Tony Anenih again: No vacancy in Aso Rock 2011

Chief Tony Anenih

Those aspirants who are eyeing the Presidency in next April’s scheduled general elections are wasting their time as there is no vacancy in the Presidency, former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees Chief Tony Anenih said in Benin yesterday. It was the second time this decade that Anenih made this controversial statement, having first made one in 2001, when then President Olusegun Obasanjo was gearing up to run for re-election in 2003. The statement was widely seen as the prelude to rigging the 2003 elections. Speaking at the opening of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation’s office, Anenih said President Goodluck Jonathan is Nigeria’s consensus candidate for the election.

He said, “We know that there is the Adamu Ciroma consensus candidate. We also know that there is a Nigerian consensus candidate and for that reason, there is no vacancy in Aso Rock.

“I don’t waste my words, but we should prepare not only for the primaries but for the general election to elect Goodluck Jonathan as president and Namadi Sambo as vice president.”

Anenih was Obasanjo’s powerful Works Minister and director general of his re-election campaign when he made the 2001 statement. He was also chairman of the PDP BOT at the time. Although he holds no formal rank today, he is the leader of a PDP faction in Edo State and has recently repositioned himself as a top gun in President Jonathan’s campaign team. There were newspaper reports last week that he may soon take over as the team’s leader.

Yesterday, Director General of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organization Ambassador Dalhatu Sarki Tafida corroborated Anenih’s statement, saying “It is evident that there is no vacancy [in Aso Rock] in every state we have visited. This is because we are trying to sell a national product and not a local product”.

Tafida said Edo State was the 27th state his organization has so far visited, and he called on warring PDP members in the state to close ranks and forge a common front to dislodge CAN’s Governor Adams Oshiomhole from the Edo State Government House.

Welcoming quests at the event, Edo State Coordinator of the campaign organization and former Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Lucky Imasuen said the support for Jonathan was as a result of his ability to deliver democracy dividends to the people.

Present at yesterday’s event were the Deputy Governor of Cross River State who represented Governor Liyel Imoke, a representative of the Acting governor of Delta State, PDP senators, House of Representatives members and PDP chairman in the state, Chief Dan Orbih.

Also yesterday, the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organization said the Oba of Benin, Oba Erediuwa, had expressed confidence in the ability of President Goodluck Jonathan to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

A statement it issued said the Benin monarch, while receiving a delegation led by its Director-General Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida at his palace in Benin, said he was impressed by the President’s humility and strong character, saying Nigeria needed such a morally upright leader to lead it aright.

“I like the man. I like the way he behaved when the late President was sick and away from Nigeria”, the Oba was quoted as saying. According to the statement, the Oba praised Jonathan’s “sense of purpose and commitment” and stated that he had no doubt that President Jonathan would lead the country on the right path to its manifest destiny.

Responding, Tafida told the monarch that the campaign team had come to ask for his support and royal blessings for the President’s aspiration. He said President Jonathan had the highest regards for the traditional institution and would ensure a pride of place for it in the governance of the country.

Tafida, who later declared open the Edo State office of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation, told the state delegates and religious leaders at a separate forum that the President was committed to maintain the unity and development of the country.