ANDY UBA’S ELUSIVE GOVERNORSHIP MANDATE

ANDY UBA’S ELUSIVE GOVERNORSHIP MANDATE
BY Comrade Aloysius Attah.

Some people make headlines, others make history
Philip Elmer.

It was such a timely and newsworthy story that most National dailies stormed the newsstands on Friday May 8 2009 with the front page title “Uba withdraws Appeal at the supreme court.” When I glanced through the details, the news was real that Chief “Dr” Emmanuel Andy Uba, the one time 17 days “Governor” of Anambra state has through his counsel, Mr. Taiwo Obe filed a notice to discontinue the prosecution of his appeal seeking for the apex court to overrule it’s earlier judgment which ousted him as the governor of the state.

The reality of Uba’s “clever” decision made me to scream that this man has disappointed us. I maintain that Uba has disappointed me by his actions, my stance elicited reactions at the newsstand till I left even though I didn’t bother to explain my reasons there until I put pen on paper to draft this write - up .

Ab initio, I’ve never felt perturbed on what might be the possible outcome of Uba’s continuous resort to judicial mockery, perambulation and burlesque, but I was concerned on the unnecessary distraction he was creating in the Anambra polity. I also felt pity for some political misanthropes his actions may have given some kind of false hope of their return to power.

It is necessary here to reflect on Uba’s desperation to come back and capture the governorship seat of Anambra which by implication is his “birth right” since OBJ alias Ota farmer told us that Awka government house was Andy Uba’s “settlement fee” for his long years of apprenticeship / servant hood at Aso rock.

Since the Supreme Court on June 14, 2007 through its locus cassicus in law reinstated Mr. Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra state and ordered Uba to vacate the government house that Obi’s tenure will only elapse on March 17, 2010, Uba and his political mis-advisers apart from deluding themselves as being Governor – in – waiting (what a strange terminology) have done everything to return to power.
Three times he has gone back to court including the Appeal court in Enugu that once gave them the false notion of being a governor – in- waiting. Determined to stage a comeback having tasted power and authority for two weeks and three days, Uba went to the Appeal court in Enugu on Monday February 18, 2008, the court allowed the appeal against the judgment of Anambra State Election petition tribunal nullifying his “election” as Governor of Anambra state in the April 2007 elections .

The judgment was what Uba and his supporters earlier held unto to claim that he is a governor – in – waiting until the interpretation got clearer in his eyes which prompted his move once again to the Supreme Court. The move to the apex court this 3rd time was to ask the Supreme Court to review its decision and return him back to office as governor, since according to his argument, Obi’s notice of appeal was not filed at the registry of the federal high court Enugu but at the registry of the court of appeal.
When asked for reaction by some journalists at Awka when Uba’s legal moves suffered the second setback in 2008, I remember telling them that Uba’s resort to numerous legal relieves was mere tomfoolery and exercise in futility but most especially the antics used by his political acolytes to grab more cash from him since his vault is yet to be exhausted.

Today, I think events have proved me right, before Uba’s sudden chickening out in this case, clowns like a group that goes by the name Campaigners for Democracy Due process and Rule of law (CDDRL) were allegedly recruited to issue press statements urging the supreme court to uphold Uba’s appeal as according to them “the supreme court can reverse itself” (what money can do).

But what these groups and other actors in this clandestine move failed to remember was the fact that the Supreme Court still retain men of integrity and that their rulings /decisions still take supremacy over all other court rulings and technicalities.

I believe in the integrity of my name-sake, Justice Aloysius Iyoger Katsina Alu and other Justices of the apex court in the panel. If they did it right in the case of PETTER OBI Vs INEC & ORS (2007)11 see NWLR (PT.1046) 565, I didn’t have any doubt that they can turn around and stab themselves in the foot this time.

This not withstanding, we also know that this is Nigeria where like the Charly Boy Show-anything can happen, this is a place where the prosecutor can sometimes turn to be the accused etc; that was why the fears raised by some Nigerians when the Supreme Court Justices on April 23 2009 adjourned and agreed to constitute a full panel to hear and determine Uba’s appeal was quite understandable.

What many Nigerians didn’t know was that the Supreme Court judges agreed to entertain the matter so as to constitute a full house to ‘deal’ squarely with Uba and his ambition. Uba also being clever discovered their game plan and had to pull a fast one on all of us by filing for the withdrawal of the suit, this is the reason why I said that he has disappointed us. By his action, we’ve been denied an opportunity to watch a national spectacle that would have been cherished more than the Manchester United / Chelsea games on television.

We have been denied opportunity to see the face of another ‘crook’ as we witnessed in Uba’s second judicial ‘missionary’ journey together with the fair complexioned Mr. Okonkwo, the scientist turned Attorney pro se .

But in all, we are consoled to have learnt one lesson from this entire scenario of which the above quote aptly captures - Andy Uba is making newspaper headlines, while Obi is making history. Uba makes headlines mainly for the wrong reasons - he wants to be governor by all means/naked ambition, but Obi makes history - he is not only a performing governor despite mountains of distractions and oppositions but may make another bigger history as the man to break the jinx as the only governor to succeed for a second tenure in the history of Anambra State.

Comrade Aloysius Attah
Chairman Civil Liberties Organization (CLO)
Anambra State Branch
08035090548
E-mail: princemmy@yahoo.com