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HE was the “most natural” choice for the position. Chief Tony Anenih, is the “new” Chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees. The old dinosaur is back to where he loves the most: as the central figure, inside the smoke-filled, inner recess of PDP politics.
The man that was disgraced from his perch a few years ago by Obasanjo, has finally returned to inherit the position which the old despot abandoned hurriedly as his stranglehold on the political process seemed to be loosening. It is revenge time in Nigerian politics and there will be no prisoners taken!
For President Goodluck Jonathan, the party is far too broken and he hasn’t the requisite experience to mend it not to talk of bend it, in the direction which satisfies his ambition to become the PDP candidate in 2015. The emergence of adversaries from the different tendencies within the party means that this ambition has become a source of serious tension. Who better to recruit to fix things than the ultimate “fixer-in-chief”, Tony Anenih?
It is testimony to the rottenness of Nigerian politics, that it is the like of Tony Anenih that must still be reached to provide solutions to contemporary political problems. In a national where 75 percent of citizens are under the age of thirty-five, politics remains the monopoly of its political Neanderthals.
This colonial-era policeman has become the legend in the neo-colonial political order that has singularly been central to the underdevelopment of Nigeria, while enriching those who have played by the rules set by Tony Anenih and his group. Tony Anenih was described by Nasir El-Rufai, in his new book “THE ACCIDENTAL PUBLIC SERVANT”, as “one of the project managers of the third term effort” and further more, El-Rufai said of “Mister-Fix-It”, that “he believed so much in the power of money to modify the principles and actions of political actors”.
It is this man of no known ideals or principles but expediency and political brinkmanship, who thrives only in the context of dominant political tendencies able to wield state power, money, cunning and ruthlessness to achieve set objectives, that is back at the heart of PDP politicking.
Operation clear all opposition
In this situation, the set objective is
to clear all opposition to Jonathan’s ambition in respect of the 2015 election. Political know-how to achieve this ambition has been left to two old men in their 80s. The opposition has been clearly demarcated and the fight is already being taken to them in a big way.
Obasanjo is being de-robed in the open, with the removal of his lieutenants from the party hierarchy; the Nigerian Governors Forum is to be undermined from within and without, in order to end its role as a redoubt of opposition or a platform for governors like Rotimi Amaechi who is accused of nursing a presidential ambition on a joint ticket with Sule Lamido; then others will be picked off one after the other, including the recently leaked plan to remove individuals like Atiku Abubakar from the BOT, following a script that is written through Jerry Gana.
We are in the midst of what promises to be one of the most bitter political fights in a very long time in Nigeria’s political history. The battle within the PDP needs to be joined early because the emergence of the All Progressive Congress (APC), is seen as a major challenge which must not be underrated. The political Mandarins of the PDP, like Tony Anenih are aware that President Jonathan cannot go to the Nigerian people on the basis of his record of performance.
As I have written elsewhere, I have only ever met Tony Anenih once and that was in January 2006. The only game in town was the Third Term Agenda. The old dinosaur was holding court in the expansive settings of his Asokoro residence. Waiting to be received in audience included serving ministers; members of the National Assembly; party hacks and sundry flotsam and jetsam of Nigerian political society. In my presence, Tony Anenih received calls from governors; gave directives to one governor, to see him in the company of his party chairman; many of the people who came in search of favours prostrated fully on their bellies in front of the Fixer-In-Chief. It was clear to me that this was a really powerful political operative, who gets things done. The myth was very much the essence of the man. It took Obasanjo to dent the myth, when as part of revenge for failure of Third Term, even a “Project Manager” like Anenih, could not escape the old despot’s wrath. He was knocked off his perch as BOT Chairman. The man found a temporary respite under Yar’adua but with Jonathan he has completely been returned to the heart of intrigues. For Tony Anenih, this must be one of his finest political moments.
In the evening that I met Tony Anenih in 2006, it struck me that not even the old man wanted to be seen as a “bad man”. He assured me that he is a much misunderstood man who stands for goodness. He rolled out a long list of friends that he has made all over Nigeria and when he asked where I came from, he named as a friend my cousin, Justice SMA Belgore.
I nevertheless left the man unconvinced about the content, value and direction of his politics. The truth for me is that Tony Anenih has resided for too long in the inner recesses of the cloak-and-dagger world of politics. Within that stuffy, hot-as-hell redoubt, what they cook is conspiracy against the best interests of the Nigerian people. The broken and dysfunctional country in our hands today, is testimony to the politics which Tony Anenih has represented since 1999. He is back to his perch as PDP’s BOT Chairman, but that will only deepen Nigeria’s problems.
