If someone had told Orji Uzor Kalu this past Wednesday that he would not be spending the 2019 Christmas in his 400 room Camp Neya Estate in Igbere, he certainly would have dismissed such suggestion with a wave of hand. The former Abia governor had no reason to have imagined that he would not be returning to one of his many palatial homes in Victoria Island or Asokoro after Thursday’s court proceedings. Kalu may have been confident that he would walk home a free man and it is unlikely that many watchers of Nigeria’s political space and the haphazard fight against corruption could have thought otherwise.
For a start, Orji Kalu is the chief whip of the 9th Senate, an APC leader in the south eastern part of the country, a former governor who commands national attention and can readily get audience with President Muhammadu Buhari whenever he wants in either Aso Rock or in Daura. Kalu has also emerged as one of the strongest defenders of President Buhari on policy issues.
The Loyal Supporter
At the heat of the RUGA debate earlier in the year, Orji Kalu came out openly to throw his weight behind the proposal, attracting for himself, the ire of many in Igboland where organisations such as Ohaneze Ndigbo, the South East governors’ forum, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and several other groups had openly rejected the initiative that proposed the creation of herders’ (mostly Fulanis) settlements in several communities across the country. Kalu’s position on RUGA was also contrary to the views of prominent personalities in his native land and across southern Nigeria.
Kalu was not deterred. He told stories of how he implemented “RUGA in Umunneochi” in his time as governor, his foray into cattle business and his relationship with the Hausa community when he called the shots in Umuahia. The impression at the time was that Kalu was merely trying to curry the favour of the president and other influential northerners who were pushing the RUGA agenda from behind the scene.
Kalu’s open endorsement of the controversial RUGA plan was not his first expression of public support for President Buhari and his policies. Earlier in 2016 when many were expressing worries about the president’s nepotistic tendencies- especially in the appointment of security chiefs, Kalu was amongst the first to rise to the president’s defence announcing that it was the president’s prerogative to appoint whosoever he likes to man the security agencies. Many pundits believed Kalu’s remarks at the time to be insensitive considering the anger in Igboland by opinion leaders that Buhari excluded the region entirely in the appointment of heads of security agencies. But Kalu was not a man to pander to public opinion- especially in his support for Buhari. He made it clear that the president was his “father and friend” and that he would support him to build “a better Nigeria.”
2019 Started Well for Kalu
Insinuations that Kalu would escape the attention of the prison warders rose in the build up to the 2019 general elections when he was one of the anchor persons for the president’s re-election bid in the south east region. When President Buhari visited Umuahia earlier in January, Kalu was standing right next to the president even after it was alleged that he (Kalu) had ignored the order of Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos and fled to Germany ostensibly to receive treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
Before 2019, Kalu had made two frenetic but unsuccessful attempts to represent the people of Abia North in the Nigerian Senate. In 2011, he lost to Uche Chukwumerije while in 2015, it was Mao Ohuabunwa that defeated him. On both occasions, he ran under a party he founded, the Progressives Peoples Alliance- PPA. In the last election however, luck smiled on Kalu and he was elected to represent his people in Abuja- like several of his contemporaries such as Chimaroke Nnamani, Sam Egwu, Abdullahi Adamu and others.
In the estimation of many, Kalu could not easily have defeated Senator Mao Ohuabunwa in the race if not for some form of support from the APC controlled federal government. It was alleged that Kalu- like several other APC candidates across the country- had extensive logistics support from the security agents, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and funds from federal sources to execute the campaign and procure victory “at all costs.”
While it is not within the purview of this essay to establish the veracity or otherwise of the above claims, it is worth stating that Kalu would have had greater difficulty winning any election in Abia State where many continue to hold him responsible for the leadership misfortune the state has been through in the last 20 years of civilian dispensation.
Elections in Nigeria however cannot be interpreted to mean a true test of political acceptability. Have we not seen more unpopular figures winning elections in several parts of the country? It is the understanding of many that in Nigeria, cash, capacity to unleash violence and intimidate electoral officers and most importantly, your relationship with the powers that be in Abuja are more crucial in determining who wins an electoral contest and who “goes to court.” So the general idea was that Kalu had Abuja behind him and so long as he remained a force to reckon with in the region, his trial would go on in perpetuity.
A Script From Abul Kafarati’s Rulebook
The worst many had imagined would play out in Kalu’s case was the Lucky Ingbinedion scenario. On December 19 2008, the Sun newspaper reported that a federal high court in Enugu presided over by Justice Abdul Kafarati had slammed a fine of N3.5 million on the former Edo State governor Lucky Ingbinedion after he was convicted in a case involving a N25 billion fraud. Almost instantly, the said fine was mobilised by Ingbinedion’s lawyers and deposited with the court registrar. Ingbinedion walked home a free man- without spending a day in jail. Despite half-hearted protests by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that the judgment would be appealed and appropriate punishment sought for the former governor’s alleged crimes, not a word has been heard on the matter till date- 11 years after. Ingbinedion has since retired to a quite life- enjoying the proceeds of his alleged corruption after forfeiting a small fraction to the federal government in a plea bargain deal.
This was the best many expected would happen with Orji Kalu: he would strike a deal with EFCC, part with some funds, plead guilty to some innocuous charges, pay a fine and walk back to either the senate chamber or to any of his mansions in Lagos, Abuja, Igbere or perhaps hop into his jet and fly off to a distant land to celebrate another triumph, then return home with some swagger after cooling off. Who would begrudge him the right to enjoy “his money?”
Well, obviously, that didn’t happen because Kalu perhaps overestimated his importance to the ruling elites in Aso Rock or failed to see how watertight EFCC’s case against him was. Kalu is one of the few men in the country who knows how to game the system. He is one of the richest men in Nigeria today largely on account of his understanding of “how the system works.” Many therefore find it surprising that Kalu would not be anywhere near his beloved Camp Neya for Christmas this year and who knows- another twelve years?
While we continue to debate Kalu’s odyssey and await his prison memoirs whenever it would be published, attention must now shift to Abia state and its long running misfortune with governors.
Sorry Abia
On Wednesday, November 21, 2019, Punch Newspaper reported that the EFCC had taken former Abia governor- Theodore Orji- into custody where he was grilled over allegations that he embezzled N27 billion belonging to the state government during the eight years he reigned as governor. It is also believed by close watchers of Abia politics that the incumbent governor- Okezie Ikpeazu- has continued to remit a part of the state’s revenue from Abuja and other internal channels to the Thoeodore Orji family who were his major benefactors (godfathers). Currently, the son of the former governor- Chinedu Orji- is the number 3 man in the state as the speaker of the house of assembly.
More:
–Uzor Kalu Bags 12 Years Jail Term for N7.65bn Fraud
–Abia APC endorse Kalu, Onyejeocha for NASS leadership positions
–Ohaneze Ndigbo goofs by endorsing Atiku-Kalu
If you drive through Umuahia or Aba, you will have difficulty imagining that over 200 billion naira had accrued to the state in the last four years since Okezie Ikpeazu took over the reins of governance. Abia roads are the worst in the entire south east region, there are no running water in homes and schools leaving residents at the mercy of cholera and other communicable diseases. More heartbreaking is the refusal of the Ikpeazu administration to pay salaries and pensions to serving and retired civil servants.
It is a shame that while Abians continue to groan under the yoke of very insensitive and callous leadership, the political leaders continue to pillage the public treasury, using funds that would have been channelled into improving the quality of life in the state to the service of their greed and avarice. Abia is the only state in Igboland where many of its richest men did not have any major business interest prior to 1999 and because they depend on the resources of government for their survival and wealth, the poor masses can go to blazes, the refuse heaps can mount to Kilimanjaro levels and teachers and pensioners can as well forget their entitlements. In Abia, leadership is about self-seeking and those who hold the key to power also control the levers of wealth. Ask the Kalus and the Orjis of this world.
If however there is any lesson to be picked from Orji Kalu’s current travails, it is the reminder that impunity would one day get its recompense. Kalu would remain in prison way into the foreseeable future, his company- Slok Limited- has been asked to discontinue operations and its property forfeited to the government and who knows what next? Kalu’s political career may well be over.
