By Odimegwu Onwumere
 |
| Orji Kalu |
Even in politics and in the secular
and spiritual business, former governor of Abia State,
Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, who is the chairman Board of Trustee of the Progressive
People’s Alliance (PPA), is a success story. As a strategist who has a wand of
gold, anything he touches turns to gold and his followers are in tremendous
integer. Even to date, majority of people could attest to the fact that it is
politically thoughtlessness not to be on the side of Kalu. Whether he is in the
political office or not, his is the winning team.
This, perhaps, formed the ridiculous
disrespect of the persona on the 16th February, 2012, when virtually
all those that are by blood related to him in the murky waters of politics,
were announced to have been suspended by the PPA, for what was described
as ‘Anti-Party activities’. The party said that their suspension came on the
hills of observation that those suspended were trying to put the party in disarray.
One shouts, oh! The news filtered
into the unfriendly political air in Nigeria, where Pull Him Down (PhD)
syndrome is fad. Orji Uzor Kalu was observed to be pulling down his own
‘house’? A party he doggedly formed and united when the Olusegun Obasanjo-led
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 1999-2007, was like a military garrison? The
announcers of the suspension perhaps were showing some form of prejudices
without taking into consideration the real and true spoilers of the party.
The embarrassed former Imo State
governor, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim on Saturday, July 25th, 2009, formally
left the Progressive People's Alliance (PPA) (the party whose ticket he became
governor) and pitched his tent with the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
Ohakim’s elevation of political
philandrous in Nigeria
perhaps was not noticed by the modern day members of the PPA parading
themselves as chairman and executives who are down to business in bringing Kalu
to the mud by all means, but Nigerians know that many before them who tried to
bring Kalu down did not succeed. They should ask Ikedi who left the party
because of lack of integrity what that has cost him today. It is time they knew
that integrity is a good virtue to behold in politics and in all endeavours.
Ikedi sacrificed PPA’s decency on the altar of aspiration, and exhibited
political chicanery. Where is he today?
As a re-brander, Kalu furnished the
PPA that it becomes the envy of some people today. Ohakim as a political
opportunist left the party without any form of decorum and with no regards to
constituent's opinion. Instead of pitying the people of Imo State
when he left the party, many people pitied Kalu for Ohakim’s betrayal. But Kalu
in his usual wisdom and maturity never said anything defamatory against Ohakim.
Instead Ohakim would tilt back into
his slope and allow that defection buffoonery he exhibited for social-democrats
to laugh at, he rushed to the media to report the 'hand' that fed him was
assuming to choke his throat. Ohakim, in a letter made available to Aso Rock
and Men of SSS and media reportedly said that “Kalu after my life”.
Like those parading themselves as
suspenders of Kalu today, the exaggeration could be figured out, engulfed
Ohakim and he exhibited how a guilty-minded man can run in a lorn-place without
anything pursuing him. Ohakim was hounded by his own demon, even to date.
Ohakim's politics of idiocy on the personality of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu by saying
that Kalu was after his life was uncalled for and buttressed the mind of a betrayer
and a traitor.
To make disdain of Kalu by traducers
and political demagogues, in August, 2010, the removal of Chief Chris Akomas as
deputy governor of Abia State was believed and peddled by scythe news runners
to be fallout of between Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State (and his
predecessor) Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu.
Governor Orji, like Ohakim, also
betrayed PPA by his insensitive defection from the PPA to the PDP. He
thought that Kalu’s political foundation would be rocked but Kalu waxes
stronger. Even, Orji systematically uprooted Kalu’s men from his
administration, of which Chief Akomas, Orji’s deputy, was Kalu’s intransigent
loyalist. Yet, they are afraid of Kalu, because of his might in politics.
The modern day chairman and
executives of PPA who do not see anything wrong with the party but Kalu also
are betraying him just as Akomas was, on 2 August, controversially impeached by
the state House of Assembly.
The allegation, like the PPA’s on
Kalu, was that Akomas despoiled his office through romantic affairs with a
female staff. There were other alleged offences because of his loyalty to Kalu?
The evil hand, on 23 July, empowered Justice Sunday Imo, the Chief Judge of Abia State,
to constitute a seven-man panel to look into the allegations brought against
Akomas.
Six days later, the panel began
sitting. The panel ordered Akomas to submit the names of his witnesses on 31
July. Akomas having seen the PhD handwriting on the wall resigned as deputy
governor on 30 July, after he complained that the time was too short for him to
prepare the list of ‘the names of his witnesses’.
In his tearful resignation letter,
which was contentedly sent to President Goodluck Jonathan, Orji, Justice Imo
and Agwu U. Agwu, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Akomas accused Orji
of humiliating the office of the deputy governor.
Part of the letter read: “For three
years, I have performed my duty as the deputy governor despite excruciating,
humiliating and difficult circumstances. Therefore, I invoke my full right and
hereby tender my resignation as deputy governor of Abia State,
effective from 30 July, 2010.”
He also points the finger at
Governor Orji of withholding his accumulated allowances amounting to about
millions of naira. Reportedly, even that Akomas was locked out of his office by
the governor.
Like those parading themselves as
Kalu’s suspenders from the PPA, observers noticed that Governor Orji was not
only interested in removing Akomas, but had a plan to finish him politically,
to deal a major blow to Kalu’s political strength in Abia State and make PPA
irrelevant in the state. Yet, here is PPA making noise of suspending Kalu
instead of strategizing and fighting the numerous battles facing it in the face
in the Orji-led Abia State.
Having jumped from the APGA to PDP
in an impudent manner, Governor Orji who was in the prison and Kalu mobilized
Abia people to vote for him (Orji) and he became governor is not ashamed of
paying Kalu with the other side of the coin. He sees his master as one who
deserves ridicule by gasping to dismantle the PPA mercenary that mobilized
people to vote for him. Orji today, has befriended some of Kalu’s political
enemies, particularly in the PDP, to rubbish Kalu, but yet he has not
succeeded, in the Abia Reunion.
Kalu’s followership is greater than
the PPA. Governor Orji doing everything within his confine to rubbish the
legacy Kalu left in the state, renamed two Abia State monuments bearing
Kalu’s name: the Orji Uzor Kalu House in Abuja, was renamed Abia House; the
Orji Uzor Kalu Township Stadium in Umuahia, is now known as Umuahia Township
Stadium. They accused Kalu and his mother of controlling Abia politics, PPA and
their wealth. And this was why they (Ohakim and Orji) said that they
shamelessly genuflected to PDP.
The removal of Akomas nearly brought
the PPA to the level of insignificance, but for the ever witticism of Kalu, the
party continued to burgeon on. The Orji camp accused Kalu of being responsible
for the rot that has bedeviled Abia
State, and observers
thought that after Orji jumped ship, Abia would have received a breath of fresh
air but to no avail. This was also the case with Imo State
under Ohakim. Rubbish, upon rubbish.
Governor Orji saw Kalu as the
problem that Abia
State had. Hmmmmmm!
This is evidence in a press statement of Tuesday, 08 February 2011, by Kingsley
Emereuwa, Chief Press Secretary Abia Governor, titled, “Orji Uzor Kalu Open
T(h)reat To Abia State Governor TA Orji”. One Alaribe Ugochukwu also had this
title, “Orji Kalu: The end of a Political Dynasty”.
With all that, instead Kalu’s famed
political prowess would steadily be on the decline his name and reputation have
been steadily adored everywhere in Nigeria and beyond. That his party,
the PPA lost two states to the PDP, due to hindsight of interfering of those
governors that genuflected, yet this has not make Kalu unpopular.
In the 2011 concluded general
elections, Nigerians know that PPA ran for various positions in Abia state and
was massively voted for, but the PDP that says it will rule Nigeria for
60yrs, always have its way.
Across the 5 local councils that
make up the zone – Arochukwu, Bende, Isikuwato, Ohafia and Umunneochi, it was
taken as a government project to diminish the famed political strength of Kalu,
as the presence of armoured vehicles and personnel were not in dearth in these
areas during the elections. This also happened in the race for the Abia North
senatorial district which is clearly the most politically sophisticated zone in
the state. This was where the Governor Orji wanted to bring Kalu on his knees,
but the later refused to oblige, being a political wizard.
The result of the general elections
was never a bitter lesson for Kalu, but the PPA, which has refused to maintain
a distinct political impulse. It was PPA, not Kalu, which came third in most
constituencies of the state. Not Kalu, but PPA was it, in Abia south, which
lost to the PDP’s Enyinnaya Abaribe against Simeon Eme of the PPA. Not Kalu, it
was PPA that lost to Chief Uzo Azubuike of PDP to humiliate the incumbent, Hon.
Nnanna Uzor Kalu, for Aba Federal Constituency seat.
Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu will never lose,
but PPA, if the bigheaded chairman and the executives of the party do not
suspend the selfish uncharacteristic way they are playing the PhD politics in
the country.
Odimegwu Onwumere wrote in from Rivers State, Nigeria
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