The Return of Nzeribe
Senator Arthur Nzeribe, Political opportunist par excellence is back. And with a bang. The Senator who was forced into 'early' retirement by Senator Osita Izunaso re-surfaced in Abuja on Monday to announce that President Goodluck Jonathan is the man we all should rally behind in 2011.
Addressing what he termed a world Press Conference, the Orlu born former Senator said that proponents of zoning like Tanko Yakassai, Tam David West, former military President, General Ibrahim babangida, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, got it all wrong when they argues that the PDP zoned presidency to the North for eight years from 2007 to 2015.
He said Jonathan is not morally obliged to allow the North complete its term in office.
He cited the usual refrain of opponents of zoning that zoning has never been sacrosanct in the PDP. He said "If the leaders of our party believed and respected zoning, Engineer Barnabas Gemade and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi both North (North-Central and North-West respectively), should not have contested the 2002 primary election of our party. In 2007 when presidency was believed to have been zoned to the North, Southerners and Easterners from PDP, including Peter Odili, Victor Attah, Donald Duke, Achike Udenwa and Sam Egwu challenged Northern aspirants that included Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Abdullahi Adamu and Professor Jerry Gana.
"Zoning can only be made sacrosanct, if the sitting President determined as such. What stops him from doing so in his favour and indeed offering to run particularly as the national constitution does not bar him, in addition to the party's constitution being silent on it as to whether a sitting president should run or not."
Nzeribe reeling out the reasons why he believe that Jonathan is free to contest the 2011 presidency was not really my area of interest. What the former Senator said was not new, our ears have been deafened by that line of argument before now. This time my concern was not the message but the messenger.
Arthur Nzeribe, it could be recalled was the man behind the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), in 1993 that colluded with government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to truncate the transition programme of that regime. Of course many were aware that Babangida was not in a hurry to vacate the political scene, but Nzeribe lent himself to be used for the diabolical annulment of June 12 1993 election. In fact before the annulment of that election, ABN was in the forefront of the campaigns for the extension of Babangida's tenure by four years.
When eventually he failed to get such extension for Babangida, as the heat in the kitchen was too hot that the Minna born General stepped aside, Nzeribe quickly turned his loyalty to Babangida's successor, Gen. Sani Abacha.
This time he came up with a new baby, Union of Democratically Elected Representatives of Nigeria, UDERN, which championed the call for Abacha's self-succession, on the gratuitous assumption that Nigeria would disintegrate if Abacha did not succeed himself. Abacha died. And Nigeria did not disintegrate. The country became stronger as democracy was allowed to flourish by the military junta that took over after Abacha's death.
In one of the great ironies of life, Nzeribe who worked tirelessly in support of the elongation of various military regimes was among the chief beneficiaries of democracy. Many of those who sweat blood and risked their lives to chase the military back to the barracks were sadly left out in the political equation, because merit was discarded as a yardstick for election to political positions and money become the all and all if one is to be a big player in the political space.
With money elevated to the status of a god, people like Nzeribe who are believed to have acquired it through fair or foul means threw it round the impoverished populace and were elected to public offices. Nzeribe became a Senator, once again in 1999, having been in that upper chambers of Nigeria's parliament in 1983 which he also did by paying his way.
Nzeribe thus arrived at the Senate not as a representative of Orlu constituency for that was merely on paper. Nzeribe was in the Senate to represent Nzeribe.
The Senator's true intentions quickly unfolded once he got to the Senate in 1999 and the Senate Presidency was zoned to the South East where he hails from. Nzeribe's attempt at clinching the coveted position, was dead on arrival as Obasanjo who suffers no fools gladly put him in his proper place. Eventually Senator Evan Enwerem was anointed by Obasanjo for the position.
Nzeribe's big ego meant he was seething with rage from then onward, as the man was at the centre of the turbulent Senate Presidency during the period that saw the South East produce five Senate Presidents in eight years.
The Senator's attempt to get close to Obasanjo was rebuffed and in apparent frustration, the maverick politician moved against Obasanjo where it mattered most. Nzeribe moved for his impeachment in the floor of the Senate. It failed.
Aware that what he did angered the President greatly, he tried to make amend. He became one of the biggest campaigners for Obasanjo's second term, not minding that a few months back he had leveled very weighty impeachment allegations against the Ota Farmer. That was vintage Nzeribe that thrives in inconsistency.
Nzeribe has also paid some embarrassing political prize for his inconsistency. Unable to endure the antics of the Senator any longer, in April 2006 the Orlu People's consultative Assembly, sponsored by the then governor of Imo State Chief Achike Udenwa, staged what it called "One Million March' to drum support for Nzeribe's recall from the Senate. They did not succeed. But in December 2006 PDP primaries for the 2007 Senatorial candidates, he was defeated by little known Osita Izunaso.
Nzeribe has never been on the side of the people in most of his campaigns. He has always sided with the oppressors, the powerful, who are also in a position to fester his financial nest. They say Nzeribe is a very rich man. A billionaire to boot. Me, believe that Nzeribe's so-called billions are creation of well orchestrated spin by the Senator who is also a well accomplished PR man.
For if the Senator was rich as we are made to believe, then let him share it the way Gen. T.Y Danjuma did recently when he opened his burgeoning bank vault and provided the needs of the poor around him from an estimated $500 million profit he made from selling his oil bloc.
In 2002, the Senator was accused of making money from his campaigns in support of one regime or the other. It was at the height of the impeachment saga in the Senate, in which Nzeribe was suspended by his colleagues. The Senator caused to be published in the media that he was worth 925 million pounds sterling. And you ask yourself one man has this kind of money and its inpact are not felt in Oguta his home town or Imo State, where he once nursed governorship ambition.
Going by Nzeribe's antecedent, it is very difficult to convince anyone that his mission this time is altruistic. That is why it befuddled ones imagination that the President and his minders would recruit such a fella to argue their case. This is a big error of judgment on their part.
However, if Nzeribe recruited himself I expect president Jonathan who is always sensitive to public opinion to call him to order. This is because Nzeribe has no credibility to market any serious contender to the nation's top job.
Addressing what he termed a world Press Conference, the Orlu born former Senator said that proponents of zoning like Tanko Yakassai, Tam David West, former military President, General Ibrahim babangida, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, got it all wrong when they argues that the PDP zoned presidency to the North for eight years from 2007 to 2015.
He said Jonathan is not morally obliged to allow the North complete its term in office.
He cited the usual refrain of opponents of zoning that zoning has never been sacrosanct in the PDP. He said "If the leaders of our party believed and respected zoning, Engineer Barnabas Gemade and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi both North (North-Central and North-West respectively), should not have contested the 2002 primary election of our party. In 2007 when presidency was believed to have been zoned to the North, Southerners and Easterners from PDP, including Peter Odili, Victor Attah, Donald Duke, Achike Udenwa and Sam Egwu challenged Northern aspirants that included Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Abdullahi Adamu and Professor Jerry Gana.
"Zoning can only be made sacrosanct, if the sitting President determined as such. What stops him from doing so in his favour and indeed offering to run particularly as the national constitution does not bar him, in addition to the party's constitution being silent on it as to whether a sitting president should run or not."
Nzeribe reeling out the reasons why he believe that Jonathan is free to contest the 2011 presidency was not really my area of interest. What the former Senator said was not new, our ears have been deafened by that line of argument before now. This time my concern was not the message but the messenger.
Arthur Nzeribe, it could be recalled was the man behind the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), in 1993 that colluded with government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to truncate the transition programme of that regime. Of course many were aware that Babangida was not in a hurry to vacate the political scene, but Nzeribe lent himself to be used for the diabolical annulment of June 12 1993 election. In fact before the annulment of that election, ABN was in the forefront of the campaigns for the extension of Babangida's tenure by four years.
When eventually he failed to get such extension for Babangida, as the heat in the kitchen was too hot that the Minna born General stepped aside, Nzeribe quickly turned his loyalty to Babangida's successor, Gen. Sani Abacha.
This time he came up with a new baby, Union of Democratically Elected Representatives of Nigeria, UDERN, which championed the call for Abacha's self-succession, on the gratuitous assumption that Nigeria would disintegrate if Abacha did not succeed himself. Abacha died. And Nigeria did not disintegrate. The country became stronger as democracy was allowed to flourish by the military junta that took over after Abacha's death.
In one of the great ironies of life, Nzeribe who worked tirelessly in support of the elongation of various military regimes was among the chief beneficiaries of democracy. Many of those who sweat blood and risked their lives to chase the military back to the barracks were sadly left out in the political equation, because merit was discarded as a yardstick for election to political positions and money become the all and all if one is to be a big player in the political space.
With money elevated to the status of a god, people like Nzeribe who are believed to have acquired it through fair or foul means threw it round the impoverished populace and were elected to public offices. Nzeribe became a Senator, once again in 1999, having been in that upper chambers of Nigeria's parliament in 1983 which he also did by paying his way.
Nzeribe thus arrived at the Senate not as a representative of Orlu constituency for that was merely on paper. Nzeribe was in the Senate to represent Nzeribe.
The Senator's true intentions quickly unfolded once he got to the Senate in 1999 and the Senate Presidency was zoned to the South East where he hails from. Nzeribe's attempt at clinching the coveted position, was dead on arrival as Obasanjo who suffers no fools gladly put him in his proper place. Eventually Senator Evan Enwerem was anointed by Obasanjo for the position.
Nzeribe's big ego meant he was seething with rage from then onward, as the man was at the centre of the turbulent Senate Presidency during the period that saw the South East produce five Senate Presidents in eight years.
The Senator's attempt to get close to Obasanjo was rebuffed and in apparent frustration, the maverick politician moved against Obasanjo where it mattered most. Nzeribe moved for his impeachment in the floor of the Senate. It failed.
Aware that what he did angered the President greatly, he tried to make amend. He became one of the biggest campaigners for Obasanjo's second term, not minding that a few months back he had leveled very weighty impeachment allegations against the Ota Farmer. That was vintage Nzeribe that thrives in inconsistency.
Nzeribe has also paid some embarrassing political prize for his inconsistency. Unable to endure the antics of the Senator any longer, in April 2006 the Orlu People's consultative Assembly, sponsored by the then governor of Imo State Chief Achike Udenwa, staged what it called "One Million March' to drum support for Nzeribe's recall from the Senate. They did not succeed. But in December 2006 PDP primaries for the 2007 Senatorial candidates, he was defeated by little known Osita Izunaso.
Nzeribe has never been on the side of the people in most of his campaigns. He has always sided with the oppressors, the powerful, who are also in a position to fester his financial nest. They say Nzeribe is a very rich man. A billionaire to boot. Me, believe that Nzeribe's so-called billions are creation of well orchestrated spin by the Senator who is also a well accomplished PR man.
For if the Senator was rich as we are made to believe, then let him share it the way Gen. T.Y Danjuma did recently when he opened his burgeoning bank vault and provided the needs of the poor around him from an estimated $500 million profit he made from selling his oil bloc.
In 2002, the Senator was accused of making money from his campaigns in support of one regime or the other. It was at the height of the impeachment saga in the Senate, in which Nzeribe was suspended by his colleagues. The Senator caused to be published in the media that he was worth 925 million pounds sterling. And you ask yourself one man has this kind of money and its inpact are not felt in Oguta his home town or Imo State, where he once nursed governorship ambition.
Going by Nzeribe's antecedent, it is very difficult to convince anyone that his mission this time is altruistic. That is why it befuddled ones imagination that the President and his minders would recruit such a fella to argue their case. This is a big error of judgment on their part.
However, if Nzeribe recruited himself I expect president Jonathan who is always sensitive to public opinion to call him to order. This is because Nzeribe has no credibility to market any serious contender to the nation's top job.
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