By Chuks Okoh
Former Abia State Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu has commended the lofty projects carried out by two south west governors: Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun in the area of infrastructure , health and education . He said the projects the governors have embarked on have huge impact on the socio – economic development of their states.
Kalu said the impressive projects he saw when he toured the south west recently have further convinced him that irrespective of partisan difference, such governors should be given the opportunity to continue their good work in their respective states. He charged politicians to eschew politics of bitterness and hatred but see political activity as a process that should raise the bar of performance in delivering democratic dividends to the people .Speaking in an interview Sunday at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on his way to the United Arab Emirates , Kalu said his recent peace tour of some south western reveal that both Fayemi and Aregbesola have transform their states beyond what even cynics would acknowledge is democracy at work.
He said :” To be honest with you exceptionally these governors have done very well like Ekiti and Osun and I said it openly. I don’t fear anybody to say it and that is the truth, that is the fact on the table and some of the governors have not done well also, so if you see anyone that have done well you praise him, they took me to projects .”
Kalu said politicians should close ranks and think of ways and means of developing the country rather than engage in political bitterness .
He said he did not embark on a tour of the south west to actualise any political ambition, but merely travelled round to preach the message of national unity and peace .
He said :” I am working for the unity of the country, the unity of the country means more than anything to me. I want people to see us whether you are APC, PDP or CPC anything you are, I want people to say first I can go to Fayemi have breakfeast, have lunch, have dinner because our politicians are making individuals to be enemies which is not right. We are not enemies, we are owners of this country, we are part and parcel of the country,
we should be friends. Our leaders at all levels are showing even the masses on how to be enemies to somebody, they have enemies, they tell you this man is my enemy, nobody is my
enemy.(Though) we might disagree politically (it) does not mean that you are my enemy, so this is what I am showing them, I am going to preach to governors to be friendly with one another.
Kalu endorsed the defection of some loyalists of the former president Olusegun Obasanjo
, in Ogun State who moved from the PDP into the APC , describing it as a matter of choice and civil right. He said :” It is a healthy thing, anybody can go anywhere he wants to be,
decamping from one party for another is a matter of choice. So, if some loyalists of Obasanjo move from PDP to APC, there is nothing wrong in that . Party is like church, I am a Catholic, my late father was a presbyterian, my mother is a presbyterian and as you can see, you can go to any church that you like, you can go to any party that you like.
It is their civil right, nobody should blame them and it is healthy to have alternative, I have always said this without any fear of anybody, it is healthy.
I don’t want to see one party holding the country to ransom, I don’t want to see two parties holding the country to ransom, two party is healthy for the country and they are doing the right thing, if they are dissatisfied with their former party , they can move .”
Meanwhile, Kalu said he has not endorsed the candidature of his younger brother , Mr Mascot Uzor Kalu to contest the governorship of Abia in 2015, the contest would be keenly vied for candidates that the people of the state would decide.
He said he only read about the ambition of his brother, Mascot, who was former chief
of staff to the incumbent governor of the state, Chief Theodore Orji on the pages of newspaper . He said:” You know my younger brother is in PPA, I am in PDP and it is two
different ball game all together, his name is Mascot Uzor Kalu, he was Chief of staff to the governor Theodore Orji, as you read it that was how I read it too.
We have many of our friends also who want to run for governor, who have come to see me
and tell me that they are running,so it is between my brother and those friends as you know we must have somebody to rule Abia, it is just that my brother has not told anybody that he is running for governor but I have like three to four candidates in PDP who have inform me officially that they want to run . No, I don’t want us to do past mistake, the decision have to be from the majority of Abia people to take, it is not going to be my decision, we are going to go round and preach to the conscience of Abia people to have the best amongst all
of them and the most trusted.”
“This unity is more important than anybody, nobody owns this country, this country is for
all of us, we have equal stake on this country, Jonathan just happens to be the president, Nyako just happens to be the governor of Adamawa State . We all have a role to play to move this country forward .”
…Canvasses Foreign Collaboration Against Insurgency
Also Orji Uzor Kalu has canvassed international collaboration in tackling the challenge
of insurgency in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, where members of the dreaded Islamic group Haram abducted over 200 secondary school girls in Borno State .
He said the Federal Government should invited the Isreali intelligence agency : MOSAD, and the United States Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA), to assist the Nigerian military in dealing with the insurgents .
Speaking in an interview Sunday at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on his way to the United Arab Emirates, Kalu said the Nigerian military should intensify efforts with the deployment of the right personnel and technology to
tackle the insurgents .
He said government should utilise the right intelligence information to track the activities of the insurgents, which is not abating by the day, as the abduction of over 200 girls in their school in Borno State clearly indicates .
Kalu said :” You cannot do this business without the MOSAD and without the CIA, I say this time without number . Nigerian government needs international collaboration to solve this insurgency problem. As a country we need to engage the right international partners as friends. So, only when these best friends are involved, intelligence will come because these guys have gone up there, they have technology, the google earth, the one use by American military and American intelligent agencies are very superior.
We are supposed to have found indication where these girls are and where they are been stationed and how they were abducted . Over 200 people is not a joke . We are supposed to have a track, a clue where and how they were abducted .
It is not an easy thing to move 200 people on the street. I still say what I have told you people many months ago that both the Federal Government and the service chiefs have to work more on intelligence. It is not the work of gun, I know what I am saying because I have witness some services of international intelligence agencies, what we are having here is not what they have.
Our Nigerian military is just not doing intelligence right and I still believe that if intelligence is right, even where those girls are now ought to have been located
Agreed , we may need to invest in technology, but is it not enough .
Though technology is involved but intelligence officials are more important than the
technology because technology is the hardware but the software is the people that will do the job. I am thinking about the software more than the hardware, the hardware is what every
Nigerian looks at because they are going to make money and purchase some equipment and make some money for themselves but that is not the issue, the issues are human beings that is the software of the business.”
He cautioned on cynics who have been canvassing other ways of resolving the insurgency without the engagement the right international partners.
Kalu said:” Anybody thinking that Nigeria will be an enemy to America, he is joking, this is the most important country in the world and they have to be our best friend on earth if we want to move forward, so people who are advising Federal Government or advising individuals here to quarrel with America, it is a great mistake.
We have to be best friend of America, we have to be best friend of the UK, we have to be
best friend of Germany and we have to be best friend of China, we have to be best friend of the successful people so that we can be successful ourselves.”
On the controversial memo written to northern governors about allegations of genocide
against Jonathan, Kalu said it is morally wrong for anybody to falsely make such allegation. He said :” No right thinking Nigerian will accuse the president of committing genocide .
I have a lot of respect for Admiral Nyako but no right thinking Nigeria should be accusing his President of genocide; why does he want to kill people that he is ruling, the president is weighed down by the problems of insurgency in Nigeria
So, I think that as politicians we should take restraint in what we say and what we don’t say especially in making allegations. You can see when we were governors every accusation we made on the then president ( was) the truth, it is not to divide the country, it was about our
economy, it was about stealing, it was about this and that and they were the truth . I cannot
at this stage say that he was misquoted because I expected him to come out openly and deny it . But, we must all note that the unity of this country is more important than Nyako than Jonathan than Orji Kalu .”
