Why Old Aba zone should produce Abia governor –Orji Kalu

‘PDP is very strong brand’

Former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, believes that there will be a balance of terror between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015. However, he assures that being a strong brand, the PDP will still emerge as the dominant party in the country after the election. In this interview in Lagos on his way overseas, the eminent businessman spoke on various is­sues, including the politics of Abia State ahead of next year’s general elections. Excerpts:

As a stakeholder in politics, what is your reaction to opponents, who are bent on putting wedge to your active participation in activities of the ruling PDP?There is nothing like people being jittery over my return to the PDP. This is ably so because the taste of the pudding is in the eating. I have been back to the PDP since 2012, January 16. Why anybody should be making noise, I do not know, possibly because they think the tiger is back. It is gone out of the cage and back to the street.

Nobody should be jittery, we are planning for the good of the party, we are the found­ing members. Even people sitting down there calling themselves officials of the party are not the foundation members of the party. Some of them were in the All Nigerian Peoples Party, I can call them by names. They have never been here but we brought them back to the party. And it is the constitutional right of anybody to belong to any party he or she likes. So, nobody should be worried that I am back to the PDP. This should not be an issue.

I want to advise the Governor of Abia State, Chief Thoedore Orji, to use the resources pro­vided through the federation account and the funds generated locally for the development of the people of Abia State. The governor should stop running from pillar to post. I am not the problem of Abia State. I cannot be a problem for the people I love. I love people of Abia State; they love me and I maintain that love for them. The only question I am ask­ing the governor of Abia State is to rule our people in Abia with his conscience. And his conscience is not there.

Why is the Government of Abia State throwing mud at you in media reports apparently comparing the achievements of your eight-year tenure in the state with the current administration?

I have stated this very clearly in a television interview that I am ready to pay the bill for a financial audit of my administration and the current one so that the public would under­stand what the issues are.I am ready to pay 50 per cent of the cost of such audit while the state government will pay the remaining 50 per cent for a thorough audit to be carried out on the finances and expendi­ture of the state.

We can invite reputable audit firms, includ­ing Est & Young , KPMG, Delloite & Tou­ché  Price Water  Copper House to carry out the audit so that the truth would be straight­ened. This is how a civilised society works; not throwing mud at people, who had served their people meritoriously. This is because I do not see any reason anybody should lie to the whole nation. It is not right. I am ready to sponsor many professional groups, including the NBA, NUJ, NGE, and others to go into Abia State to carry out investigations, serious on-the-spot assessment of what is happening there. Abia State has become a gutter.

In fact, the governor is a savage. I call him a savage because I do not think he has con­science. Go and check the dictionary meaning of savage. That would buttress my point.

If he has conscience and is worried about the future of his children, he will not be toiling with the lives and property of the people of Abia State.

At the national level of PDP, you have been playing some reconciliation roles to bring back aggrieved members of the party into the national fold ahead of the re-election of the incumbent president in 2015. What has informed this?

I am not bothered about those in my state who are getting petty by throwing spanners into the works of the party. They should leave these things; they are petty and I do not look at such things. If we allow Abia State to re­main the way it is currently, PDP will not win election there. That is the truth. Let nobody deceive you; that is the truth.

I challenge the Director General of State Security Services; I call on him to send his intelligence officials to report back to the president what is happening in Abia State.

The governor has collected so far in the last seven years over one trillion Naira from the Federal and Allocation Accounts Committee. We have the data of how much the state gets from federal allocation. We will provide this data at the appropriate time. He cannot go free by toiling with the lives and process of democracy. When I was governor between 1999 to 2007, we got about N108 billion for those eight years. But the current governor in seven years has collected over one trillion Naira from the Federation Account.

I am not the issue in Abia State. The gov­ernor thinks so. Why must you be under one man, instead of developing the state? He said I told him not to develop the state. Instead, he has proven himself wrong. He said I asked him not to eat food; he has proven himself wrong. If a pregnant woman is sick today in Abia, the governor says it is I. If anybody has headache, he says it is I.

During the kidnap saga in Abia State, he nearly wanted to implicate me. The governor asked one of the service chiefs to go and put guns in my house so that they would arrest me that I was the one responsible for kidnap­ping people. The man told him I could not do a thing like this. And this is a statement of fact. So, can you see the man; has he got conscience?

When I was handing over as governor, I told him to rule the people of Abia with his conscience. So, I think the mediocrity should stop, proper governance should take place. This is not how to govern a state. The governor has excuse for everything. Aba is a waterside. I do not even know what the journalists are doing.

The 2015 project for President Goodluck Jonathan is on course, with the collection of signatures and endorsement rallies; what are the chances for his re- election?

Those who are even looking for the president’s job are not better than he. They are not fitter to handle the task of the office. The people are not better than Jonathan. I believe also the ruling party is a strong brand. Unfortunately, some of my brothers from the South-east have been blowing hot and cold.  The truth of the matter is that Igbo can­not make themselves president. Neither Ijaw nor Yoruba can become president without the support of other tribes and other Nigerians.They will need the assistance of other people in other geo-political zones to actualise their ambition.

I believe that the principle of rotation of power is good to balance the power equation in Nigeria. I strongly believe that rotation has made many zones become president of Nige­ria. The same rotation should also make Igbo people president. We cannot at anytime we are getting to the goal post to score count our­selves out. The Igbo must support Jonathan, to be able to support ourselves in the future.So, the PDP cannot remove zoning. Zoning is essential for the presidency to go through all the zones.

After the tenure of Jonathan, the two zones that have not produced a president for Nigeria are South-east and North-east geo – political zones. We must get the rotation of the office of the president to these two zones, then we can stop it. That is the only way to ensure equity and justice. Later, we can talk about merit. It is only when these two zones are well represented that we can now remove zoning.

I can see some of my brothers, saying zoning is no longer necessary because they belong to different political parties. That is not true; it is only in their party. In our party, the PDP, zoning is an essential ingredient for the democratic process and growth of our party to stabilise the system  and institutions.

Could the crisis in Abia PDP jeop­ardise the chances of Jonathan in 2015?

No, Abia State remains one of the backbone states of the PDP. That is why the president is a very lucky man; he stands by me and Orji.

All of us are in PDP. The president is standing on two sides of the Atlantic. People will listen to us. Whatever the governor of Abia State cannot bring on the table for the president, I will bring. That is why democracy is very good.

It is going to be a win-win situation for the president. That is why the PDP umbrella is very strong, it can cover many people under it.

What is your take on the zoning structure in Abia State, concerning where the next governor should come from?

This is very simple,  looking at it from the point of morality , the next governor of the state should come from old Aba zone. This is because you cannot tell any Ngwa man that because of zoning, you will exclude him. It is not possible. Isiala Ngwa  Local Government, both North and South, is the head of Ngwa, you cannot exclude them in gubernatorial race. I am not saying anybody from Abia North or the governor’s village cannot run but has such a candidate got the morality to win the election.

That is the issue; it is a matter of morality; that is where it stands. So, morally, the old Aba zone stands the chance of winning the election, unless they miss the goal post, if they cannot score the goal. That does not mean that people from my area, Abia North cannot run if they want to run. Whenever the office is zoned to Abia North, everybody would want to run. People from other areas can run. I can­not tell my own people not to run.

How is the campaign for Jonathan 2015 race?

Now that we are fully back in the party, we will work for Jonathan. I do not want to discuss governors of the South-east but  I can assure you that the South-east will mobilise for Jonathan . We will make Jonathan work for the South-east. He is going to work for people of the South-east; that is the game plan. Jonathan would do things that impact on the people of South-east but the unfortunate thing is that the Imo State governor, is in the wrong party at the wrong time. I do not want to discuss Governor Rochas Okorocha and I am very sincere about this. I can assure you that PDP will win landslide in Imo State. We will be in the front burner of that campaign.

Okorocha made  a mistake; he could have stayed back in his party and that would have brightened his chances of re-election. Where he is now, the APC, will be zero per cent. Okorocha is in the wrong party at the wrong time.

What does Orji Kalu want for 2015 ?

I want stability of the country, which is good for business. As a stakeholder in the Nigerian project, stability is very important. Stability is the best thing in any democracy. I run a business with a very large balance sheet; stability of the country is good for business. If I run a business with a very large balance sheet, I need stability to push the business to the next level. I need stability to further the growth of my company, the Slok Group. I have just returned to active business in the last six years and from the time I came back to the business, I have moved the company out of Africa. I have moved the business from about $2.4 billion to about $3.6 billion   in balance sheet, that is in the last few years.

I want to move it further to grow the bal­ance sheet from the current figures.

I want to grow the business by, at least, ten per cent in the next few years. If there is stability, the balance sheet will grow.

I have the constitutional right to seek any office. I will consult my God and all the stakeholders before I take a position that will be made public. By the time the party starts primaries, I will make my position known. I am bold enough to run for any office.

What about insecurity in Nigeria?

I have told stakeholders that we all need to rally round the government to maintain national stability, otherwise Jonathan might be the last president of Nigeria. If the stakehold­ers do not come out to help Jonathan, there may be problem. Jonathan is not the owner of this country. The highest time he could stay in office is another four years, terminating in 2019. He will go, just like former presidents and heads of state, Shagari, Babangida, Go­won and Obasanjo; they all came and went. I have a stake in the Nigerian economy. As a businessman with the lives of many people in our hands, that is why we, who are in business and industry, will pursue peace and national stability.

We have more stake in Nigeria than politi­cal leaders, be they presidents of heads of state. So, we will not allow that to happen. Instability is not good for us, it is not good for the nation, its economy and politics. It is not good for the system.

Many European countries are coming together, why can’t we build a United Nigeria.Why do we need to disintegrate, why do we want problem for Nigeria? We need peace, I want to tell you, thorough negotiation is going on in Chad because of the insurgency of Boko Haram. The negotiation is between a delegation of private sector players with the government of Chad.

The whole idea is to forge a common front to deal with the challenge of insecurity and Boko Haram.

We do not what the insurgency. It must go.

That is why people who are blaming President Jonathan on his relationship with the former Borno State governor, Senator Alli Modu Sheriff are naive.

The president of Nigeria has a right to travel with anybody he desires. Even if that person is in prison, the president can take the person out of prison, if the purpose is for a good cause. People should talk about Nigeria and not Jonathan. It is not Jonathan’s country but our country. It is just the naivety of Nigerians that is making the system porous and backward. Nigerians do not even know what their rights are. The president can carry anybody in his aircraft. Whether he travelled with Modu Sherrif or not is for the good of the country.

The PDP is coming back strong, what is the mechanism that weakens opposition, how did this happen?

We just have in PDP a strong national chairman. His brand is very strong. He has been calling everybody.He has been visiting politicians in their homes, reaching out to different people. Even, the former national chairman, Bamanga Tukur,  did many things to bring the party together. But, there is advan­tage in the young age of Adamu Muazu. He is free with people, bringing people together into the PDP family. He is a game changer, and will continue to change the game. Nobody should be afraid of the new national executive of the PDP.

We forget our history; some of us have made sacrifice in this party and democracy. Some of us have made sacrifice for this coun­try. I lost entire business, I lost a bank where I owned 70 per cent, I mean Hallmark  Bank; I lost my operating licence in Slok Airlines to the democratic struggle. One aircraft commit­ted an offence in Enugu and entire 14 aircraft fleet was grounded. Let us presume the pilot committed an offence, that was not enough for the government to ground the airline. It was political witch hunting; people  tried to cut my head off but my head still stands.

Even People, who want to take over power from PDP are not better.  It is the same thing.They are not going to do anything better than PDP. The PDP is bouncing back strong. I see the mechanism of PDP to come back very soon. What we need to do is to strengthen our laws. The only problem is that we have weak institutions. We need to strengthen the institu­tions  that guide democracy . This is important because the institutions that guide democracy are all weak.

The Police, INEC, the judiciary, the State Security Services; they are all very weak. When you have a weak process, you cannot have anything strong.

Let us go back to one man, one vote. Any how you do it, whether one man one vote or otherwise, PDP will win. This is because the brand is very strong. But, this is the very first time in Nigerian political system where there is going to be balance of terror. PDP should not think it is all easy and rosy. This is the first time that other parties will have money to pay all their party agent. APC can afford it now. And the PDP is aware of this. Because of what is going on in the party, the national chairman has set up zonal integration com­mittee to reconcile all aggrieved members to the party.

When I see some political touts, dictating that they want this man or not in the party, I laugh and see them as fools. The major ingredient of political parties is human beings. Political party is a gathering of everybody. I believe our democracy should take a firm root. I am not saying PDP must win election; if we do not merit to win, we will lose. We need to work hard because the day is coming when political leaders will give account of their stewardship to the people.

You are travelling around the world to shop for investors in Nigeria; how soon should we expect the dividends?

Very soon, the Slok Group is rolling out the first ever indigenously made mobile phone, called Slok Mobile. It is a phone we have built to be sold in Nigeria and across Africa. I am rolling out the Slok Telephone in less than eight weeks’ time. We will have the lowest end of the mobile phone market. The Slok Telephone has all the packages of a mod­ern phone;  it is going to be a utility phone, that Nigerians have been looking for. We are a truly an African company but proudly Nigerian. So, this is what is coming on board in the next nine weeks. The phones will be on the streets of Nigeria. We are going to roll out the phones in Nigeria, Congo, Guinea, South Africa and other African markets. The phone has patent right in the United States and other countries as well as Europe. This is the first time a Nigerian conglomerate will be rolling out a phone to take over the market.