A legal practitioner, Uchem Obi writes on Andy Uba’s tripod of hope

It is in a season like this that we know true believers in the power of the people.

Be­lievers who hold ordinary people in high esteem and believe also in the supremacy of the votes in their hands. Men and women who are not afraid to subject themselves to the verdict of the people. People who still believe that in a democracy, ordinary people are important and can al­ter their political destinies with the votes in their hands.

People everywhere and, espe­cially in democratic cultures, un­derstand that democracy is about them. They are, therefore, aware of their own importance and want to be treated as important people especially by those who need their votes to win elections. The people love to be consulted and they love to be pampered. They also love to be carried along.

This is why the people hate elec­tion riggers. This is also why they hate political manipulators and detest forgers because they don’t believe in the power of the people. However, sixteen years of unbroken democracy have transformed the ordinary Nigerian voter into a very sophisticated political follower. Ni­geria voters now understand that their votes are seals on their social contracts with sundry politicians. Contracts for continuous good per­formance for the good of all and not for mere cups of rice, few boxes of matches and tablets of cheap soap.

Many of our politicians have be­come like rudderless ships, with­out the faintest knowledge of what to do with the power they seek. They have no visions, no mission statements and no direction. They become politicians because our politics has become a booming industry, where politicians award themselves jumbo salaries and al­lowances while giving voters the short end of the stick. They are readily used and quickly dumped.

Elective positions should not be seen as business enterprises but as duty posts for service. Politicians are not CEOs; they are servants. However, many of our politicians cannot serve because they see themselves as sudden aristocrats, whose new titles have created a chasm between them and the vot­ers. These kinds of politicians do not inspire hope because they are hopeless.

Acknowledging the failure which many of our politicians present is a wake-up call for voters to only vote for people who, in the past, have shown a commitment to the gen­eral good of the people. This is the time to resist the insult of few cups of rice and salt and cast votes for those men and women who, before elections, had taken their interest to heart and had manifestly cared for their welfare.

Politicians like these are not many but can still be found in ev­ery constituency. In my Anambra South Senatorial District, there has been a sudden emergence of “One chance” philanthropists, who have just remembered that we are hun­gry and in urgent need of cups of rice and boxes of matches. It took this election season for them to re­member that we deserve palliatives. This volteface is just a strategy to hoodwink voters and obtain their votes by fraud.

But, there is still hope when we consider the past activities of poli­ticians like Ben. Andy Uba, who long before now, have been using their personal incomes to empower people. Ben. Uba is so near and close to the people that the most elementary of voters in the district understand his three mission state­ments of (a) Bold Representation (b) Selfless Service (c) Visible Devel­opment. These have become popu­larly known as Andy Uba’s tripod of hope.

The message of this tripod chal­lenges the insincerity and medioc­rity of our sudden philanthropists. It also gives a clear insight into the personality behind the Andy Uba brand and answers questions of what makes him preferable.

Bold representation is the ability not to be afraid to do things which involve risk or danger. A bold rep­resentative must not have a past that cannot stand the test of scrutiny. He or she must not be a coward or a psychopant and must not be desper­ate to assert himself or herself.

Andy Uba’s statement of bold representation inspires hope that he would not be cowed down but inter­mediate to pursue matters which would enhance the quality of lives of the people he represents. Ben. Andy Uba exhibited this kind of boldness and rare courage when he successfully brought to the floor of the senate, a bill seeking to include Anambra State in the league of Ni­geria’s Delta States.

The economic and political gains which the passage of this bill would confer on the whole of Anam­bra State is so overwhelming, that Anambra South Senatorial District in particular and Anambra State in general are looking to lower the quality of this representation.

The second leg of this tripod of hope is selfless service and does not require explanation. Before today, Dr. Andy Uba has spent enormous fortunes caring for people and re-building broken and dislocated lives. People believe that he is in the Senate in order to use the sources and power of government to con­tinue to do what he had been doing as a private individual.

The Canadian songwriter, musi­cian and poet, Leonard Cohen, once said, “Act the way you would like to be and soon you will be the way you act” Andy Uba chose a long time before now to act as a true friend of the people and today, the people seem to have accepted him as their true ally.

Visible development is the third leg of the tripod and marks Andy Uba as a man well ahead of his time. Voters no longer want to vote for cups of rice and salt. They now want to vote for their development, sustenance and emancipation. They have become tired of talk, talk, talk without action and promise, prom­ise, promise without fulfillment. The sudden emergence of election season philanthropists underscores the strategic relevance of Andy Uba in the fulfillment of the hopes and aspirations of voters.

Uba’s visible development is not an election season gimmick. It was visibly clear so long before the elections. There are over 300 bus owners who owe the ownership of their buses to Uba’s philanthropy. They are identifiable and therefore visibly clear. Andy Uba empowered more than 1,000 men and women with tricycles (KEKE NAPEP) and more than 5,000 people with motor­cycles (Okada)

There are boys and girls whose hopes of secondary educatio were kept alive by Andy Uba’s visible development programme. There is also an amazing list of men and women who are enjoying tertiary education both here and abroad under Andy Uba’s scholar­ship scheme.

The incontrovertible truth is that before, after and during elections, His Excellency, Ben. Dr. Andy Uba, has proven to be a huge sup­porter of the people and as elections draw near, many voters in Anam­bra South Senatorial District see his three mission statements as a cred­ible and honest tripod of hope.

.Obi writes from Abuja.