Is Gov. Orji Intending Reconciliation with the Probe of Kalu? -By Odimegwu Onwumere

Posted by admin Abia, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists, Odimegwu Onwumere, State News Monday, May 20th, 2013

By Odimegwu Onwumere / NNP / May 20, 2013 – It was Hubert H. Humphrey (American 38th US Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson (1965-69) and US Senator from Minnesota (1949-64, 1971-78). 1911-1978), who said that the essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.

But Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State does not want to focus for the future without the unremitting calls to probe his predecessor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. Perhaps, Gov. Orji wanted reconciliation with Kalu, without knowing how to go about it, hence the probe.

Nonetheless, information has it that Kalu has constantly responded that he has nothing to quiver for the affront called probe; he is only concerned that Governor Orji has slighted him so much, beyond parsimoniousness, by saying that he should appear before the probe panel, as if he is Orji’s apprentice.

Dr. Kalu’s infuriation was noticed after the newsflash on Nigeria Television Authority on May 15, 2013, has it that Governor Orji, who set the panel, was asking him again to appear before it. It is though imperative to say that the vulgarity in the statement on the television by the government of Abia State has further exposed a known fact that the Governor Orji-led Government of Abia State does not know what Due Process is and if it knew, it does not keep to such. Else, how could it not have properly invited Kalu for the probe, instead of addressing him like one loafer in the country? Although, what is the gobbledygook of a probe is this?
In his chase after Kalu inter alia, Orji had said that the probe was to look into the running of the state’s newspaper outfit while Kalu was in government; but in a statement by Kalu, he urged Orji to go collect his towel where he took his bath and stop distracting him, as his newspaper outfit, Sun Publishing Limited which operates in Aba, Lagos and Abuja, was financed by Guarantee Trust Bank Plc, and all the equipments it purchased had been fully paid.

It is preposterous how Orji has made governance to look like, without a direct approach to the rule of law, which Kalu is highly committed to, and has vowed that it would be a shame to all the people who may be involved in the kangaroo probe if they fail to invite him in order to put his actions as Governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007 straight, and stop this government’s distractions of his activities, because he has a lot to do, if the government is less busy in the midst of plenty works to do in Abia State.

As Abia people knew, Kalu had noteworthy achievements during his tenor of which Gov. Orji cannot compete. If he is in doubt, we henceforth challenge him for a debate. How come that since 2012, the major work that Gov. Orji has known to do, is the call to probe Kalu? This has gotten to an irritating stage. Who does not want Kalu to speak about Abia State and her government again and who is afraid of Kalu?
We have to remind Orji that he should own up that he is not at peace with his conscience for all the perceived malevolence he has meted out against Kalu whom he once served his government as Chief of Staff, hence the make-belief probe. Abia people are very sure that Orji is heading to the gulag from where he became governor, if by peradventure Kalu is duly invited and he comes to open the Pandora’s Box containing unprintable things about Orji.

Last time, it was the irritant that the Abia State Government circulated that it wanted to probe Kalu, because according to it, “there has been a lot of anger, irritation and agitation within the Abia populace as a result of the unguarded false utterances being credited to a former governor of the state, Chief Oriji Uzor Kalu”. Nonsense! Arrant nonsense!! Which Abia people were angry over Kalu? Was it Kalu who has been pelted severally in Abia State by the same populace or Governor Orji? Of course, Governor Orji. This is how Abia people have started to probe Governor Orji, while he is still taking Kalu as cover for his non-performance in the Government House, Umuahia, Abia State capital. What an off-beam news state!

How one wishes that traders from Aba will also be invited to the ground of the probe and let us see who would be pelted, booed, jeered again for his clueless, visionless and clownish embarrassment of governance, and because of his misplacement of aggression and misplacing governance with nastiness. What is Orji going to probe Kalu for, when the present government has been a nonpayer to virtually all the workers in the state? Maybe, Orji is inviting Kalu to help him address his ineffectiveness in governance.

The present government in Abia State is very funny – it has knack in diverting attention – in lieu of probing into why there are many ramshackle roads, infrastructure, dead commerce/industry, dead education. Which sector is alive in Abia State under Gov. Orji? Yet, Abia people cannot see where the proper use of the monies due to Abia, since 2007 till date of Governor Orji, is channeled to. Are the monies where? Because, many unbiased Abia people are yet to see any laudable thing that Governor Orji has done with the monies.

It is only in this present government in Abia State that many are regretting that they are cursed with leadership, and they start to equate Governor Orji with a magician, because of his ability to deflect concentration from actuality. It is only in this Orji government that such statement as “this administration is seriously seriousless” is being heard of.

Whether Governor Orji wants to probe Dr. Kalu or reconcile with him, Abia people of good will had already said that Kalu is by 85% better than Orji. The only information that Orji has kept flowing is how to probe Kalu, whereas Abia people had expected the government to flow information to the Federal Government that all the Federal and state projects in the state are in ruins, and instead of travelling to Europe and USA and Abuja that do not add meaning to the wellbeing of our impoverished people.
A bad worker is always quarrelling with his or her good or bad tool. Under Orji, political appointees have cried and cried and are now sacked, amongst others. By mentioning that he would probe Kalu, Orji has started the initiation of probe against himself, being Kalu’s Chief of Staff for 8 years. Why was Orji cooling his feet in detention for alleged financial crimes before 2007, whereas there has not been any case of such against Kalu?

In a state like Rivers State, where the successor had respect for his predecessor, what was constituted was a reconciliatory panel, which brought about the once elusive peace back to the state. Nevertheless, let us not keep out our minds to what Hubert H. Humphrey had said: The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Rivers State. Tel:+2348032552855. E-mail: [email protected]_posts