Ifeanyi Ubah: Mixing Politics with Nation Building

The Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial district, Ifeanyi Ubah, a philanthropist,  mixes politics with nation building, reports David-Chyddy Eleke.

senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s first major appearance was as an oil czar. He founded Capital Oil and Gas, which grew to become one of the biggest names in the Nigerian oil industry, with substantial recognition.

As he moved the company to higher heights, he also adopted philanthropy as a major way of giving back to society. Ubah it was who during a major kerosene crises in the country, and at a time when his fellow oil marketers were hoarding kerosene, broke out of the group, launched tankers with attached nozzles, from where he drove round several cities, selling kerosene for pittance to consumer, straight from the tankers.

Ubah attempted to become the governor of Anambra state, upon joining politics in 2013. He had since then made several other attempts, including the last election in 2021. But before the last election, he had been elected as the Senator representing Anambra South, and has long positioned himself as the most productive first time Senator in the Ninth Senate.

But as the old Igbo saying goes that an old woman never grows old in a dance she knows well how to deliver, Ubah despite joining politics has taken philanthropy along with him into the Nigerian political space. This can be seen in many of his gestures, which keep resonating as one that can only come from a large heart.

Recently, Ubah engaged in one of those his philanthropic gestures that has always made many see him as one of the very greatest philanthropist out of Nigeria. But he did not just engage in philanthropy, he looked out for an area of need and saw what needed to be improved upon, and decided to leverage on it.

During his visit to the governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Ubah announced a stunning donation of N500million to the Anambra State government, as a way to encourage the fight against insecurity in the state. Anambra had for close to a year been under the tight grip of criminals, who hid under the fight for freedom to kill, maim, steal and destroy. The criminals also kidnapped for ransom and almost put the 2021 governorship election in the state in jeopardy.

But recently, Gobernor Soludo took on them headlong, and the result of the fight is the relative peace that the state enjoys today. It may have been the success of the fight that motivated Ubah to support more for the reclaiming of the state, as already started by Soludo.

During the visit to Soludo on Tuesday; August 2, 2022, in company of Anambra South stakeholders and traditional rulers, Ubah in his first visit to Soludo since he became the Governor of Anambra State; congratulated him on his assumption of office and assured him of his unwavering support for his administration.

Ubah during the visit said: “In line with my first phone conversation with you immediately after the election last year which was predicated on my resolve not to challenge the electoral outcome and to support this government in any capacity, I thank you for your formidable efforts so far in combating the pervasive security challenges in Anambra state, especially in Anambra south senatorial district.

“In furtherance of my support, I pledge to donate N500,000,000 worth of security and developmental gadgets to the state Government which will be implemented within the next three months.”

Ubah did not just make the donation by exchanging stacks of cash to the governor, he rather marshalled out how the money would be spent, saying in the next three months, the promise would have been fulfilled.

He said: ‘N200million will be spent for the training/provision of security personnel and latest security communication gadgets for Anambra South security vigilante groups, N300million for the provision of solar lights to further illuminate and strengthen the security architecture of the state.”

Anambra has since the inception of Soludo’s government been using the collaboration of local vigilante with state security agencies to fight crime. The gesture has been worth the while as members of the vigilantes are also members of the community where they work, and as such are most suited to know it’s nook and cranny, including its inhabitants, and will be able to say, when new faces come into the society.

Thus, Ubah’s gesture to further train members of the vigilante and also provide them equipment to the tune of N200million is a welcome development. This is especially as Anambra South zone was known to be the hottest area, throughout the period criminals held sway in Anambra State.

Also, the idea of illuminating the entire Anambra South zone with streetlights will held to scare away criminals as has also been noted that crime thrives more in the dark.

During the period also, Ubah who is mostly noted for his support for youth and knowing that empowerment of youth would also stem crime; went on a laptop distribution spree. Ubah as part of efforts to build the capacity and skills of youth to enable them compete favorably in the 21st Century technology driven economy, empowered over 150 Anambra Youth with brand new advanced high tech HP laptops.

During an empowerment event held in his home in Nnewi, Ubah told the youth that: “The world is moving away from oil and natural resources economy to the ICT/creative industry and one of the ways to help you is to provide veritable means for capacity building and empower them with tools to excel in that field. Proficiency in computer operations is an absolute requirement for success in today’s technology-driven environment.

“The empowerment programme is therefore designed to equip and empower you with digital knowledge as a premise for entrepreneurial skill and self-reliance. Congratulations to the 150 youth who were privileged to be beneficiaries of this edition of my ICT empowerment programme. I implore you all to continue to make very good use of these laptops to build yourselves up the more in this area and watch yourself become more relevant in the scheme of things within and outside the ICT sphere.”

The empowerment in itself can be seen as a means to help the youths to focus on emerging opportunities, and also shun vices like joining criminals in the state, which Governor Soludo has said has nothing to do with agitation for freedom, but a criminal enterprise built purposefully to enrich themselves and put the community in anarchy.