Some politicians seek relevance. Others earn it long before they seek office. Prince(Dr) Alex Mbata belongs to the latter. His emergence again as the APC’s senatorial candidate for Imo East is no accident. It is the product of calculation, confidence and conviction. The party believes he possesses the capacity, goodwill and political capital to achieve what has eluded it for over a decade—winning the Imo East Senate seat.
History explains that confidence. Since 2015, Imo East has remained the APC’s political puzzle. Uche Onyeagocha lost to Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP in 2015. Emmanuel Ojinere fell to Ezenwa Onyewuchi, then APGA candidate in 2019. In 2023, the party rallied behind Mbata. Many within the APC still believe the victory they anticipated slipped away through internal sabotage, betrayal and political intrigues at that time. Yet the party did not retreat. It returned the ticket to the same man. That is not sentiment. It is confidence built on political calculation.
Mbata did not enter politics in search of relevance. He had already built one. His name travelled ahead of him through enterprise, philanthropy and a quiet commitment to lifting others. While many politicians were making promises, he was already changing lives. His politics did not create his compassion. His compassion prepared him for politics.
More than 100,000 men, women and youths from across the nine local government areas of Owerri Zone have benefited over the years from the Prince Alex Mbata Foundation. Scholarships, business grants, vocational training, financial support and empowerment programmes have reached thousands of homes. Those are not campaign promises. They are footprints already etched in the lives of ordinary people. Few private citizens in Imo have matched that scale of human investment.
Governor Hope Uzodimma publicly acknowledged that record at one of Mbata’s empowerment programmes at Ndubuisi Kanu Square before a crowd of over 50,000 people. He challenged public office holders to emulate Mbata’s example. It was more than a compliment. It was an admission that leadership is measured not only by the office one occupies, but by the lives one touches.
That is why reducing Mbata to the label of businessman misses the point. He has shown that wealth can serve a higher purpose. His success in business has become an instrument of hope for thousands. In a country weary of empty rhetoric, such a record carries weight. It speaks in a language louder than campaign speeches.
The argument that his Senate ambition weakens Owerri Zone’s governorship aspiration is both hollow and misleading. The Senate is not the Government House. One does not cancel the other. More importantly, Mbata has consistently stood among the strongest advocates of the Imo Charter of Equity. Long before it became fashionable, he joined other respected leaders to insist that justice and fairness demanded that Owerri Zone should produce Governor Hope Uzodimma’s successor. His position has never wavered.
Politics, in the end, rewards preparation more than noise. The APC has looked at its history in Imo East, studied its defeats and settled once again on Alex Mbata. That decision reflects not desperation but belief. It is the belief that service, credibility and public goodwill remain powerful electoral assets.
The 2027 Senate contest is therefore Mbata’s finest moment. It is the APC’s opportunity to end a long electoral drought in Imo East. It will also be a verdict of how Mbata’s lifetime of enterprise, compassion and investment in people can finally overcome old political barriers. If history has denied the APC before, Alex Mbata now stands before it with an opportunity to rewrite that history. Some men wait for history to remember them. Others write it. The months ahead will reveal which path Alex Mbata has chosen.
