Exclusive! Abia politics of bitterness: why Orji fights Kalu dirty (part1)

Irrespective of the disgusting failure that characterized his administration, one area, apart from media propaganda, the Abia State Governor, Chief T.A Orji has flourished beyond expectation is the blaming of the past administration for the abysmal retrogression the state has suffered under his watch for eight years.

The way and manner, the governor and his hirelings have ridiculed and subjected Orji Kalu’s name to opprobrium have left passive political observers in the state bewildered. Many are of the opinion that there is more to this bitter vituperation beyond common political disagreement which according to them is inevitable in a political circle.

Beyond the lies, deceptions and propaganda perfectly orchestrated and timely executed by Governor Orji and his cronies, one of the principals of the past administration, who served under Kalu’s government as a Local Government Chairman and also under T.A Orji as a Special Adviser in the early stage, but has remained neutral since the fallout between Orji and his political benefactor, Dr. Kalu gave The City Reporters a considerable insight on why Orji opted to fight Kalu dirty.

According to him, what was initially designed to draw voter’s sympathy was taken to the extreme due to the political situation in Abia state then.

“The Abia liberation slogan was just a child of necessity which was politically designed to elicit sympathy from Abia electorates by T.A Orji camp. Uzor Kalu’s political structure was solidly on ground then and the only feasible way to attack it was to mobilize the people against it since there was nothing to campaign for,” he said.

He maintained that the only way the story can be told expressly and appreciated by all was to take us back to what Kalu said to T.A Orji on the day of his inauguration in 2007.

“Lead Abians with your conscience, I have performed my own, go and perform yours. I will always be available if you need my advice,” was what Kalu said to Orji.

According to him, this statement, when critically observed depicts handing of the Barton to a trusted successor with complete mandate to govern, based on the political ideology of the ruling party, the PPA. This is because it was assumed that T.A Orji has undergone tutelage having been Chief of Staff for eight years. Suffice it to say that he must have been part of all the decisions when Kalu was the governor.

His words, “Kalu trusted T.A Orji a lot and of course he paid dearly for it, the reason I said this was simply because of some crafty attitude of Orji which many people including myself reported to Kalu when Orji was still the Chief of Staff which Kalu failed to deal with decisively.

“For example it took our administration months to realize that Abia security vote had been increased to N80m because Kalu handed T.A Orji the administration of the State. Even Chuka Odum who was then the Deputy Chief of Staff was completely redundant.

“Could you believe that Orji refused to go on leave until he was forced to by Kalu to enable him answer to the case of fraud leveled against him by the EFCC? Then Mrs. Jemima Ola Kalu was brought in to act on his behalf, that was when his deeds were exposed by the lady who acted innocently.

“In his usual revengeful nature, when he later became governor, T.A Orji redeployed Jemima to a redundant Ministry and later frustrated her out of civil service for daring to expose him.

 “Apart from that, Orji has the propensity for shortchanging people who were on the payroll of the state then with the pretence that he was saving money for the state. But the question is, how much did he save for Abia? All these untrustworthy behaviours should have made Kalu realize that he was playing with fire, but he rather choose to look the other way round.

“While T.A Orji was in detention, Kalu after much persuasion and pressure from people who are also eying the exalted seat, visited him and confronted him with the findings, he wept and begged for Kalu’s forgiveness, he was quoted to have knelt before Kalu begging that the findings should not deter him from his plans to make him governor.

“T.A Orji equally pleaded with Kalu to rather make the late head of service, Uchenna Emezue governor instead of Umuahia people losing the slot, but Kalu against all odds insisted on T.A Orji’s candidature, with the help of Eunice Kalu who insisted, because she was very close to T.A Orji, probably the table would have turned against him. But look at the way he also scandalized the old woman’s name.

“Kalu no doubt believed that T.A Orji was the best choice for Abia, instead of a fresh person with a new philosophy who would probably want to build another foundation from the scratch.

“Don’t forget the pressure mounted then by PDP through Onyema Ugochukwu, because they felt that T.A Orji’s choice for governor against other better candidates from the Abia North Senatorial zone was a political blunder by Kalu. The fact that T.A was in prison then was also perceived by PDP as added advantage, but Kalu pulled the surprise of the century when against all odds T.A emerged winner.”

Our source revealed that towards the end of Kalu’s administration, Abia State was forced to pay off all its outstanding debts by the Federal Government because of the feud between Kalu and Obasanjo which obviously denied the state to an extent, development opportunities.

His words, “Kalu therefore offset these debts with the belief that a new government under his anointed successor, T.A Orji would have no problems starting off from where he stopped.

“With such foundation, T.A Orji failed to transform Abia state which leaves one to begin to imagine where and how Kalu wronged him to treat him with such disdain and hatred that have taken most of us aback,” he said.

He said beyond the lies and propaganda against Orji Kalu, the problem between the two started at the celebration of the third year anniversary which has in attendance the PPA’s Federal Executive members led by Larry Essien.

“A certain pamphlet was circulated in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, bearing lists of projects purported to have been executed or under execution by T.A Orji. It was so long a list that people started doubting the sincerity of the government in its claims.

“On a much closer look and one after the other, people begun to identify that the list of the completed projects were actually the projects executed by Kalu’s administration.

“And the ones purported to be under execution were actually on paper, the funny part of it all was that people just heard about them for the very first time on that day; so they grumbled. As people were grumbling, it got to the attention of the PPA national EXCOs and in an attempt to clarify the list, they discovered that is was just a scam,” he said.

According to our reliable source, the PPA EXCO hurriedly went back to Abuja and issued a letter inviting T.A Orji, his deputy, Chukwumerije and Orji Kalu to come and explain to them why the governor could not execute any project for three years.

His words, “T.A Orji, initially started given excuses why he would not be able to attend the meeting and Kalu on his own was angry with the national EXCO for sending him such letter as a national leader without due consultation.
“Apart from that, he was also angry with the EXCO for summoning a sitting governor; an action he viewed as embarrassing.

“But the truth is that there was nothing wrong for a party to invite its governor they strongly believed has underperformed to answer to some questions as a party that claims to upholding prosperity to the people.”

He however said upon the persuasion of Chukwumerije, Kalu succumed to the invitation by Larry Essien’s led PPA executive and both cleared themselves, while the party waited in vain for T.A Orji to appear before it.

He maintained that it was then that the PPA EXCO persuaded Kalu to guide T.A Orji to ensure that PPA wins the 2011 election which was a year ahead. He also added that it happened before the very presence of Chukwumerije.

According to him, the pressure from Onyema Ugochukwu and PDP made Kalu to approach T.A Orji and advised him to jettison his second tenure ambition for another competent candidate for the fear that PPA might lose the state to PDP who were hell bent on recapturing Abia State.

The Conspiracy Theory

In a desperate bid however to contest for the second tenure, T.A Orji conspired with Charles Ogbonna, the then coordinator for the movement for Abia reunion to device a means on how they can win 2011 election without Orji Kalu’s structure. And after a while the group came up with the propaganda that became plausible due to the way and manner Kalu made T.A Orji Governor against all odds.

“Since there was nothing on ground to convince Abians to vote for T.A Orji for another four years, they decided to use what I prefer to call “the people sympathy strategy”, they started the campaign of calumny against Kalu that he was the one who has been extorting money from the state allocation thereby making it impossible for T.A Orji to deliver.

“What started initially as a rumour suddenly became the talk of the town and Abians were caught in between believing the rumour.

“It sounded possible due to the manner in which T.A Orji became governor having won election in the prison as a nobody and also the fact that he has been seen as a loyal boy to Kalu.

“Abia being predominantly a rural state with people who hardly had access to news and its source could not decipher the truth moreover when it was coming from the man whom they gave their votes. It was much easier for the rumour to spread when the state controls the state owned television and radio station.

He further said the silence of Kalu then helped in substantiating the rumour, because he felt that in his wisdom it is better not to trade words with Orji. He added that it however continued as a rumour until T.A Orji in his desperation for second tenure confirmed it to the traditional rulers at Micheal Okpara square adding another dimension to it that he was also taken to Okija shrine by Kalu.

“T.A simply used Kalu’s political might against him, remember that prior to T.A Orji becoming governor, Kalu bulldozed Abia/abuja PDP stalwarts who accused him of trying to install a stooge in the person of unknown T.A Orji in other to have control over Abia State.

“Kalu made a lot of political enemies among the Abia elites because of T.A Orji, the resources he spent campaigning for T.A Orji while he was in prison, the foot work, is simply unimaginable. So with most of the Abia elites not on Kalu’s side, the rumour gained momentum.”

“Besides, they also saw it as the opportunity to weaken Kalu’s political structure which was too powerful as at then. So they directly and indirectly gang up against him.”