A fortnight ago, the former governor of Abia State (1999-2007), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, made a well-articulated and cerebral intevention in the raging debate over the unconscionable salary indebtedness of the immediate-past governors and proffered resolutory suggestions, going forward. The damnable article, published in one of our weekend titles recently, was vintage Kalu Leadership Series.
In one of the tepid reactions in THE NATION ON SUNDAY of July 12, 2015, one pseudonymous character, nomenclatured “Koos James” (from which planet?) declared ignorantly that Kalu’s contribution was a ‘ghastly attempt’ at joining the national discussion. One thing I find intriguing is why most of the rabid defence dogs of the past administation in Abia State (2007- 2015) decide to use fictitious names in their chronic tirades on Kalu. We need familiar names, which can be comprehensively situated and classically addressed. Fictive representations vitiate elevated discourse. Furthermore, it would be good to know the backgrounds of some of these hirelings in order to contextualise their fatalistic distractions from critical national exchanges, as signposted by Kalu’s persistent re-engineering efforts misconstrued as redemptive ghastliness by those rattled by his state and national renewal stridency and ubiquity.
One of the craps contained in the vituperative rejoinder goes thus: “For the avoidance of doubt, Kalu’s vitriolic and withering attacks on Senator Theodore Orji is (sic: are) fuelled by deep seated (sic: deep-seated) animosity (sic: either a deep-seated animosity or deep-seated animosities depending on context) and hatred of the former governor for dismantling the former’s political dynasty that had hitherto held Abia to ransom. By confronting, defeating and dismantling the Orji Uzor Kalu political dynasty, Governor Orji brought to an end the serial raping and systematic pillage of the resources of the state by rapacious kleptomaniacs who had boasted in their fleeting moments of madness that they would enslave the state in perpetuity.”
If, indeed, Mr. Theodore Orji dismantled Kalu’s political dynasty as erroneously perpetrated and perpetuated by his innumerable jobbers, why did former President Goodluck Jonathan and erstwhile National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Adamu Mu’azu, direct the errant Abia State PDP to collaborate with Orji Kalu – who had been working closely with them in Abuja – to ensure that the PDP wins elections in the state, particularly and the South East generally? This directive was given publicly at the Umuahia Township Stadium shortly before the last elections. With this testamentary confidence in Kalu by the leadership of the PDP at the time, I do not know the foolish basis for any brat to assert that Kalu’s disenchantment with his successor has to do with the mythological mirage of the latter confronting, defeating and dismantling his master’s political dynasty.
Last year, Kalu organised an informal meeting of his Abia PDP followers in his hometown of Igbere. Even with the short notice, poor pre-event publicity and official futile attempts by the agents of the Abia State Government to abort the gathering, the chief host (Kalu) and other stakeholders in the renewal of Abia were overwhelmed by the multitudinous crowds that made the entire expanse of Igbere look like an Olympic stadium. Kalu’s expansive compound and massive structures of architectural splendour with Romanesque visage and allure could not accommodate even party members from Aba, let alone other towns in the state! Our guests spilled over to neighbouring communities in joyful solidarity and all-day celebrative accord.
With just these two antecedents, among copious pedigrees, I do not comprehend this balderdash about the dismantling of any dynasty. I have always insisted that there should be a national referendum on the political value of both Orji Kalu and T. A. Orji so that we get to know who has more acceptability, credibility, utilty, relevance and vision. At the grassroots level, I have also consistently advocated that both men should walk the streets of Abia, particularly Aba, unaccompanied, and let us see who will be stoned or more stoned, as the case may be (since some people strongly believe that both men are two sides of the same coin), with Kalu as the light and the obverse pitch darkness!
For the umpteenth time, if as declared by faceless James that Kalu systematically raped and pillaged the resources of the state, his successor in his abberational and irredeemable rule systemically (dear reader, please take note of this word) gang-raped the state and privatised its resources instead of wasting time on pillage. There is a joke by some friends of mine that Kalu’s widely acclaimed beneficiary was a brilliant student under him and later became a professor while Kalu was still an assistant lecturer! Better to be a dullard than a trans-border criminal with specialty in domestic thievishness and borderless banditry of supranational magnitude with a superfluity of obscene investments in multifarious parts of the world. Let us have a foresnsic audit of the finances of Abia State between 1999 and 2015. Very soon, I am sure, President Muhammadu Buhari will investigate the states he is bailing out. If he does not do that, he would be setting a very bad precedent for current governors to transcend professorship in pursuit of scarlet vice-chancellorship! Only rapture can stop this looming descent – or is it ascendancy!
Yet another tantrum from the unknown James: “In the case of Abia State, former Governor Theodore Orji took over power from Orji Uzor Kalu and in the process inherited a staggering debt in excess of a whopping N55 billion deficit and bank loans which could not be accounted for. As a result of this monumental debt overhang, N1.5 billion was deducted at source from the federation account to service the 22 banks/creditors on monthly (sic: a monthly) basis. The ruination of the finances of Abia State and the high scale (sic: high-scale) mismanagement of its resources under the watch of Orji Uzor Kalu more than any other factor contributed to the parlous state of affairs in the state.”
In my recent response to Professor Herbert Orji’s uncharitable and grossly unprofessional analysis of the finances of Abia State under the exclusive action (as acknowledged by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo before the bubble burst) governance of Kalu, entitled: “Abia debt hang: 1999-2015),” I dismissed the pub gossip that lacked professorial accoutrements and nuances and called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to publish in major national newspapers the income and debt profile of Abia State during the aforementioned period for public scrutiny and edeification. I also asked the apex bank to mandate all banks to publish their transactive details with the state. This would have put an end to the periodic reference to phantom figures, as released by Prof. Herbert Orji. If Dr. Kalu insists that he did not owe any bank before and after leaving office, can financial institutions react and clinically close this matter? Enough of these interminable fairy-tales as these issues are verifiable and should not be shrouded in endless controversies stewed in asperity.
At the opportune time, the former Group Managing Director/CEO of Diamond Bank PLC, Dr. Alex Otti, will let us into the staggering indebtedness of the state to the bank during his tenure. He cannot do that now lest it is misconstrued because of his current political battle in the state. I expect other banks like Access and Fidelity to publish such records for public consumption since the monies were not personal funds.
If the state was so mirred in indebtedness, where did the governor access massive funds for The Patriots, Ochendo Vanguard, Abia Elite, obtuse media propaganda, unprecedented surrogacy and the dastardly abduction of this writer? These are in addition to all other purported achievements in debatable betterment of Kalu’s time. Just an innocuous poser: as the magisterial Chief of Staff to Kalu for seven years or thereabouts, is it not possible that Ochendo could have been privy to the alleged profligacies of his benefactor?
Still from fictive James: “As had been confirmed by discerning observers of Abia politics, while Orji Uzor Kalu held sway, cronyism was elevated to a statecraft to the exent that fiscal rascality became one of the defining legacies of the visionless years of governance.” Does this bloke know the meaning of “cronyism” at all? Who are these anonymous “discerning observers of Abia politics”? Let them stand to be counted. If the fellow who wrote the malicious and vicious feedback to Kalu’s dispassionate statement knew about the preposterous depth of surrogacy in the past eight years in Abia State, he would quietly close his stinking bucchal cavity and spin us other stupid yarns after closing up (trade mark). Again, if there was fiscal rascality in the state from 1999 to 2007, the financial recklessness and develomental haemorrhage thereafter are unimaginable, scandalous and have plunged the state to 24-year infancy making it the most paralysed and backward state in the country, if not the world: a toddler at 24, courtesy of T. A.
When will cats like James stop this vexatious and stale talk of imaginary “mamacracy”? Can anything in this world be compared to boyish “ikukucracy”? Even toddlers in Abia State know about the queer arrangement that hallmarked the abdication of constitutional responsibility to sonship deviancy! The so-called, if ever, “mamacracy” pales into insignificance when juxtaposed with the leadership juvenility and administration pedestrianism that characterised governance under Ochendo’s visionary kindergartnership!
It is only an insane man that will have the audacity to declare in his derangement that Dr. Kalu does not have the inalienable right to express his views on national issues. Do these chaps ever think before coming to public space with their stupefactious distractions? Have these minions and their bankrollers ever heard of Section 36 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) which dwells on rights fundamentals?
I agree with James that Kalu contributed to the ruination of Abia State by regrettably foisting his successor on Abians. James has a valid point here, which I have consistently declared on these pages. It is also interesting to note an oppositional traveller admitting that Abia was ruined under Ochendo Global. From James on this subject: “… He (Kalu) contributed is (sic: in) no small measure to the ruination of the state,” a position that tallies with my headline of May 28, 2015, article entitled “Abia in ruins as T. A. Orji quits”!
Can someone graciously go and show me these much-parroted and invisible “legacy projects” of Ochendo international? As an Aba brought up, I am more interested in the ones located in Enyinmba City for nostalgic and peculiar reasons. Unfortunately, Aba of today is worse than a war-torn town.
James also talks about the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with regard to the political witch-hunt of Kalu using the instrumentality of this agency under General Obasanjo for obvious reasons known to right-thinking Nigerians. James in his thuggish trash advised Kalu to remove the “log of wood” in his eyes before evacuating the speck in the eyes of Ochendo worldwide. A tuition-free lesson for James: there is nothing like “log of wood”, but just ‘log’! The spurious charges against Kalu notwithstanding, he is one of the freest former governors in Nigeria today amid local and international business engagements that create thousands of jobs for fellow Nigerians and other nationals as opposed to stolen political mandate indulgencies temporarily domiciled in Abuja and Umuahia.
A reiteration of Orji Kalu’s irrefutable position: evil cannot triumph over good.
Wabara (ewabara@yahoo.com/08055001948) is the media adviser to Dr. Orji
