2015: Kalu, Jonathan, Abia people and the reassurance
By Odimegwu
Onwumere
There should not be
simplistic arguments that Abia people from all walks of life recently,
reassured their support for former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu,
at his Igbere home town.
One million man-convention
from the 17 Local Government Areas, LGA, was said to have converged to give
Kalu their unflinching support ahead of 2015 elections, despoiling all the
supposedly attempts by his political opponents that were geared to seeing that
the rally was not a success.
Judging by the mind-blowing
degree of support the people have shown to Kalu, he in return pledged his conviction
that the elections of 2015 in the state will be free of rigging and any iota of
intimidations or harassments of the electorates. He also charged his maximum support
for President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election, should the
president show interest to contest.
But the one million
man march has not ended without hassles. There is an information making the
rounds that the Bende Division of the Nigeria Police, Kalu’s locality, has been
directed by the state government to cordon off all the roads leading to or out
of Igbere. According to a source, the shoddy move was aimed at preventing a
socio-political group – Reality Organisation – known to be in total submission
to Kalu, from attending a compassionate protest, which was supposed to be convened
by Mrs. Eunice Uzor-Kalu, the mother of the ex-Governor.
Without minding
such clatter by his political foes, Kalu has never been away from the politics
of the country for awhile. He has said that he is bent on salvaging the country
of prolific corruptions and that those who are part and parcel of the
government should live by positive examples, to help in deciding the faith of
civil Nigerians.
It is believed that
now that Kalu has publicly expressed his support for Jonathan, all Igbo will do
same. He does not say that he is giving his support for Jonathan for the simple
reason that Jonathan is from the Niger Delta, a region known for contributing
95% to the country’s economy, but that Jonathan has exposed some qualities, which
seemed a step towards a right direction.
Kalu does not want
other countries to continue to make fun of Nigeria. This does not mean that he
hates people from other regions who may be gingering to contest in the said
elections. Besides, this is not the first time that he is giving Jonathan his
support.
In 2010, Kalu took
a stand and supported Jonathan. He said then that there were so many reasons
why he wholeheartedly urged Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to throw his hat into the
ring for the 2011 presidential elections. Kalu believed that should Jonathan
contest in 2011, majority of Nigerians would vote for him, which would make him
win (by the grace of God).
Kalu also believed
that the victory of Jonathan would ensure continuity and completion of the patronising
programmes his former boss, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ardua, had
started. According to Kalu, Yar’ardua and Jonathan were voted into Aso Rock, as
a package. From all indications, Kalu had said, that package could have gone
for a second term had the late president lived till 2011; unfortunately and regrettably,
one half of that package was gone.
Giving Jonathan his
support, Kalu had said that he thought it was only fair that the remaining half
was given the opportunity and the support to continue and complete the eight
years; anything to the contrary was against natural justice. Kalu henceforth
asked a salient question to perceived persons, especially those from the north,
who did not want Jonathan to contest, saying that he was worried that perhaps
the people saw the Niger Delta region as a people only good at producing the wealth
of the country, but not good enough to produce a President – a manager of that
wealth.
Kalu clamoured that
there was nothing in the constitution of Nigeria that excludes Goodluck
Jonathan, or Ibrahim Babangida, or Atiku Abubakar or Orji Kalu or Bola Tinubu,
or Muhammed Buhari, or Ebitu Ukiwe, from contesting for the presidency in 2011,
if they were nominated to do so by a political party. Against that backdrop,
Kalu could also be saying today that those who are opposed to Jonathan’s
candidacy in the event of the 2015 elections on the fact that he should not go
for a second term are wrong and have ulterior motives.
He, however, advises
that the president must simply ensure for a transparent elections, taking a
note from the not-too-far familiarity in Ghana, Republic of Benin and Siera
Leone, which have shown that all it takes to accomplish a convincing election
is an in-parallel minded adjudicator who is equipped to achieve election
according to the law of the land and say-publicly true results which may not
always be in favour of the sitting president.
Odimegwu Onwumere, a Poet/Writer, writes
from Rivers State.
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