Elder Statesman and former chair of Board of Trustees, (BOT) of the opposition party, People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) Chief Tony Anenih has laboured in the last couple of weeks, trying to explain how he ‘disbursed’ his own alleged share of the $2.1 billion arms money. Unfortunately, the attempt by his hack writers to clean him up in the eyes of well-meaning Nigerians have also collapsed like a pack of cards. Rather, they ended up messing him up the more. The policeman in him failed him this time around, as he could not fix this. What a sad way to end a glorious and robust political career for a man believed to be at the “departure lounge?” The all-seeing God, the God of the long suffering Nigerians is furious. He is set to trouble all those who have been troubling this great country, those who have clayed her feet and prevented her from moving at the pace she has been destined to move among the comity of nations. It’s a year of divine judgement, all the fasting and prayers by Nigerians have not been in vain, hallelujah! Yes, but for the divine intervention in the political affairs of this country, these revelations would not have come to light.
Men of timber and caliber are now struggling to explain to Nigerians how they connived to loot the country blind and shared our common wealth amongst themselves. How are the mighty fallen! Again, thank God for His divine intervention in the political affairs of our country. With these revelations, the socio-economic cum financial rape on this country by the PDP in the last 16 years is better imagined than described. Sad enough, some gullible Nigerians still sympathise and shamelessly query the law for taking its course in its attempt to make these dishonorable Nigerians to throw up what they have fraudulently eaten. For instance, they query the manner in which former PDP Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh was brought to court last week. In a saner clime, it is unimaginable for anyone to raise any such question because Metuh is a man who confessed receiving 400 million Naira and boasted that he was not ready to return a dime from it. In the process of his interrogation by men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, he was alleged to have shreded his witten statement, chewed it like bitter kola! What can be more criminal than this? As a lawyer, one would expect Metuh to know better and behave more responsibly. In the eyes of God, Metuh is not more human than the common pick pocket who stole 50 Naira and is brought to court handcuffed and subsequently sentenced to years of imprisonment. Well, that’s a discussion for another day. Back to the main topic of discourse here, Oshiomhole, Anenih and the controversial $260 million.
I read a piece in the Sunday Vanguard written by one Francis Ehigiator titled “we should be fair to Anenih”. In his attempt to launder the image of Anenih, he ended up fouling the political cum economic space the more. Ehigiator further insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians by his jaunduced opinion piece. Hear him: “ It is now also clear that the N260 million traced to his (Anenih) account could not be reasonably associated with money laundering neither could it be said to be in breach of public trust, having been received as a refund of out- of- pocket expense incurred on political assignments that would help to maintain the peace and stability of the nation during the crucial 2015 presidential election”. If an individual who has no direct bearing on security matters in the country could get as much as N260million as out of picket allowance to maintain security during the presidential elections, then how much did the inspector General of Police and other security chiefs get? How much did the commissioners of police in the state get and their counterparts in other security agencies? Ehigiator should know that his augment does not add up. He cannot pull wool over the faces of Nigerians on this matter that has to do with blood money. In any case, when did Chief Anenih become a security officer to earn such huge amount of money as “security vote”? As far as I know, the highly respected Uromi chief retired from the police about two and a half decades ago as an assistant commissioner of police.
On his own personal explanation to the EFCC in a letter, Anenih was said to have claimed that he spent a total of 400million Naira during the election, that is, 180million in excess of the N260million he allegedly collected from the office of the National Security Adviser, (NSA.) He is insisting that the former president, Goodluck Jonathan was owing him N180million, so he has nothing to refund to the Federal Government. He claimed that the N400 million was disbursed on the instruction of the former president, taking pains to list how the disbursement was made. Despite all these explanations, I believe Chief Anenih should be able to separate Jonathan from his government, because they are two different entities. The money disbursed is not Jonathan’s personal money, rather, it’s our common wealth. It remains so, unless Chief Anenih is able to prove that the money he claimed to have been paid into his account was Jonathan’s personal money and not the one linked to the $2.1 million meant for arms purchase. So, the onus is on the chief . May God help the chief to wriggle himself out of this web, come out clean and “finish well”. But how much does an assistant commission of police earn monthly as pension? What are his other sources of income aside this pension? These and more are some of the issues the chief has to explain to Nigerians to wash his hands clean of this blood money. More importantly, Chief Anenih has to show proof that the personal money of N180million he claimed to have spent for the election was legitimately earned. Otherwise, everything will deemed to be our common wealth.
