Where is Mr Fix It?

The man is Chief Tony Anenih: elder, sage, suave political operator and fixer of delicate political problems. Additionally, and more importantly for the purpose of this discourse, he is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling People’s Democratic Party. He, more than anyone else, has helped to popularise and glamorised the position of chairman, […]

The man is Chief Tony Anenih: elder, sage, suave political operator and fixer of delicate political problems. Additionally, and more importantly for the purpose of this discourse, he is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling People’s Democratic Party. He, more than anyone else, has helped to popularise and glamorised the position of chairman, board of trustees of a political party that has since become a major feature of our political party culture since the advent of this dispensation.
Where is the chief now when his party, and the country with it, is bleeding from largely self-inflicted wounds? For some of us who are deeply concerned about our country, we are very worried that the man has gone uncomfortably quiet at a time when the land is suffering from what Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, the self-described ‘’man from the land of Igodomingodo’’, that lover and purveyor of bombastic English, would describe as ‘’political higi-hagi’’. You may not find the word higi-hagi in the English dictionary but from the way it sounds, even the deaf can hear and the blind can see (to quote Obahiagbon again) that it is not palatable. All is not well with the political goings-on in our country. The PDP family house and the government it is heading are experiencing severe crisis. And there seems to be no wise and able elder willing to come out to contain the damage being done.
There comes a moment in the life of a family, a people or a nation that a certain wise man or woman is needed to handle the troubles of that moment. Such moments are we in now. The PDP, the ruling party, is not in small disarray. Issues within it that should have been handled with wisdom and tact were terribly mishandled. As a result of this and other matters, today a former president and one of the founders of the PDP and the godfather of the present president who is his adopted godson, are openly feuding.
Letters from powerful and not so powerful men and women are flying about menacingly like poisoned arrows. Dirty linens are being washed in the public. Foreigners are looking on in confusion about Nigerians and their strange ways. Political quarrels that should be settled in smoke-filled conference tables are openly traded. Men are behaving like boys. President Jonathan is assailed on every conceivable front by enemies and rivals. He is being pummelled by governors and other powerful and ambitious men within the fold of his party. The opposition All Progressive Party is calling for his impeachment. Aggrieved members of his party in the Federal House of Representatives have defected and swelled the ranks of the opposition APC, threatening to tilt the balance of power in favour of the opposition, an event which cannot make the President to sit comfortably on his seat.
The CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who is increasingly acting like a member of the opposition party weighed in by firing a salvo intended to portray Jonathan’s government in very bad light and to even question the President’s integrity. All of these is happening as if an evil genie from an Arabian lamp is somewhere back stage orchestrating the affair. And the nation is looking like it does not have even when wise or able man willing or available to handle the situation.
At these times when the nation is experiencing such great turbulence, where is the eminent chief? At a time it looks like the proverbial Sword of Damocles is hanging threateningly on the neck of the nation why is Chief Anenih nowhere in sight? Has he decided to siddon look because no one seems to have had the good sense to recognise his talents and abilities to recruit him to fix the challenging political problems?
If we did not have a man like Chief Anenih, that would have been a different thing. But we have him. These times in the life of our nation require that we should invent him. To continue with Obahaigbon’s kind of language, is the Chief in political hibernation? If he is, this is the time for good men and women to look for him in his hiding place and bring him forth to mediate in the uncomfortable misunderstanding between the former and present president of Nigeria. If both combatants are too blinded by rage or ego to recruit Anenih to fix their problems, men and women of goodwill who care for the country should do so for the sake of Nigeria. A sage and veteran political fixer like Anenih should not keep quiet at a time like this. He has a lot of work to do to mend broken fences.
For whether we love the PDP or we hate it and whether we love former President Olusegun Obasanjo or incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan or we hate them both, two facts remain undeniable. One, the PDP is the ruling party in the land. Whatever happens to PDP or within PDP will certainly have spill-over effect on Nigeria. Any quarrel between and among some of its powerful stakeholders that is not quickly resolved will certainly have very ugly reverberations on the nation itself.
Two, Obasanjo and Jonathan are no ordinary Nigerians. They are two elephants. We need no pundits to tell us that if the fight between Jonathan and Obasanjo is allowed to deteriorate any further, the Nigerian grass will suffer.  The number one ill effect is that there will be very little governance as Jonathan and his team will be severely distracted.
 It is so amazing how members of our ruling class are behaving so irresponsibly, acting and saying things as if their senses have left them and as if they do not care a hoot about the safety and security of the polity. Some of their statements have been clear cases of incitement, a sort of signal to undemocratic forces to intervene in the nation’s governance. Military rule may have become unfashionable in the world today. But the military cannot be the only forces out there that can be incited to make the nation ungovernable.
Anenih has been a veteran in the reconciliation of many political combatants in our country’s history. He can be trusted to deploy his skills in persuading, cajoling and subtly intimidating recalcitrant souls and nudge them to seek the path of peace and reconciliation. Someone with Anenih’s stature, his influence, his wealth of experience and his expertise is urgently needed to defuse the time-bombs that have been planted by powerful men in the country before they go off and consume everybody. Where ever he is let the Chief come forth. Those who have the power to conjure should conjure and let the Chief come forth. His country needs him at this critical point in its life.