I did not have any personal issue with Obasanjo — Pius Anyim

Former President of the Senate and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, has said he didn’t have any personal problem with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He said the issues that existed while both men were in office were between the Executive and Legislative, and not between him and Obasanjo.

He said this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday.

“I did not have any personal issue with (former) President Obasanjo,” he said.

“(Former) President Obasanjo was a very outstanding President Nigeria ever had. President Obasanjo was focused and determined in all that he wanted to do.”

Anyim became President of the Senate in 2000 following the impeachment of Chuba Okadigbo, and held the position until 2003, which was not without impeachment plots against him.

He continued, “We had a little disagreement, and it was the National Assembly and the Executive; not Pius Ayim and (former) President Obasanjo. What brought about the problem was a motion moved by Senator Idris Abubakar from Gombe, it wasn’t a motion moved by me.

“It was the action taken in the Senate that the former President was reacting to, and it was friction between National Assembly and the Executive.

“Of course, being the head of the legislature, I cannot run away from it; I was leading the legislature and he (Obasanjo) was leading the Executive on the other hand, but there was nothing personal.”

On his decision to not return to the Senate after 2003, Anyim said it would have amounted to hunger for power if, after serving as President of the Senate, he returned to the red chamber.

“I had been President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, I had gotten to the peak of that career; there was no reason for coming back because if I come back and I was not elected President of the Senate, I will be at the floor,” he said.

“Apart from that, if I have to come back, I should not expect to be elected as the President of the Senate because it should rotate and when I was leaving, I said that I believe in rotation. So, what makes you think that it was because of anybody?

“The election was in my zone; it wasn’t in the National Assembly. So, I wouldn’t have come back after being President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly to sit on the floor for whatever reason, that should be a hunger for power, and I didn’t think I was hungry for power.” (Courtesy Channels TV)