Daily Independent (Lagos)
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
7 January 2009
column
This year, this column would occasionally undertake the clearly hazardous but enlightening task of character study on some political personages whose actions and inactions have significantly influenced the tenor and character of the kind of unedifying politics we proudly play in these parts.
Character study is a most tricky exercise, especially in Nigeria. Indeed, no matter the degree of balance one endeavours to wrap around one's position on the subject, there must be some quarters where such a position would instantly inflame passions, and generate bitter outbursts, not because it was not very clear from the beginning that one's position was based on hard, unassailable facts, but because there exist in those quarters very solid, preconceived notions about that particular subject which they expect every other view to be carefully tailored to perfectly fit into. Such a herd-mentality, where it is allowed to triumph, remains a great enemy of serious intellectual enquiry. Its only benefit is the capacity it retains to make the world a very boring place.
Variety of ideas and perceptions is the spice of public discourse. Again, there is also the issue of the person being x-rayed; he or she may think one was most unfair to him, even when he would find any attempt to contradict the position canvassed a near impossible task. But would all these stop us from doing our bit here to help readers regularly update their understanding of those who rule or aspire to rule them? We hope the answer remains a big no.
I have never met Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State, just like many other people I have also written about in this column. Not even a telephone discussion has taken place between us. Indeed, throughout the eight years he was in office, I only visited Umuahia once, to attend a special Church service organized by a pastor-friend. I had arrived Umuahia that Sunday morning, and by about four in the evening, I was already in a vehicle speeding away. So, I am not in a position to talk about Kalu's performance in office, and have never done so in all I have written about him in this column, whether I was attacking him, or being fascinated by the spectacular manner he always engaged former president Olusegun Obasanjo, and shredded the Egba farmer's bloated moral pretences and deodorized hypocrisies with his well-aimed and fact-laden strictures.
It is on record that long before civil society and rights groups even woke up to the reality of the unmitigated disaster that was the Obasanjo regime, Kalu's voice rang out from Umuahia bemoaning the ethical and moral bankruptcy that overly defined what passed for governance in Aso Rock at that time, and the clear directionless and perennial groping that flourished amidst noisy claims of "great achievements" and advancement. Free, fair and transparent corruption defined the character of that regime, and Kalu was unsparing of it, even though he was also of the ruling party, the PDP.
"I want to tell Mr. President", Kalu was quoted as saying at one time, "that he should mind his words because in my presence, the President was signing, as President, Otta Farm cheques of First Bank, which anybody can cross check. He signs Otta Farm cheques till tomorrow÷. As far as I am concerned, he is a hypocrite. He is building an international factory in Otta; he is building so many factories. He is the owner of the factory that is making juice in Ibadan ÷ After all, he ran a failed farm before becoming the President ÷ the President himself should underscore the issue of morality in his action of running a university and building Otta Farm (while in office) ÷ I challenge the President to declare his assets openly to (the) Nigerian people before 1999."
But, despite these strident, unrelenting broadsides which flowed ceaselessly from Umuahia towards Aso Rock, Kalu still went ahead to endorse the same very unpopular and failed Obasanjo for a second term. It is these kinds of revolting contractions which often show up in Kalu's politics that sometimes put off even his most ardent admirers. But how he is able each time to survive and get the same crowd that had denounced him awhile ago roaring after him again in great admiration is one magic that has continued to astound his political adversaries, especially among his kinsmen. In fact, after this faux pas, many thought he was finished politically, but the young man from Igbere soon seized the limelight again, as if nothing had happened.
His most entertaining clash with Obasanjo occured in respect of his claim that in 1998, he had given Obasanjo the sum of one million dollars, an assertion the former president promptly denied, challenging him to tender the receipt for such a donation if he was sure he had made any. But Kalu's announcement that he had given Obasanjo a First Bank cheque containing the said sum closed the argument. That was easily verifiable and clearly undeniable. His encounter with the EFCC under its former Chair, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, was no less entertaining. Before Kalu left office, what we heard was that he had stolen N65 billion from the Abia State treasury! But the story and figure Kalu allegedly stole kept changing with each passing day.
Later, during a two hour appearance before the Senate on September 27, 2006, Ribadu declared: "Abia is number one not because it is number one alphabetically but because we have one of the biggest established cases of stealing, money laundering, diversion of funds against Governor Kalu." He accused Kalu of using his mother, daughter, wife and brother to divert N35 billion to build his business empire including Slok Airlines, Slok Pharmaceuticals, and a newspaper house. But when eventually Kalu left office, the same EFCC under the same Nuhu Ribadu charged him to court for stealing about N2 billion! One hopes it does not become N2million tomorrow. Although Kalu, like many other public officers may not be free from the free-for-all looting that flourished at that time, especially at the Presidency, (unless the court eventually says otherwise), it was so easy to see that all the gratuitous drama enacted about the case by the EFCC, including his being dragged about at the court premises like a captured game, was merely being staged to impress the Baba in Otta.
But as I look at Kalu and his politics today, I am forced to wonder whether he would not with his own hands bring himself to the T-junction of his political life? There are at least three very high mountains between him and his political survival. One, a serious case of graft against him is pending before a Federal court. Two, the governorship elections of Imo and Abia States, controlled by his party, the PPA, are still facing serious challenges at the Court of Appeal. The outcome of these cases would greatly determine how much of the Kalu politics that would survive tomorrow. But the highest mountain before him would prove to be his very uncritical endorsement of the Yar'Adua regime for whatever reasons.
Yar'Adua's is one regime that has brazenly vindicated itself as overly bankrupt and directionless. Whatever political capital Kalu may hope to garner from this support of Yar'Adua may eventually be the greatest challenge to his political life, because, as Yar'Adua sinks deeper in ethical and moral chasm, so would the political fortune of his ardent supporters. Would Kalu then, after weathering the several storms sent his way by his adversaries be felled by his personal choices and the designs of his own hands? Only tomorrow will tell.
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