SENATOR Emmanuel Andy Uba has, since 1999 when he returned to Nigeria and joined the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, seen it all in the very dirty and strange politics of Anambra State in particular and Nigeria generally.

His recent victory at the re-scheduled Anambra Central Senatorial election conducted on March 17, 2012 is a clear manifestation of the wise saying that “history will vindicate the just”.

During the eight-year presidency of Chief Obasanjo, Andy, who served him as his Senior Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, had a larger than life image.

Inspite of his unassuming and simple personality, his closeness to the President made his office the clearing house for many top Federal appointments. A pilgrimage was regularly paid to his residence by all manner of persons who had any mission in the Presidency.

Politicians of Igbo extractions lobbied and lobbied the Presidency through him. Many got what they wanted. Those who did not get were at least satisfied that they met a decent human being who received them warmly and accorded them the respect they deserved.

When Dr. Uba contested for the governorship of Anambra State in 2006, virtually all the members of the Anambra State House of Assembly and the PDP member of the National Assembly supported his bid. Some were even his campaign co-ordinators in some senatorial and local government areas. As  a result of his political weight and influence in the political scene, he easily won the gubernatorial election conducted in Anambra State that year.

He was sworn in as the Governor of the State, a position he held for nearly three weeks until he was succeeded by Mr Peter Obi courtesy of a Supreme Court judgement. But for this legal technicality, Dr. Uba would have served Anambra State as governor for four years and may have won re-election for another tenure.

In spite of this disappointment he was not daunted. During the 2011 elections, he opted to serve our people in the Senate. It was at this election that intrigues and manoeuvres of all sorts were thrown up all in a bid to stop Andy Uba.

Forces were arraigned against him by a combination of factions of politicians, mostly from his own party and then from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, the party of the incumbent State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi.

The intriguing factor about Dr. Uba’s political experience is that the people leading battles against him were those he used his office in the Presidency to empower and uplift. From neophytes he influenced their election as state party chairmen to those he sponsored to the State and National Assemblies and even those he uplifted financially, the refrain became “pull Andy down”.

The conspiracy against Andy Uba was so much that a US-based Nigerian columnist in a national newspaper had to be contracted to run him down in his weekly column. But all these have come to nought as Andy has re-assumed the mandate given him by the electorate and you wonder what this kind and unassuming man has done to warrant this degree of malice and hatred by mostly beneficiaries of his largesse.

But it is in the nature of the Igbo politician, especially those from Anambra State where loyalty and trust are objects of merchandise. The state has too many money bags who are able and willing to purchase the conscience of any opinion leader with a  base.

Having been abandoned by virtually all those he should expect to mobilise and rally support for him, Andy had no alternative but to put his hope and trust in God and the formidable political machinery in the state put in place by his younger brother, Chief Chris Uba.

The senatorial election was conducted on April 9, 2011 and Dr. Andy Uba won. He had to surmount the initial opposition from within his own party. A Nicholas Ukachukwu, leader of opposition of anybody named Uba presented himself as the authentic candidate for the election.

But the Independent National Electoral Commission, the body constitutionally empowered to conduct election in the country, announced Dr. Uba as the candidate of the PDP in the senatorial election. Recall that this same Ukachukwu had unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Andy’s elder brother Senator Ugochukwu Uba from representing the same zone in the Senate between 2003 and 2007.

When  will Ukachukwu realise that his battles against the Ubas are exercises in futility and will always fail? This distraction was swiftly put aside and Senator Uba had since been adopted as the PDP candidate in the election.

Chuma Nzeribe, former ally of Dr. Andy Uba, now sought to challenge him and occupy the same seat in the Senate. INEC declared Senator Uba winner of the election and Nzeribe protested to the Election Petition Tribunal, alleging irregularities during the conduct of the election.

In a unanimous judgement delivered on October 26, 2011 by Hon. Justice Onajide Kuejibola, members of the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal upheld the election of Senator Andy Uba.

Nzeribe, who contested the election on the platform of APGA, in exercising his right of appeal did so and filed same at the Court of Appeal Enugu. In the Notice of appeal and grounds of appeal by APGA/Nzeribe, there were no reliefs or requests that were made to the Hon. Justices of the Court of Appeal. The appellants only sought for the cancellation of the result in the wards where irregularities were alleged.

Surprisingly, and curiously too, the Hon. Justices of the Court of Appeal proceeded to cancel the entire election. In this case, the Court of Appeal Justices assumed a Father Christmas role in giving Nzeribe the gift of cancelling the entire election which he did not ask for.

Attempts by Dr. Uba to call the attention of the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to this anomaly were seen as his trying to influence the judiciary to cause the Court of Appeal Enugu to review its decision. Nzeribe in a widely published advertorial even stated that Dr. Uba has resorted to using legal technicalities to prevent him from facing the electorate in a new election as ordered by the Court of Appeal.

The election was held on March 17, 2012 and Dr. Uba again emerged victorious. What happened to all Nzeribe’s boasts that he would trounce Dr. Uba at the repeat election? Or are we to look forward to another petition to the Tribunal alleging irregularities?

Will there ever be an end to ligitation by Nzeribe against Dr. Uba’s electoral victory? The sooner the likes of Nzeribe and Nicholas Ukachukwu realised that the Anambra electorate prefer Dr. Andy Uba to them, the better for their political future. They should rather embrace Dr. Uba and team up with him to serve our people better.

Mr. CHIKE OKEKE, a political analyst, wrote from Ekwulobia, Anambra State.