“Chief Anenih was a politician of immense repute. He gave so much to party politics and democracy in the country.”
Those were the words of the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagios State, Bola Tinubu as he paid tribute to the passing of former Chairma, Board of Trustees of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih who died in Abuja on Sunday at the age of 85.
“As one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he played a key role in the country’s resurgent democracy. It was no surprise that he later emerged the Chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP,” Tinubu added.
Anenih died at Cedarcrest Hospital, Abuja, where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
According to Wikipedia, Anenih was born in Uzenema-Arue in Uromi. In 1951 he joined the Nigeria police force in Benin City. Working at home, he obtained secondary school qualifications.
He attended the police college in Ikeja, and was selected for further training in the Bramshill Police College, Basingstoke, England in 1966 and the International Police Academy, Washington DC in 1970. He served as a police orderly to the first Governor General of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
He worked as an instructor in various police colleges, and in 1975 was assigned to the Administrative Staff College (ASCON), Lagos. He retired from the police as a Commissioner of police.
Anenih was a state chairman of Nigeria’s then ruling party, NPN, between 1981 and 1983.
Anenih was also the national chairman of the Social Democratic Party in 1993 under whose platform Moshood Abiola won the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Abiola was later imprisoned by the Sani Abacha dictatorship with many of his supporters accusing Anenih of betraying the June 12 cause.
.Late Tony Anenih
Upon return to democracy in 1999, Anenih was also a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party and was appointed works minister by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was accused of masterminding the mismanagement of tens of billions of Naira while he held sway as works minister.