With less than three weeks to the governorship poll in Anambra State, I have taken a look at the issues in the governorship campaign and the array of candidates who have presented themselves for the election come November 16. I can rightly say that there are two main groups of candidates: the pretenders and the contenders. I can say without any iota of equivocation and without fear of contradiction that, Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, is not just the best candidate but the candidate Anambra State needs. I am not to be understood as saying that the other candidates are not good. I am simply saying that Ifeanyi Ubah is the candidates who has the requisite background, vision, passion and programmes to take Anambra out of the present situation it unfortunately finds itself. He is indeed the candidates who will wake up this sleeping giant, make it great and create never-seen opportunities, jobs and wealth for her people.
Anambra needs a governor that is an achiever. Anambra needs a governor that is a visionary; that has life-transforming ideas, that is a project initiator and a governor that is a project finisher. Ifeanyi Ubah will be that governor. I have looked at the antecedent of all the contenders and the pretenders, most of them do not fit in. His antecedents stand him out. He is in a class of his own. While others see vast land, he sees opportunities that transform a people into achievers of great repute. This is no idle boast. His successes in many spheres of human endeavor bear eloquent testimony to his ability to transform ideas into enviable realities.
I am afraid that unlike Ifeanyi Ubah, none of the other candidates can tell Ndi Anambra where and how they have created wealth, how they have managed the wealth and human resources. He is an employer and not an employee. All others are employees of an establishment but Ubah is an establishment that employs people. It is on record that his company Capital Oil & Gas limited which is the smallest in his group is employing about 5000 people and he handles all the labour and human resources related issues arising from them. Tell me any of the candidates in the race that have that pedigree. He does not latch on to the apron string of a “principal’ or godfather”to campaign or finance his campaign.
Ubah is an advantage to Anambra. At youthful age of 42 he achieved greatness by dint of hard work and God’s favors. He will be a governor that will not need to embezzle State funds to build his personal house because he has already built many of them all over the world. He is not a tenant in any part of the world. Most of these candidates do not have houses in their villages.They are tenants in the cities where they reside. They will steal the State blind to do all these as such the people and governance will be neglected and the hardship will continue.
The only thing Ubah is passionate about now is to serve the State but he is not desperate about it. His government will bring about world class infrastructure to the State. You need to see what he put in place in his immediate community in Umuanuka, Otolo Nnewi or you can visit his Street in lagos to understand what Anambra state will look like under his leadership. His policies and program in agriculture, education, industrialization, security and welfare for the people of the State is second to none. He has international reach, contacts and connections with many Presidents and Head of States as his personal friend.
He has had his fair share of trials and persecutions by detractors who became jittery with rising profile both in business and politics, they resorted to blackmail. Being a man without skeleton in his cupboard he remained resolute and confronted his accusers head on the whole lies fell one after the other like pack of cards. They mentioned the subsidy issue, he was cleared. They resorted that his company is not well managed. It is important to note here that this is man who built a company that has the annual budget of about five States in Nigeria with a workforce of a State within a period of five years. Within the said period he built and own the biggest jetty and port in the country with the largest oil tank farm. His loading bay has thirty arms dispenser capable of dispensing the entire national daily consumption of about 40million liters. No other oil marketing company have that capacity in Nigeria. The closet have only a distant 14 dispensing arms.
Capital Oil & Gas Limited controls about 35% of daily national petroleum product consumed in the country. In fact the federal government tagged the company to be “of strategic national economic importance to the country”. He did all these without being beneficiary of any government concession or purchase of government property at ridiculous low price. It is only a seasoned and consummate administrator that is smart, meticulous and intelligent that can achieve this within a short space of time like he did.
Ifeanyi Ubah in fact represents the indefatigable, the indestructible and irrepressible spirit of the Igbo man. So, why should we, the people of Anambra not vote for him to be the next governor of Anambra State to revive the decaying infrastructure in the State and raise the spirit of the people who are resourceful, who are hardworking but are always disappointed by their past leaders.
He is not an overnight success. He is not a fluke. In all the countries he ever lived in, he achieved great success. Nobody saw him when he came into Nigeria in 2001, when he was trying to enter the road of Petroleum business in Nigeria which is the kind of business he was doing in the Republic of Congo. Nobody saw when he was sleeping at Apapa hobnobbing with tanker drivers and conductors. He was there learning the trade and art of Petroleum marketing business in Nigeria. After he mastered the business, he took over and took control of the business from those who were there for many years with the agility of David and Wisdom of Solomon.
Ifeanyi Ubah is a very hard working man for whom nothing compares with success. He loves challenges. Obstacles spur him on. He does not believe in impossibility. He abhors laxity, idleness and have little time for those who have no value to add. With him there is no dull moment. The goodness of his heart is one million times bigger than his physical size. The widows, the disables, the poor, the students who are enjoying his scholarship, the traders, the okada people and transporters, etc can bear witness to this fact. He has no room to discriminate and segregate as his house is open to everybody and all that come must have something to eat and go with if voted for as the next governor he will not only continue his goodwill on the people but will use his international connections and contacts to attract investment to the state.
Anambra people have been unlucky since the creation of the state because they have over the years suffered in the hands of their leaders. Therefore, the people of Anambra should rise up to the challenge and vote for the ideal governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, so that Anambra will be taken to the next level.
