Life and politics of Francis Arthur Nzeribe

Until he breathed his last at 83, the maverick politician, Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe, who had been bedridden for an undisclosed ailment was one of the history makers in the political firmament of Nigeria, especially for his controversial roles in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Bashorun MKO Abiola.

He founded a political group known as Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) that was used by the military to scuttle the third republic and annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

When Nzeribe began his campaign that the presidential election should not hold, many did not take him serious because his campaign was against a decree by the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida that barred courts from entertaining any case related to the transition programme.

But in May 1993, the ABN filed a case to halt the June 12 election. Two days to the election date, Justice (Mrs) Bassey Ikpeme was allegedly flown to Abuja, specifically to hear the case and ordered the election to be put on hold, contrary to a decree of the same regime.

The decree had stated that no interim or interlocutory order or ruling, judgement or decision made by any court or tribunal etc, etc could stop the election. On June 11, Sunbo Onitiri and Richard Adejumo filed another case in Lagos before Justice Moshood Olugbani.

Olugbani ruled that the election should go on as scheduled and on June 12, Nigerians trooped out to vote in an election described as the most credible and fairest so far.

The chairman of the electoral body, Humphrey Nwosu had begun to announce the results with Abiola coasting home to victory. But on June 15, 1993, Abimbola Davies, Secretary of the ABN returned to court, seeking an order to stop further announcement of results. Justice Dahiru Saleh granted the order and National Electoral Commission (NEC) complied with it, though the electoral body appealed to the same court and on June 21, Saleh ruled that the election of June 12, 1993 was null and void.

Saleh ignored the Olugbani ruling and claimed that the election ought not to have held, based on Ikpeme’s ruling. Babangida addressed Nigerians on June 26 to pronounce the June 12 elections annulled and a fresh election to be held by the end of July.

And to divide the political class, Babangida lifted the ban on the 23 initial presidential aspirants and the scramble began in earnest. But those in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) stood by Abiola at that period, insisting on the party’s victory but the opposition in National Republic Congress (NRC) saw the annulment as a welcome developpment.

Before Chief Nzeribe went under the weather, he was asked to react to the impression many Nigerians had about his role during the June 12 debacle, Nzeribe said, “Those who are making reference to it are very wise men though they have forgotten that our actions were heavily supported across the country. At that time, I was deemed to be a vagabond. My colleagues and I were abused and insulted everywhere, but all of a sudden, they held election and it turned to a novelty. By the time I formed ABN, there was nothing at all of such nature; you go and burn tyres on the streets; you go and kill people and use their heads for juju, but we stood firm to say that we want this done. I believe that we got what we wanted. So, it is for you to assess our actions in your own way.

“For us, I got what we wanted. We said cancel the election and eventually they cancelled the election. We said don’t count the votes, but they counted the votes. So, how do you measure success? In the middle of that, I have run elections, where I adopted five different political parties, and each time I go to any political party, we win. How do you define a good politician other than the man who contests an election and wins?”

When also asked about his regrets in life, the Oguta-born politician said, “I don’t regret anything I have done because people in my position would think about things over and over again before doing them. And if there was anything that I thought about so well before doing it, I shouldn’t go about regretting it. I go along and suffer the consequences, if there is any negative one. That’s the way I see it.”

Nzeribe’s journey to stardom began when he got a scholarship from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in 1958 to study Marine Engineering in England. That was immediately after his secondary education at Bishop Shanahan College, Orlu and Holy Ghost College, Owerri. As a student, he had given hints of the kind of man he would grow up to become. His peers at that famous Catholic School knew him as a non- conformist and goal-getter.

By 1960, he sold life insurance to black immigrants in Britain. At a point, he was said to have met Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, that year and started working for him in the area of public relations. Nzeribe bought his first Rolls Royce car a year later.

After the fall of Nkrumah in 1966, he lost power and influence in Ghana and returned to Europe. That same year, Nzeribe started the Fanz Organization based in London. The organisation dealt in heavy construction, arms, oil brokerage, and publishing and property investment. He joined the club of millionaires at the age of 29. He also engaged in businesses in the Middle East and the Gulf region. By 1979, Fanz had an annual trading turnover of £70 million. Today, he is believed to be worth over $5.5 billion.
 
In Nigeria, Nzeribe built Sentinel Assurance and other companies. His country home in Oguta is called Haven of Peace, a plush estate that has multiple mansions that still compete with anything you can get anywhere in the country.

His foray into politics in the second republic as a member of the Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NPP) was said to herald money politics, when voters were heavily induced.

During the campaign, Chief Nzeribe, who contested for Orlu seat at the Senate in 1983 had the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) to contend with and told everyone who cared to listen that “he would match rigging with rigging, naira with naira, fire with fire, stockfish with stockfish and thuggery with thuggery.”

Besides, Chief Nzeribe had a helicopter that hovered in the vicinity of the collation exercise to send signals that he was in control of the environment and well prepared to protect ballot boxes.

Nzeribe in an interview with The Guardian said, “On election day I had 10,000 men in uniform. My men were waiting for them outside the town hall and I was outnumbering the police there four to one. I told the Returning Officer and the Assistant Commissioner of Police, 
“Just tamper with my result, look outside, none of us is going home alive. Just look outside. I outnumber you four to one. You can do what you like in this hall. None of us will get out here alive. You had all the chance to campaign. You had all the chance to rig. You didn’t do any of that. 

“Now you want to hijack. So what do you do if somebody wants to hijack your thing? Stop him, not so? So I stopped them!” The votes were correctly counted, correctly collated, and correctly announced. Nzeribe won. The fear of death was the beginning of fairness.”

But many will not forget in a hurry how he collected back the aircraft he borrowed the Presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Nnamidi Azikwe before the election and how he decamped to the NPN shortly after winning election to the Senate under the platform of the NPP.

In 1983, Chief Nzeribe reportedly spent a whopping N12m to win that senatorial seat in Orlu that shot him into the limelight. But his stay at the senate in the second republic was short-lived, as he was sworn-in in October 1983 and there was another military coup in December 31 of the same year by Major General Muhammadu Buhari and Major Gen. Tunde Idiagbon.

Again, the billionaire businessman was elected into the Senate in 1999 and 2003 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
 
However, the tide turned against him in November 2002 when the then President of the Senate, Anyim Pius Anyim, suspended him indefinitely, following an allegation of N22m fraud. Nzeribe was said to be planning an impeachment motion against Anyim at the time.

He also attempted to impeach former President Olusegun Obasanjo twice but failed. His power and influence further declined in April 2006, when the Orlu People’s Consultative Assembly, sponsored by the then governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa, staged what it called a “One-million-man march” to mobilise support for Nzeribe’s recall from the Senate. In December 2006, Osita Izunaso defeated him during the PDP primary election. However, in August 2007, Nzeribe was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP.
 
Since his defeat by Izunaso, with the assistance of Udenwa, Nzeribe began a gradual retreat from the public scene. That was before he became sick, a situation attributed to old age and a domestic accident he had in his country home.

Apart from his chequered political history, Nzeribe was a philanthropist and was said to have huge impact on people around him through his Arthur Nzeribe Foundation. In the area of Education, he set up a scholarship that sent many indigent children to school.

Nzeribe was also able to open up the space in the area of agriculture by empowering his people with the cash needed for their agricultural activities. Beyond providing cash for the farmers, he also provided them the needed skill sets, tools and seedlings for their practice of agriculture. By this he was able to put food on the table of the families and also give them a sustainable income stream.

Nzeribe also set up free medical programmes for pregnant women, children and the elderly. The beneficiaries of Nzeribe’s magnanimity did not need to know him or have any ties with him to qualify. He was also said to have built churches for the Anglican, Catholic and the Pentecostal denominations in Imo State. He will be remembered by different people for different reasons.