Tag: Kalu

IN the recent interview he gave to The Interview magazine, former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, paints a portrait of the Yoruba that is alien to the Southwest-based ethnic group. He says they are united in their politics and project common interests by easily burying the hatchet. He gives the example of former governors Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Raji Fashola who he claims glossed over their differences during the latter’s second term because of the mature way they played their politics. Such unity of purpose is distinctly Yoruba, Mr Kalu effuses, and stands in contradistinction to Igbo politics, which he excoriates in rather unflattering terms. According to Mr Kalu: “Let me tell you, there were more problems between (Bola) Tinubu and (Babatunde) Fashola than there were between me and Theodore Orji. But it is the discipline of the Yoruba that kept them at bay…The Igbo have no discipline in terms of politics. They are very good traders; they’re good in anything they do, but they don’t understand politics.”
Predictably, the portraits have created a firestorm, with the Igbo divided in two over Mr Kalu’s stereotyping, and the Yoruba viewing his theory with indifference and quiet amusement. To a section of the Igbo, Mr Kalu was the one who introduced the “traders’ mentality” to politics; but to another section, Mr Kalu’s description of Igbo political behaviour is infallible. On such controversial matters, it seems, there can be no consensus. Nor is one needed. Igbo politics and political behaviour, not to talk of political recruitment, have morphed over the years like the rest of Nigeria. Politics has become less ideological and more commercialised. In view of the convoluted and recurring shifts in alliances and affiliations, politics has changed in ways the First and Second Republic generations could not have imagined.
Mr Kalu’s dreamy portraiture of Yoruba and Igbo politics is a reflection of his inability to keep abreast of the changing dynamics of Nigerian politics, despite the experience garnered from successfully completing two consecutive terms as governor. Nothing demonstrates this lack of exactitude than his terrible misreading of Yoruba politics and worldview. He says had Mr Fashola been Igbo he would have, during his second term, abandoned Asiwaju Tinubu. He obviously holds the impression that the two Yoruba politicians stuck together between 2011 and 2015 regardless of their highly publicised differences. Mr Kalu seems unperturbed that his impression could in fact be exaggerated or altogether misplaced, indeed almost as if he failed to consider the posturing and body language of Yoruba governors and ministers since the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the last elections. And for the former Abia governor to extrapolate Yoruba political behaviour from the Southwest’s Fourth Republic politics alone is really astounding.
History, in fact, shows that the Yoruba are more fractious than the stereotype Mr Kalu concocts. The fractiousness of Yoruba politics all but brought the First Republic to grief. Even the Second Republic, which seemed under Obafemi Awolowo to present a unified and hierarchical politics, was already fraying at the edges before the 1983 polls. What with the internal schisms between the party leadership and the late Bola Ige. Indeed, Chief Awolowo confided in a few friends and associates how exasperated he had become over what he described as the naive and unbridled ambition of some of his protégés, and the covert manner they were undercutting him. As proof of his exasperation, Chief Awolowo indicated he would do nothing about the betrayal he was experiencing because the public would stigmatise him as an inflexible person and leader.
Scouring history further, Mr Kalu will find little to justify his sweeping, if not somewhat romantic, assertions about Yoruba political unity. That unity is a mere facade. If today a Mr Ayodele Fayose extends an olive branch across party lines to Asiwaju Tinubu, it is simply because the political undercurrents, or what is called the undertow, are more powerful than the surface currents of disharmony and conflict. Stereotypes are often unhelpful, considering their facile assumptions and the analytic red herrings they strew across ethnic and political paths. Whether analysts or Mr Kalu takes a deeper, closer look or not at politics among the nation’s big ethnic groups, the fact is that the unpredictability of alliances and affiliations makes stereotypes incompetent barometers of political behaviour. And that includes the Fulani who, stereotypes again suggest, play far more cohesive, mysterious, clandestine and ultimately more effective politics than any other ethnic group. President Buhari, not to say the ethnic and ideological coalition that brought him to office, stands in perfect refutation of that bloated surmise. Mr Kalu seems to base his conclusions on anecdotes. No ethnic group unites around a candidate that does not fire their imagination, whether by the sheer force and charisma of his person or by his inspiring espousal of great ideology. So, no matter how desperately anyone preaches ethnic unity around a person or cause, the Igbo cannot buck that global trend, whether they are skilful traders or not.

Former Abia State governor and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) candidate in the Abia North senatorial rerun, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, has prayed the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, the state capital, to decaled him winner of the rerun.

Kalu based his prayer on the fact that he won the election in all the five local government areas in the senatorial district, including his Bende Local Government Area, where he polled majority of the votes.

Under cross-examination by the first respondent’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), as well as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), the former governor, who started his seven-hour testimony on Tuesday, said his prayer was for the tribunal to re-compute the result of the rerun and declare him winner.

Kalu said he was confident that if the results were devoid of fraud, allegedly committed by his opponent and his political party, he would win the rerun.

The former governor also prayed the tribunal that it should expunge the votes wrongfully allotted to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, since he never earned such votes.

He told the tribunal that the PDP was not joined in the petition because the electoral law did not provide that the party must be joined.

Kalu said he was also aware that his agents did not sign the result sheets, where there were alleged electoral malpractices, adding that there were wards and polling units where the results were cancelled while INEC officials smuggled them into the final results.

The former governor said there was no need for further proof of alleged multiple thumb-printing, ballot box snatching and violations of the electoral law.

He said: “This is because the people who helped to rig the election were arrested and are undergoing trial in courts.”

Addressing reporters outside the court room, Kalu said over 500 hoodlums were arrested during the rerun for alleged electoral fraud and criminal acts.

The former governor said they were facing trial in courts of record.

The petitioner added that he wanted to be in Senate because of his love for Abia North residents and not for personal or selfish reasons.

According to him, his clean record as a former governor qualifies him to represent his people at the Senate.

Kalu hoped the tribunal would ensure justice in the matter, even as he expressed satisfaction with the proceedings.

The former governor urged his supporters not to despair.

He tendered 460 documents, including the result sheets for Ohafia, Arochukwu, Umunneochi and Bende local government areas.

Other documents he tendered included the certified true copies of the charge sheets for those who allegedly committed electoral offences; three newspaper reports on the election; voters’ register for Arochukwu, Bende, Umunneochi and Ohafia local government areas and receipts of payments for the certified true copy of the voters’ register to buttress his claims.

Former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu yesterday described the statement credited to British Prime Minister David Cameron, in which he referred to Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt” country as unguarded.

He said Cameron should apologise for the “unfortunate” statement.

“My attention and that of the Nigerian public have been drawn to the recent statement made by the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron in which he characterized Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt country” during his briefing to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth just before the anti-corruption summit which was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari in London.

“The statements of the British Prime Minister are most unfortunate and unguarded, given the relationship between the Nigeria and Britain, two countries that share very long and deep heritage; and especially as the British PM did not state the basis on which he made such assertion which has now become public. It is also a gross disrespect and a most uncharitable disposition to the Nigerian people who work hard to earn their living and who have made very positive impacts on the lives of British people and their economy. Also, such statements coming from the convener of the summit himself, just before the commencement, suggest that either he doesn’t take the summit serious, or he is deceptive in terms of his commitment to the Nigerian government in the fight against corruption.

“In the light of this, the British Prime Minister should render an immediate and unreserved apology to the Nigerian people and to President Buhari for those embarrassing comments. As a responsible government and former colonists of Nigeria, my advice is that Britain should handle this matter with the required level of responsibility and prudence so as to avoid a possible breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries,” Kalu added.

Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) Chief Solomon Chukwu has warned former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu against using Biafra to woo support for his political ambition.

Chukwu who faulted Kalu’s promise to address the problems which gave rise to the agitations, if elected senator, was pessimistic that the former governor would make any impact in the struggle to liberate the people of the old Eastern region.

Chukwu, who spoke through MASSOB’s National Director of Information, Sunny Okereafor, said the former governor does not need to be elected a Senator before he can lend his voice to the problems. He accused him of playing politics with the issue.

His words: “As a former governor and international businessman, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu does not need to be elected as a senator before lending his voice to the problems which are at the root of the pro-Biafra agitations.

“It is wrong for him to say if he wins election, he will address these problems. That is a political statement. Does Dr. Kalu need to be a Senator before he can appreciate that the people of the former Eastern region have become third class citizens and endangered species in Nigeria? Does he need to be a Senator to know that certain political positions in Nigeria are no go areas for Ndigbo?

“Does he need to be a Senator before condemning the killing of defenseless protesters? Does Dr. Kalu need to get to the Senate before he can speak against the detention of pro-Biafra protesters? What proper dialogue and common ground is he promising when President Muhammadu Buahri has continued to show hatred for Ndigbo? “Rather than playing politics with the issue, it is high time people like Dr. Kalu, and other Igbo leaders speak up to say enough is enough.”

Chukwu warned Kalu not to allow himself be deceived by those he described as “expelled MASSOB members” who may approach him for patronage, stressing that MASSOB is not a political organisation.