Chief Anthony Anenih, who died, yesterday, at 85 would be remembered for being a fixation among the country’s political class. He was the man they loved to hate, but they almost always flattered and fawned about in his presence.
Yesterday, several of his numerous political associates spoke in mournful tones, reflective of folks who had lost a choirmaster. Anenih was, indeed, more than a choirmaster. He was almost the conductor in Nigeria’s political orchestra from the late eighties.
Anenih was, indeed, an accidental politician who came into politics in the early eighties through the unseen hand of President Shehu Shagari. Anenih President Shagari had, as part of his plans for a second term, gone to Benin one Sunday in 1981 to the private home of Chief Samuel Ogbemudia, a former military governor of the old Midwest State.
The barest of security details accompanied Shagari. On arrival at Ogbemudia’s Iheya Street residence in Benin, the former army general was shocked when the gateman told him a certain Shagari wanted to see him.
When he eventually gained entry, Shagari reprimanded Ogbemudia for refusing to see him in Lagos. Without much ado, Shagari again presented his proposal to Ogbemudia on joining the ruling National Party of Nigeria, NPN, a proposal that Ogbemudia had been stonewalling and hence his refusal to see Shagari during his passages through Lagos.
With the president of the country in his sitting room, Ogbemudia caved in but with a proviso, that his friend and businessman, chairman of Yakon Group of Companies and a retired policeman, be appointed the chairman of Bendel State chapter of the NPN.
Shagari, according to sources, gave his agreement. The following day, Chief Tayo Akpata, until then the chairman of the Bendel State chapter of the NPN was sacked and practically removed from the state secretariat and hence the emergence of the Anenih phenomenon! Before then, his only interaction with the public space was when he served as police orderly to President Nnamdi Azikiwe and his stint as an official of Bendel Chamber of Commerce in the late seventies.
Akpata, perhaps, in disgust was practically not on speaking terms with Ogbemudia till death. When the 1983 governorship election was conducted, Shagari’s dream of winning the state for his NPN came true as Ogbemudia won the governorship and the party won the presidential election. The feat was largely attributed to the organisational skills of Anenih.
When the Ibrahim Babangida military regime started preparing the ground for the advent of the Third Republic, one of the lead characters in that era turned out to be Anenih. Anenih had been headhunted by Major General Shehu Yar‘Adua and were together in the formation of Peoples Front, PF, the political movement with which they successfully crushed the other political gladiators of that era.
It was during that period that Anenih acquired the sobriquet of leader, a term that would eventually define his political sagacity.With Yar‘Adua in the presence of aides and associates referring to him as the leader, every other person around had to follow suit in paying respects to Anenih as political leader.
National chairman of SDP
In 1992, Anenih emerged national chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, one of the two political parties registered by the Babangida regime. Anenih eventually led the SDP to victory in the June 12, 1993, presidential election won by Bashorun Moshood Abiola.
Anenih, subsequently, laid low after the victory was suppressed by the military and re-emerged in 1998 as the deputy campaign coordinator of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Mr Fix It
It was his proactive troubleshooting skills at this time that evolved his second sobriquet of Mr. Fix It. Obasanjo before and after his emergence as civilian president always referred political troubles to Anenih who always provided ingenious solutions.
Anenih, subsequently, served as Minister of Works and stepped down in 2002 to lead Obasanjo’s re-election campaign. His decision to identify with Obasanjo ahead of the 2003 election led to his falling out with his one-time associate in the Yar‘Adua camp, Atiku Abubakar.
His partnership with Obasanjo, however, fell apart in 2007 as both men struggled over the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. Obasanjo won, and Anenih retreated for a little while until the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan. By that time, Anenih’s political wizardry had begun to wane. In 2009, an arranged political partnership with the former labour leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, broke down.
Anenih, it was claimed, had helped Oshiomhole to stabilise as governor of Edo State after the judicial victory in 2008 after he fell out with his former political godson, Senator Oserheinmen Osunbor. Oshiomhole, however, turned out to be too hot for him to handle and within a year, their political romance evaporated. Anenih was still searching for a political anchor by the time he died yesterday of yet unknown causes.
