Confessions of Tony Anenih POSTED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2013 By Chukwuidi Nweje Issues thrown up by the outcome of the recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mini convention to fill some positions in the party’s National working Committee (NWC) are yet to die down. Ideally, the convention, called following the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refusal to recognise some party officials who came to office through an affirmation process rather than election should have brought the party nearer to perfecting its strategies ahead of the 2015 general elections. But rather than strengthen the party, it has torn it further apart, leading to the emergence of a parallel party, “the New PDP”. Since the unpleasant incident, many have continued to wonder how a party that boasts of being the largest in Africa could find its self in such mess. While the hawks in the main stream PDP dismiss the promoters of the splinter group as ‘trouble makers’ and ‘power drunk’ politicians bent on causing confusion in the party, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Tony Anenih, in an unusual dovish stance, conceded that the aggrieved party members who walked out of the party’s mini-national convention in Abuja had genuine grounds to be angry with the system. Anenih however enthused that the aggrieved state Governors and other leaders who broke away from the convention venue would come back into the fold. “I believe some of them have genuine grievances; but I have hope that once the grievances are addressed they will come back. I am happy that the PDP has an internal mechanism for effective conflict resolution, and at the end of the day, the problems will be addressed and the PDP will come out of the crisis stronger,” he said in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday. His statement is coming at a time when the opposition parties are celebrating the crisis which, they say marks the beginning of the end of PDP dominance in the nation’s politics. Reputed for his uncanny political tendencies, Anenih’s pacifist posture in the unfolding development, is considered strange to analysts. Anenih, an experienced political strategist is known to have participated in successive regimes in the country since 1979. He was a minister in the administration of late General Sani Abacha. Despite this affinity to the Abacha regime, he was able to break into former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s kitchen cabinet, and was one of his anchor men in the botched third term agenda. Popularly called ‘Mr. Fix-it’ apparently due to his uncanny tendencies, Anenih is the man his party would always turn to when something needs fixing. Informed analysts are not at all surprised that the BoT Chair is out on the front line again in the party’s hour of need. True to character, Anenih, a retired Police officer, has moved in to fix the party’s obviously torn umbrella, believing that its current crisis would not decimate the PDP, but would rather strengthen it. Perhaps, to give the impression of being on top of the situation, he debunked reports that the marathon meeting held in the Presidential Villa to reconcile the contending groups from Sunday night till early Monday morning ended in a stalemate, explaining that it was deferred till next Tuesday to enable parties to the crisis meet with former President Obasanjo as part of wider consultations. Nevertheless, views are still divided on whether the PDP will bounce back. Moyo Jaji an analyst argues that the way and speed with which the breakaway faction is revealing damning secrets does not leave room for total reconciliation. “The Anenih group was too cocky and complacent. It did not envisage that kind of reaction from the Baraje group”, he stated. Gani Taofik, Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the party, however agrees that the party will emerge stronger and more united, arguing that while crisis is common in every association that of the PDP is being over blown in the Press. He however observed that this is not the time for leaders to play politics but a time to genuinely reconcile all the aggrieved interest groups within the party. VOTE CHIEF WILLY OBIANO FOR ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNOR
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:22:24 +0000
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