THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Anyim’s
Job: An Orchid for Ndiigbo or an Intriguer’s Bait
Hank Eso
Monday 20 June 2011
For Ndiigbo, the
macabre politics now playing out over the allotment of national offices might
seem proper, if not divinely induced. But where some see orchids, others discern
well-concealed pitfalls... These developments open up channels for those who
would seek retaliation and oppose southeast’s claim to the presidency in 2015 on
the grounds that zoning died in 2011.
As
Nigeria celebrates its recent electoral reform successes, the seemingly
hitch-free leadership transition, and contemplates the future of its nascent
democracy, some nagging thoughts recur.
Is all that is happening politically Kosher and in the national interest?
And have we heard the last of how best to strike a power and resource sharing
balance in ways that even if not every geopolitical zone is satisfied, at least
every zone will be equally unhappy.
That is called compromise!
The recent doling out of national offices by the ruling party
has ruffled some feathers, while in some quarters, there is understandable
gloating. But is this the way things should be in a progressive democracy that
attaches great premium to equity, balance and common ownership?
Was the mantra of the ruling NPN in the Second Republic not “one
nation one destiny”, which underlined a commonality of shared interest and
fairness?
With the calming, beneficial and unfailing influence of
hindsight, I have facetiously wondered what the state of political play in
Nigeria would have been, had the political strategists in General Muhamadu
Buhari’s CPC camp offered Anyim Pius Anyim the position of being Buhari’s
running mate, with the clear understanding that Buhari, like President Goodluck
Jonathan, would not seek a second term in 2015. This, of course, would not
happen without the usual faux alliances or carpet-crossing.
But ponder that scenario momentarily.
This supposition, if it were ever conceivable, is now a moot
point. But then this pundit just can’t help thinking of it; more so now that
Anyim Anyim has emerged as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), presumably by Igbo consensus. Still there is a certain irony in the
evolving trends and political calisthenics, which are resulting in unintended
power shifts. Put together, recent events relating to allocation of national
offices are clear indicators of how difficult it is to navigate Nigeria’s
political landscape and indeed, discern reality from actuality.
To some, Anyim’s emergence could
be a sign of Ndiigbo finally getting their act together; and hence a development
that could be well-leveraged into an effective presidential slot and run in
2015. Such thinking is precipitate
if not back by any strategic plan. I am averse to the notion of an “Igbo
presidency”, which carries with it certain connotations. Rather, I am all for an
Igbo candidate for the Nigerian presidency.
Call it semantics or parsing the issue, but my point should clear.
My point afore, is one which seems to resonate with Ohanaeze
Ndiigbo, which reportedly played a pivotal role in Anyim’s emergence. The
President of Ohanaeze, Chief Ralph Uwechue has already marked Anyim’s
appointment as the veritable sign of a new beginning for Ndiigbo and perhaps for
Nigeria. But there remains a murky
constitutional issue in tow, since overall, the constitutional order of federal
character has been breached, even if unwittingly. So a bad precedent has been
set.
Nevertheless, what is clear is that Ndiigbo
either did their homework this time around or that fate smiled on them. Out of
the Obudu Retreat, Anyim’s name was reportedly not on the table, since the Igbo
focus was on the Speaker of the House. Reliable sources hinted that President
Jonathan had earmarked for that slot, an Igbo lady who once served as Foreign
Minister, who had impeccable policy and administration credentials, but was not
from the southeast zone. In
classical Nigerian politics, what turned out to be less
geopolitical balancing but more of ethnic chauvinism, won the day thus creating
an obvious constitutional imbalance.
But some underline
the putative value of Anyim’s emergence as an overriding consideration. In the
main, Anyim was considered for his soundness -- a safe hand (comparatively to
Ojo Maduekwe and others), who had safely navigated the vagaries of the Senate
Presidency and survived where several men considered more politically astute and
nimble than him, had crashed
(See,” The
prerogatives of power: The case of Anyim P. Anyim”).
Indubitably, Anyim’s appointment will assuage some Igbo folks but not all, and
especially not those who coveted the Speaker of the House, the number three
ranking job in the nation. That was
not to be, thanks reportedly to the scheming of former president Olusegun
Obasanjo, who, using his clout and control of the PDP Board of Trustees, ensured
that slot of the Speaker of the House was to be retained by the southwest zone.
By a twist of fate and some say retribution, that too, was not to be eventually.
For Ndiigbo, Anyim’s appointment can
be seen as the proverbial half-full glass.
Ndiigbo lost the PDP Chairmanship and got the SGF, but the political
needs-expectation-and- entitlement scale is still unbalanced. What and how much
support Anyim gets and how much political mileage he is able to leverage that
position – not necessarily in a Machiavellian sense—will determine if the
position is worth the marbles.
Despite his behemoth physical size, he must be low-keyed and unobtrusive, like
U. J. Ekaette and Yayale Ahmed, but essentially, he must not be perceived as
insensately ambitious or politically overbearing as Babagana Kingibe.
Also, Anyim can drive Nigeria’s much needed reform and
transformative policies and their efficient implementation, if he rises above
the political fray and does not allow himself to be dragged into partisan
politics. True, he is Igbo, but he
must serve in the interest of all Nigerians.
He should not let self-serving Igbo charlatans distract him from
discharging tasks within his unenviable remit, which will include policy
coordination, as well as oversight of governmental ministries, parastatals, and
related agencies, that fall under the Cabinet Office. He has the sole
responsibility for the administration of the Federal Executive Council.
If there is one task, he must assist the president with; it is cutting
down on the cost of running the central government, which has escalated against
the need to ensure diverse representation and geographic balance.
President Jonathan has already indicated that Anyim’s role
includes driving the reform and transformation agenda.
In that context, Anyim will need every goodwill and experience he
garnered as a lawyer, senator, and Senate President for this new job.
More importantly, he will need the lessons he gleaned in the many years
he was out of office and as a private citizen, to guide him.
From the latter position, he must have garnered invaluable lessons, on
how not to serve public interest in self-serving ways. Of his role, Anyim said,
“I will fit into the vision of the
President. I will help to drive his vision to the best of my abilities.”
Forthcoming and accommodating as his pledge is, this disposition should
in no way be synonymous with being a yes-man. What the President needs
henceforth are men about him, who are honest, forthright and loyal, but not
afraid to look him in the eyes and call a spade a spade or disagree on policy
direction. He also needs men who
can shield him from his own party and the extremist sharks within without being
spoilers.
It would be of invaluable worth to take the present position
of Ndiigbo for its presumed added value, by discounting subplots and the
groundswell of subterfuge that are commonplace in Nigerian politics. Apropos
Anyim’s emergence, Ohanaeze claim to have
“consulted heavily amongst ourselves and the governors,”
and “suggesting names to the president”.
That may all be true, but for Nigerians, it is commonly known that the expressed
and vital interest of Ndiigbo was never the SGF as it was the Speaker of the
House, which though initially zoned to the southwest, has now be de-zoned by
popular fiat and given to the north-west.
Indisputably, the election of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, a
three-term member from Sokoto State as the new House Speaker, over the
party-mandated Mulikat Akande-Adeola from the Southwest speaks to the vagaries
of Nigeria politics. Many of those who voted for Tambuwal, crossed political
zone and party lines in doing so, and those within the ruling PDP justified
their stance by saying that the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) did not
consult them. Thus, they basically voted their conscience, asserted their
independence or cast protest votes over the upending of zoning in selecting the
presidential candidate. As regards
the latter, those who truncated zoning paved the path for Tambuwal to emerge,
since he was encouraged to join the fray by northern and southern political
leaders who felt aggrieved by the party’s handling of its zoning policy.
Coincidentally, the
north and the southeast, two zones which felt most disenfranchised by the
scuttling of the PDP zoning policy, seems to be the beneficiaries of the fallout
of this fractious politics. A
corollary to this fallout of the zoning fiasco was the arrest of former House
Speaker Demeji Bankole, which has further compounded the political loss for the
south-west. When former House Speaker Patricia Etteh lost her position in 2007,
the south-west did not lose the slot.
So
to some, the diametric loss for the south-west is perhaps a poetic justice
reward of sorts for PDP chieftain former president Olusegun Obasanjo, whom many
in the south-east and north-west have always considered the intriguer, who
“killed” zoning after benefiting from it. To them those instrumental to upending
zoning, which essentially cost the north the presidency, had to pay a price: it
seemed only rational that the import and pains of such Machiavellianism should
be felt all around.
In a broader sense and in reality no one anticipated the present status quo which is a reverse for PDP. The north has produced the Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and the Chief Justice of the Nigeria Aloysius Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu. The South-East has SGF Anyim Pius Anyim, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, and Deputy House Speaker Emeka Ihedioha. For its part, the South West has no national official – an inadvertent but still clear breach of the constitutional dictate requiring federal character. There may be some veracity in the remarks by acting National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Bello Haliru Mohammed, that “[the] election will not mean the end of zoning because even if we don’t take zoning as a policy, PDP is a party of equity and fair play. And equity and fair play demand that of the major positions, at the party and the government, each section of this country should have at least one position or the other so that we can achieve peace and stability.”
This is PDP doubletalk at its best!
Still this development is fraught with imponderables for Nigerian politics and
our political leaders and historians must recognize these actions not mere
happenstance but as precursors to the crisis ahead. The piqued undertones
accompanying southwest losses and the north-west and southeast triumphalism over
their gains are noteworthy. They are evocative of long-standing dichotomies that
have dogged east-west political relations.
Whereas southeast politicians did not hatch the plot that led to
southwest losses, they risk the blame due to the incivility and gloating in some
quarters. As an Igbo saying goes: “the
dog eats the excrement and the goat that gets the rotted teeth”.
For Ndiigbo, the macabre politics now playing out over the
allotment of national offices might seem proper, if not divinely induced. But
where some see orchids, others discern well-concealed pitfalls. Either way,
there are great stakes at play. The actuality is that the return of David Mark
from the north-central zone seems only proper, so that after eight years the
position may rotate out without dispute. Same privilege should have been
accorded the southwest. After all, the southeast enjoyed its full eight-year
senate presidency tenure under Obasanjo. For Ndiigbo to be perceived as joining
others to upend the southwest’s retention of the House Speaker’s slot, after
being allotted the SGF, would open up channels for those who would seek
retaliation and oppose southeast’s claim to the presidency in 2015 on the
grounds that zoning died in 2011. Go figure.
With neither anger
nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe
closely.
--------
Hank Eso
is a columnist for
Kwenu.com.
His observations on Nigerian, African and global politics and related issues,
has appeared in various print media, journals and internet-based sites.
© Hank Eso,
20 June 2011.
Email:
hankeso@aol.com