DR. IFEANYI UBAH AND VISIONS OF IGBO NEWSPAPER MOGULS By Polycarp Onwubiko

It is incontrovertible to asseverate that the social wellbeing of Igbo nation in the socio-economic and political activities in Nigeria registered phenomenal trajectory with the visions of Igbo newspaper moguls. The trail-blazer was His Excellency, Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who floated a chain of newspapers. During the second republic led by NPN government, Dr. Alex Ekwueme floated Daily News newspaper at Onitsha but it died with the political party. Chief Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu floated Champion newspaper in the 1980s but its undoing which made it to lose the earlier wide acceptance was that it apparently was not keen on championing Igbo core values and corporate interest due to the unfounded trepidation to incur the displeasure of the Northern oligarchy.
The former Governor of Abia state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s Daily Sunand later, New Telegraph added feathers on the cap of the Igbos. The successful entrepreneur, swashbuckling politician and newspaper mogul discerned a gaping hole which the Champion newspaper did not close and went ahead to fill it to the admiration of the Igbos. However, to say that the Daily Sun exhibited avoidable short-comings as far as the entire Igbo nation’s coverage is concerned is to be factual and forthright; hence the need for prospective newspaper moguls in Igbo land to  come forth.
 The formidable challenge of the short-comings was picked up by two oil and gas magnets- Dr. ABC Orjiakor- “The Union” newspaper and Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah- “The Authority” newspaper. Apart from the teething challenges, The Union has shown remarkable promise to be one of the formidable newspapers in the country. The editorial team and guest columnists are well informed, depicting the resourcefulness, vivacity, enterprising sagacity and tenacity of purpose depicting the Igbo core values.
Nobody expected that with the consuming zeal with which Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah was expanding his oil and gas conglomerate, he would appreciate the necessity of print media for a futuristic and potential governor and president The unprecedented trail-blazing of ‘The Authority’ in every nook and cranny of the vast country attested to the divinely inspired vision, futuristic prognosis and managerial acumen of the Chairman. With the blossoming of The Authority, the Igbos could be said to have found a strong voice in the murky socio-economic and political waters of Nigeria. The editorial team and guest columnists are the same with The Union and hell-bent on making the newspaper to attain the zenith of newspaper industry in the corporate world.
During his visit to Awka to inspect his campaign office for the up-coming governorship election in Anambra state come 2018, the zonal headquarters of The Authority and his foot-ball court case in the federal high court, media men tasked him on the vision for being a newspaper mogul. In his humane, humorous and down-to-earth disposition, he waxed philosophical thus: “The vision for establishing The Authority is to have a virile alternative voice…It is from the Divine connection of authority; and that is why The Authority wants to be really Authority…it is authoritative”.
There is no gain-saying the fact that a focused and visionary politician who innately has the over-all weal and welfare of the down-trodden at heart,has to be adroit, suave and calculative. On the assessment of Governor Wllie Obiano administration, he said that time is yet to come for objective assessment; adding that he needs the critical input of successful private sector-drivers to uplift the living standard of our people.
Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah’s eye on the government house is not in doubt going by the formidable impact he made in the last governorship election. Nigeria will never get its democracy and elections right until the incumbents are barred from using government resources to campaign for second tenure elections. The 2010 and 2014 governorship elections in Anambra were massively rigged in favour of the incumbents; forget about the antics and shenanigans of the courts.
It was discernible that Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah will soon put up formidable machinery in motion for the spade work on the forth-coming governorship election. Out of my seven books, the one entitled “The Ifeanyi Ubah Phenomenon-A shooting star in the firmament” presented a unique challenge since I was trying to paint a unique picture of Anambra state where he would be Governor. He would not only set a worthy example of transparency in governance but will allow the chairmen of local government councils to use their monthly statutory allocations and viable sources of internally generated revenues to reconstruct and tar the inter-village roads in the 177 communities in Anambra state. Since 2006, the communities’ roads have been deteriorating and communities and villages have been cut of. This is because the governors have been brazenly and illegally hijacking the statutory allocations of the 21 local government councils and confiscated viable sources of internally generated revenues.
In the Preface to the unpublished Book I wrote inter alia: “Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah [Ebube Chukwu Uzo Nnewi], Chairman Capital Oil and Gas industries, after diligent reflections on the disoriented and improperly articulated governance in Anambra state, solemnly resolved to contest the governorship election ostensibly to bring the necessary positive and pragmatic changes and developmental democracy which will have tremendous impact on the weal and well-being of the people. His decision was like a bolt from the blue because many people had believed that he would not afford to leave his thriving and flourishing business empire to indulge in the murky waters of Nigerian politics. According to Davidson Iriekpen, THISDAY June 21, 2013 “…with the entry of Ubah, the political equation of the state has begun to embrace fresh extrapolation”. Inside the chapters, I said inter-alia: “ In fact, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah going by his declarations in the media, is neck-deep in repositioning the socio-economic and political landscape of Anambra state so as to make it a role model ; if not a a centre of excellence in governance in the federation.”
However, the flip side of Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah is that he is apparently too humane and sensitive about the unguarded generalization of the Anambra people during the last local government election; and might have asked him to allow peace to reign. The Labour Party convincingly won in Nnewi North local government council but ANSIEC brazenly indulged in impunity and refused to release the election result. The demeaning calculation of the state government being that if the state electoral body released the election result, the monstrous illegality of the former Governor who brazenly hijacked the monthly statutory allocations and viable sources of internally generated revenue  of the 21 LGA’s would be stoutly resisted by the LP Chairman of Nnewi north local government council. The court case was discontinued to the consternation of the people who had the erroneous impression that Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah had compromised his otherwise assured integrity.
If the Labour Party has continued with the court case, it would have won and half of the inter-village roads and culverts in the commercial Nnewi North LGA would have been tarred as it would have insisted that its monthly statutory allocations of over N200 millions have to be released to it plus the IGR which is in quantum going by the urban environment with commercial and industrial setting. Now the urban LGA has the worst roads in Nigeria as the present state government has continued to make ducks and drakes with the statutory allocations of the 21 LGA’s, living the third tier of government comatose.
In Anambra state, the chairmen are like errand boys, dejected and exasperated as they are deemed not matured to award contracts for roads and other critical infrastructures to uplift the living standard in the communities. As impunity continued unchallenged, the present Governor has not seen local government election as worth-while even as he has transformed the errand boys as Chairmen of transition committees and confirmed by the apparently rubber stamp legislature. These chairmen cannot even settle N10, 000.00 bills and staff claims due to alleged insufficient releases by the Governor. Fact remains that there is no amount of “monumental achievements” of the past and present governors that can compensate what chairmen of LGA’s would have done in the communities. For example, in Ebonyi and Enugu states, chairmen of LGA’s have their statutory allocations and are monitored by their state governments in project initiation and execution. Statutory allocations belong to the communities and not the governors to squander.
Mr. Onwubiko wrot through [email protected], Awka Anambra state.