November 26, (THEWILL) – During the week, Senate president, Godswill Akpabio reshuffled the leadership of the senate committees and one of those who got one of the juiciest committees was Ifeanyi Ubah, the senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District. In fact, he got the juiciest appointment as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream. While many may argue that it is because of his knowledge of the industry, being an active participant via his Capital Oil and Gas Limited that he bagged the chairmanship position, the real reason isn’t lost on political watchers.
The businessman who underwent gastric bypass surgery has his eyes on the governorship position in Anambra, come 2026. He hopes to ‘strike gold’ when he takes a shot at the position for the third time.
A serial governorship candidate, Ubah had twice contested the same position but lost on each occasion, first on the platform of the Labour Party, LP and secondly, on the platform of the Young Progressive Party, YPP, from where he defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, after being promised by the party’s authorities that he will emerge the party’s sole candidate in three years’ time when he will slug it out with other contenders at the polls.
To emerge winner and ultimately capture the state for the ruling party, Ubah will require enough financial muscle to go head-to-head with the incumbent and dislodge him. Therefore, his well-appointed chairmanship of the Petroleum Downstream Committee provides him the needed leeway to beef up his financial coffers for the battle ahead. But before he rejoices, perhaps he may need to take some lessons from Timipre Sylva to understudy where we went wrong because despite being the immediate past minister of state for petroleum, giving him the opportunity to amass as much needed funds as possible, he was still unable to dislodge the incumbent, Diri Duoye at the just concluded gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State.
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