The Orji Uzor Kalu-led and inspired National Movement for the Re-election of President Buhari elucidatory and illuminative traverse en route to the ancient and historic city of Abeokuta, Ogun State, began from Lekki Phase One, Lagos, with a stopover at Ikoyi for the first-year memorial thanksgiving anniversary service in honour of the late Mrs. Olufunke Sunmonu, a delectable wife, mother and grandmother.
May God continue to abide with Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, CON, and other members of the Sunmonu clan. The quality of attendees, expression of love and class that characterized the entirety of the memorial event were testamentary to the love and unparalleled compassion madam radiated while here—continue to rest in the Lord’s bosom.
On the solemn occasion, Pastor Tunde Bakare and other speakers reaffirmed the vanity of our existential humanism and pointed out the imperativeness of living right and finishing well. In a fleeting exchange of banter, Pastor Bakare, while accessing the Ikoyi Vaults for special prayers for the deceased, described Dr. Kalu as the only irrepressible former governor.
At the end of the memorial session, we departed for Abeokuta in a modest and responsible convoy. On arrival, we headed for the splendorous palace of the Alake of Egbaland, HRM Adedeotun Aremu Gbadebo. The royalty of reception was unprecedented. Being my first time in the Alake’s palace, I was quite impressed with the superlative hospitality and instructive comments of the traditional ruler, some of which are highlighted presently.
I never knew until last week that HRM Gbadebo was a colonel and that President Buhari was his boss in Dodan Barracks. This, alone, explains the traditional ruler’s unflinching support for President Buhari’s encore next year. You can rightly call it esprit de corps!
Our especial host said he was extremely gladdened by the fact that Dr. Kalu from the South East could be campaigning for a Northerner in the South West, a development, he said, hallmarked optimism for the country’s unity and brotherliness. He enthused that he was not astonished by Dr. Kalu’s robust and profound commitment to President Buhari’s well-deserved re-election because Dr. Kalu was an acclaimed detribalized Nigerian celebrated in all parts of the country and the world.
HRM Gbadebo recalled Dr. Kalu’s achievements as governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007 and his boundless and borderless philanthropic superfluity that was extended to even people from his domain! The Alake said Dr. Kalu did not know that he has such information concerning his lavish generosity.
At the meeting, Dr. Kalu went down memory lane and recalled how the late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon as number two citizen after President Buhari visited him alongside with HRM, a colonel then, at his Igbere country-home—an architectural masterpiece— when he was still very young, about three decades ago! Dr. Kalu was filled with nostalgia when he ran the narrative. The officers were on an official visit to the late Sam Eke and did a whistling dash to the Romanesque home of the former action governor.
This is confirmatory of the fact that Dr. Kalu had been engineering multifarious things and associating with the topmost echelons of the society as a very young man long before becoming a governor. Along the line, too, financial fortunes came his way which debunk the latter-day rabid and venomous yarns that he became popular and made money on becoming a governor. Despite this fact, unfortunately, malicious, vicious and convoluted spins still make the rounds in contradistinction to reality.
Let me intervene at this point with the avowals of the Alake before I round off with vistas on Dr. Kalu’s strident support for President Buhari’s unassailable second term: “I am part of the campaign team soliciting that Buhari should be given another chance to lead for another four years to complete the great work he has started.
“Those who drafted the constitution to allow for a second term had envisaged that while a leader takes time to formulate policies and put programmes in place, he needs more time for them to germinate before they begin to translate such to benefits for the people.
“Unfortunately, policy somersaults have become a prominent feature in the history of governance in the nation. “When a leader goes after four years, virtually everything he has done will be turned over by whoever comes after and we can no longer afford this wastage,” the monarch enthused.
Dr. Kalu, in his response to Alake’s advisory, said the person virulently criticizing President Buhari serially these days never tolerated criticisms of any sort when he was in a similar position. The former governor of Abia State recalled writing letters to the fellow crying sour grapes without any response, unlike now that there is even the dignity of a mature reply. He declared that this was the symbol of difference between a statesman and a certified dictator reputed for vindictiveness and witch-hunt!
According to Dr. Kalu, “If anyone says that President Buhari is a failure, I assert without any equivocation or reservation that the person must be an irredeemable failure seeking relevance from different platforms. No leader since after him has been good in his warped imagination!”
“Corruption today,” Dr. Kalu avers, “was institutionalized in the National Assembly and, by extrapolation, in the country, with the third term project fiasco for which some of us suffered unwarranted dire consequences because of our staunch oppositional stance on the weird, malarial dream.”
For me, it would be uncharitable to say that President Buhari has not done well so far considering the national decomposition he met when he took over governance. His leadership pace may be sluggish, but it does not detract the fact that he is doing creditably to restore the country.
All that President Buhari needs to do is to be proactive in the months ahead, going into his inevitable second term. Let decisions and actions be decisive so as to give the people a sense of belief that, indeed, someone is in charge.
The growing lawlessness, impunity and selective justice administration among sacred cows, the executive and the legislature will implode one of these days. President Buhari should be more assertive going forward. What we need now are remedial suggestions and solutions—we have had enough hyper-criticisms even from those who, ordinarily, in sane societies, should be in prison for multifarious leadership atrocities! Lest I am misconstrued, I am not saying that President Buhari does not have shortcomings. The point is that we all need to support him in our collective essence and drive towards earthly paradise. He alone cannot do it.
I prefer fresh ideas from the youth to senile proclamations by men of yore interminably seeking relevance!