person of Andy Uba. What has Nigeria benefited from Andy’s stewardship? But most importantly, what has Anambra State benefited from his son, Andy? The answer is nothing. A ride round the state indicates this obviousness. There are no PDP led federal government presences in any form or shape in Andy’s state. All the federal government roads in the state are comatose, no city in the state has its taps running yet the erstwhile Water Minister, Muktar Shehu Shagari was quoted as saying that from 1999 to 2006 that the federal government spent over 300 Billion Naira on water projects, no Inland Container Terminal for a great trading state like Andy’s, no functional federal hospital, no power project, Nnamdi Azikiwe University is under funded and overgrown with weeds, no nothing. Yet the state has Andy as its son. Andy, what have you done for your state? The state you want to govern. The state you hate to love.
I am of the profound opinion that Andy or indeed the writers of the article are cerebrally challenged for one cannot understand the message that article was trying to convene. It stated that no institution, street, or public property will be named after Andy, it talked about not using the title ‘Executive Governor’, it talked about Andy rejecting chieftaincy titles, it talked about Andy rejecting honorary degrees but it never talked about why Andy woefully failed Anambra State whilst at the helm of President Obasanjo’s affairs. It never talked about what Andy has to do about the near collapse of Anambra State, how to resurrect it economically, psychologically, spiritually, physically and otherwise. It never talked about youth empowerment, employment generation, infrastructural development, educational advancement, trading opportunities, advances in science and technology, security to life and property, health, social welfare, social justice, it talked about nothing. One can then concur that Andy has nothing to offer Anambra State should he become governor just like he offered his state nothing when he was (and still is) President Obasanjo’s Man Friday.
This article in question by Andy, from Andy to the people of Anambra State, the state he hates to love ended with the following statement “The political class must begin to think and act in a different and more creative way” Perhaps, Andy Uba, the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Anambra State after strutting the surf of Aso Rock, the Olympian height of Nigerian politics but with nothing to bequeath the state that gave birth to him is now having a mental paradigm shift and is beginning to think and act in a different and creative way towards his people, the people he abandoned in their time of need and his time of plenty. Time may or may not be on his side, the battle for the heart and soul of Anambra State has now started. It will be interesting see how this battle will be won, without, RIGGING.
For the good people of Anambra State, the state Andy Uba hates to love, remember and take solace in this third stanza: -
“We shall emerge triumphant from this ordeal, And through the crucible unscathed we’ll pass; When we are poised the wounds of battle to heal, We shall remember those who died en mass; Then shall our trumpets peal the glorious song
Of victory we scored o’er might and wrong”
Chidi Anyaeche Mr. B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. (London), M.Sc. (Cranfield)
London
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