By CHIDI OBINECHE
They are neither dead nor in hiding. They made their marks in their hey days in pomp and flying colours (to borrow the cliché of the time). They were the heavyweights and numeral-uno whose quantum contributions to Nigeria’s birthed democracy and growth have left glows of footprints in the nation’s politics. Today, very little is heard of them. They have been consigned to the sidelines spectating on the uppity and glamour, and perhaps in the grip of nostalgia. Different reasons account for their forced exit from active politics. Some were stretchered out from the scene on account of sickness and infirmness; others took a bow based on age. Yet there are those who prematurely caught the bug of apathy based on the pervading sickening malaise of politicking or the odious long arms of the law. Still kicking, the gaudiness of their footnotes will in time enlarge and grace the book of Nigeria’s all time greats.
Arthur Francis Nzeribe
He came into political limelight in the “swinging” Second Republic when he ran for a seat in the Senate on the platform of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP. With his fabulous wealth, he injected colour, panache and flamboyance into the political scene and became an instant hit. Nzeribe continued to be an issue during the military interregnum that led to the aborted Third Republic. In fact, his Association for Better Nigeria, ABN is known to have a hand in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections. A walking paradox, Nzeribe bestrode the political firmament like a colossus, a knight in glistening armour. A hard bargainer and hard headed man, he also knew how to titillate and make politicking fun. He was shrewd and skilled and transposed into a godfather of sorts in the Third Republic. Nzeribe returned to the Senate at the beginning of this dispensation in 1999. He never let up on his game of intrigues, which ultimately culminated in his suspension by the Pius Anyim led Senate in November 2002. In April 2006, the Orlu Peoples Consultative Assembly sponsored by the the then governor of Imo state Achike Udenwa staged what it called ‘one million ‘ man march to drum support for Nzeribe’s recall from the Senate. In the December 2006 PDP primaries for the 2007 senatorial candidates, he was defeated by Osita Izunaso. He subsequently retired to his Abuja and Oguta country homes where he is said to be nursing a hip injury after a fall. He quietly slipped into reticent oblivion. He was born on November 2, 1938. (78 years old)
Dapo Sarumi
He buzzed into the Lagos political scene in the tumultuous aborted Third Republic when he engaged the late Prof Femi Agbalajobi in a titanic contest for the governorship seat of Lagos State. A former minister of information in 1991, the contest brought out the grit, sweat and brawn inherent in a tough, decent contest. Despite the hoop-la the contest generated, no blood was spilled, no nails split, and no heads broken. He washed up again in 1999 with his Primrose group and for two years controlled the machinery of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Lagos State. He contested for and lost the governorship of Lagos State and subsequently became the Minister of Inter- regional Cooperation under the Olusegun Obasanjo regime. The loss of grip on the party and the frustrating inability of his party, the PDP may have contributed to his forced retirement from active politics. Recent reports indicate he is battling a stroke related ailment. The self-styled lion of Lagos politics is now in the cooler, gaping at the exciting motions of politics, which he was adept at.
Joseph Wayas
He was the Senate president in the second republic (1979 – 1983) The long military interregnum may have consigned him to political irrelevance to the extent that when political hostilities resumed in the third and fourth republics, the new kids on the bloc (new breed) daintily squeezed him out of reckoning. Today, Wayas occasionally pops up in the media as a bold reminder that he is still there, but that is where it ends. Caught up with age, sans the ubiquitous support of foot soldiers, or what is called godsons in the nation’s political parlance, and without the regenerative mark of appointments through the years, the grand old scion of Cross River politics is steadily fading out to the sidelines. Before his ascension to national political limelight, he was a commissioner for Transport in the South Eastern State, now broken into Cross River and Akwa Ibom states. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly from 1977 – 1978. He was recently reported to be sick and was flown abroad for treatment. He has since returned, hale and hearty. He is 75 years old.
Tony Anenih
From the Third Republic when he emerged boldly on the scene as the national chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, to his days as minister of works and housing in the first term of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, the retired cop has made a steady and reverberating presence in the psyche and tenor of politics in the country. In the Second Republic, he was the Edo State chairman of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN. By the turn of this dispensation in 1999, he had become the unofficial leader of men in politics, wielding enormous influence and power as a two- term chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. In the then ruling PDP where he held sway, Anenih combined suavity, tact and intelligence to wring things together in the party. He was dubbed the “Leader” and “Mr. fix it”. He was the man, the engine around which everything revolved. Although partially operating from the background, the old man of oligarchic politics has lost his valve, stimulus and dynamics. He has had his day. The recent loss of his state of Edo is a testament to his waning magic and power. He is 83 years old.
Jibril Aminu
Prof Jibril Aminu was a recurring issue in top range appointments in the academia during the military years in government. He was also Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States from 1999- 2003. From being the vice chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, he became the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC. He was elected senator representing Adamawa central of Adamawa State in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. Prior to that time, he had been minister of education and later minister of petroleum resources (1989- 1992). Since his exit from the Senate, very little has been heard of him, fueling speculations that he is basking in a well deserved retirement. He is 77 years old.
Nnanna Ukaegbu
Dr Nnanna Ukaegbu, a maverick politician who dominated the political scene of the old Imo State is a living embodiment of perseverance and wisdom. He founded the first private university in Nigeria in 1981 in Imerienwe, near Owerri, known as the Imo Technical University. The institution was caught in the web of politics of the time and was eventually thrown overboard. Ukaegbu, who ran for the governorship of Imo State in 1979 against the late Sam Mbakwe of NPP , and Nwakanma Okoro of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN took the stage by storm. His Great Nigeria Peoples Party, GNPP pulled unprecedented strings and came close to upsetting the cart. A die hard apostle of the late Waziri Ibrahim’s “politics without bitterness” creed, Ukaegbu, who is now in his late 90’s is currently playing court in his Imerienwe abode, having nothing to do with politics for more than three decades now.
Shettima Mustapha
He was a major factor in the present dispensation where he called shots as minister of agriculture under Obasanjo. Before then, he was commissioner in the old Borno State Government under Mohammed Goni. In 1983, he emerged as the vice presidential candidate of the NPP. In August 1990, he became the minister of agriculture and natural resources, holding the position till 1992 when the cabinet was dissolved. He was the national treasurer of the PDP from 1998 to 2001. In 2007, he became the defence minister under Umaru Yar’Adua. On July 14, 2008, he traded places with Godwin Abbe and became the minister of interior.He later sought unsuccessfully to lead the PDP as national chairman. Since the thwarted bid some five years ago, Mustapha may have turned fully to his farming business and is rarely heard. He is 76years old.
Arthur Nwankwo
The fire eating entrepreneur, publisher and social justice crusader and politician has been sequestered in nascent obscurity for more than two decades. Although, he left partisan politics after the fall of the Second Republic when he pitched tent with the late Aminu Kano’s left wing Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, he continued with obverse commentaries on the political scene, and series of books on contemporary political issues from his Fourth Dimensions Publishers, Enugu. He rarely makes public appearances today, and hardly adds his voice to raging issues of importance except recently when he had to come out of hibernation to denounce his enlistment as a facilitating negotiator to broker peace between a fangled breakaway faction of the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria, IPOB and the Federal Government. He is also involved in writing and publishing series of articles mainly on the state of the nation. He is the chancellor of the Eastern Mandate Union. He is 74 years old.
Mohammed Ashorobi
He was the mercurial, indefatigable chairman of the Lagos chapter of the PDP. In the saddle, he exuded much confidence and poise to ‘drive’ the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN from power in the state. Nothing has been heard of him since he was shuffled out of power some six or seven years ago.
Clement Ebri
The former Cross River State governor in the Third Republic remained on the turf, defying conventional thinking to say the truth. A great philosopher and pragmatic politician, he later emerged the national chairman of the Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA.He bowed out of the position some five odd years ago, and ipso facto faded into oblivion.
Onyeabo Obi
A senator in the Second Republic, the lawyer turned politician was a key associate of former vice president Alex Ekwueme in the formation of the PDP in 1998 and his push for presidential ticket in 1999. When Ekwueme lost the ticket to Obasanjo, the latter ‘benched’ all his key associates in public appointments. Stung by Obasanjo’s predilection, he launched and sustained a blistering attack on Obasanjo’s regime for four years until the latter bounced back to power in 2003. Since then, Onyeabo, who has been entrapped by age moved swiftly into apparent retirement.
Tokunboh Afikuyomi
A smooth –talking and princely pro- democracy activist, he was one of the cause célèbre of the return to civil rule in 1999. In the Third Republic, he was a member of the House of Representatives and fled to exile from where he and his ilk prosecuted the battle against the late Abacha regime to de- annul the June 12 1993 presidential elections. He became a senator in 1999 and by 2007 launched a campaign to become the governor of Lagos State against the expressed wishes of the big powers. His bid fell flat on its face and he has been hard put to put the experience behind and forge on. After a while in the political wilderness, he became a commissioner under the Babatunde Fashola administration. Since the regime ended in 2015, the youthful political activist and impresario is in the cold embrace of darkness.
Okwesilieze Nwodo
A scion of the revered Nwodo political dynasty, the former governor of Enugu State and national chairman of the PDP leads a politically active family which includes his younger brother John, who was a former minister of information. The circumstances of his abrupt removal as the helmsman of the PDP in 2013 may have forced him into premature retirement. Also lost in the gyre are his vibrancy, adroitness and profundity of thought.
Ike Nwachukwu
From military politics which earned him the position of governor of Imo State and minister of external affairs, the General moved into politics and became a senator and a leader in PDP. The highly urbane, articulate and brinks man in politics with a knack for oratory has kissed the delirium of inactivity. He is held captive by the growing numbers of his years on earth with the young ‘turks’ swiftly sweeping him aside. Nwachukwu, a former journalist belongs to the class of those who have seen it all, donning epaulettes of glory as self–evident truths.