I do not think it is right for people to see what is bad and keep mute. Good conscience demands every Nigerian to stand up and defend our collective heritage in order to elevate Nigeria from its present dwindling fortunes into a global colossus.

The British writer and statesman, Edmund Burke, says that all it takes for evil to thrive in any society is for good men to do nothing.

We are where we are today because those who should speak out have failed to do so. Rather they have chosen to pander to the whims and caprices of those in power in order to secure their daily bread. It was this lukewarm attitude that accounted for the recklessness of the Obasanjo regime which took our country through eight years of deceit.

I have refused to be discouraged or lose hope in Nigeria. I cannot lose hope in Nigeria, because I do not have any other country I can call mine. For the 48 plus years of my existence on earth, I have spent a sizeable part of it working for the peace and progress of Nigeria.

Nigeria is not as bad as some persons portray it. It is a great nation with enormous human and material resources. There was a time it was the centre of Africa’s socio-economic life. At that time, other nations shivered each time Nigeria sneezed. It was called the giant of Africa, Big Brother Africa, and it truly lived up to its name.

Sadly, things have fallen apart to almost a point of irredeemableness. Nigeria and Nigerians are viewed with scorn across the globe. Our citizens are molested anyhow at entry points into foreign countries. They brand us rogues and criminals. What is our offence? They say we are drug peddlers, 419ners, human traffickers, and prostitutes. They manhandle our people, frisk them without consideration, and even detain them on the flimsiest suspicion.

I have taken pains to study the problems of our nation and wish to state without any fear that the root cause is erosion of family values and societal morass. Why have we suddenly lost our pride as a people? Why have abandoned those norms and values that made us the cynosure of all eyes in global affairs? They blame Nigeria’s retrogression on other mundane factors when the real culprit is the erosion of family values.
We blame our leaders as if we all did not contribute to our national woes.

Who are the leaders and who are the followers? Can leaders perform without the support of the followers? The kinds of leadership we have had so far are products of our individual and collective inadequacies and incompetence. What justification do we have to blame our leaders for wallowing in malfeasance and corruption when we made ourselves ready tools for rigging and other forms of electoral malpractices? Galatians Chapter 6 Verse 7 says that one reaps whatever one sows. There is no way one can reap cocoa when one has sown cocoyam.

I wonder why parents no longer correct their children when they go wrong. Rather than scold them whenever they do what is wrong they make themselves malleable tools in the hands of their children. They lack the courage to play their parental role because they have compromised their integrity for a pot of portage. Parents watch while their children dress provocatively, prostitute and engage in other demeaning, anti-social activities without calling them to order. Such parents themselves condone the excesses of their children because the children give them part of their ill-gotten money.

The family remains an important socializing agent where cultural values are transmitted from one generation to another. If this is so, why then have we suddenly forgotten those values our forebears bequeathed to us. I still remember those days when parents were held in awe by their children. In the heyday whatever parents said was immensely respected by their children. Today, pornography and violence on television have obsessed them. Is it not saddening that parents should watch as their children watch pornographic movies without calling them to order?

My heart bleeds as I watch the evils our children engage in these days. They have no atom of respect for their parents: they leave their homes and stay away for several days without anybody raising the lid. When they return from their escapades their parents welcome them with hands spread.

What a world!
Honestly, our society is decaying and nothing serious is being done to remedy the situation. Everybody moves about as if nothing is happening. I have said it time without number that unless we do something to salvage the situation all of us may be consumed by the impending conflagration.

It is sad that our people no longer believe in the dignity of labour. Everybody wants to be rich quick: They want to reap from other people’s labour. What is responsible for the high incidence of immorality that rules our national life, if not greed and lousiness?

I am what I am today because I sacrificed comfort and leisure to pursue my destiny with honesty, forthrightness, creativity and humaneness. I hear young boys and girls say they want to be like Orji Kalu. There is nothing wrong with them aspiring to be like me. But are they prepared to pay the price I paid. I spent sleeplessness nights reading, engaged in petty trading, sold palm oil with as little as N2000 my mother gave me and did other legitimate ventures to survive.

After my secondary education at Government College, Umuahia, I gained admission into the University of Maiduguri to study Political Science. While at the university I engaged in student unionism, emerging as the President of the Student Union. I refused to be intimidated by the enormous powers of the university authorities when I stood up to defend the rights of students who were expelled for provoking demonstration on campus over poor feeding and general negligence. I did not see anything wrong in the action of the students.

Though I was not affected by the rustication, I chose to quit the university in solidarity with the expelled students. I did what I did because, as the president of the student union, it was my duty to defend them against the highhandedness of the school leadership.

My leaving the University of Maiduguri at the time I did, without completing my studies, was a huge price I had to pay for the interest of others. Nevertheless, I thank God for using that encounter to unveil an important chapter in my life. From that very day God opened the floodgate of heaven and poured His blessing upon me. I do not need to recount all that the good Lord has done for me. But of remarkable mention was the periods I served in the National Sports Commission, National Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives, and governor of Abia State for eight uninterrupted years (1999-2007).

Do not forget the heavy incarceration I suffered in the hands of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who vowed to destroy me for no justifiable reason other than that I opposed his deceit and despotism. He had wanted to perpetuate himself in power as President but I, in company with other well-meaning Nigerians, opposed it with all vehemence. My punishment for this audacity was the stifling of my businesses, especially SLOK Air and oil licences.

I do not have any apology for my actions since it bordered on conviction and the welfare of the generality. Given another opportunity I will repeat it over and over again.
Many may not know that I started SLOK Group some 20 years ago. Today, SLOK has grown into an octopus doing business in diverse fields such as oil, shipping, manufacturing, supplies, contracting, importation and exportation, procurement of industrial machinery, furniture, banking and insurance, and publishing, etc.

It is amazing that all people want to see is Orji Kalu the successful business mogul, the astute politician, but fail to look back to what I went through to achieve these modest successes.

I believe what our youngsters need is a motivational and inspirational leader – somebody that serves as a role model, a mentor – to propel their vision and make them better citizens.

The continual degeneration of morality in our society stems from this fact. It is preposterous that what rule our world today are covetousness, revelry, greed, thievery, licentiousness, malfeasance, ethnicity, godfather syndrome, and orgies of diverse forms, yet we wish to build a progressive and united Nigeria! What kind of leaders do we expect to produce in the next generation? Is it leaders that lack basic cultural and social values that edify? How can this category of leaders develop Nigeria and make it the pride of the world?

For us to move forward as a nation, there is the urgent need to renew and rededicate ourselves to our laid them norms, values and national ethos as a way of regenerating our consciousness to become more selfless, patriotic and god-fearing. There is no way we can progress in an atmosphere of rancour, strife and belligerency.

This is why it has become increasingly important to review our school curricula to incorporate those basic courses that will awaken the inner spirit of altruism in the citizenry and patriotic ideals. Courses on Citizenship Education, Civics, Culture and Society, Sex Education, Constitution, and Religion should be taught with greater interest and vigour.

The reorientation of the youth has become imperative with the new global consciousness as a way of softening the ground for their ascendancy to power in the foreseeable future.

The election of Barack Obama has fired the enthusiasm of the young generation of Nigerians to excel. The full impact of his election as the first African-American President will be felt in the next round of presidential elections in 2011. By that time the new revolution, in form of moral rearmament, that will change the face of things in Nigeria, will have taken place.