Four governors in the South-South region appear set to battle the acting chairman of the PDP board of trustees, Chief Anthony Anenih, over alleged imposition on them of the zonal national vice-chairman of the party
EXCEPT the national chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih , the governor of Rivers State, Dr,. Peter Odili and perhaps, some few other loyalists, there is nobody who attended the party’s South-South zonal meeting at Uyo , the capital of Akwa-Ibom State on July 10 who was not taken aback at the scenario that played out in the party’’s headquarters in Abuja , July 14, where the national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, swore in a former Special Adviser to Odili, Chief Godspower Ake, as the new national vice-chairman of the PDP in the geo-political zone.
Reason is that it is an open secret that the zone did not reach any agreement on who mounts the saddle as a replacement for the slain former national vice-chairman, Chief Aminosoari Dikibo. The meeting ended in a deadlock and Anenih, it was, who asked for a deferment of deliberation on the contentious issue so as not to polarize the zone the more.
Pyrrhic victory?
The South-South governors: Chief Lucky Igbinedion (Edo), Chief James Ibori (Delta), Obong Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom) and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa) who pulled a coup against the Anenih/Odili camp in the zone were still back-slapping themselves when the unexpected happened. The Igbinedion group, so to speak, wanted an election to determine the next zonal vice-chairman, they were rooting for a Bayelsa candidate and it was obvious that they would have carried the day but the other group did not want an election.
All the combatants were to meet in Abuja on Monday to deliberate on the sharing of positions in the federal boards and parasatals allocated to the zone but an important event played at the Mobil Airport in Eket, Uyo. The same plane that brought Governors Igbinedion and Ibori to Akwa Ibom for the zonal meeting also brought Anenih to Uyo and when Igbinedion was leaving , he boarded the same plane. But when Anenih was to go, the plane was nowhere to be found. He reportedly discovered that the plane had gone with Igbinedion and was furious. He was said to have contacted some persons, Odili inclusive, and fumed that they thought they had won and that they would find out who won when they get to Abuja.
Enter Obasanjo:
The Leader himself, that is Anenih, did not wait for too long before the plane came back after dropping Igbinedion and off he went to Abuja. The first signal of his counter-coup came when he went to see President Olusegun Obasanjo. Reports said that the former Minister of Works briefed his boss on what transpired at the Uyo meeting and the need to ensure that their candidate, Chief Ake, succeeds the late Dikibo for strategic political reasons. This is an area that Anenih that has never failed Obasanjo in his calculations; the president was in total agreement with him.
Ogbeh’’s dilemma:
Without much ado, Chief Ogbeh who is eyeing a second term as national chairman of the party, was invited by President Obasanjo. The full details of what transpired at the meeting are not yet known but impeccable sources said that Obasanjo gave him a straight order to swear in Chief Ake as the national vice chairman of the South-South zone. He was said to say that he had to help if he was to be helped later to attain his own ambition.
Ogbeh was reportedly at first hesitant, rationalizing that there were normal ways in which the national executive of the party is briefed on the outcome of such meetings and that he was yet to get the authentic report of what happened at Uyo. But that was not what he was invited for, he was reminded and asked to make haste while the sun shines.
He knew who was pulling the strings and the truth of what happened at Uyo but he was handicapped. Sunday Vanguard was informed that Ogbeh and all members of his executive combined cannot resist Obasanjo and Anenih and the only way to save face was for him to alert the governors of his ordeal.
Meanwhile, the Monday meeting between Anenih, the South-South governors and others to deliberate on the positions zoned to the region was held without any mention of the Ake affair. Indeed, the federal government was said to have 65 per cent of the positions to be shared and left 35 per cent for the states to share.
The governors never knew a string was being pulled until a panic-struck Ogbeh hinted them of his predicament. He was told to carry on and obey the president since he was the one that called him and that they would fight the battle themselves.
This probably informed the meeting of Igbinedion, Ibori and Alameyeiseigha with Obasanjo, who had summoned a meeting of the warring factions on July 26 to address the problem, which he (PDP national chairman) was part of. Actually, it was at the verge of their leaving Abuja on Tuesday, July 13 evening that Ogbeh contacted them. It was learnt that Obasanjo assured Ogbeh before he agreed to swear in Chief Ake that he would handle any crisis that arises as a result of the action.
Abubakar in the dark:
The vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is seen as the godfather of most of the governors and someone who gives listening ears to Igbinedion, Ibori and co was not consulted by Obasanjo and Anenih concerning the matter. And so, it was news to him when he was being told about the goings on later.
The speculation that Governor Odili who Anenih is packaging as vice president in 2007 assumed a life of its own when the former Director General of the Centre for Democratic Studies, Prof Omo Omoruyi, disclosed in Benin City that the former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida would contest the 2007 presidential election on the platform of the ruling PDP.
There has been speculation that Odili would be the running mate of Babangida and the indications are that the new structures being put on ground ahead the party’’s national convention, next year, were to put IBB in a good stead. So far, the president has played crucial roles in the determination of who gets strategic positions in the party. Though, the governors left Abuja happy with themselves and resolved to fight back, the picture is not too clear as they never contemplated the kind of dexterity Anenih has put into play.
Anenih, govs’ previous relationship:
There can never be a good relationship when there is no friction at all because it is with the disagreements that people get to understand themselves better, Anenih has not had much of very volatile conflicts with the South- South governors as a collective entity before now. Even when there were, they had always sunk their differences but the governors are now saying that if Anenih and Odili want to create one, they would fight to finish.
The master strategist had also done many things in the past without the governors complaining. For instance, he took the first ministerial position that came to the zone and even when the federal government at a time felt that the Ministry of Works and Housing was too large for one person and voted for a split, he rallied the governors to insist that the Works and Housing ministry was zoned to the region.
It was after he was dropped as Minister that a change was effected. In 2000 when the position of national women leader was zoned to the South-South, the leader picked his wife, Barrister Josephine Anenih who is, however, qualified in her own right against Princess Gladys Akenzua, a sister of the Benin monarch, who met him to seek his blessings for the position.
He also made the then political heir -apparent to his political kingdom in Edo state, Dr. Tony Omoaghe, the deputy national secretary of the party until things fell apart. He was revered and feared by both the governors and other party faithful. His word is law and it was in the spirit of this relationship that he went about the region before the 2003 election, declaring that there was no vacancy in any of the Government Houses in the zone.
Even when President Obasanjo visited the South-South for his re-election campaign, Anenih took time to drum it home that PDP only had governorship aspirants and named the respective governors as the official candidates in their states. Human Rights Activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, tried to used his legal acumen to enforce the holding of governorship primary in Edo State but he bolted to the ANPP when he saw that there was really no vacancy in Dennis Osadebey Avenue.
To be fair, Anenih stood like a Rock of Gibraltar behind the governors. Anenih was able to whip the governors into line before because of their second term re-election project. He felt threatened when the Under- 50 politicians took over the stage with Governor Igbinedion championing the moves and met the South-South governors one on one, saying that he was not keen on holding on to power and that, they , the younger ones would soon take over.
That was why when the second meeting of the Under 50 group was called by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali N’Abba, the South-South governors were not there. When the resource control agitation became a very contentious issue, Anenih was the one President Obasanjo sent to call the governors to order .
Things started to fall apart when words filtered to the governors that some of them were being accused of non performance and that they would be jailed after 2007 for alleged corrupt activities. Added to the different agenda they have for 2007, the centre can no longer hold as the spirit of unity that bonded them before has been torn apart. The general thinking of the governors really is that someone who they had thought is their father is fighting them and they have to fight back. In one of the campaigns for his re-election, Igbinedion had openly declared that Anenih was his political father. In fact, some of the governors were said to have been told that their cups were full at the ICPC and that they would not enjoy their alleged loot.
Mood of govs:
The governors except Odili and Mr. Donald Duke who is sitting on the fence are in a war mood. Governor Igbinedion told Sunday Vanguard that what happened was an illegal selection and that they would make their position “loud and clear” when they meet with Obasanjo on July 26. They have started mobilizing their constituencies and calling the federal parliamentarians on phone. None of the aggrieved governors is coming back for a second term, and so they know the grave consequences a loss would wreak on their political career.
They are taking the battle to those they alleged are the “serpents”. A special adviser to Bayelsa State governor was in Benin City last week in connection with the mobilization efforts of the governors but Mr. O. Ihimekpen, the Special Assistant (media relations) to Governor Igbinedion told Sunday Vanguard that the Bayelsa official was in the state on official assignment.
Some of the governors have personal reasons to want to engage Anenih in the battle of their lives. Ibori for instance has dispensed political patronage to Anenih’s son, Tony Anenih (Jnr), who heads the Contract Verification Panel in Delta State.
At a stage, Anenih’s son became uncomfortable over the Ibori ex-convict saga and the role he felt the Federal Government was allegedly playing on the matter, particularly when it became common knowledge that they wanted the AD to take over the state. He reportedly spoke to his father who put in some words and the tension simmered down until the opposing camps adopted a fresh strategy. Ibori, according to sources, believe that the leader has not pulled enough strings for him on the matter.
In Edo State, Governor Igbinedion, said an insider, had an unwritten accord with Anenih to support the leader in producing his successor from the central district but on the condition that Anenih would support his moving into a higher office after his tenure. For now, Anenih is alleged not disposed to Igbinedion becoming the next vice president. He is carrying Odili about even to events in the state. A case in point is the recent visit of the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie. The way Anenih held Odili throughout the visit was as if Igbinedion does not exist in his reckoning.
He was said to have recently written the governor a stinker over the solidarity march of the members of the State House of Assembly in support of labour’s position on petrol price hike and the governor allegedly replied with equal venom. Igbinedion was reportedly keeping to the gentleman agreement and was really not supporting anybody from his senatorial district for governorship until it dawned on him that he had been sidelined. It was because of Anenih that Igbinedion sited the state government’s Cassavita factory at Uromi, otherwise , there was no expedient reason to do so as the community does not produce cassava more than other Esan towns.
Though, both of them claim openly that all is well, that is a story for the marines. Analysts think, however, that Anenih and Igbinedion may make up their differences at the last minute as the leader would prefer to cap his political career by installing a governor from his district in 2007. That could mean dumping Odili, who is said to have done several things to keep his relationship with Anenih afloat.
Bayelsa State governor, Alamieyeseigha reportedly feels Anenih is looking down on him probably because of the stories that Rivers State allegedly fed concerning him and does not really care about any godfatherism as he is not coming back in 2007 while Governor Attah thinks that it is Igbinedion that made them to give the long rope that Anenih has now used to tie them.
Anenih’s line of attack:
Anenih is not fighting any of the governors openly and that has always been his style. Smooth and solid operation. He has his supporters though in the region. In Rivers State, it is 100 per cent for him and in his state, Edo, he has the support of members of his Central senatorial district. It is only the South and the North senatorial districts that Igbinedion can boast of controlling and that is not to say that one or two persons like Senator Victor Oyofo will not support him in the North. But the fact is that he is not wooing anybody for now because he believes in pulling his strings from above.
Obasanjo’s intervention:
Obasanjo has not really had cause to intervene in disagreements in the region before because the governors acted like robots in the hands of Anenih all these years. They never wanted the former national chairman, Chief Solomon Lar, to go but when Anenih came, saying that was Obasanjo’s wish, they complied. It was only when Igbinedion rejected some names sent by Anenih for appointment as commissioners in the state that he ran to Obasanjo and the president invited the governor and his father, the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion for talks.
In his first term, Igbinedion appointed Philip Olumese, who is not a nominee of Anenih from the leader’s district as a commissioner but soon after Olumese lost his job as commissioner, he was suspended for alleged anti-party activities in the area.
Financial transactions
He had since challenged his suspension. A former commissioner for education in the state, Dr. Joseph Itotoh, who Anenih recommended for appointment in Igbinedion’s second term was also not accepted while the move to ensure that Mr. Bright Omokhodion did not retain his position as the Commissioner for Finance for shielding the financial transactions at Osadebey Avenue from certain persons was rebuffed by the governor.
The leader wanted the Commissioner for Justice in the state, Chief Samson Ekhabafe, to retain his job but Igbinedion felt otherwise and appointed another person. Obasanjo was understood to have told the governor and his father that it was not fair for them to treat Anenih the way they were treating him after he had secured the governorship for them.
Supposition:
Looking at the matter the way the facts are, Obasanjo can be said to be a biased arbiter in the current crisis that has engulfed the zone but whether he would rise above his relationship with Anenih to take a dispassionate look at the matter will be determined by time. They are meeting tomorrow in Abuja and the governors believe that they have a good case but a judge cannot be independent in his own cause. The way the matter ends will determine in no small measure the flow of political power in the region ahead of 2007.
