AS a way of foreclosing the dilemma of a columnist writing about his publisher and others, especially in controversial circumstances, I employ my poetic/literary licence and journalistic freedom/liberty to reproduce what I wrote in The Post Express of July 24, 2001, as the Deputy Editor (and subsequently, Editor) about the former governor of Abia State (1999-2007), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, when I had never met him at a close range either formally or informally, let alone work with—and for—him as his Media Adviser, among other engagements and assignations, as I do now.
This is germane to the context of my multifarious essays for obvious reasons that border on cynicism of the hue of “what else do you expect”! My dispassionate contributions to this medium either here or elsewhere, therefore, I authoritatively assert, do not belong to the realm of he who pays the piper calling (not dictating, take note please) the tune. In subsequent articles, too, this standpoint will form the basis of my writing on key players in Nigerian politics and other spheres of life and existentialism.
This explanation has become inevitable because I have heard vituperative insinuations from critical quarters to the effect that the erstwhile “action governor” (according to former President Olusegun Obasanjo) has a great influence on the editorial content and policy of the medium. I make these declarations with all sense of honesty and responsibility. I welcome constructive challenges or informed contradictions on this declaration.
For the last time, Dr. Kalu does not meddle, in any way, in the core (professional) editorial administration of The Sun titles and other institutional issues involving the publishing company exclusively owned by him. Indeed, I always accuse him of aloofness with regard to this establishment. Most times he is abroad on business trips. Right now, he is in London for entrepreneurial meetings. He does not have time for organizational intrusion, unlike other publishers.
Dateline (The Post Express, July 24, 2001): “The first thing that probably would delight a visitor to this state is the 1,000-unit housing estate at Ehimiri under construction. Between November last year when the project started and last week, 279 units built at N1.5 million each had been completed, almost. The government intends to spend about N500 million on the staggered projects. Elsewhere, too, specifically in Amauba, 55 units of legislative quarters are nearing concluding levels while the three–kilometre asphalted road leading to the assembly zone and two other adjoining roads are virtually ready for usage at a cost of N270 million.
“Also of engagement is the General Aguiyi Ironsi Conference Centre encompassing a press gallery and his cenotaph built by Governor Orji Uzor Kalu at a cost of N38 million approximately. Equally completed or undergoing rehabilitation are 50 roads in Umuahia and neighbouring cities including termini at a cost of N57 million.
“One sector that takes precedence here is agriculture. The Orji Uzor Kalu Rubber Development Phase Two, which had 150 hectares of rubber as at last year, and another 150 this year including pineapple suckers in between. Also of public interest are the state’s 260-bed general hospital at Abayi, 84 doctors’ flats and all facilities procured with the entire investments amounting to N534 million. “In order to complement the state’s technological acquisition quest, the government has pumped N388 million into its metallurgical centre which on completion in September, will produce all sorts of machinery and steel for aircraft and allied demands. The centre is expected to employ 1,000 youths.
“While most residents and critics frown at the idea of naming every project after Orji Uzor Kalu, others say it is for strategic reasons calculated at diminishing his political foes, who fail to appreciate ventures and programmes of the youthful governor like the purchase and distribution of poverty-alleviation vehicles which belong to beneficiaries after interest-free repayment, reactivation of hitherto occasionally mal-functional public taps, the all-expenses-paid work-and-learn initiative, comprehensive rehabilitation of Abia State University facilities, rejuvenation of 496 schools, rebuilding of all dilapidated secondary institutions of learning, renovation of Abia Stadium and construction of a 43-km asphaltic road in Ohafia, among other copious and proven achievements.”
I wrote the above extract 16 years ago! The records are in the National Library, Lagos. Let us conclude the extraction with an input from the master-strategist: “We are going to put the state back on track where it should be and in the next 24 months—not by magic or anything—we would make the state the fastest-growing economy in the country.”
The essence of the foregoing is to buttress the fact that whatever views I hold now is not because of my present occupational relationship with the APC chieftain. This clarification has become vital, moving forward.
There is also the raging debate that Dr. Kalu performed quintessentially in his first term (1999-2003) and went to sleep in his second (2003-2007) tenure. This conjectural and controversial aspect of his two terms as governor of the state belongs to history and not the currency of our time.
By way of summation, there is no basis whatsoever for any comparison between Dr. Kalu and the one they clownishly call Ochendo amid celebratory stupefaction and sycophantic satiation! You cannot compare darkness and light (which OUK irrefutably symbolizes).
…T. A. Orji: Not my view
FORMER Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka, not long ago reaffirmed my long-standing position on the disaster that was the worst governor in the world in the person of Mr. Theodore Ahamefule Orji, the former governor of Abia State (2007-2015). I reproduce, after this introductory preface, tacit extracts of the interview he granted select developmental journalists as published by this medium recently.Let me correct an impression: there is no legacy project in Abia. Look at what we have suffered in the last eight years. Abia is an example of rape of democracy. The definition of bad governance is written all over Abia. What we had was mediocrity, sycophancy and bootlicking. In fact, the only industry in Abia prior to this period was sycophancy. This was the character of the last administration in Abia.
In agriculture, I urge you to go to Bende, between Umuahia and Uzuakoli, you will see where the government reclaimed a rice farm with its natural terrain for a housing estate. Is this the character of a government interested in agriculture?
Again, why will you say you are building a new government house when the topography where the current government house sits remains the best which can be found anywhere in Nigeria. It should be developed and an edifice built, but they abandoned it to embark on a new one that is not even 50 per cent completed because of clannishness.
Most of the roads and other things they displayed as legacy projects were actually built by the administration of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. Therefore, Theodore Orji’s administration left no legacy in Abia State.
Any governor who wants to test his popularity, whether he performed well or not, should walk the street without heavy security. If you are a good man, people will be clapping and singing your praises.