by Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
The former Chief Whip of the defunct 9th Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, in March, signified his interest in becoming president of Nigeria’s10th Senate should the position be zoned to the South-east by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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Uzor-Kalu had said this when he spoke with journalists in Abuja. The 10th National Assembly will be inaugurated tomorrow, Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
“I will like the party to zone it to my zone, to my village in Igbere because the president-elect needs people of high character to turn around the economy and work for the masses and make laws that will enable him turn around the economy. This is because, I am an economic person, an entrepreneur,” he said.
The former Abia governor said he was the most qualified senator for the position based on the Senate rules as well as his pedigree.
“The Senate has rules. Let me be honest with you, if we practice true democracy, I should not be in contest with anybody, because apart from the senate president, deputy senate president, the senate Leader, I am the next ranking member in the Senate going by the position I occupy today in the 9th Senate.
“It is virtually impossible that the Senate will elect or zone it to a new member of the Senate.
“The Senate is an established institution that needs somebody with an experience, some one with the skills and will be able to relate,” Kalu said.
Sadly, for Orji, his party the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did not share his desire to work with Tinubu, because weeks later, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC officially endorsed Senators Godswill Akpabio (South-South) and Jubril Barau (North-West) as Senate President and Deputy in the 10th National Assembly, respectively.
Also, the APC national leadership endorsed the choices of Hon. Tajudeen Abbas (North-West) and Hon. Benjamin Kalu (South-East) as Speaker and Deputy in the incoming National Assembly, respectively.
The resolutions were made public in the statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, after a meeting of the NWC at the APC headquarters in Abuja to consider the outcome of an earlier meeting with the President Bola Tinubu.
The NWC had met to consider reports of consultations and meetings held with the President, other Party leaders and stakeholders on zoning arrangement for 10th National Assembly leadership positions.
Following the position of the party’s NWC and President Bola Tinubu, Orji Uzor Kalu, being a loyal party man that he always claimed to be, he ought to have thrown in his towel and surrender because the party does not want him to be Senate President or Deputy Senate President. However orji with little or no regards to Tinubu and the party’s NWC insisted that he would go ahead and challenge the party’s and Tinubu’s anointed candidates.
Orji Uzor Kalu, formed alliance with Zamfara State former governor, Abdulaziz Yari and his team towards his race for the post of Nigerian Senate Presidency. Kalu declared that he would not step down for anybody for the race of Nigerian Senate Presidency.
“I won’t step down for anybody. We are talking with (former governor) Yari. Our group and his group are talking, intimate talk and partnership. We will make sure that no one zone can produce the senate presidency,” he said.
“Like I used to tell people, no one zone can produce the president of Nigeria. What we are trying to do with Senator Yari is a united partnership that will work for Nigeria. In the coming days or weeks, that partnership will be unveiled, so we are in serious talks.
“I cannot deny it – Yari is a friend of mine and I’m his friend and we have decided to talk. We have been speaking for the past four weeks and the result will be unveiled by our sponsors, he has his sponsors and I have my sponsors.
“So the sponsors will come together to decide what direction this partnership will be. I’ll be very happy to reveal what the sponsors will say.”
Kalu claimed that he and Yari are working to uphold the senate’s integrity and aid President Bola Tinubu’s new administration.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) does not share Kalu and Yari’s viewpoint.
On Saturday, June 10, at the Senate’s valedictory session Orji Uzor Kalu, lamented that Nigeria has not been fair to him despite his contribution to nation building.
Kalu, who shed tears during the Senate valedictory session said people he gave transport fares in Lagos are now living in wealth while calling him a thief.
Orji Kalu in tears during 9th Senate Valedictory, narrating his ordeal in Nigeria politicsThe former Abia State governor thanked the 9th Senate for standing by him during his difficult times, insisting that Nigeria has not been fair to him.
“When I had a problem, most of the Senators stood by me. We went through difficult period,” Kalu said during an emotional speech.
“Before I went into politics, I can buy anything I wanted to buy. I am not a thief. People I gave transport money to Victoria Island (VI) are now in wealth and living as saint while I am being called a thief. This country is not fair to some of us. People who cannot explain their source of wealth are not thieves.
“I have factories in Lagos, Aba and Ota in Ogun State, they call me a thief,” Kalu lamented while shedding tears during the valedictory session.
But his claim that he was not a thief is not shared by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that had arraigned him and Ude Jones Udeogu, a former director of finance and accountant, on 36 counts of money laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion.
On December 5, 2019, Kalu was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, while Udeogu got a 10-year sentence. The Supreme Court later nullified the trial of Kalu and his co-convicts.
The apex court held that Mohammed Idris, the trial judge who had been elevated to the court of appeal at the time of the case, ought not to have presided over the matter while he was an appeal court judge. No fresh charges have been filed against him. But the EFCC has insisted that he has a case to answer and that they are working on it.
The former chief whip said before he ventured into politics, he was wealthy and played a critical role financially in the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Senator Kalu stated, “I have never lacked, while I was in the Peoples Democratic Party where I served for two terms as governor, I brought the money they used to form that party, every penny, in 1997 and 1998, and I later became a thief.
“People I gave transport money from my house in Victoria Island became angels. This is what Nigeria represents.”
Many Nigerians found it puzzling that the former governor burst into tears at the valedictory ceremony wondering what could have been his intentions, especially given that he never displayed such emotions when he lost his wife recently. And not a few eyebrows were raised when he decided to bury his wife in the United States which was uncommon among the Igbo people of Nigeria that usually bring home corpses of relations and friends to be buried at their ancestral homes in Igboland. Others dismissed his tears as crocodile tears aimed at hoodwinking senators to give him sympathy votes at the NASS leadership election on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Can Orji’s tears make any difference in the race? Very unlikely, especially as Nigerians consider him a selfish politician. He supported the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of APC and told concerned Christians there is nothing wrong with that. It was only when he wanted to be Senate President that he remembered that it is not right for the number three man in the country to be also Muslim like the number one and two man.
Many Nigerians detest opportunistic politicians who play politics without principle. Besides, there is no way Tinubu’s men, Akpabio, Jibrin, Abbas and Benjamin Kalu will not carry the day. Obviously, Orji’s tears will likely amount to nothing.