Waiting for Umeh in Senate

Thomas Alva Edison is variously considered one of America’s most prolific and successful inventors. Edison did not only invent the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, he also invented the automatic telegraph.
He did all that after wading through the vicissitudes of life from childhood to adulthood when he became the first person to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
While growing up, Edison had challenges that made his teachers regard him as not focused and constantly ignoring their instructions. He was hearing-impaired but his teachers thought he was slow to learn and probably retarded.
The frustration was enormous that his mother withdrew him from school and decided to educate him at home.
But that is not the issue here. The big deal is what Edison said: “Many of life’s failures are men who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.”
What fired Edison to success could also be likened to the determination that made Morton Downey Jr., an American talk show host famous for his trash-talk-show, to blaze the trail in his career even after he was socked by rejections from the high and mighty due to his dress code – wearing red socks and brown shoes.
In fact, Joe Kennedy, father of former United States President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy, once told Downey that he had never met “anyone wearing red socks and brown shoes who ever succeeded.”
Kennedy’s comment was not lost on Downey who, after examining his journey to success, said: “As long as a person doesn’t admit he is defeated, he is not defeated – he’s just a little behind and isn’t through fighting.”
The quotations credited to Edison and Downey fit appropriately into the circumstances surrounding the political career of the former National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, whose quest to represent Anambra Central in the Senate is gradually becoming realistic.
On Monday, 7 December, the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu nullified the election of Uche Ekwunife who ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.
The three-man appellate court, led by Justice A. H. Yahya, in nullifying the March 28 election of Ekwunife, described the decision of the Anambra Election Tribunal that originally upheld her election as perverse.
The Appeal Court agreed with the reasons Umeh advanced for the verdict of the tribunal to be quashed. “The perverse decision of the lower tribunal cannot stand. This appeal stands and the INEC is hereby ordered to conduct fresh election in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone within 90 days,” the court ruled.
Many people had looked forward to how Umeh’s appeal would play out.
With the mass nullification of the polls by the courts it is no more in doubt how fraudulent most of those who claimed they won elections emerged, including Ekwunife.
It is unfortunate that electoral manipulation and malfeasance have dominated our political landscape for too long that representation in elective offices across the nooks and crannies of the country is messed up by criminals who ought to be far away from politics.
I wrote in this column on December 7, 2014 on the subject, Obiano, seize the moment, that “I have interacted with a cross section of Anambrarians and what they are telling me about Victor Umeh, Ernest Ndukwe and Dubem Obaze’s senatorial candidacies is quite encouraging and raises hope of a stronger APGA and better Anambra State under the party. But Obiano has to seize the moment.
“I am not the one saying that Umeh, Ndukwe and Obaze have records of achievements for state and community, been tested in several spheres of responsibility, and by extension, are committed to improving the lot of APGA as the conscience of the Igbo nation. A number of Anambra indigenes, in and out of politics, have attested to that fact.
“Umeh in particular does not need introduction, having fought through thick and thin as APGA national chairman to ensure it remains a party the Igbo are proud to identify as theirs ….
“The point, really, is that Obiano as governor needs to work hard to ensure that his party wins all the seats in the three senatorial zones in Anambra, the way he must work flat out to ensure the victory of APGA candidates for the House of Representatives.
“As long as the federal system of government subsists, there must be synergy between the executive and the legislature at the centre, and the support the Anambra State government gives the three senatorial candidates now will determine the feedback.
“What Obiano in Awka will achieve working with Umeh, Obaze and Ndukwe at the Senate as well as with other APGA candidates vying for the House of Representatives is better imagined if they can work together prior to the election.
“It is not enough for Obiano to nickname Umeh Ogbunigwe (Biafran weapon of war known for its potency in mass destruction).
“Obiano should find out why that name has stuck with Umeh in the past few years that he has been one of the minders of APGA.”
I have never seen a man who believes in the supremacy of the rule of law like Umeh and this he demonstrated all through his tenure as APGA chairman and continues to demonstrate to date.
That his request was granted by the Appeal Court is heart warming and shows the hand of God in his quest to go to the Senate.
Apart from the Igbo needing strong voices like Umeh at the centre, his presence at the Senate will be a moral booster to the APGA family wherever the members are located.
It is foolhardy for anyone to think that APGA is finished. This rerun poll, a straight fight between Umeh and Ekwunife, will once more test the staying power of Governor Willie Obiano as he looks forward to his future political ambition.
Umeh going to the Senate will be the best thing to happen to Obiano today and he must do well not to blow the opportunity.
I entertain no fear that Umeh will represent Anambra Central, and well too.
What the court has simply done is in line with an adage that he who takes what belongs to a kid and raises his hands above that of the kid, whenever that hand starts hurting he will bring it down.
By hook or crook, Ekwunife and his co-travellers took what does not belong to them, raised their hands up, and have brought down those hands for the owner of what they stole to have it back.
Who says patience, endurance, doggedness, perseverance, perceptiveness and faith in God-ordained destiny the way Umeh is going about his politicking does not pay?
• This article was first published on December 13, 2015