OBJ, Anenih And The Endless Feud

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja

Anenih When President Olusegun Obasanjo held sway in the nation’s power house in Aso Rock, Abuja, one man was constant in the power circles, he is Chief Tony Anenih, the man known as “Mr. Fix It” of that era. Chief Anenih was a powerful minister of the Obasanjo government and his assignment was believed to be more than just a ministerial brief. He had oversight functions on the political manoeuvrings of that era and was reputed to always come in handy with solutions to knotty issues that bothered the government, particularly in the area of politics.

Thus, when Chief Anenih served as Minister of Works, he not only radiated the power of not just a minister, but that of an insider in the administration. He was always on hand with solutions to resolve feuds between the president and the National Assembly, the president and other political stakeholders. Anenih’s pedigree in that government was not merely ascribed to him by chance. He earned the respect of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who referred to the Uromi, Edo State chief as his political leader. His political profile having been on the rise since he served as the national chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the aborted Third Republic.

So, while President Obasanjo started thinking of re-election in 2002, ahead of the 2003 general elections, he thought of Chief Anenih once again and the chief had to resign his ministerial portfolio to take charge of things at the campaign headquarters of the party. Anenih and others at the acclaimed Legacy House, the campaign headquarters of the PDP, procured victory for the party and the influence of the man popularly called the Leader did not diminish. He was instrumental to the appointment of ministers, and several board appointments. That influence remained intact until some insiders in the Obasanjo administration thought of the third term agenda. Anenih was said to have developed a cold feet and not inclined to the agenda. Subsequently, he was excluded from the plots and counter-plots of the scheme as the plot unfolded.

Sources would say that it was at a later stage that Obasanjo had to involve Anenih in the plot and even at that security reports were said to have indicated that Anenih and his godson, the former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, only backed the agenda half-heartedly. The fall-out of the failed third term agenda of Obasanjo was the foundation for the enmity that we now see between the two leaders. Following the failure of the third term agenda, the party had to prepare for elections at all levels. Obasanjo did not take many into confidence as he tinkered with the options of his successor. He also shut out Anenih who was said to have favoured the collapse of the tenure elongation agenda so that his part of Edo State ( Edo Central) could produce a governor in his lifetime.

Obasanjo, a brutal military tactician, was said to have made up his mind to pay back his supposed allies who merely paid lip-service to his tenure elongation plot but he had to wait till the heat on the electioneering got to the hilt. The former president was in the know of Anenih’s dream to ensure that the next Edo State governor was from Edo Central Senatorial District, he also was aware that the Uromi chief favoured the emergence of Elder Odion Ugbesia, whom he nominated as minister, when he resigned in October 2002 to coordinate the presidential campaign as governor. He was thus waiting for the payback time. That time came during the gubernatorial primaries for the 2007 elections.

Obasanjo did not show his hands early. He allowed the calculations in Edo to emerge clearly in favour of Ugbesia before he declared at closed quarters that he was not disposed to the candidature of the man who is now a senator. He did not give any reason that can be ascribed to criminality, but his insistence against Ugbesia was firm. Chief Anenih, who had nearly asked Senator Oserhiemen Osunbor to pick a return ticket to the Senate, then, had to caution himself and allow both Osunbor and Ugbesia to remain in the race while attempting to persuade Obasanjo to accept the choice of Ugbesia. With Obasanjo finally rejecting Ugbesia, Anenih had to swallow the pill and allow his second choice candidate to pick the governorship ticket. It was understood then that Obasanjo had calculated that Anenih would insist on the candidature of Ugbesia, to pave the way for him to cancel the entire primaries in Edo and install Prof. Julius Ihovbere as the gubernatorial candidate. That would have completely defeated Anenih’s dream of producing a governor from Edo Central in 2007 as Ihovbere hails from Edo North.

That was not the only arrow shot at Anenih by Obasanjo, another was the orchestrated amendment of the constitution of the PDP to accommodate only former presidents as the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT). Anenih was the BoT chairman at the time and it was apparent that when the constitution would come into effect, he would lose that seat. Obasanjo only needed to step out of office before claiming that seat prepared for him by the Senator Ahmadu Alli-led national executive of the PDP. In August last year, Obasanjo perfected the coup against his friend and ally, Chief Anenih, when he called a meeting of the BoT and emerged its chairman in line with the amended constitution. That was interpreted as the big stab in the back by the Anenih camp and that was the basis for the seemingly endless feud between the two political giants. Since Obasanjo’s emergence as BoT chairman, he and Anenih appeared to have irrevocably parted ways. The Edo chief has chosen to do the things that Obasanjo will not endorse, and vice versa.

While Anenih was instrumental to the emergence of Senator Oserhiemen Osunbor as governor of Edo State and as a politician in the first place, Obasanjo, an in-law to the governor penetrated the governor’s camp and instigated him against the Leader. The former president, while on tour of the South-South states to campaign for then governor of Ebonyi State as the National Chairman of the party stopped over in Benin and declared that Osunbor was now the leader of the party in Edo State. He was also said to be instrumental to the factional crisis that rocked the state chapter of the PDP following the governor’s move to set up his own political machinery outside that of Chief Anenih where he belonged originally. The crisis believed to have been engineered by Obasanjo in Anenih’s backyard led to the emergence of parallel executive committees in the state, with Mr. Edward Sadoh leading the governor’s men, while Chief Dan Orbih led Chief Anenih’s men.

That was until two weeks ago, when President Yar’Adua mandated the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to review cases of crisis in the states and come up with solutions. Edo State chapter was uppermost in the party’s mind and a resolution had to be reached that the warring factions should sheath their swords while a position-sharing formula was put in place for the emergence of a new executive. A unified executive committee emerged on Monday with the confirmation of Chief Samson Ekhabafe as the state chairman of the party. Even at that, Osunbor’s loyalists are still kicking with suits against the decision of the party to allow Anenih’s camp produce the state chairman flying in different directions. Though the two sides are said to be talking, with Ekhabafe taking the reconciliation song to the doorsteps of the main actors, the Obasanjo camp is believed to be uncomfortable with the push for peace in Edo, Anenih’s home.

The two leaders were to slug it out at the BoT meeting of June 26, when Obasanjo attempted a reversal of the decision of the NWC on the crisis in Edo. NWC’s proposal, which led to the emergence of Ekhabafe as state chairman was that the two factions should share the executive positions with Anenih producing the Chairman, with Osunbor given the Secretary and Vice Chairman. But the Obasanjo camp has found a voice in the former governor of old Bendel State, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, who submitted a petition to the BoT meeting protesting the resolution of the NWC. It was learnt that Obasanjo and Ogbemudia had linked up over the petition and it was their thinking that the BoT meeting would nullify the decision of the NWC, ceding the party in Edo to Anenih.

But Obasanjo, who presided over the BoT meeting was defeated in his own game, as the National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor insisted that the decision of the working committee was sequel to series of discussions with the warring factions. Most members of the BoT aligned with Ogbulafor and Anenih, who was also in attendance at the meeting, won even though sources said he did not utter a word during the meeting.
With the resolution of the Edo PDP crisis, one of the major arrows shot at Anenih by Obasanjo appeared to have been deflected.