Tony Anenih likely to have died if he was in Nigeria

The former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, former Minister for Works and Housing and former Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Tony Anenih reportedly had open-heart surgery in the UK last month.

Anenih was said to have been visiting the UK and complained about his heartbeat. A relative called an ambulance, who were said to have arrived in five minutes, with paramedics providing oxygen as the 82-year old politician was raced to hospital.

The hospital found out Anenih had some previously unknown condition which required surgery and this was successful.

If he is capable of reflection as he is recuperating, Anenih should consider what would have been his fate if this emergency had occurred when he is in Nigeria. It can be said with absolute certainty that there would have been no ambulance and paramedics with oxygen in that critical hour in what looked like a heart attack.

In Nigeria, he would have been rushed to hospital in a private car, likely with no trained professionals around during the drive. The timing of the arrival at hospital and the hospital in question could also be the difference between life and death. Very few hospitals in Nigeria are at functioning capacity at night. And his chances of surviving at a public hospital in the country are pretty remote, thanks to years of chronic under-investment.

Anenih, and his party the PDP had 16 years to put this right by giving Nigeria the sort of emergency services and healthcare that could have saved his life, and chose to enrich themselves instead. His wife, Josephine, was also a minister under the PDP’s misrule.

He is a billionaire today thanks to the PDP’s 16 years of plundering Nigeria’s wealth. But all that money would have been no use to him if his heart had started playing up in Nigeria.

Anenih’s experience should serve as a wake-up call to Nigerian public office holders about the wisdom in putting their hearts in the right place. They are putting their own lives at risk by looting public funds.