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Tony Anenih and the verdict of history
By Dan Amor
Admittedly, to embark on a deconstruction
of Chief Tony Anenih or offer an honest critical evaluation of the whole corpus
of criticisms of this septuagenarian politician is certainly an ambitious
undertaking. In view of the avalanche of vitriolic attacks on the personality
of Chief Anenih by our army of commentators, fifth-columnists and critics, I
hope it may not also seem presumptuous. Yet, in spite of whatever level of
preconceived judgment of the reader, it is important to stress that there is a
deliberate ploy by apostles of feudal revival with hegemonic tendencies, to
cause confusion among leaders of the South-south geopolitical zone, ostensibly
to weaken their frontiers in the unified struggle for a fair deal in the
politics of oil resource allocation. And given Chief Anenih’s rising
profile in the national power calculus, he is perhaps a prime target in this
bring-him-down syndrome which is being sponsored through a section of the
press. As a Niger Delta youth who has been studying this scenario since the
past five years of democratic dispensation, it would be suicidal to maintain a
studied silence even in the face of disturbing provocations. My aim has
however been a very difficult one since I have wished more simply to rescue the
personality of the ageing politician from the obscurity into which it seemed to
me that it had fallen, just because there has been such an invaluable but
biased concentration on the political and social trends of the period of his
involvement in active partisan politics.
I must submit that since the past one
decade of my engagement in this business of minding other people’s
business, especially its most intricate and intellectually demanding aspect,
the business of informed commentary and editorial writing, I have never met
Chief Tony Anenih and I doubt if I will ever meet him. But whereas it is
imperative on us, as critics and analysts, to evaluate the political terrain
without fear or favour, it is indeed very necessary for us to always try to
offer a judicious assessment of the gladiators without let or hindrance.
Consequently, it would be more rational to repudiate the cynical
over-simplification that Anenih is not honed enough to bear the toga of a
political godfather, whatever that means. Yet, without recourse to the Geneva
convention of being kind and courteous to the elderly, I must say that Anenih
has paid his dues. His political battles may have been fought on a more
insular scale yet there are few who can surpass him in his superb command of
political theatrics and game plans. Granted that he has made a few comments
which may have cast a shadow over his predisposition and aroused much
subsequent obloquy. But he can never be ignored as the political strategist who
led in the first ever victory of the progressives over the conservatives in
Nigeria when, as national chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP,
he wielded the battle axe that led to the humiliating defeat of the reactionary
party, the National Republican Convention in the June 1993 Presidential
election, the freest and fairest in our annals.
Even those who disagree with some of his
apparently machiavellian political tactics cannot but see Chief Anenih as a
very principled politician who pursues his political ambition with a
single-minded devotion. The few who hold the erroneous view that Anenih sold
out the SDP victory to General Ibrahim Babangida in 1993 simply do not have a
profound appreciation of power and its most penetrating insight as well. The fact
of the matter-as the Italians once succinctly put it-is that power cannot be
wrested, no matter the paradigm one uses, without certain attributes by the
group or individual that jockeys after it. Popularized as the Three Cs in
political parlance, any group that earnestly seeks power must be cohesive. It
must be coherent. And it must be conspiratorial. And here was Anenih leading
a hapless group of civilians who were already polarized by Babanginda’s
machinations, coercion and brigandage. Who would have dared the military
without being charged for coup plot? Yet no Nigerian has made more impact on
the recent political history of this country than Tony Anenih; few have been so
persistently maligned in the folklore of our political evolution. Although this
is not an attempt to recreate his life and character freed from the distortions
of myth and propaganda, I believe that much as he is a man of controversy
enormously misunderstood by our opinion moulders, he is also a man of
surprising charm and generosity who loves and is loved by his people. It is
therefore unacceptable to surmise that Anenih is made of only a stern stuff who
does not feel the pains of the people. This hasty assumption would
discountenance the fact that the ruthless General of the battlefields could
also be a country gentleman who, after all his victories, could still hawk in
the fields nearby; that the stern Puritan can also be the most doting of
fathers; and that the most decisive and ruthless of commanders can as well be a
passionate connoisseur of music, wine and lover of women and the arts.
In fact, the combined significance of the
events and circumstances of his background is implicit in his nature and
lifestyle. More edifying but no less marvelous are his political exploits.
But Anenih’s story on the other hand, deals with no heroics in the
conventional sense, spills no blood, no backstairs trysts and chronicles no
mysterious path to sainthood. Rather than telling of a courtly rise to
stardom, as most successful men do, he describes a life begun in a humble
station easily amenable to change. Furthermore, he rose not by superhuman
strength, seductive liaison, or even amazing grace, but by application of
character traits accessible to anyone. As a leader, Anenih combines the
aggressive flaunting of the policeman with the wiles and cold shrewdness of the
game politician. Consequently, he exhibits the capacity to diddle and to
beguile as a virtuoso of the Nigerian power game. It is only natural that he
is the ready choice of president Olusegun Obasanjo to protect and preserve his
continuity or relevance in the power calculus. Not for him the highfalutin
rhetorics issued on the hustings, Anenih believes that no great nation is built
by leaders who cannot adhere strictly to principles regardless of the
consequences to their persons and ambitions.
It is, therefore, not a surprise that
Anenih is said to command the greatest followership, after the late General
Shehu Musa Yar’adu, in the nation’s political firmament. In
“Man In the News”, Daily Independent, October 3, 2004,
Banji Ojewale, easily one of the most gifted journalistic writers of this
generation, has said of Anenih: “He has not only successfully fought
several battles, but also from each seeming oblivious or mortal blows he has
received, he has re-emerged a stronger, doubly fortified and empowered
combatant”. A man of unusual political instinct who, when it came to
campaigning, has a reputation as “a giant killer”, Anenih has
ironically been misrepresented by a section of the press as a misfit. Yet,
with gritty honesty and admirable self-deprecation, he has told the press of
his rag-to-grace story, of what it was like to weather the storm of poverty and
the other squalls that followed in his early life. This he overcame to become
an indispensable kingmaker.
But experience leaves us in no doubt that
Anenih is perhaps the most misjudged figure in our modern political history.
As one who pulls no punches when it comes to assessing himself, and saying
things the way they are, Chief Anenih’s story is that of a politician
whose good humour is exceeded only by a competence and patriotism for which he
has never been fully credited.
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