Everyday one opens a newspaper these days one is bound to read at least a piece by Orji Uzor Kalu, the immediate past governor of Abia State , calling Atiku Abubakar unimaginable names. One wonders what Kalu has been doing since he left office as governor of Abia State two years ago. It does appear that he has no other job other than to abuse the former vice president. In fact, he derives pleasure in the act of abusing other people.

What baffles me most is the reason that has informed Orji Uzor Kalu of his new chosen career. According to a popular columnist whose piece I read a fortnight ago, Kalu has found a safe haven from the torment of EFCC by abusing those he perceives as enemies of Yar’Adua. If he escapes justice today will he escape same tomorrow? Does Kalu believe Yar’Adua will be in government forever? Is he not a living witness of how Obasanjo’s hunters of yesterday have become the hunted of today? The Fani Kayode that was abusing everyone that differed with Obasanjo is facing charges of corruption today.

For some of us who are indigenes of Abia State we feel insulted to have had a character like Kalu as governor of the State. He possesses no quality for such an exalted position. What concrete evidence can Kalu lay his hands on as his achievement during the eight years he held sway in the State? Nothing. Beyond the newspaper advertorials and propaganda, what else can Kalu point to as his legacy? He succeeded in looting the treasury of Abia to the extent that he left the State in a worse state than he met it eight years earlier despite the avalanche of resources that accrued to the State during the period of his rule.

The issue of corruption which has centered on the exchange of hot words between Atiku and Kalu should be revisited. As far as I know, Atiku Abubakar is not being tried for corruption. But Kalu is. He has been a guest of EFCC. And instead of offering valid reason to the mountain of allegations leveled, Kalu is busy diverting attention from the issue at hand, calling every other person thief. Does that gambit remove the burden from his shoulder? Sooner or later, nemesis will catch up with him.

The other issue Kalu hammers on is that he is a better politician than Atiku having won two States in the last gubernatorial election. How will any reasonable person rely on the worst election in the history of this nation as the basis for judgment? Has Kalu now endorsed the 2007 election which he had so much criticized in the past before he becomes an apostle of Professor Maurice Iwu? Let be told that PDP would lose an election in Abia again and again even if the party features Jesus as its candidate. That explains why PPA had a field day in the last election in Abia. The resources of the State were available to him. Another reason that worked in his favour.  

Moreover, Obasanjo was prepared to lose his own State to another party than to allow Atiku win Adamawa State . Obasanjo’s odium for Atiku was that serious. He went all out to ensure that he did not fail in his plan. Therefore, Kalu should not make comparison between Atiku and himself. In short, Obasanjo considered him a nuisance and therefore, did not take him serious. It was Atiku who gave Obasanjo sleepless night.

Saint Ikechukwu Okoroafor

Nigeria Petroleum Institute

Effurun

Delta State