Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Chief Chris Ajah is the state vice chairman and Abia North zonal chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he
spoke about the good works of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu as the senator representing Abia North and the expectations of his people in the days ahead. He equally spoke about why APC lost Abia in the last election and expressed optimism that the party will win the state in 2023.
We learnt that the road leading to your home town of Acha which was attracted by Senator Orji Kalu is nearing completion. How are your people feeling?
Honestly, I must confess, my people, the people of Acha in Isuikwuato Local Government are so overwhelmed with the level of work going on in that road. Senator Kalu has put smiles on the faces of Acha people, not really only Acha people but by extension, Ebonyi people because that road leads to Ivoh in Ebonyi State. So, it leads from Ivoh, Ndi Okoroukwu, Acha, Ozara, Ezera to Amaba, so, it’s a major road. Acha people have been suffering from bad road for a very long time now and joy came back when I met His Excellency, Kalu even before the last election and begged him to intervene and see what he could do about the road. As a man that had attracted the rehabilitation of many roads in Abia North even before he was elected senator, I knew he was going to do something about the road. He assured me he would intervene in the case of our own road and glory be to God, few months later, some people came to survey the road from Abuja.
By December, the contractor was mobilized to site and as I’m talking to you, the contractor has asphalted about 90 percent of the road and this is the first time my people are seeing tarred road. So, I thank Kalu for his kind of person and I know if not for his present ordeal, we would have got so many other things from him. As this road is going on in Acha, some other communities in Abia North such as Umuhu Ezechi, Nkporo, Ugwueke, Ohafia, Arochukwu and more are also witnessing the rehabilitation of their road, courtesy of Kalu’s quality representation. So, the road is everywhere and that is the kind of man we need at this time.
You’ve been with Kalu for over 20 years, a period when many of your contemporaries left him. What is it that made you to stick with this man?
Let me make one thing clear, those people you are talking about did not leave Kalu because he was a bad man, no; in fact he made all of us politically. Now, to your question, I want to bring in conscience into it. Somebody cannot favour you today and because he is no more in a position to favour you tomorrow and you abandon him instead of helping him to grow because the more he grows, you are also growing with him.
So, I believe in the theory that says the more your boss grows, so also the followers. A situation where people think that politics is wherever the light is everybody will join there and at the end of the day, you will leave that person and jump to the other person; it makes you lack integrity, you don’t have conscience and somebody like me believes that even if you offend me today, I should not judge you on that; I should be able to go back to memory lane, think of how we started, what are the goodies I have benefitted from you because we cannot talk about the bad side of somebody without talking about his good side.
OUK (Kalu) I must tell you eventually made every politician in Abia, including those people who turned around as a matter of fact to stab him at the back; it’s not my style. We may have issues, at the same time, we settle them; he is the boss and he remains so. I have not seen anything that will make me to leave Kalu after all, the former governor approached us, we said no because all of us were in the same ship and it was this man (Kalu) that brought us into the ship. Even some of them who pushed the man into doing what he did against Kalu, some of them are regretting, they are even coming back. So, that’s it, they will tell you it’s about interest, but it is not supposed to be so; politics should be all about conscience because you are representing people. Politics should be all about the people and not self and I think that is what Kalu is known for.
From your analysis, could we say the people of Abia North did not make mistake in electing Kalu as their senator?
Kalu is bigger than Abia North by person, he is an institution; it’s just that at times, people don’t know what they have, they don’t cherish what they have and they don’t appreciate what they have. Kalu is an enigma, a great man, he is an institution. Being a senator representing Abia North is because that’s the position that is available now, but I tell you, he is bigger than that, he is loved everywhere in this country.
Reports have it that many bigwigs from other political parties are joining APC in the state. What does this portend for your party in 2023?
Honestly, if not for sabotage in the last election, APC would have cleared everywhere in the state. Then, talking about 2023, Abians are tired of all these mess in the state. There has never been free and fair elections in Abia State for the past 12 years, so, I believe that with the calibre of people now joining our party, the true change Abia people desire for will come. APC, I must tell you is more grounded in Abia than PDP, but the only thing is that people are hungry and they will always tell you they are still where they are because of what they are getting and nothing more.