KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER

The prerogatives of power: The case of Anyim P. Anyim

Hank Eso

Wednesday, 25 June 2003

Watching on television in my London Hotel room, as Ivor Karlovic dispatched Lyelton Hewitt the reigning men’s tennis Wimbledon champion with ignominy in the opening round on 23 June, thus breaking a 117- year history set me thinking about exit strategies. Some exit strategies are honorable and some ignoble. But in the end, each actor is partly the architect of his own fate. Which brings me to the tragedy of Nigeria’s mean politics and how our politicians tend to make their exit, and especially about Anyim Pius Anyim.

Those who wield and exercise political power must fully understand its import and use. They must also understand all the pertinent antonyms of power – incapacity, subjection, weakness, imbecility, inertness, insusceptibility, subservience, etc. Furthermore, they must grasp the full import of Henry Brooks Adams virtual realty assertion about wielding power, that,“A friend in power is a friend lost”. Those without friends soon enough become lonely and must of necessity heed their own counsel. When one cannot effectively use and exercise political power for public good, they must either make the hard-headed decision to quit while ahead, cling to the elusive power and self-deduct or become totally irrelevant. Few men have tested power and yet had the keen sense and nobility to quit while ahead. The greatest tool possessed by political power brokers, is the prerogative to exercise such powers or not to, in the common interest. Contemplating such moves is even more difficult in Nigeria where amongst other things, “practical politics consists in ignoring facts.” But to grasp the best nuances of Nigerian politics and therefore act “appropriately” requires a deep insight and knowledge of André Brenton’s “Surrealist Manifesto”. To paraphrase Brenton: “You have to keep reminding yourself that “Nigerian politics” is one of the saddest road that leads to everything.”

Nigeria’s still emerging democracy is very much an uncharted terrain for most of our political leaders and those who have aspirations to lead. Our political landscape is still an arena strewn with traps and full of pitfalls, where very few men have tasted power and yet exercised the prerogative to give it up voluntarily, even when they are convinced that doing so will in the long run serve public interest better and preserve their hard earned integrity. Nigeria’s history, our political history is therefore, replete of those who left public office on a stretcher via coups, those who lost their mandate through an ignoble rejection at the polls and their failure to successfully rig themselves into elective offices, and one historical instance, where concerted international and domestic pressure forced General Ibrahim Babangida to step aside -- yet leaving open the option for him to retrace his steps to Aso Rock. I have become convinced, that as a general rule, the only time Nigerian politicians voluntarily leave office is when the cost of staying in office far outweighs the cost of leaving.

Yet in 2003 we behold a novelty with the exit of Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim. I have grappled with the why, whereof and truth about his exit from office, more so, since Nigerian politicians have made holding political office, which ought to be an intermittent public service, a recurring and professional event. In conclusion, I believe that so far in the Fourth Republic, the honor of exiting honorably (pardon the tautology) goes to Anyim Pius Anyim, the former President of the Nigerian Senate. Perhaps unknown to him and many others, he follows in the magisterial footsteps of Senator Francis J. Ellah, the only Nigerian that had the impetus in the Second Republic to quit politics while ahead, rather than sully his good name and hands with Nigeria’s dirty politics. He also walks the path trodden by Commodore Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe, who rather than be humiliated while grasping for power, made an honorable exit from the military and politics during the Babangida regime, and is all the better for it today.

This piece, as the reader might have already guessed, is a tribute of sorts to Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, from someone who is never into hero worship and crass admiration of public figures. I have never met Senator Anyim in person and, from my far distance, did not particularly fancy or reckon with him as someone with the political depth to grasp the labyrinthine perplexity and vagaries of Nigeria’s obfuscating politics. As an attentive member of the Nigerian political audience, Anyim was not on my political radar as a prospective Igbo leader, talk less a national leader. I therefore deemed him a political lightweight when he assumed office—fully convinced that he was untutored in our political ways to make a difference.

When Anyim Pius Anyim was thrown into the vortex of Nigerian leadership politics in the aftermath of the visceral destruction and ouster of Evan(s) Ewerem and Chuba Okadigbo from the senate presidency, he was to many Nigerians and I, an unknown quantity. I saw his emergence as one of those quirks in Nigerian and especially Igbo politics, where as Chinua Achebe likes to point out, our preference is always to field not the best team or players, but second rated teams and players. Anyim with his wits around him managed to stay in office till then end of his term, having perhaps deciphered that being in a cocoon state was the best form of self-preservation in the thick of Nigerian dog-eat-dog politics. If that was his strategy, he succeeded mighty well. But I have no qualms admitting here, that Anyim Pius Anyim may have proven me wrong. Such is the reality of being a pundit without the benefit of being clairvoyant.

Those who knew Pius Anyim before his emergence in national politics complete with a new name “Anyim Pius Anyim” offer some insight to this former civil servant and lawyer. They believe that he would not have emerged into the thick of national politics but for the creation of Ebonyi State. Born on 19 February 1961 and elected to the Nigerian senate in 1999, he was not presumptuous about his abilities to conquer the world of Nigerian politics. Indeed, and this was listed on the website of the Nigerian Congress, his sole mission in the National Assembly as he offered it, was the generic offer “to work towards total democratization of Nigeria.” This modesty reflected his background and absolute lack of political know-how and savvy. But this freshness for the freshman senator from Ebonyi State might have been his strongest point, besides his huge stature, which was his only distinguishing feature. But the Olusegun Obasanjo’s Nigerian Empire is not Julius Caesar’s Roman Empire. For it if were or even aspired to true greatness, General Obasanjo would have favored Anyim Pius Anyim as an ally and a political soul mate. He would have, like Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar surrounded himself with big and robust men like Anyim, having succeeded in getting rid of Chuba Okadigbo, who reminded him of Shakespeare’s Casca – a man who had a “lean and hungry look” and therefore deemed “dangerous.”

On a fateful day of Monday 2 June 2003, some 1460 days or one full term after being elected, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim heeded the call of his conscience and bowed out gracefully of the Nigerian Senate. He made his exit in style and with great flourish delivering to posterity and a jam-packed senate his 40-page valedictory speech. In taking this discretionary line of action, he preserved his integrity and reserved the right to reemerge into Nigeria politics wiser, better respected and perhaps, even with a greater opportunity to rightfully claim to be the key Igbo political leader when that time comes.

To understand why Anyim’s voluntary exit should be deem significantly important, one has to look at the backdrop on which his departure was predicated. As we have come to expect, the Nigerian Senate Presidency is an awfully powerful and coveted position. Though only third in the political leadership nomenclature and pecking order, it is an office that could be used to achieve a greater good for the nation or conversely, one that is vulnerable to egregious misuse. He who controls the senate controls the “national purse string,” but then, practicing democracy in Nigeria is akin to fighting a guerilla war. And like in any war, the first casualty is the truth. The second casualty, are usually those who stand firm in their resolve for what is right, what is the truth or what they believe in. They end up being sacrificed. And so, it was Anyim Pius Anyim. But if Salisu Buhari was ousted for misrepresenting himself and bringing indignity to the National Assembly, and Evan(s) Ewerem for political lassitude, Chuba Okadigbo for profligacy and financial licentiousness, why was Anyim Pius Anyim ousted in a silent revolution? The truth remains that he never committed any act for which his predecessors or the former Speaker of the House was ousted. But he may have committed a greater crime –that of practicing selfless politics.

On substance, the legislative accomplishments of the Nigerian Senate over which Ewerem, Okadigbo and eventually Anyim Pius Anyim presided, pales when compared to the intensity and insidious infighting that took place within the Senate, and between the Legislative and the Executive arms of Government. Anyim, if the truth be told, inherited from Ewerem and Okadigbo, a severely “poisoned chalice”. What cannot be denied were the endless debilitating dogfights that created a miasma in the National Assembly. Also, the Senate having twice impeached its own leaders for spurious reasons turned on President Obasanjo the third time around. This culmination of the assault (or was it a reprisal) on the Executive Branch happened under Anyim’s watch. It was singularly a more deadly blow than anything that had been thrown across the bow of ship of state while Obasanjo was in command.

It has been suggested in some quarters that it was the short-lived nature of Anyim’s anticipated subservience to Aso Rock that irked the powers that be within PDP. But there were some serious fights within the party and between the National Assembly and the Presidency over serious national issues. Such fights incidentally are not rare in real democracies. Notable among these, were the controversial 2001 Electoral Bill, which in clause 80 (1) sought to bar new political parties from contesting elections in 2003. It also sought to extend the tenure of Local Government Chairmen to four years, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. Party loyalties notwithstanding, the Senate under Anyim stood its grounds against efforts by Obasanjo and his supporters to subvert the political process and eventually gained the support of the Supreme Court by its 28 March ruling. Likewise the National Assembly was greatly piqued by the by the refusal of the Executive Branch to fully implement the 2002 appropriation Bill. So intense was the slight taken that when Senator Idris Abubarka moved the motion urging the Senate to remove President Obasanjo for obstructing the work of the Assembly, if need be, he found ready followers across party lines. Other instances of drawn out wars and daggers drawn included the overriding of Obasanjo’s veto of the Anti-Graft law, as well as the 22 October 2002 suspension of Senator Arthur Nzeribe for deriding the Senate as itself being “unclean” and about its self-righteousness in attempting to impeach Obasanjo.

In November 2002, Nzeribe had also accused Anyim Pius Anyim of personally receiving N300 million in bribe to orchestrate Obasanjo’s ouster and of illegally acquiring choice properties in Abuja. These allegations remain unproven, but related investigations were only halted after Anyim Pius Anyim obtained a court injunction against further investigation into his personal affairs. While Anyim Pius Anyim may have personally escaped political hara-kiri or immolation the Senate, his tenure was not sprightly nor totally without blemish. Indeed, when the score card of the 1999-2003 Senate is eventually tabled and parsed, he may not score too high on legislative agenda accomplishments, but then, that failing will be a shared responsibility for in that legislative session only sixty-five of the two hundred and seventeen bills tabled were successfully passed. The Senate also managed to pass four of these bills by overriding President Obasanjo’s veto.

In perusing analysis, write-ups and commentaries on Anyim Pius Anyim’s tenure, I gleaned one comment, which is at the core of the leadership problem in Nigeria. It said: “It is because they (The Senate) condone the unbecoming conduct of the Speaker over legitimate demands that the house probe itself, that none of them has had the guts to tell Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim that he also, gave the constitution a raw punch when initially, he publicly allowed that he would not answer the invitation of the police.” The subject here relates, the Senate’s sordid handling of the Anti Corruption Bill – with the sole aim of itself avoiding being probed. Having offered my view on this matter (Not to be served, but to serve), I will let the issue rest, but at its heart, is the non-compliance by our leaders with the rule of law.

In confirming the never-ending tension between the National Assembly and the Presidency, Senator Gbenga Aluko claimed that “the presidency was on us, wanting to force everything down our throats; they caused us a nightmare.” For his part, Anyim encapsulated that strained relations by asserting, “if there is any evil that has bedeviled the Fourth Republic, it was the issue of impeachment.” Further explaining his exit and personal relations with President Obasanjo, Anyim stated in The Vanguard of 9 June 2003; “There was no love lost between me and the President (Obasanjo) but I believe the President misunderstood me on certain things. When I came on, the tension was terrible. The polity, everything had been at a standstill and I had a very peculiar commitment to calm down the tension in the polity and that I did, by negotiation, dialogue…. everything, and the tension came down”. As he underscored, “In fact. I made it possible for Obasanjo to work then and I had the opportunity of doing a number of other things. Before I came, there was no budget for that year but I gave them the budget in time. But that was my commitment to the country and not to (an) individual and that was why I had to make my self clear that my support was not for any person but for democracy in Nigeria”. As one sees it, the choice Anyim faced as Senate President was limited to an unconditional surrender to Obasanjo and the inner cabal of PDP if he were to survive, or opting out with dignity, which he chose.

Anyim Pius Anyim did not surrender to those in PDP leadership who believed they made him -- politically speaking -- and therefore owned him. But he did not survive their onslaught either. He certainly would have faced the same fate as Ewerem and Okadigbo had he stayed on in the Senate. And his crime would have been not being malleable enough to do business with. Herein lies a constructive lesson for Senate President Wabara. In leaving the Senate Anyim has to some opened himself up to the criticism of giving up a difficult assignment. But if Anyim’s sense of himself had been as grandiose as his bulk, or those of some Igbo political leaders, he would not have had the humility to grasp the basic prerequisites of the prerogatives of power – that is that power ultimately belongs to the people. And that when you can no longer wield power freely and without duress for public good, it was a power better given up. In quitting, Anyim Pius Anyim offered us a deep sense of his own understanding of leadership responsibilities and history. Put differently his discretion may in the end prove the better part of his valor.

Purposeful leadership connotes humility, service and to a large extent subordination to the polity. A politician with an exaggerated sense of self worth, an all-consuming notion of indispensability is hardly likely to think of history and the populace before thinking of self. Such people are driven by illusion of being sagacious and of their intamperable excellence and self worth. In a nation where there is hardly a political dogma, policy or mission dividing the political parties, and there is neither a clear definition of liberals or conservatives, the only differing political force and principles is self-aggrandizement and material acquisitions. In quitting Anyim also gave up all the trappings of his office and the economic wherewithal it brought. It is noteworthy that after four years in office, official records filed by Anyim as he exited the exulted office of the Senate President, showed that he acquired only one house in Abuja during his term in office. If this is true, it is indeed very un-Nigerian for most Nigerian leaders have clearly acquired immense wealth through holding political office. And most of that wealth was ill gotten.

Anyim Pius Anyim has by his exit from the Senate debunked the notion held by many Nigerian politicians—that politics, rather than being the intermittent public and national service it ought to be, is a lifelong profession. Nigerian politicians who seek to win at all cost, and to be reelected over and over again, engage in an attempt to foist themselves on the polity and in so doing, transcend the constituted impermanence of elective offices, which calls for periodic and genuine elections. As Anyim recalled after exiting, “there was a time I told him (Obasanjo) about this job, that I am ready to go. It (the tension) must not continue. But one thing I was sure is that it was not going to be possible for anybody to impeach me because I had kept strength in the Senate, so you can’t deceive anybody.”

I am convinced that politics is about service and one should go into it public service for the love of it as it seems Anyim has done. Such a disposition calls for not allowing oneself to be compromised. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, politics is now synonymous with “breaking the bank” –as money undermines the task of public service and bi-partisan politics. Only history will determine where Anyim Pius Anyim belongs in the annals of Nigerian politics. While some may see his action as defeatist, he may also in the end be the last of the unreconstituted Igbo politicians of this era and of his generation. Does he leave any legacy? Time will tell. After all, Nigerian politics is one of the saddest roads that lead to everything – good or bad. In discussing his exit, Anyim spoke of acting in good conscience, with the fear and trust in God. Perhaps, this prerogatives and personal disposition – an act of singular value -- and a significant reordering of his inner landscape led him to the path he has taken – indeed, a noble path.

Until next week, keep the law, stay impartial and observe closely.

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*Hank Eso writes from Woodbridge, NJ. Since 1982 his political commentaries on Nigerian politics and global issues have appeared in The New Times (Lagos), African Profile International (New York) and The Nigerian And Africa Abroad. (New York).

Email: hankeso@aol.com

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