ANAMBRA DECIDES: Uzu Okagbue, Rich Kid Hustling to Make Own Name

Chief Uzu Okagbue is a household name in Anambra. His popularity is not because he comes from a rich home, but because he worked himself up the ladder of success, leaving behind his father’s vast wealth. The former Chief of Protocol and Deputy Chief of Staff to then Governor Willie Obiano is eyeing the Anambra State Government House as a Deputy Governorship candidate of Young Progressives Party (YPP). He sat with THE MANAGEMENT OF THE RAZOR Newspaper to discuss his past life, his ambition and how he will unsit Soludo.

A hustling  Uzu, the student and cow seller
There are only a few things I have not done to make money, as far as it is legit, I have done many things. You will not believe that I am from a rich home if you see me hustling. I have done a lot of businesses. I have sold cows, I have been in transport business, I have done a lot.

From the time I was in school, I was doing business. I’m one young man who was in University of Abuja and had an off-campus apartment furnished for me by my father, and yet was living in a hotel, fully paid for in advance by my father too. I have never known poverty all my life, but I hate being dependent.

While I was in the university, my off-campus home had one young girl who always passed by my house with his brothers and they tended cows, that was how I got into the business of selling cows. I met and spoke with them, and I will buy cows, and send them down to the East. Then, every December, I sent cows to the East and used it as gifts to people and sold the remaining ones when I’m done distributing. I had a lot of friends because I grew up at home and had friends, both in Anambra and Imo. I continued until my girlfriend, who is now my wife started warning me, asking me how I got involved in cow business, when we weren’t Hausas or Fulani. But the truth is that the business helped me to generate goodwill.

In transport, I was one of those who bought off the Peugeot cars that were used for COJA that year. I bought about seven of them and was using them for airport taxi. I was among the first people who started putting trackers in vehicles to monitor movement. This was because some of my vehicles will leave Abuja for Kaduna without my notice, so when a guy introduced it to some of us, I was the first to jump on it. My drivers also later learnt to deactivate the tracker and put it back, so it was very hectic monitoring them. I did many businesses until after my graduation. In 2004, my father died.

Meeting former governor, Chief Willie Obiano 
During the burial, my brothers were angry that I was doing youth service and also scouting for where to work, whereas my father had many investments that I could have just managed. I told them I needed to go and hustle for myself and if it didn’t work, I would return for my share of the family’s inheritance, but I never did. That was how I got into the bank. It was in banking that I cut my teeth fully in business. I also opened a bureau de change business, and I was making a lot of money then. My depth in management and in the business helped me, and former governor, Willie Obiano was then Executive Director in the same Fidelity Bank where I worked.

I was transparent in my dealings and gained a lot of goodwill. That was how I knew Obiano. He spotted me and picked me and we became very close. After his retirement he went to US. He called later and said he was coming to run for governor of Anambra State and that he would need me. Meanwhile, I never really visited him in his office in Lagos, he only followed my exploits in the Abuja office of the bank. He called and said he was coming to Nigeria, and the rest is history. When he came to Nigeria, he called me to come work with him and I told him I will resign and join him, but he asked me not to resign because he wasn’t sure of his fate in the election, but I insisted because I knew that was what I had always wanted to do. Of course I studied Political Science and that was the kind of thing I had always wanted to engage myself  in. He went ahead to win the election and I worked with him.

I have always had leadership traits, so I was happy to join him, but the bank didn’t also want me to leave, so even while I was working with Governor Obiano, I was a bank staff and even got promotion once. It was later that I now resigned because my wife wanted me to leave.

Truncated Deputy Governorship Bid with Soludo
You know I was in APGA, and the governor, Chief Willie Obiano had told Soludo he wanted me to be his deputy, but when I got to Abuja for the form, I was told by the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Oye that the position of deputy governor was beneath me. But again, you guys have heard the story that a certain Bishop bought the position for his younger brother to become deputy for the sum of N350million, so it is now clear why I wasn’t given the position. That is also a vindication of my person, because many people thought I worked with the governor and all that there was to me was money, and that I was a big man’s child, who worked with the governor and made all the money in the world, but things happening have shown that a bishop had more money to buy me out of that position. So I am so poor that a bishop bought a position meant for me, and gave it to brother.

But after then, I remained in APGA, and when it was time for the flag off of the campaign, Obiano told Soludo that I was the only one who had the capacity to pull off the kind of flag-off that will make waves, and when Soludo called me and said he would have really loved us to be a pair, I told him there was no problem with the choice he had made and that I would work for him and I ensured I worked for his victory.

After Obiano, I went back to my business, which is investment banking and later went back to school and got some certificates in Harvard Business School and Kennedy School of Governance at Harvard University, and I spent two years there and obtained some certifications.

Failed Senatorial Bid and Teaming Up with Paul Chukwuma
Also, after the governorship election of that 2021 which brought in Soludo, I sought to represent Anambra Central in the Senate, but of course I have always known that there is nothing called internal democracy, the party simply gave the ticket to who they wished and it was Dozie Nwankwo they gave the ticket. So after then, I went and supported the candidacy of Bola Tinubu for president because I have a relationship with his family, but contrary to what people were thinking that I had left APGA and moved to APC to support the president, the truth was that I was in APGA all along and it was from APGA that I came to YPP.

As for the November 8 governorship election, Sir Paul Chukwuma visited me here in my house and told me he wanted to run for governor. He came with Ifeanyi Ibezim and that was how we teamed up. His ideas were bright and I was captivated by his intellect and it was a wonderful meeting with him and we struck a cord. When he joined YPP, I decided to team up with him. I’m someone who does not like already made things, so I was okay with YPP than I was with APC, so I agreed to run as his deputy. If I could leave my father’s wealth to start afresh, you will know the kind of person I am. Someone once asked me why I work, saying that my father owned half of Trans Nkisi in Onitsha, but the irony is that I do not even know about those properties. The only thing I took from my father was his walking stick. So, as for the election, believe me, it may look like a joke, but Soludo doesn’t stand a chance in this election.

Soludo is a weak Governor, the only thing thick about him is the APGA ticket he has. We are running against a very weak governor. Very weak by all standard and indices of governance. The only thing that is thick about Soludo is that he is running on the ticket of a party that is engraved in the minds of our people, APGA. The ideology is that anyone who comes to power through that party will perform. APGA is a party that was built to help mitigate the marginalization we thought was happening to us in the larger Nigeria, but Soludo has dashed that hope and the people will not vote him. There is this rating about Philips Consulting which rated Anambra low in all indices, and the state government has been contesting the rating. But truth is that there are contesting it because it didn’t favour them. Same firm had released a rating that was favourable to them before. So when it favours you, you praise them, but when it doesn’t, you contest their methodology.

Anambra is broken,  and of course there is no basis for us to compete with other states, when we run a four days in a week kind of state. How do you want to compete against people who run five full working days, with some running seven days. Insecurity has taken one day out of us. Soludo is doing patch patch employment and I ask, how do you compete with states with high quantity teachers and expect to have good education rating? Soludo hired cheap labour as teachers. The quality teachers we seek in Anambra will not take the peanut Soludo pays his teachers.

It is so bad with the level of insecurity in Anambra. The few success they have registered is not enough. How can a government be talking about road construction. Roads under construction in this administration are already failing and are being patched. How will a governor be in a state where he collects money in excess of three, four to five billion as security vote, yet nothing is secured. The truth is that Anambra is not secured. While we are seeking proper conduct, someone holding a position as big as the governor is discussing inanities – qualifications and fidelity. That is irresponsible.

Wherewithal to Remove Soludo from Governorship Seat
What do you call wherewithal? The wherewithal is with the people of Anambra State and we are talking to the people and if they say yes, he will be changed. I do not need money to change a failed government, all I need is the people on my side and we will do it.

A Government with the Magnitude of Failure Soludo Has Can Never Be Reelected
People are aligning with the governor, maybe because they have things they hope to gain from him. In any sane society, a government with these magnitude of failure will not be asking for re-election, not even in an umunna meeting. In a class 36 and you return from school with 33rd position – you are a failure. That is what Anambra was ranked in the recent state ranking. You people are journalists and you have seen the level of failure here. My worry is how we will disarm the renegades that Soludo has given guns in the state in the name of security. How can civilians be walking around with assault rifles, that should not happen. Trust me we are already discussing on how we will achieve that.

YPP and the Progressives brotherhood, what is the relationship?
Parties are essentially acronyms extracted from words, there is nothing Progressive about some of those parties. We have seen killers who bear names such as Ndubuisi. Life is important, but there are the ones taking lives. So how do you justify that? So Progressives working together needs to be defined, because it doesn’t mean they are progressives. APGA itself is not exactly a bad political party, but the party needs to strip itself of the kind of leadership that is giving them bad name.

November 8 and August 16 By-elections
The truth is that it was a stand-alone election, but what they did in the by-election may not work on November 8. Truth is that in the coming election, the governor does not stand a chance, and you will say I told you.