Umahi vs Anyim: For Comm. Ekumankama, There Is No Tomorrow |The Source

By Comfort Obi

If anybody was looking for how the Igbo destroy some of their best, the shame going on in Ebonyi State is a good example.

The shame and bad blood were fully displayed on page 43 of ThisDay, 4th December, 2020. They came in the form of a full page letter, addressed to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, signed by Mr Joseph Ekumankama.

The advert was mean. Its contents condescending. Former President of the Senate/ Former Secretary to the Federation, SGF, Anyim Pius Anyim was the target.

By way of introduction, Ekumankama is the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Investment and Abuja Liaison. Double- barrelled office! Big deal!!

Why would a serving State Commissioner spend about N800,000 (Eight Hundred Thousand Naira or more, from his personal (?) pocket on such a demeaning advertisement?

As were many other prominent Nigerians, especially, politically exposed Nigerians, Anyim, was invited by the EFCC to clear some grey areas during an investigation into a couple of things that took place under his watch as the SGF. Anyim was in that office during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

As is usual with the EFCC, depending on the case before it, he was detained, and needed to be released on bail. Not surprising, Anyim turned to his State Government/Governor for that. He was right.

Aside from the fact that it was what many others did, he had a more compelling reason to turn to his State. For a number of years, Anyim, from same Ebonyi State as Commissioner Ekumankama, was the highest political office holder in the South-east.

During the President Olusegun Obasanjo Government, he was the President of the Senate. And was Secretary to the FG during the Jonathan Government.

Anyim was, to a large extent, instrumental to the emergence, as Governor, of Ekumankama’s boss, Dave Umahi.

Nobody gave Umahi a chance. Former Governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi, whose Deputy Umahi was, did not want him as his successor. In Nigeria, it is rare for a Deputy Governor to succeed his boss. So,

Elechi’s preference was former Minister for Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu. And even though Chukwu was good to go, Anyim, former Senator Sam Egwu, and a couple of others saw to it that Chukwu was dumped for Umahi. It was politics at its most high-wired.

So, Ekumankama stood bail for Anyim by proxy. Take it that it was the Ebonyi State Government that took Anyim on bail, using the Commissioner as a front.

Umahi and a number of those who supported him, including Anyim and Egwu, have fallen out. And Umahi has since decamped to the APC, a party where his heart has been for, at least, five years. So, the ante has gone up.

The Governor has been threatening fire and brimstone, especially, against Anyim. He has sacked everybody “sackable” in his Government, associated with Anyim -from Local Government, to Boards, to just everywhere.

He would deal with Anyim, decisively, and would fight to a finish. It would be the last fight Anyim and co. will fight, he once threatened. He said they were angry with him because even though all of them, including Anyim, had planned to decamp to the APC together, he outsmarted them, and went to see Presiden Buhari alone. He is like air, he boasted.

According to him, in an open letter, in response to Umahi, which he copied Mr President, the IGP, and the DG, DSS, the Governor threatened to kill him. Anyim, also alleged the Governor boasted that the EFCC would deal with him, all because he did not defect to the APC with Mr. Governor.

But even then, Anyim did not quite, forcefully, deny he had planned to defect to the APC with Umahi. What he said was that when the Governor visited him a day after his (the Governor’s) defection to the APC, and pleaded with him (Anyim) to, also, defect so that others would join him, he told the Governor that the manner of the Governor’s defection, has made it difficult for others to follow. Get the point? But that is a story for another day.

In the said advertisement in ThisDay, Umahi’s Commissioner published a letter he wrote to the EFCC, withdrawing the bail he signed for Anyim. The letter dripped of insults directed at Anyim. It dripped of meanness.

He based his withdrawal on two things – first the political rumblings in his state which has pitched his Principal, Umahi, against Anyim, and second, flowing from that, the Senator-Ali Ndume and Abdulrashid Maina bail tango.

He told Nigerians, in case they had forgotten, that Anyim was once arrested and detained by the EFCC. He told Nigerians that it took his benevolence to get Anyim released, on bail, from EFCC detention. Big deal.

He remembered the sad incident between Senator Ali Ndume and Abdulrashid Maina who jumped bail and put Ndume in trouble. So? Ekumankama didn’t want to be an Ndume, in case Anyim jumped bail, and becomes a fugitive.

By going ahead to advertise his letter to EFCC, he wanted a public disgrace of Anyim.

By withdrawing from the surety he stood for Anyim, he wants the EFCC to go after Anyim. He wants the EFCC to pull Anyim in, detain him, until he arranges for a new Surety. When the EFCC does that, his boss, Umahi, would have scored a point against Anyim.

And here is what Commissioner Ekumankama would gain: a permanent appointment in Umahi’s government. The good boy. He wants to be a Commissioner forever. For that, he had to embark on a public disgrace of Anyim without a blink of the eye.

But Commissioner Ekumankama forgot something. He forgot tomorrow. He has behaved as if there is no tomorrow. He behaved as if there will be no tomorrow.

But there is always a tomorrow. When that tomorrow comes, what will Ekumankama do? Where will he be?

He will become a pawn in a political chess board – Anyim and Umahi’s political chess board. What if Anyim and Umahi, as often happens, ends up again in one bed. What will be Ekumankama’s fate?

But there is something to say about the unfortunate incident between Anyim and Umahi. It confirms what other people think of the Igbo. They say the Igbo, are capable, always, of selling their brothers for ten a kobo.

Example: It was Umahi who hit the roof when Peter Obi was picked as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate during the 2015 Presidential elections. He attacked that choice for not being consulted. And there is now this:

Since Umahi defected to the APC from the PDP, he has done nothing else but embark on a gradual diminishing of Anyim. It is as if that is Umahi’s ticket to the Presidency. Sad, very sad.