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‘Professor’ Orji Kalu and national leadership

September 3, 2009

Image removed.It has now become quite clear to Nigeria that former Governor of Abia State, Oji Uzor Kalu, is not the author of The Kalu Leadership Series column in the Saturday Sun. A few weeks ago when some members of the People Democratic Party in Imo State took him on over his diatribe on the party in the column, they queried why the Nigerian news media has allowed such an intellectual and professional fraud to be taking place in their own turf.


Although they acknowledge that very few Nigerians bother to read Kalu’s ‘column’ because they know, ab initio, that he is not the author, they noted that Kalu was making a mockery of column writing even at the Nigerian  standard.  To be sure, ghost writing is practiced elsewhere but it is such it is hardly noticeable that the follow who claims the By-line is not the real author. For example, the secret authors would always couch their language in that which the people know the ghost author with and argue issues with the type of logic the ghost author is known for. For example, where the ghost author is usually not known for voluminous vocabularies, his secret authors would desist from using high sounding words that would immediately betray the fraud.

 But not so for Kalu’s and his secret writers. With impunity, those who write the  “The Kalu Leadership Series” for him ascribe to him vocabularies and logic which Nigerians do not know him with. Nothing portrayed this crass absence of journalistic and intellectual imprudence than the article that appeared in the ‘column’ on Saturday August 29, 2009 (Page 15) title “The Bones Shall Rise Again”. Right from the first word to the word to the last, even a primary school boy would know that Kalu is not the author of that article, for a sample reason that in both form and essence, Nigerians can never associate Kalu with what the article stood for. However, the concern here is not whether or not Kalu was the author of the article in reference. We would assume, for purpose, of this article only that he is the author of he said article and try to see if, indeed, Orji Uzor Kalu, who ruled Abia State for eight good years, is in a position to put up the arguments he did in that article.

For purpose of refreshing the minds of Nigerians and clarity we reproduce parts of the article under reference. Kalu wrote: “The political class has done incalculable damage to the soul of our nation. They have so manipulated the nation that it has lost its conscience and direction. Nigeria earns millions of dollars daily from oil and other cash crops but little of it gets to the masses who daily groan under the crushing weight of abandonment. The government is not doing much to alleviate their sufferings either. The same government they stood under the sun and rain to vote into power! The roads are impassable, no pipe bone water, no electricity, no security and no food. In fact, everything is in a state of disuse”.

 Kalu, the fire-eating critic indeed! When did bread become the food for monkey that the likes of Orji Kalu can afford to throw stones at the Nigerian Establishment?  Poor masses of Nigeria? Have things become that bad for them? That it is an Orij Uzor Kalu that would speak for them?

 It amounts to an assault on the collective intelligence of the down trodden Nigerians to have an Orji Kalu pretend that he is the champion of their cause. Clearly, this gimmick of whipping up sentiments and the biggest intellectual dishonesty anybody can foist of the masses of the people. Further down the article Kalu than wrote: “…I have unusual solutions to the problems of Nigeria. I am serious. And that was why I opted to contest for the office of president in 2007. I still believe that the only way of the problems of Nigeria is to apply exceptional strategies. Resorting to the archetypical approach of past administrations will not take us anywhere …”

That’s ‘Professor’ Orij Uzor Kalu talking.

 I am sure the heart of every citizen of Abia State has been bleeding since Saturday. Here is a fellow who had the opportunity of governing their state, Abia, for eight good years and did nothing to uplift it. Orji Uzor Kalu left Abia State exactly the way he met it. Some would even say that he left Abia in the worse state than he met it. Where was “the unusual solutions” he is referring to in the article? Here is a fellow who could not manage just one state. Now, he is telling Nigerians that he has “unusual solution” to the problems of the entire nation. What an insult on Nigerians! Kalu said he contested the 2007 presidential elections in order to save Nigeria. Indeed! How many people did he save in Abia? Interestingly, Kalu is said to be still nursing the ambition of ruling Nigeria. To be fair to him that really illustrates how bad things have gone for this country.

 For a follow like Kalu who could not account for his Stewardship as the governor of a state of less than three million people to still talk of ruling African’s most populous and biggest nation makes Nigeria a laughing stock among people of the civilized world. Little wonder some of our fellow compatriots outside Igbo land sometimes talk down on us. Each time they see the likes Kalu talking about leadership in Nigeria, they get angry with Ndi Igbo for giving opportunity to people like Kalu who has not shown an abysmal lack of grasp of what that word “Leadership”, means. At the beginning of the last dispensation, I use to quarrel with some Yoruba Journalist who was fond of berating Ndi Igbo for throwing up a fellow like Kalu as one of their best. But after eight years, I began to bury my head in shame each time I got involved in matters of political leadership in Igboland with them.

 In Fact, my view is that the more serious elements among our people should call Kalu to order because the more he dabbles into the issue of national leadership, the more people outside Igboland laugh at us. Kalu in the article under reference ‘advised’ President Umar Yaradua to “beware of sycophants …” But all of us here in Abia know that Kalu’s eight years regime in Abia State was synonymous with sycophancy. Orji Uzor Kalu has the record of being the least to tolerant of all the state chief executive in that dispensation.

He made Abians tell him only those things he wanted to hear: As the best thing that happened to them. How many deputies did he have? Kalu dissolved and reconstituted the state executive council so many times that our dear people in Abia lost count. So, what are we talking about?

 As I said earlier, the hearts of Abians must have been bleeding since last Saturday. As one of them, I feel terrible. My situation is made worse because with all modest, I am privileged to appreciate the level of intellectual fraud Kalu and his secret writers and publishers are foisting of Nigerians. It’s so sad.

 

Uche Kalu

3 Bende Road

Umuahia

Abia State

1 Lecturer, Department of Anatomy, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo, Nigeria.
GSM: 0803 744 1401. E-mail: [email protected]



 

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