When Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was campaigning vigorously for his election as president of Nigeria, his media handlers came up with this mantra called “Transformation Agenda” and a “Breath of fresh air”. Using the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, he criss-crossed the entire length and breadth of Nigeria singing tunes of transformation and showing a readiness to do things differently from what we were used to. Among his several mouthy promises was the fact that a new lease of life would become the second nature in public life. Those who voted for him did so on account of the fact that the man may after all, be the needed tonic to renew national consciousness and moral rebirth. With the character and symptoms of his presidency in the last two years or so, that inspiring promise of a new life and a transformation of our national being, has been eroded. And sadly too.
I do not think that a post-millennium Nigeria is one that should still exploit the lazy bones of octogenarian men of yesterday. Men in their eighties cannot be said to be the needed tonic to recover Nigeria from its parlous state. Men who have seen it all and who should be enjoying their quiet retirement cannot suddenly assume the driver’s seat in President Jonathan’s transformation agenda. It is simply a contradiction of terms and usage to preach transformation on the one hand and promoting gerontocracy on the other. The realities that called for total transformation were a function of the dysfunctionality of a system occasioned by the unholy activities of these men of yesterday.
Appointing Chief Tony Anenih in this jet age of our national rebirth is to me, a deliberate attempt to castrate our national scrotum, thus rendering us incapacitated in an age and time when our adrenaline should be at its optimal best. Chief Anenih has served as Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority before now and we are not aware of any superlative performance that would warrant a second adventure. If anything, the NPA has become a cash cow where politicians nearing their graves, are being called upon to rejuvenate their pockets and make some money for proper retirement. The Olabode George story is still fresh in our minds like the morning dews.
Could it be that President Jonathan does not understand the simple meaning of transformation or he is simply playing to the gallery to abuse his executive powers and damn the consequences of his action? Barely three weeks ago, the House of Representatives invited the Uromi Chief to come and explain his role in the management of the resources earlier budgeted for roads construction in the country. While the dust raised by that invitation is yet to settle, a President whose attack dogs have consistently maintained is fighting corruption, suddenly appointed the same old man as Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority. This is simply bad politics. It is a contradiction of the transformational agenda or mantra or creed. It defeats the anti-corruption crusade for which the President has continuously preached.
Nobody is saying Chief Tony Anenih should not be rehabilitated having been dealt a devastating blow in Edo State by Comrade Oshiomhole’s election in July, 2012. Having punctured his fairy tale of political grip like a deflated balloon by a conquering political icon of Oshiomhole’s stature, the Uromi Chief surely needs help but not in the manner of making him Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority. Anenih’s record of performance in office as Minister of Works during President Olusegun Obasanjo era was abysmally poor. It is on record that he got N300b for roads according to the budgeted sum, and it is also on record Nigeria did not feel any impact of such huge budget on our roads, reason why the House of Representatives recently invited him for explanation. Under such situation, if it becomes absolutely necessary to rehabilitate him, President Jonathan should have waited for the Uromi Chief to clear his name in view of the allegations, before making him to Chair another board that is dubiously referred to as “juicy”.
The age of Anenih is surely not the age of Jonathan’s transformation agenda. And the age of his ideas does not fit into the present effort at national rebirth especially at a time when there is national consensus that the country needs fresh blood to drive its governance process. If President Jonathan truly wants the world to take him serious about his transformational agenda, he must visit his statement with copious action. Taking us back to the days of Chief Anenih, days of the locust when everything is decided on the altar of greed, avarice and grand acquisition, is to completely miss the point about expectations of the people and leadership capacity to contend with challenges. Anenih’s media sobriquet of “Mr. Fix it” is as tellingly dubious as the political processes he midwives. As an active member of the Abacha monstrous politics of the mid nineties, he was eclipsed until he found his bearing again through the fractured opening created by Obasanjo’s invidious politics of capture this, capture that. He superintended that until the Ota farmer finally undid him in the struggle for the soul of the PDP when 27 members “elected” Obasanjo as Board of Trustees Chairman while Anenih was still drinking tea at home.
Whatever that was left in Chief Anenih was exhaustively taken away by Oshiomhole before, during and after the July 14, 2012 election in Edo State. Like a bolt from the blues, Chief Anenih was humbled in his unit, ward and local government by Oshiomhole’s political machinery that uprooted him from his supposed grip in the State. From North through Central to the South, Edo people in unison gave Oshiomhole the nod to continue in office. Even though there are fruitless subterranean efforts aimed at unseating the Comrade Governor at the tribunal, it is left to be seen how the tribunal can undermine the wishes of Edo State people.
Nigeria must surely move on but not in the direction of old men and women whose bones have petered out and whose ways of doing things contradict the spirit of the modern age or generational orientation. What we need as a nation is a conscious effort at recruiting those individuals who have the cutting edge in their chosen profession and not those who define their achievements by the number of political men they are able to rig into office. Nigeria is no longer in the age of Anenih and members of his octogenarian club who cultivated Nigeria before independence, ploughed it after independence and are still deciding its dithering destiny way into the millennium age. The century that the likes of Anenih belong has passed by. We are now in a new era where sheer courage, strong political will, and patriotism are canvassed on a national scale than mere advertisement of political opportunism that ridicules excellence and integrity in public service. If President Jonathan truly wants to be taken seriously, he must be bold enough to tell it as it is, by asking a man of the age of Anenih to sit behind and offer advice when needed and not made to play any functional role in a government that prides itself as transformational both in deeds and action. Where is Doyin Okupe in all of these?
Suleiman Abubakar writes from Auchi in Edo State and can be reached on suleimanabubakar@yahoo.com.
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