Chief Pius Anyim, the former Senate President of Nigeria and erstwhile Secretary to Government of Federation (SGF) during the regime of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has fired volleys of unfriendly words against Chief Arthur Eze in response to the allegation that Chief Eze called him a failure during his position as SGF.
Finally, Chief Anyim noted strongly, “it is my wish to advise you to please respect yourself and your age. Never forget that respect is earned and that as a Prince from the esteemed Ukpo community, you should have more sense of honour. You perched around President Jonathan like a hungry fly while President Jonathan was in office. Now, you shamelessly and dishonourably say derogatory words about President Jonathan. One can only bet that you will do the same to the leadership of the present administration once they are out of power. That is not in the character of Ndigbo.”
The cold war between the two igbo highly respected personalities came to surface when Chief Eze allegedly granted interview to Thisday Newspaper on 16th July 2020, where allegation was made against former SGF. According to Chief Eze, “during the time of Goodluck Jonathan, we had the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Pius Anyim. What did he do for Igbo People? He brought Julius Berger and they tarred his own road; the one leading to his house. All our roads were bad. It is President Buhari that is tarring our roads now. Look at Enugu – Onitsha Road, Enugu – Port Harcourt Road, Second Niger Bridge. He went and modernized Zik’s grave. Did Jonathan do that? Jonathan’s people wrote petition against him. His people said that he took their land and built a house. They copied me the petition and I showed it to him. I said look at it, they are your people. What do you want the north to do?”
Unable to bear the allegation, Chief Anyim replied, “in an answer to a question in your interview, in Thisday Newspaper of 16/7/2020, you, in your exuberance, veered off the question put to you, and gleefully recounted how public officers from other parts of the country had enriched you with contracts and oil blocks, while no Igbo man had done as much for you. Then you took on me, as has become your favorite pass time, on how, in your own judgment, I favored my hometown without doing anything for the entire South East.” He strongly denied that Julius Berger worked in his hometown. In his own words, “just for the records Julius Burger never executed any Federal Government road contract in Ebonyi State let alone any road leading to my hometown while I served as SGF.”
