Ahead of the 2023 general elections, President Buhari and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan praised former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, for his leadership qualities, saying he has what it takes to be entrusted with greater responsibilities in the future.
They described Anyim as a humble leader who sees the entire country as a single constituency in their separate remarks at an event in Abuja to honor Anyim on the occasion of his 61st birthday.
President Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, stated that Anyim rose to the challenge of leadership at various times while serving in various capacities.
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive News updates directly on your WhatsApp!
“Senator Pius Anyim is a patriotic Nigerian who always puts his country first, and he is one of the stabilizing voices we have today in our country’s politics,” he said. This he has demonstrated several times, but the one that stands out and still resonates with me is his insistence that elected officers should always serve a single term, and he kept his word by not running for re-election to the Senate after his first term as Senator and Senate President expired in 2003.
“The fact that so many Nigerians from different political backgrounds have gathered here today to celebrate you is a glowing testimony to your contributions to the growth of our nation and its political development,” Buhari said.
Mustapha added, in what could be interpreted as an endorsement of Anyim’s 2023 Presidential bid, that the former Senate President’s experiences over the years have placed him in a position to pursue a higher political calling.
“Let me say, as the current and 19th SGF, that I have drawn a lot from the wealth of wisdom that has been the source of strength and endowment that Senator Anyim has brought to the fore of governance in this country,” he continued. We don’t meet very often, but when we do, we share knowledge about the responsibilities of the office and the enormity of the act of balancing competing forces and interests, which is always vested in any occupant of that office.
I would also like to thank you (Anyim) for the wealth of experience and depth of knowledge that we share.
I dared to say that whoever had held the position of Secretary of the Government for the previous four years in a developing democracy like Nigeria, where there are numerous contentious issues, is capable and able to occupy any office,” he added.
Jonathan, like Buhari, described Anyim as a one-of-a-kind leader who never let the trappings of power get to him.
For Jonathan, the sheer number of people who gathered at the International Conference Center to honor Anyim demonstrated Nigerians’ faith in him after he left the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“Some people are very busy, and some people don’t like to get up early on most Saturdays.” “It means a lot for you to have gathered these numbers as early as this time today.” We thank God for you today, your wife, your children, all your friends, and with all of us here, your friends, because we wouldn’t be here to celebrate you today if you hadn’t been here. “You’re a government official I know a little bit about.”
You were the Senate President when I was governor of Bayelsa state, and I recall you paying me a visit in the house one day, and of course, by divine providence, you became the engine of my government as my Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“The first day I became President, Anyim Pius Anyim wanted to be the chairman of the PDP, and he came to me with a lot of dreams, and we talked about it.” I won’t bore you with the details, but he was never the chairman of the PDP.”
When he became the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, he did not even bring me a biscuit, but we found him worthy as a Nigerian with experience in managing systems and issues, as well as someone with friends all over the country, and when we were looking for the person we wanted to be the Secretary to the Government, of course, we wanted someone from the South-East because the PDP at the time made sure that every geo-political zone had a representative. Now we don’t have such.
“Up until the time I was President, something happened in an unexpected way.” The PDP philosophy at the time was that the President would come from one geo-political zone, the Vice President from one geo-political zone, the Secretary to Government from one geo-political zone, the Chairman of the party from one geo-political zone, the Senate President from one geo-political zone, and the Speaker from one geo-political zone.
It is now difficult to package that because even the All Progressives Congress, APC, lacks that kind of spread. As a result, obtaining that package is difficult. That was very unique, and it was a good way to accommodate every section of the country.
“As a result, we zoned the Secretary of State to the South-East.”
We looked at our characters, our brothers and sisters, and they were all very nice people. They had a lot of competent people, but it seemed like a lot of it fell on Anyim Pius Anyim, and we made him the Secretary to the Government.
And I have no regrets about committing him.
“He is a very hardworking young man who is dedicated to serving this country, and I believe that if he is given the opportunity to serve more, he will do even better,” Jonathan said.
Anyim, at 61, is a bridge between the old and the young, and Jonathan recognized this when he said, “Today, we are celebrating a young man, but you are definitely getting old.”
You are not very young at 61 years old. but you are willing to serve, and as someone who has served in parliament as a Senate President and at the executive level as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, it is quite a task.
“Having served in that position (SGF) for the time, I know he’s fully baked, and I didn’t get too many complaints.”
As a President, you are aware that you receive complaints from those who work for you on a daily basis—ministers, aides, advisers, assistants, and so on. “I didn’t get a lot of complaints about Anyim Pius Anyim,” he added.
Former Vice President Namadi Sambo, who came with Jonathan, also took the podium to praise Jonathan, saying, “his leadership stabilized the Senate, and we must be grateful for that.”
He was a team player who worked to make the country prosperous. In the future, he can be trusted with greater political responsibility.”
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, described Anyim as “a team player, a humble leader who is always ready to take on any task for the good of his country” in his goodwill message.
Former governor of Abia state, Sen. Theodore Orji, also spoke, saying that at 61, Anyim still has a lot to give to his fatherland.
“If you look at the age at which he began, you will see that God has not finished with him,” he said.
