By Metu Franklin Chinedu.
This piece offers a rare insight into the life of the Chairman, Capital Oil & Gas Ltd, Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah. It presents the restlessness and vision of someone, who from onset considered his humble background as a box that should not determine how far he would go in life. In discussing the big moments leading to his prominence in the society, Ubah believes certain defining decisions he made along the line could be useful for anyone.
He is from a humble background. It was very tough, but God in his infinite mercy favoured him and it has been great so far. Sometimes, Ifeanyi Ubah is highly misunderstood and people try to make the name look controversial. I thank God for his grace upon his life and I know that the blessings of God will get back to humanity. If someone who God has blessed forgets his people, God can take back the blessing.
Senator Ubah is the son of a teacher. He was doing very well when he was growing up but at a point, he looked at his parents and advised himself that he have to be more useful. At the age of 17, he was already struggling to see how he can put food on the table. It is very important for people to aspire to be great in life but while aspiring to be great, they must have the fear of God in them.
Senator Ubah is the first son of his parents. He has three elder sisters. He has always been known as someone who stands for the truth. When he was growing up, there was a day her mother was at loggerheads with her grandmother over who should harvest their breadfruit in the village, knowing very well that her grandmother had always been the one who harvested it and shared with others, her mother felt it was time for the harvesting responsibility to be passed on to her. To her surprise, he stood on the side of her grandmother and she was very embittered. She even labelled him a traitor. He explained to her that her grandmother played a very important role in the family, because without her, neither his father nor her mother would have been born into the Ubah family. That was how the responsibility of harvesting the fruit remained with her.
When he was young, he played a great deal of football as a goalkeeper both at school and in his community. On one occasion, he sneaked away from the house to play football at the camp. His parents began to search for him at home. When they did not see him, his father headed to the coach’s house where he found him. He angrily asked him if he could not stay at home and help with the chores. At the time, football was not as profitable and fashionable as it is now. His father angrily asked him what he wanted to do. His father asked if he wanted to go to school, learn a trade or play football. He told him that he preferred business. He was disappointed and downcast. He asked him if he expected him to tell his colleagues that a teacher’s son wants to become a street hawker. Ubah told him not to worry that he would make him proud. Even though he could hustle to earn money independently, he just couldn’t see himself allowing his father to go through the stress of paying the school fees of her elder sisters, his younger ones and himself from his meagre salary. He took a decision so that they would not, in the end, go into farming to sustain their family. He felt it was time for him to step out and assist his parents.
Senator Ubah struggled hard. He left Nigeria at the age of 19 and became a millionaire when he bought his first car. At 20, he became a dealer in liquid diamond at the Democratic Republic of Congo. At that time, he would go all the way to South Africa to sell his products. He made it so big that he started to charter an airplane. Along the way, he was heartbroken by the woman he wanted to marry, this made him angry and as God would have it, at 21, he met her wife and the same day he met her, he proposed to her. He told his parents that he wanted to get married. They tried to discourage him, saying that he was still very young and that marriage should not be his priority. He explained to them the problems of being a rich single man and living in the DRC, with the associated dangers of loose women frolicking around him. In those days, DRC was known for Beer, Music and Women, BMW. With his explanation, his parent had no choice but to respect his decision to get married, to avoid him being distracted. Marriage was the only option to help him concentrate and focus. In all, he did not have the opportunity to enjoy the days of his youth as most people did.
However, he does not regret that, since God blessed him with a wonderful partner who has always been there for him, without whom he would not have achieved all that he has today. He doesn't seek to have the whole world and lose his soul.
For him, seeing people happy makes him happy. There is hardly any day of his life that he don’t attend to at least 10 people, ranging from his employees, business partners, and aides among others. The fact that he can be a solution to someone’s problem gladdens his heart. Most times he stays without sleeping for days. The grace of touching lives gives him extra joy. He also understand the ills of our society, as people tend to misuse opportunities. Thus he would want to work with the best brains, with people who have something to offer and not just people who want to live off him. He always want to see how he can bring out the best in people who have something to offer, so as to make our society a better one. In the last 29 years of his life, he have lived the life of giving. It is a pity that in the world we live in today, people don’t understand what it means to take on a challenge.
According to Senator Ubah, he said thus; *"I don’t see what one would be expecting from a game’s village we are building than where people can have leisure and exercise themselves. We need to make the games village a world tourism center in Anambra State. We need to engage our people in sporting activities and also use it to help ourselves and bring dividends to the country. We want to celebrate Anambra State again the way it is done in Delta State. Anambra has been leading in sports and won’t stop. There is no construction company in this state that has the kind of equipment we have at the construction site of the games village. I never did any contract for anyone in my life. This is solely our company’s project. But I thank God I was able to move them to the state and they are giving us lots of value in terms of logistics. So, we are jumping and rolling. We can’t wait to have a games village. The storm will soon be over. The people that love football will live to enjoy it. We are building a 200 self-contained suit for our team. We are going to have over 200 players. Whatever you see in Europe would be replicated here. So much is ongoing, and I am sure we are going to achieve that"*. As of today, all this things is in place. This is GOSIMKAMFUNANYA!
Again, his political value is not only known in Anambra State but across the country. Our major task now is to take the YPP to other states in the South-East zone and beyond. As a Senator, he have fought for the interest of the Igbo all over the country. He has given so much to humanity, & I think this is the right time to reciprocate the love he has for us. He has the qualities of a good leader & he can perform much better as a Governor than any other candidate in this forthcoming Anambra State gubernatorial election.