Sunday 3 March 2013

Return of Anenih and the political sycophants

WITH the emergence of Chief Tony Anenih as the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after many  months of political horse trading and scheming, political sycophants who had before now vilified him on the pages of newspaper and levelled false allegations against him are already scrambling for spaces in the newspapers to congratulate him.
Reason for all these sycophantic displays by these failed and disgruntled politicians is nothing but to curry undue favour or protection from Anenih ahead 2015. They have just realised that Anenih as BoT chairman will be influential and strategic in PDP politics in 2015. So, the current barrage of congratulations to Anenih borders on the rat race for political relevance and survival in 2015.
Surprising is the calibre of politicians congratulating Anenih now even after they have written him off politically following his sudden removal as BoT chairman of the party by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 and his party’s loss of Edo governorship election last year. So guess who  first congratulated Anenih after his re-emergence?
It was Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of AbiaState who had been desperately seeking for political relevance and attention after many years of being in political wilderness following the collapse of his Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA, after the 2007 general elections. Some  weeks ago, Kalu claimed he has returned to the PDP with the issuance of the party membership card to him by the party executive in his ward.
However, the claim was promptly refuted by the party leadership in the council area, state and the zone. Recently, thousands of party members from his zone, Abia North, staged a peaceful protest to Government House Umuahia over the claimed return of Kalu to PDP.
But since his claimed re-admission into the party, Kalu has not attended any of the party meetings anywhere in the country, not even in Abuja, which puts a lie to his claim of having been re-admitted into the party.
It also appears Kalu has abandoned his Njiko Igbo group and Igbo Presidency 2015 crusade to float another political party? May be he has realised that the trick cannot work. But what are all these schemings, intrigues and inconsistencies by Kalu all about?
Did Kalu want to use his sudden congratulatory message to Anenih to find his way back to PDP through the backdoor after party members in his state rejected him? Maybe he has forgotten that Anenih and the rest of Nigerians know him more than he knows himself.
Is it not the same Anenih whom Kalu alleged was planning to kill him when he(Kalu) was governor of AbiaState?  Kalu had then  alleged that Anenih told his deputy, the late Chuma Nwafor, in Abuja that he (Anenih) would kill Kalu. And as if that was not enough, Kalu went further to allege that Anenih, as Minister of Works, mismanaged the huge sum budgeted for the Enugu/Port Harcourt road which was impassable for years. But when called upon  to substantiate his allegations against Anenih, he was not forthcoming with any concrete  evidence.
Rather than do this, he reportedly rushed to the Oba of Benin’s Palace with his mother to apologise to Anenih. So where is integrity in all this? Anenih is too experienced a politician to be flattered or carried away by Kalu’s sudden volte face. Such message looks more like a Greek Gift that must be received with caution.
Nigerians and PDP members certainly would be surprised to read a congratulatory message from Obasanjo to Anenih over the latter’s re-emergence as BoT Chairman, considering   the former disgracefully pushed out the latter from office some years ago. If anybody has told Obasanjo before now, that Anenih would return as BoT Chairman at this time,  Obasanjo would not have believe it. But here is the irony of life.
Or will anybody be surprised to read about Senator Andy Uba or his brother, Chris Uba’s sending a congratulatory message to Anenih on his re-emergence as chairman of BoT on the pages of newspapers in the days ahead? It was the same Chris Uba and his brothers who   took Anenih to the cleaners  during   the  Anambra 2010 governorship election over Anenih’s perceived support for the emergence of former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Prof. Charles Soludo as the PDP candidate for the election against their  wishes.
They reportedly colluded with other forces within the PDP to ensure that Soludo lost at the election. They called Anenih names and warned him to steer clear of Anambra politics.
Just watch it. In the days ahead many without integrity and desperation for relevance will rush to take advertorials on the pages of newspapers to congratulate Anenih, especially as the Anambra governorship election 2014 is  fast approaching. They will do everything human possibly and otherwise to warm their way into his heart just to curry immediate favour, forgetting that a killer might forget, but the man in whose house the grave is located hardly forgets.
Even Works Committee members in the House of Representatives who recently summoned Anenih to appear before them over some issues during his tenure as Minister of Works will now make a u-turn and join the bandwagon to congratulate him over his re-emergence as BoT Chairman.
So, there is need for Anenih to be wary of these political sycophants who would stop at nothing to get what they want, because they did not truly mean well for him and the party.
They are more of chameleon than human beings and must be closely watched ahead of 2015 to ensure their ulterior motives, which can be detrimental to the success of the party and the people, does not see the light of the day.
Mr. CLEMENT OMENEGOR, a systems analyst, wrote from  Toronto, Canada.

No comments:

Post a Comment