BY SUFUYAN OJEIFO
My dear Owanle,
It has been a little over five years since you departed this earthly sphere in a blaze of grandeur to be with your maker. You left behind big shoes, which none of your followers have been able to step into. Leader, while on this part of the great divide, you defined your eon with the magnitude of your persona, politics, and eleemosynary act. You lived for others, especially your followers in Edo and far beyond the boundaries of our dear State. Your significant imprimatur was pan-Nigeria; you built bridges of political goodwill across the country. You received a reciprocal gesture from a nation that benefitted at different intersections from your administrative savoir faire (at the Ministry of Works as minister and the Nigerian Ports Authority as Board chair) and political interventions (in the defunct National Party of Nigeria where you were Chairman of the old Bendel State chapter, the defunct Social Democratic Party where you were National Chairman and the Peoples Democratic Party where you were Chairman of the Board of Trustees at two different times). Leader, what you principally wished for before your transition-to live a good name for posterity- has so far been fulfilled. There have not been issues that have insinuated you into financial mismanagement of monumental proportions to provide a context for salacious media narratives as they have been the cases with a good number of persons who have also passed. I, therefore, rest assured that you are resting peacefully in the Bosom of your Creator.
Leader, Sir, in April 2022, I penned a piece entitled: “2023: What will I tell Chief Tony Anenih?” It was published in The Authority newspaper of April 5, 2022, and many online newspapers and news platforms. The motivation to pen the piece was the political monkeyshines that ramified the ecosystem of the Edo State chapter of the PDP in the build-up to the 2023 general elections. I refer in particular to the primary elections that would later fracture and factionalise the party. The dissonance produced the Legacy Group headed by your erstwhile dependable political son, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, and the other camp of new entrants into the PDP-headed by the State Governor Godwin Obaseki. You are probably shocked to hear that Obaseki is in the PDP. While you were here, he was a product of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Government House on Osadebey Avenue. Obaseki touched the tail of his godfather in the APC, and his party leaders promptly decided to deny him a re-election ticket on the party’s platform. He had to run cap-in-hand to the PDP with his deputy, Phillip Shaibu, to Dan Orbih and co, who bent backwards, and made significant concessions by ceding the party ticket to Obaseki/Shaibu. In his darkest period, your legacy of accommodation and pragmatism shone through for Edo State.
Tony Anenih, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former minister of works and housing under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He died at the age of 85.
Whereas, it was PDP’s shortest cut to get back to power in the state since 2008 when it lost the governorship seat to Adams Oshiomhole, the overarching consequence is that your PDP progenies in whose hands you left the PDP appear to have been punished for their generosity. Today, they are reeling under the burden of the collateral damage occasioned by their lack of diligence in reaching firm agreements before accepting Obaseki into the PDP. This is because, as it is, the aboriginal PDP (Legacy Group) found themselves ostracized and treated like pariahs in the immediate aftermath of the so-called PDP governorship victory in Edo. You can imagine the pains of being used, betrayed, dumped, and derided by an entity that, by his own admission, claims you saved him from the political guillotine.
I can picture you sitting with your legs crossed, slowly shaking your head as you read this.
Leader, Sir, something else happened during the 2022 primary election, which I essentially addressed in the piece referenced supra. I wrote about how you led your loyalists and followers from the front, how you took the bullet for them, and ministered to their diverse needs. I posited that while many other political leaders were using their privileged positions to fix their children in politics, either through appointive or elective offices, you ensured that your loyalists rather than your children were duly positioned. I recalled in 2007 how you rebuffed entreaties from President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion that you should allow your first son, Tony Anenih Jnr., to join the gubernatorial race, and how three years later, in 2010, you similarly forced another son of yours, Oseyili, to abandon his ambition to contest for a House of Representatives seat. The point I tried to drive home in the piece was that it was only a selfless politician with community or kindred spirit that could rebuff such entreaties and allures. As I pointed out and it bears repeating, Sir: you believed in building up your loyalists to succeed you; and the idea was to ensure continuity of group interest.
But, leader, Sir, I recall your commitment and effort towards empowerment of Edo people; and, how you positively affected the destinies of quite a good number. I did a sampling: Chief Dan Osi Orbih (whose appointment as member of the Board of the NNPC you facilitated in 1999), the late Joseph Itotoh whose appointment as minister of state for internal affairs you facilitated in 2003; Elder Odion Ugbesia, whose appointment as minister of solid minerals you facilitated in July 2003 to replace the late Itotoh. You also ensured his nomination and election to the Senate. You almost made Ugbesia the governor of Edo State in 2007 if not for Obasanjo’s opposition that culminated in the emergence of Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor. Architect Mike Onolenmemen was thrice lucky with you, Sir. From being appointed into the Interim Management Committee (IMC) to wind down the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), you nominated him for appointment as Minister of State for Defence while in 2011, he got third time lucky as you nominated him for appointment as Minister of Works. Leader, Sir, there were so many others across the state who were endorsed for either elective or appointive positions in Edo state and at the national level.
This was the reason I felt in 2022 to write about some events happening in your “political backyard, how your political progenies were faring and how steadfast some of the leaders you empowered and positioned for leadership were applying themselves to the demands of the leadership positions. Leader, Sir, I had pointed out in the piece how Orbih had remained steadfast in the battle to save the PDP political family from being supplanted by outsiders who came in for accommodation and settlement after their leader, Obaseki, had deployed the party platform in winning re-election in 2020. The celebration of the PDP victory was short-lived as Governor Obaseki took steps to hijack the party structure. Both factions dragged each other through the courts. While that legal intercession was on, the primary election in 2022 had begun, and this resulted in the factions producing two lists of candidates for the State and National Assembly seats. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of the Obaseki faction. In that circumstance, PDP went into the general elections divided, and the outcomes of the polls were as predictable as they were disastrous.
Leader, Sir, it may interest you to know that your son, Oseyili, even took a shot at the ticket for Esan Northeast/Esan Southeast Federal Constituency seat on the platform of the PDP Legacy Group. His participation became an issue as opposition to his aspiration came from unexpected quarters. Your hitherto trusted loyalists who benefitted from your political large-heartedness turned themselves into political hawks and savages baying for the blood of Oseyili. They piled pressure on him to withdraw even when he was the most qualified among all the aspirants for the ticket. Oseyili remained unbowed and unbroken. He saw the process through even when he was apparently robbed of his victory through sundry manipulations of the process. The fires of the political furnace he was put through refined and strengthened him. Today, he is fast emerging as the leader in Esan North East.
Of more concern, Sir, is the abandonment by your disciples of the politics of sacrifice you preached. I had thought, Sir, that all your so-called loyalists should have considered it appropriate and rational to respect you even in death by keeping faith with what you stood for: unity of the party and a streamlined succession and power rotation arrangement. Instead, they are all running around building new structures in promotion of their selfish political interests and in pursuit of their respective ambitions. They do not care that their moves are in direct opposition to the interest of the Esan community, whose hope of producing governor can only be achieved through concerted and “dispersed” efforts. What I had expected was that they should not have considered any sacrifice or concession to be too much to make for the sake of the Party; for the advancement of your Esanland which you presided over as her Iyasele; and for the sake of the wider Edo community. This, to me, is the most conscionable way to honour your political legacy, Sir.
Now, the race for the governorship election in 2024 has begun. You remember that after Osunbor lost the governorship in 2008 to Oshiomhole at the court, you had tried on two occasions to deploy strategic support for Edo South in 2012 (General Charles Airiavbere) and 2016 (Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu) both from Edo South as governorship candidates of the PDP to leverage the support of a majority of about 52 percent voter population in the zone. You were much aware that the 18 per cent voter population in Edo Central was too weak to effectuate or consummate poll victory for anybody who emerged as PDP candidate from the central. But now, in keeping with the principles of justice, fairness, and equity which you lived by, the faction of the PDP headed by Governor Obaseki has committed to Edo Central producing the candidate for the election. I am sure this is a piece of good news to make your day. But as good as the news or plan may sound, it has already run into a storm within the PDP. By the way, Sir, the PDP membership has depleted in the central zone. That, too, will shock you, as you raised your followers to be stoic and faithful members of the PDP. Alas, your passing appears to have weakened their spirits and resolve. Many of your loyalists had since gravitated into the APC. One of your political sons, Monday Okpebholo, yes the same Monday (aka Akpakomiza, but I am not sure you knew he bore this moniker then because as a businessman who leveraged your connections for success in his businesses, he was not at the epicentre of politics), is now a Senator representing Edo Central. He is also jostling for the governorship ticket of the APC. Architect Onolememen – yes, your Arc. Mike Onolememen whom you pampered in the world of politics – is in the APC now, also fixing his eyes on the governorship ticket.
While it may be an arduous task for the central, which is not the strongest base of the APC to produce the party’s guber candidate, the PDP which enjoys age-long support of the zone due largely to your strong leadership to which the people of the zone were sentimentally attached, looks good to produce the guber candidate in the zone. But while Governor Obaseki is giving the project a significant push, your erstwhile dependable political son-Orbih- who is angry with Obaseki over the manner he had disrupted the party, would appear to be determined to exact his pound of flesh from Obaseki, something more of a sweet revenge. He is pushing to ensure that the race for the ticket is thrown open. I can inform you authoritatively that he is rooting for an Edo South aspirant-Hon Omoregie Ogbeide Ihama, the same man who along with other PDP members like Kenneth Imasuagbon and Gideon Ikhine conceded the ticket to Obaseki in 2020 (Oh, before I forget to inform you Sir: Rice Man has since ported to Labour Party while Gideon has found a new home in the APC). This political footing to jettison zoning in favour of their individual personal ambitions, according to analysts and those close to the development, may hurt Obaseki’s plan to micro-zone the ticket to Edo central.
That is the existential fear that has cast a pall on Esan governorship agenda from luxuriantly finding expression on the platform of the PDP, regardless of the fact that the zone parades a good number of very qualified aspirants like the cerebral Barr. Asue Ighodalo or the politically sagacious Anslem Ojezua who can be recommended for the job. But Orbih’s dissonance with Obaseki is the elephant in the room, according to some stakeholders, which the party both the state and national levels must address and resolve, otherwise the Edo Central governorship agenda may fall through. One of the stakeholders who had a chat with me was even suggesting your intervention to pacify Orbih, yes, he meant in a dream, if you could cause an appearance in a dream to reconcile Obaseki with him for seamless realization of a governor of Esan extraction and avert a battle to the finish this time round that will certainly be counterproductive to the Edo Central governorship agenda.
Leader, when you visit Chief Orbih in a dream; remind him of the sacrifices you had to make to build your political dynasty; and promote the interests of the collective over the individual. Remind him of the sacrifices you made for him. Of all the times you had to bury your ego and the betrayals you too suffered in the interests of peace and progress. Tell Dan that for Edo and for PDP, he must sit with Obaseki, reconcile their differences; and forge a unity ticket that can go ahead to win the 2024 Edo governorship elections.
Leader, Sir, I will stop this seemingly long missive at this juncture with the hope that I will get in touch soonest with fresh updates. Continue to enjoy your deserved rest in the Bosom of your Creator.
Yours affectionately
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Your former Media Assistant
[Now Publisher of THE CONCLAVE online newspaper]
Thursday, December 28, 2023
