Against the backdrop of the recent Supreme Court ruling, OKECHUKWU OBETA, traces the history of sibling rivalry between Andy and Chris Uba in Anambra State Politics.

The January 29 Supreme Court judgement rekindled the political rivalry within Uba political dynasty in Anambra state.

The Apex court had affirmed the Chief Ejike Oguebego-led Executive Committee of the Anambra state Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the authentic leadership of the party in the state.

But Chris Uba, the youngest of the Uba Dynasty has been insisting that his immediate elder brother, Andy, who currently occupies the Anambra South senatorial district office in the National Assembly, should vacate the seat for him.

The Oguebego- led PDP had in the build up to last year’s general election submitted a list candidates for both National Assembly and State Assembly elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Chris was the party’s flagbearer in Anambra South Senatorial district.

However PDP filed an application at the Court of Appeal against the order of Justice E.S. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja which declared the Oguebego-led PDP as the only legally recognized Executive Committee of the PDP in Anambra state empowered to organise the primary. The Court of Appeal in its ruling set aside Justice Chukwu’s order.

Relying on the ruling of the Court of Appeal, another list of candidates of the PDP containing entirely different set of names from the one compiled from the primaries oganised by the Oguebego led state Executive, was now forward to INEC.

In this list, Andy was the PDP candidate for the Anambra South Senatorial District and not Chris, his immediate younger brother.

Unfettered, the Oguebego- led state Executive Committee went to the Supreme Court in protest of the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

The five- man jury of the Apex Court unanimously declared that the Court of Appeal erred in all the five grounds the Oguebego Executive presented to it as the grounds upon which the Court based its ruling in setting aside Justice Chukwu’s order which was based on an exparte application.

Acting on the decision of the Supreme Court, Chris and his Oguebego Executive Committee candidates, have since asked the electoral body to issue them Certificate of Returns and retrieve those issued to Andy and his set of party candidates.

Seemingly unperturbed, Andy and his colleagues have dismissed the claims by Chris and his colleagues describing them as mere daydreamers.

Andy stated that the Supreme Court decision did not in any way affect his senatorial seat. He particularly pointed out that the apex-Court neither sacked him, nor nullified his senatorial victory at the March 28, 2015 National Assembly election. He further added that he was not a party in the appeal determined by the Supreme Court.

While the accusations and counter accusations rage over the court ruling, the political rivalry between the siblings dates back to the 2007 general election.

Andy, had just returned to the state after his eight-year service at the Presidency. He was Senior Special Assistant to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was very influential at the national level.

With the former president at the twilight of his second term in office, Andy believed it was time to move to the next political phase as governor of Anambra state.

His calculation was to maximize the incumbency of his boss to win the governorship seat, even though he was relatively unknown in the state. Through out the eight years he served in the Presidency, he never participated physically in the politics of the state.

Interestingly, however, Chris at that time had become a house-hold name in the politics of Anambra state.

By 2007, Chris had become the leader of PDP in Anambra state. Before the tribunal eventually nullified some of the electoral victories awarded to the PDP in the state in the 2003 general elections, Chris was instrumental to PDP’s dominance in the state.

These included the governorship seat, the three senatorial seats, 11 Federal House of Representatives seats as well as the 30 state House of Assembly seats.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in 2003, Mr. Peter Obi only succeeded in retrieving the mandate from the PDP under Dr. Chris Ngige, after about three years of excruciating legal battle which raged from the Electoral Tribunal to the Supreme Court.

Mindful of the Chris’ political strength in the state, some political hawks within the PDP in the state knew it would be almost impossible for Andy to win the guber polls if his younger brother operated freely.

But it was not hard to make the then presidency see reasons why Chris has to be made unavailable in the course of the elections. Barely four years earlier, Chris had become notorious on account of the tussle he had with his former political god’s son, Dr. Chris Ngige, whom he installed as governor in 2003.

Shortly after he installed Ngige governor, they fell out on account of disagreement over the sharing of the booties of the electoral victory. The disagreement had led to the abduction of Ngige from Government House, Awka office. Though Chris was alleged to be the architect of the most despicable act of brigandage, insiders reveal that he had to take responsibility for the action because he was the field marshal of the PDP in the state then and any action that was associated with the party was credited to him. There are claims that some persons were more responsible for the inglorious act than Chris.

But Andy’s camp couldn’t take the chance. So the plot to keep Chris out of circulation during the 2007 guber election was hatched and successfully executed at the commencement of Andy’s governorship campaign.

As a result the plot, the state Executive Committee of PDP loyal to Chris under Chief Uchenna Emordi was sacked and the Comrade Tony Nwoye-led State Executive was foisted on the PDP in the state.

Chris was whisked to Abuja ahead of the governorship election to stop him from frustrating his brothers chance. Before then, he had finished leading the PDP campaign in the 136 wards and 21 local government areas of the state.

He gave the campaign train a one week break, preparatory to a state rally, where both the national and South-East zonal leadership were expected to attend in Awka, the state capital. But that was not to be as he was whisked away.

With his younger brother out of the way, Andy won the governorship election, in what analysts opine is the most expensive governorship campaign ever witnessed in the state till date.

But 17 days after, he was sent packing from the office, becoming the shortest serving governor ever. The Supreme Court, in interpreting Section 180 (2) of the1999 constitution, declared that the four-year tenure of then Governor Peter Obi was still running as at the time Andy emerged governor. With a new President in power, Andy had to obey the court ruling, while his younger brother gloated.

The Uba political dynasty goes beyond Andy and Chris. There is the eldest of the Uba brothers, Ugochukwu. He vacated the seat current scrambled for by his two younger siblings.

Still, while Chris is the youngest of the Uba’s, he is reputed for laying the foundation of family’s political dynasty in the state, which emerged in 1999.

Chris was an apprentice of Multi- billionaire oil magnate, Prince Arthur Eze, under whose tutelage he cut his teeth as a political powerbroker.

After the creation of the current Anambra state, Eze, throughout the period the military held sway, was a force to reckon with in the state as he enjoyed robust relationship with almost all the Military Administrators that governed the state. Chris, having understudied Eze, learnt the art of courting state powers as well as the culture of large- heartedness for political patronage.

By 1999, Chris was reputed as one of those who contributed to the emergence of Chinwoke Mbadinuju, the first Governor of the state under the current democratic dispensation. He was however not the major financier of the former governor.

He was also said to have given huge financial assistance to some of those who won elections into the state Assembly then.

Perhaps on account of his contributions to the electoral victories of most elected political officers in the state, he was asked to nominate a person for appointment as Commissioner under the Mbadinuju administration.

He nominated his eldest brother Ugochukwu, a Doctorate Degree ( Ph. D). There after, he facilitated Ugochukwu’s emergence as senator in 2003 to represent Anambra South senatorial zone.

Andy later replaced his elder brother in the senate in 2011.

Those familiar with the relationship of the three Uba brothers, know that the familial political wrangling is peculiar to just Andy and Chris, which smacks of sibling rivalry that may go back into childhood days.

Yet, there has been no record of violence in their seeming unbrotherly tussle for power. While they deny any intense animosity for each other, it is clear that their political differences bare a mix of ego and battle for territorial dominance which defiles recognition of sibling hierarchy. It is however doubtful whether it is driven by contrast in developmental ideology.

Commenting on their current rivalry Chris said “We are not quarreling.This is just an issue of power and love for the people of our constituency. I am in different political camp with Andy. And, I don’t even know which camp he currently belongs to. Any one of us who wins, we all shall support him. But left for me, I will ask Andy to allow me, his younger brother to go. He has done his best in the senate. He replaced our eldest brother Ugochukwu, so it’s now time for me to replace him.”

Andy on his part said “Chris is my younger brother, and, I love him so much. The only thing is that he believes that the camp where he belongs is the legally recognized one. And you remember that both of us were in the same camp before. I only decided to leave that camp because where I am now is the camp recognized by the national body of our party, the PDP.”

It would seem that the siblings battle in a manner that covers the common interest of the Uba family. As it stands, that senatorial seat is fast becoming an exclusive reserve of the family as since 1999 only Senators Nnamdi Oriobuna (1999) and Obiora Ikechukwu, (2007) have of occupied the positions besides an Uba sibling.

Nonetheless, while it seems like none of them is ready to step down for the other, each interpreting the Apex Court ruling as he deems right, the constituents might have to suffer poor representation (on account of distraction) that is if they get any at all.