Article: Orji Kalu Should Not Worry About Gov. Theodore Orji

Orji Kalu

By Rubby Obinna (Mrs)

The former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu has a way of treating issues. Those who have been following his column in the Saturdays Sun would understand that the man bares his mind without fear or favour. This is the reason I am writing concerning his article in the Saturday Sun, 16 August, where he brought the attention of the world to the allegation that the incumbent Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State has been smearing his name, that of his family members and anything around and about him to the extent that the governor now sends people to lay siege at his residences in Lagos and Abuja, monitoring who visits Kalu and who does not visit.

 

Anyway, if I were to say, I would have suggested that Kalu should not be bothering himself about the gimmicks of Gov. Orji. One thing that I have observed is that Kalu is the beginning of wisdom to the governor that anything Kalu terrifies the governor. I think only that goes a long way to show to the world that Kalu is greater than the governor and that the strong does not fight the weak, only the weak does. The later is what we have seen the governor is playing out.

No matter the impression the media is giving to that article by Kalu, I would say that the dude did not ‘lambast’ the governor but only told what he had thought was truth to power. But this is not the perception of the media when it spitefully wrote on Sunday 17 August that, “a former Abia State governor, Orji Kalu, has lambasted the current governor of the state…”

The truth that Kalu has become the beginning of wisdom in the governor’s camp was again buttressed in an article by one Norris Benedict, who signed to be writing from London, which I wholeheartedly doubt. ‘Norris Benedict’, without doubt, is one of the fake names that the aides of Gov. Orji use as bylines. They are afraid of writing with their real names because of the legal implications that could follow. They knew that their articles are all about blackmailing Kalu; hence they use pseudonyms to write hate-articles against Kalu.

So, I can categorically say that Kalu and his aides should not bother about this insincere Norris Benedict whose article titled “Kalu Leadership Series; An Insult on Intellect” is an expose of mediocrity, full of errors and incoherencies. It lacks methodology much as it lacks writing ethics and journalism practice. Those that have discerning hearts would know that all the vituperations and venoms that Benedict expressed in that article against Kalu do not exist anywhere around Kalu, even when he was governor and now that he is minding his private businesses which scatter across the world. I’m not sure why Kalu should be bothering himself about a man whom he said that has character problem since he was made governor.

The following lines by Kalu have to a large extent shown to the world that the governor – is a man who can hide his identity and cannot be trusted. Kalu has said: “I must openly submit that I was taken in by his facial appearance, not knowing that deep inside he was a different person all together – a chameleon. Subsequent events have since proved me right. Up till this moment, I still do not believe that it was the same Theodore Orji, whom I met at Chief Mark Uka Ogwo’s house that is hauling abuses at me on a daily basis and walking the corridors of power like a colossus. He calls me all kinds of names and uses every available medium to castigate my person.

“He is hauling abuses at me on a daily basis and walking the corridors of power like a colossus. He calls me all kinds of names and uses every available medium to castigate my person. His speech at every public or private event begins and ends with my name, as if he has no other business in governance other than to abuse Orji Uzor Kalu. Not only that: he goes about telling all kinds of naked lies in order to soil my reputation. He also goes to gossip to the President and his wife about me, telling them unprintable things, just to disfavour me.

“He tells anybody he encounters —businessmen and women, politicians, the clergy, traders, farmers, drivers, carpenters, bricklayers, the high and mighty, lowly people, and just anybody – that I am his sworn enemy. He also takes his campaign of hate against me to the Diaspora. The situation is really getting out of hand.”

Much as Kalu have said that he has severally challenged the governor on a number of occasions to tell the world what he (Kalu) really did to him to warrant such detestable behaviour and enmity towards him (Kalu) and the governor is not forthcoming with any proof, that is to say that there may be something that the governor is shying away from. And the way he has thought better from keeping that secret from the world is to be pounding on Kalu left and right with uttermost acrimonies and animosities. But in the entire governor’s bitterness against Kalu, Kalu still controls scary followership in Abia State and indeed, Nigeria.

I think Chief Orji Uzor Kalu should not bother further, expending his energy in the areas that do not deserve them. It is obvious that very soon the governor will leave the government house, Umuahia and, will become an ‘ordinary man’ in the street. Kalu should not bother about the hostilities of the governor against him, because not only Ndi-Abia, but the entire Igbo race and Nigerians at large, know that Kalu is innocent of all the propagandas and seemingly lies of the governor against him. I will end this article by advising Kalu that ‘truth’ has a long span no matter how humiliated. And if it were true that the governor has been telling lies against him, the truth will always prevail.

(Obinna writes from Ohaji, Imo State, Nigeria)