Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, former Senate President, was not experienced in the art of politics, but somehow, the youthful politician from Ebonyi State, got on fine and became a master of the game while in office. He allegedly deployed the instruments of money (allowing as it were unfettered access to the Senate funds), blackmail and intimidation to subdue opposition. He also benefited from the protection of the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which installed him as an official candidate of the party for the plum position. The party had elected him at its Senate caucus on August 9, 2000 to succeed former Senate President, the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who was removed on August 8, 2000. Anyim was presented on the floor of the Senate for ratification (election) on August 10, 2000. As soon as Anyim got in the saddle, he broke ranks with some of his friends and senators who helped him into office, among them Senator Mathew Tawo Mbu (Junior) and members of the Okadigbo group, which ensured that he defeated Wabara, perceived as the candidate of the presidency at the shadow election by the party caucus in the Senate. There were moves to unseat him, but the presidency and the party saved him. Besides, he confronted the opposition headlong, mustering all weapons at his disposal to stifle them.
When the presidency and the party withdrew their support and protection following a face-off with President Obasanjo and National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, and it appeared that the end was around the corner, a majority of his colleagues in the Senate, who were opposed to Obasanjo’s style of administration, rallied support for Anyim. That was how he was able to survive the onslaught by the opposition, which was spearheaded by maverick Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe. The opposition did not pretend about the direction they were coming from: They were out to fight on the side of, and defend President Obasanjo, who was at the time being subjected to psychological torture on account of his alleged non-implementation of the budgets and other alleged breaches that were considered impeachable offences. The impeachment axe dangled on President Obasanjo and Nzeribe and co. syndicated in the Senate to frustrate move to push the matter through. This was the spirit that propelled Nzeribe, former Senate President, Chief Evan Enwerem, Senator Adolphus Wabara (the current Senate President), Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and Senator Mathew Tawo Mbu (Junior) in the first assembly of the Senate, which terminated on June 2, 2003, to bunch together to defend Obasanjo and save democracy.
The predilection by these senators to work for the presidency was located in the politics of strategic relevance for re-election. There was camaraderie; there was passion and zeal that got them going. They held a series of meetings in and around Abuja to fine-tune strategies to frustrate the impeachment plan against Obasanjo in the Senate. Many of such strategy meetings were held in the house of Enwerem in Wuse 2 District of Abuja, a stone’s throw from the prestigious Nicon Hilton Hotel. The strategists worked together like one family, although some of them nursed ambition to be Senate President. Enwerem was even speculated to be angling to succeed Anyim while Wabara featured as a natural choice of the party on account of having been chosen in 1999 as compromise candidate when the scramble for the plum post between Enwerem and Okadigbo was threatening to tear the party. Nzeribe was to expand the scope of the offensive by moving to unseat Anyim, and even offered to replace him as Senate President. He had served notice of the motion he wanted to move to that effect, but the Senate Leadership moved faster on the day he was to move the motion by raking up allegations that he defrauded the Senate and consequent upon which he was suspended indefinitely from the Upper House.
One of the reasons why Anyim was buffeted by the storm of opposition was that he abandoned some of his friends with whom he worked to realise his dream of becoming Senate President. He deliberately did not give them strategic accommodation in the scheme of things in the Senate, particularly in appointment to juicy committees’ Chairmanship slots.
For instance, the question maybe asked, even though somewhat belatedly as to what led to the breakdown of the friendship between Anyim and Mbu (Junior). Again, at what point did Nzeribe fall out with Anyim after he moved a confidence motion in his leadership when the initial crisis against Anyim’s leadership broke out? Can the fact be contested that Anyim demoted, in a manner of speaking, Wabara from being Chairman of Police Committee of the Senate to being Vice Chairman, Committee on Commerce because he (Wabara) contested the Senate President’s position with him? It was therefore easy, without any prodding from any quarters, for them to pitch their tent on the side of the presidency in the fight against Anyim. Although, Anyim could not be removed, the reward of that loyalty manifested in the re-election of Wabara, Nzeribe and Ararume as Senators.
The duo of Enwerem and Mbu, even though they were/are Obasanjo’s men, were not lucky because they had their albatross in their respective state governors who did not want them to return to the Senate for certain political reasons. They did not scale through the primaries of the party. This was how only three members of the core group of Senators working for the presidency were re-elected. Incidentally, the “trinity” of Wabara, Ararume and Nzeribe accounts for three of the four old Senators who were re-elected from the Southeast zone, the fourth being Fidelis Okoro.
But curiously, unlike the Biblical Trinity of the Christians, which works together in harmony, there is no concert among and between Wabara, Nzeribe and Ararume. Whereas, they could have bunched together for effective performance in the Senate considering where they come from and the spirit that propelled them hitherto; whereas, they could have used their unity for strength and advancement of their strategic senatorial and, perhaps, personal political interests so much so that any one of them could become a force to be reckoned with in 2007 political calculations for the presidency; whereas, they could have become the proverbial Yoruba tripod that does not upturn or spill the soup while it is being cooked on the fire; whereas they would have consolidated a “trinity” that would be enviable to the degree and extent of its positive impact on the stability of the Senate leadership under Wabara. Vanguard’s Political Magazine can authoritatively confirm that there was a very strong chord of friendship between Wabara and Ararume to the extent that Ararume once told Vanguard how close he was to Wabara, how he assisted him during his senatorial election in 2003 and which Wabara confirmed when the battle was on to validate his candidature as the authentic winner of the Abia South Senatorial election.
There were reports that when Ararume did the one year final outing for his late mother last December, Wabara stayed with him in the village for three days after other guests had left. The question then is: Does it mean that all these no longer count in a friendship that has been so demonstrated to the envy of others? And again, Wabara and Nzeribe got along fine on account of their relationship in the first assembly that was consummated by their membership of the group working in support of the presidency. What fractured the relationship? At what point was the relationship fractured? Nzeribe and Ararume, both from Imo State relate like brothers. What made Nzeribe blow the whistle on Ararume in the recent ill-fated plot to oust Wabara from office as Senate President?
Perhaps, the answers can be located in the realm of ambition for position and desire for access to financial and economic empowerment. Whichever one applies to Ararume and Nzeribe does not matter any more. The “trinity” has been violated and broken. Again, watchers of the developments involving the three erstwhile friends are also wont to ask: How well has Wabara acted in taking care of the interests of Ararume and Nzeribe in matters of committee positions? Was Nzeribe asking for too much when he allegedly demanded to be made Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and which refusal by Wabara, reportedly on the rejection by the presidency, prompted Nzeribe to instigate his southeast colleagues as leader of that caucus to reject the other chairmanship positions given to them? Was this not the point at which their relationship was fractured?
Did Wabara not play mature politics subsequently by protecting Nzeribe’s head after Nzeribe used un-parliamentary language on him on the floor, accusing him of having sold out as the committees composition announced by Wabara alienated and further marginalised the southeast zone?
Wabara had asked the Senate not to push the demand for apology by Nzeribe as the matter had been resolved at the southeast Senators’ caucus. It was at the caucus meeting that a decision was taken that the chairmanship of the Power and Steel Committee that was reserved for him be given to Ararume who had rejected on the floor his appointment as Chairman of Committee on Federal Character, Local and State Affairs. Did Wabara do well by removing Ararume in January this year as Chairman of Power and Steel Committee and returning the post to the original owner for whom it was reserved- Nzeribe? And why did he make Ararume Vice Chairman of Committee on Culture and Tourism? Was it to rub it in on him that he could not empower him (Ararume) with Power and Steel Committee Chairmanship and still be plotting against him? Was Ararume really angling quietly to be Senate President in Wabara’s stead? Who was encouraging him in that direction?
Why did Nzeribe originate the ill-fated plot to remove Wabara despite his being Chairman of the Power and Steel Committee? For whatever reason it was, things have gone awry for the “trinity” and it is now left for Wabara, being the Senate President (and the father in this trinity) to work out solid arrangements to accommodate the duo of Nzeribe (the spirit, not evil spirit as he is wont to be referred in some circles) and Ararume (the son, as he looks meek, not minding whatever belies that mien) if that is the only way to get their minds off the long term plan of destabilizing his leadership.
And, even though, Nzeribe has been removed as Leader of the Southeast Caucus coupled with the recommendation of the Mamora Ethics Committee that he should apologise to the Senate for the role he played in the recent plot to oust the Senate leadership, Wabara must be seen to have done something for friendship sake, for peace and stability to reign; he must be seen to have been very fair to them and vice versa in the spirit of reciprocity, and having done that in order to mend the broken walls, he would have succeeded in leaving them to their conscience. And what next? God, time and watchers of developments in the Senate will tell if he has acted rightly or not.
