Chris Anyanwu is a journalist turned politician. She delved into politics, leveraging her contacts with the military. She was subsequently “elected” to the Senate in 2007 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and in 2011 on the playform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as a representative of Owerri Zone. She lost the ticket of the PDP in 2011 to return to the Senate, forcing her to decamp and pick up the senatorial ticket in APGA.
Rather than pick up her pieces and move on like genuine and altruistic politicians do, Anyanwu preferred to engage in blame games, and the person she liked to blame was Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, who was the governor of Imo State at the time. At the time that Chris Anyanwu lost her senatorial ticket in the PDP, Ohakim was battling entrenched internal and external forces who were unduly interested in the local politics of Imo State and, therefore, determined to unseat Ohakim. To them, Ohakim was too audacious, too ambitious, and he must be stopped by all means. Knowing full well that they would not stop him at the polls, they cancelled the election he freely won and called for a supplementary election. At the supplementary election, Ohakim was still cruising to victory, but the powerful forces figured out that the only way to stop him was to deploy the military, as confessed by Senator Chris Anyanwu in her book, The Bold Leap.
Ohakim’s problem was not that he did not perform well. Anyanwu’s confession has once more confirmed that Ohakim was removed, not because he did not perform or because Imo people did not like him. He was removed by agents of darkness who did not mean well for Imo State and the Southeast. The same set of people who do not mean well for Imo State had ganged up against Governor Hope Uzodimma and orchestrated insecurity in order to stop him.
In Ohakim’s case, he was following through with his ambitious and audacious projects that were aimed at changing the narratives for not just the Imo populace but the entire Southeast, and they did not like it. Battling with poor economy, Ohakim decided that the best thing was to open up Imo State to the entire world by building a seaport in Oguta and a refinery in Ohaji-Egbema LGA. One could imagine the economic revolution such projects would have brought to Imo, but short-sighted and selfish politicians like Chris Anyanwu chose to frustrate them by gangjng up against Ohakim’s second term. This was the opportunity Imo State lost by the reckless gangup against Ohakim in 2011. But as God would have it, 10 years after Ohakim’s proposed seaport in Oguta, we are back to the same project. I thank Governor Hope Uzodimma immemsely for defying the odds and taking up this great project. It is only vissionary leaders that can take up this gauntlet, and that is what we are witnesses to in Imo State today.
Chris Anyanwu’s claim about the 2011 governorship election in Imo State is not new. It is what we already knew, but her confession in her book, where she confessed that she got the approval from former President Goodluck Jonathan to bring in the military to truncate democracy in Imo State is nothing but a coup. This reckless conduct should not be swept under the carpet. She was arrested and detained in 1995 by the General Sani Abacha junta over the failed coup plot against the regime. She was charged with being an “accessory to a treasonable felony” and was prosecuted in camera by a military court. She was entenced to life imprisonment on 4 July 1995. Her sentence was later reduced to 15 years in October 1995 following pressure from national and international human rights groups.
She thinks too much of herself because of her links with the military, and she likes to quarrel with her governors. Having ganged up to remove Ohakim in 2011 with her military friends, she believed that Ohakim’s successor, Okorocha, would lick her booths. When that did not happen, she turned against Okorocha, the same man she said was better than Ohakim. On December 28, 2012, The Nation and other newspapers reported that she accused Okorocha of ordering his security detail to attack her convoy and beat up her security men. In a dramatic tone, she said: “I am tired of all these abuses and harassment in this state. It is not only in Imo State that they have female legislators. If they could do this to me, what would happen to the ordinary people, this has to stop”.
But Okorocha said that she lied. In a swift response to her claim, Okorocha’s media aide at the time, Ebere Uzoukwa, said that Chris Anyanwu was the troublemaker. He said: “The senator’s vehicle suddenly rammed into the governor’s convoy close to the staff car, cutting off the lead security vehicle after overtaking dangerously and in a very suspicious manner.” Uzuokwa added that her outburst of anger could have resulted in a heavy casualty if not for the discipline of Okorocha’s security men who displayed a high sense of decency, professionalism and maturity. Okorocha did not stop at that: he petitioned the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), accusing Chris Anyanwu of causing security breaches.
Anyanwu continued to quarrel with Okorocha until the government came down heavily on her once more, saying that her 8 years in the Senate was barren. A statement signed by Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, described her as a woman of no moral compass who did not achieve anything for her 8 years in the Senate. “She was in the Senate for eight solid years for Owerri Zone, let her mention one achievement her eight years in the Senate brought to Owerri Zone. The only thing she did for the eight years was to build a radio station for herself, with the staff not being paid salaries for years. Also, the only major appointment she got was in the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), and she gave it to her husband, Dr. Casmir Anyanwu,” he said.
Anyanwu’s quarrellsome attitude with governors and elder statemen in Imo State is shameful, but it is unfathomable why she ganged up to truncate a democracy using the military. Neither Nigeria’s constitution nor the Electoral Act provides any roles for the military in Nigeria’s election. How Anyanwu conceived the idea to bring in the military and eventually convinced a serving president and got his approval to deploy the military to plot and execute a coup in Imo State is baffling. Her confession further suggests that she might not have even won her own election to the Senate democratically but with her contacts with the military.
Be that as it may, her confession that she got the nod of President Jonathan to deploy the military to truncate democracy in Imo State is a serious self-indictment and an indirect attempt to rubbish the hard earned reputation of the Nigerian military. It also impugns the integrity of former President Goodluck Jonathan and portrays him as undemocratic. The Nigerian military is not just an institution of national pride but a symbol of our unity also. Its officers lay down their Iives for the sake of our country, and the least we could do is not to make reckless utterances that can impugn the integrity of such an institution. It is on this note that I call on the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), the police and the DSS to invite Senator Chris Anyanwu for questioning.