APC, Andy Uba and future of Anambra state

THE future is the store-house of hopes and aspirations. Even the global community is in a race towards the future. On November 18, 2017, Anambra State would join this race and decide with her votes whether to continue in the theatre of broken promises, failed governance, infrastructural, socio-economic and political decadence or to fast-forward to the future, where dreams and expectations meet with realities and fulfillment.

The future of the state seems trapped in the debris of the gross maladministration which is encouraged by the worst kind of psychopathic propaganda. We all appear to be driven by the obsolete engine of moribund ideas and the destructive mentality of “we don’t need the federation; we can do it alone”. This is lunatic and gradually eroding the lives of the ordinary people of the state, whose taxes fund this misadventure which imperils their lives and the future of their children.

The future will give birth to better visions,  ideas,  thinking and excellent deliveries. It will overhaul and improve our present. It will engender the pursuit of what ought to be; the alliance of better and fresher ideas against the current norm of accelerating backwards without shame. The future will discover our best and offer salvation to our trapped lives. The future is the haven of realities and fulfillment and it is where Anambra State should be.

According to the American Jewish writer and Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust,”just as a man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future”. Anambra State cannot live without dreams or hope and the hope we seek in next year’s election will summon our future. The reward which will come from the future is the tonic we need to reject the status quo, which diminishes our humanity and squanders our hopes.

The state presently is represented by the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, administration and five grievous lies that Ndi Anambra must reject in order to be able to join the global community in racing towards the future. This is not just about anyone’s political party or present office or about expected promises. It is a clarion call to embrace the future because of our generation and future generations. We must reject lies and myths that were so cleverly crafted to fool us while sustaining the wrong people in power.

The first lie is that APGA is an Igbo party and will benefit Ndigbo. The truth is that neither Ndigbo nor Ndi Anambra needs an Igbo party. What we need is a national party that will give us a broader platform for negotiation. Another truth is that one state party like APGA will remove us far away from the roundtable of national dialogue and lobby. If APGA is truly an Igbo party why is its headquarter in Abuja and why does the party have national officers that are not Igbo.

The second lie is that Eze-Igbo Gburugburu, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had wished APGA to be an Igbo party. This falsehood is an apostasy on the blessed memory of this great Igbo leader. The truth is that Eze-Igbo Gburugburu was a great believer in a United Nigeria. As a Garrison Commander in Kano in 1966, he refused to offer support to Nzeogwu and his fellow coupists in what is mischievously referred today as an Igbo coup. Biafra was not an attempt to divide Nigeria but a courageous effort to protect Ndigbo from annihilation.

Any attempt to use Biafra to reduce Ikemba’s national stature will be mischievous and fraudulent. When Ikemba aspired for the Senate and Presidency of Nigeria, it was because he believed in Nigeria. When he returned from exile and joined the National Party of Nigeria , NPN, in 1982 and expressed the famous ambition of “re-integrating Ndigbo into the mainstream of Nigerian politics”, it was because he knew that Ndigbo will negotiate better with the rest of the country on the platform of a national party.

The third lie which is both pathetic and nauseating is that the All Progressive Congress, APC, is an Hausa party. This sponsored propaganda reveals how much tribal and ethnic considerations thrive in the state now. Chris Ngige, Andy Uba, Emeka Offor, Rochas Okorocha, Uche Ekwunife and many others are not Hausas but bonafide sons and daughters of Igboland. Bola Tinubu, Adams Oshiomhole, Rotimi Amaechi etc are all Nigerians but not Hausas.

The truth is that APC was the creation of brilliant minds, which fused their ideas and strengths to present a worthy alternative to what the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  offered. Anambra should join those brilliant minds to divide the spoils of power than isolating itself in the pursuit and promotion of utopia.

The forth lie is that spending over N15 Billion Naira to construct three fly-overs on one kilometre of Federal road without Federal Government’s consent or undertaken for re-imbursement, impacts positively on Ndi Anambra. The truth is that this is a horrendous waste of public funds.

Another truth is that there are many critical roads in Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi that are broken and washed out and begging for attention. Students of the Anambra State University are compelled to live in the midst of kidnappers, armed robbers, prostitutes and sundry deviants because government preferred to construct fly-overs  than provide accommodation for the students. Even idiots, as they believe us to be, know that N15b would have done so much in the state and for the state, if competence was not in short supply.

The fifth lie which was designed merely to deceive us is that incumbency factor will win the election on November 18. The truth is that incumbency will not help anyone this year. Considering the short period before the November 18 election, what the APC needs to win is someone who already enjoys enormous goodwill across the state; someone, who has existing political structures and very well known to the real voters in the state.

The cap fits Sen. Andy Uba without doubts as the aspirant with the largest political followership in the state.

Mr. Henry Nnamdi a public affairs analyst, vwrote from Awka, Anambra state.

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