Date Published: 08/11/09
OHAKIM’S DEFECTION: KALU SHOULD KNOW THAT TEARS ARE NOT ENOUGH
By Temple Chima Ubochi
Crying wolf is a real danger. (David Attenborough)
One day you are happy and laughing and the next you are crying. (Grete Waitz)
The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?' (Alice Walker)
Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength. (Billy Graham)
Many shed tears merely for show, and have dry eyes when no one's around to observe them. (Seneca)
There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?
(Sophocles)
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Galatians 6:6-8)
It's sad and upsetting when you see somebody crying hysterically, but at the same time it's real funny. (Seth Green)
Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying? (Chuck Palahniuk)
Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit. (Psalm 5:8-10)
Let’s clear this point: I‘ve nothing personal against Kalu; my criticism of him is not borne out of enviousness, notwithstanding that he is a “very successful and rich man” while yours truly is just struggling, hardly making ends meet. Despite all Kalu has, I might be happier than him, afterall nobody is hauling me into court every now and then on corruption charges of more than 200 counts, I can travel anywhere without people pelting me with mud or sand or saliva or heaping insults on me for keeping them down and out. Instead of doing the things he (Kalu) did to get rich, I would rather prefer to keep on struggling while waiting on the Lord. I like Kalu as a human being, but, loathe his character. I do not condone lies, deceits, cheating and heartlessness no matter who’s involved. We are all human beings made of flesh and blood and have our respective shortcomings, but, too much of everything is bad.
I saw Kalu’s article on Ohakim and overlooked it as something “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” or the ranting of a drowning man looking for a straw to clutch on. Not until some of my readers asked for my comment on it that I went back to read it. The more I read it, the more infuriated I become, because it did not worth my time, all he wrote was balderdash (cloaked in lies and deceit). Kalu tried to claim holier-than-thou attitude, but, every good thing he wrote of himself is the opposite of what he really is, in other words, Kalu is everything he said he is not! Kalu cheated all his business partners, Kalu hurt all who crossed his way, Kalu ruined many lives and business relationships, he broke every promise he made, he is a dangerous person for those who do not have God as their “bedrock”, so what was he talking about?
Orji Uzo Kalu is shedding tears that Ohakim defected to PDP. (Orji Uzo Kalu’s article is attached below as a footnote, for those who have not read it. It would be better for them to read it first before reading this article so as to have a complete grasp of what we’re talking about) What a man sows, he reaps! I'm only going to make a general comment, I ‘ve no time to decipher what Kalu "wrote" line for line, because doing that would amount to according him the publicity and time he does not merit or deserve. Nigerians are tired of his antics. He should go and lick his wounds quietly. Kalu is wailing bitterly. Ohakim is a crook like him and has beaten him to the game. Kalu the master of political deceit and betrayal, has been made to “bite the dust” by someone who knows the tricks of his game well. Shedding of crocodile tears will not help Kalu. What Ohakim did by his defection was exigencies of politics based on survival instinct. Ohakim wanted to save himself and his state from the strangulating grips of Kalu and the mother, in order to prevent Abia State scenario from being duplicated in his state. Kalu and mother have strangled Abia State as such that it barely exists. Ohakim did not want such a thing for Imo State. Kalu and mother would ‘ve continued demanding from him, had he remained in their ragtag party PPA, that he (Ohakim) would had nothing for the state, and Imo State would had looked like the disgusting Abia State. Only Ohakim can tell what he experienced at the hands of Kalu and his mother, the kind of pressure they inundated him with, before deciding to defect. Kalu does not need to go to Government House Owerri or Ohakim’s home town to put the governor on edge, he and his mother can beam their unbearable pressure on Ohakim right from Abia State through so many means. “It is only a tree that would see somebody coming with a knife to cut it down and it would continue standing instead of running for its dear life”. Imo State people should be rejoicing, it was a wise decision by their governor. All that Kalu said in his “write-up” are lies, he is good in whipping up cheap sentiments to suit his position. Look at Abia State today and tell me who would like to associate him or herself with the Kalus? The Abia State Governor, T.A. Orji, was just forced to sell Abia State Rubber Estate, established by Dr. M.I. Okpara in the 1960s, to Eunice Kalu, Orji Kalu’s mother. Kalu and family have bought up Abia State; almost all landed properties the state had, now belong to the Kalus, sold to them surreptitiously and without due process. This guy called Kalu is never contented with all he has stolen, any state that he touches will be as good as finished. There is no limit to what he can take away from a state.
Kalu can invoke the name of God one million times, I am not judging him, let his own conscience be the judge, but, one thing I know for sure is that God knows His people. Yours truly is in the least, ecumenical, but, I believe in God and He knows that. Even if Kalu helped Ohakim, as he claimed in his article, what about it? Afterall, Aba and Ngwa people did all for him and his family, but, how did he paid them back? By leaving Aba in a rot making people to call it a “Latrine” or “Garbage” or “Dung” City!
Is it not silly for Kalu to claim that on the day of the interment of Ohakim’s father, that he arrived in his (Ohakim’s) village at Ossuh-Owerri, Isiala-Mbano as early as 9 am with the full paraphernalia of the office of governor, and did not leave until 6 p.m.? The question is: What was he doing at a burial ceremony for such a long time, when he was supposed to be on his seat attending to the problems of Abia State? Come to think of it: Kalu said that he was there with the full paraphernalia of the office of the governor, meaning that he stayed with his security detail, official vehicles and government personnel from 9 am till 6pm all at tax payers’ expense. May be Kalu was waiting to exhaust the food and drinks before leaving. That’s what the hungry people in the villages do. No wonder he left Abia State in a “coma” it is still in. Kalu should know that he is bringing himself to disrepute and ignominy by divulging such stories openly and the whole thing depicts him as a man of low virtues.
Kalu should now feel the pain, agony, heartache etc he subjected others to, the table has turned and he is now at the receiving end. One looses count of the people Kalu betrayed, deceived, hoodwinked and many agreements he signed but renegaded upon. In 2003, the Ngwa people resolved to end their political marginalisation by insisting that the governor must be a person of Ngwa extraction. There was then stalemate as the Ngwa people refused to support Governor Kalu’s re-election bid. Then a compromise was reached allowing Gov. Kalu to be re-elected in 2003, zoning the post to the Ngwa people in 2007. That was the only reason Gov. Kalu was supported for re-election, before then, there was ferocious opposition against his re-election. This compromise led to the "Great Ngwa Declaration". The elders of Ngwa land led by Chief Reagan Ufomba initiated this compromise for the sake of peace in Abia State. Kalu instead of honouring his commitment to "The Great Ngwa Declaration" in 2007, started feigning dispute between him and PDP so as to have a reason to form his own party and to field a candidate who will do his biddings, just to extricate himself from the agreement he signed. He used and dumped the Ngwa people, now Ohakim has used and dumped him. He should bear it. Now Kalu is preaching about honouring agreements signed, when he did not honour those he signed; he’s now talking of good governance and remaining accountable to the people, when he was one of the worst governors in the history of Nigeria and was aloof to the plight and problems of his state and people.
Kalu should see how it pains now, a thief has stolen from a thief and I have no qualms with that. Defection is not a bad thing as long as it’s being done in good faith, it happens everywhere in the world. Nigeria can be a one-party state as long as the elected work for the well-being of the people, what good is multi-party system when it brings nothing positive or meaningful to the people? If a one-party system will bring development in Nigeria, let it be. Look at Nigeria today, the opposition has no clue as to what its role should be, the opposition parties cannot be differentiated from the ruling party, they have no distinct ideologies or manifestoes, they are just like pieces of clothes in the wind or barber’s chairs. Some of the opposition parties are even begging the ruling party to include them in “a government of national (dis)unity”. That we are talking about opposition parties in Nigeria today is because of Governor Fashola of Lagos (AC) and Peter Obi of Anambra State (APGA), who are really performing well or else there is nothing the multitude of opposition parties in Nigeria have done differently and there is no sign that they have something tangible up their sleeves. United Arab Emirate, Saudi Arabia, Libya and other Islamic countries, which have transformed their countries with oil wealth, are nations with only a party system, but, that did not stop them from developing their respective countries. Corrupt Nigerians are running to Dubai (United Arab Emirate) and Singapore to invest in their real market, owning sky scrappers and businesses, instead of investing the stolen monies at home, at least to create jobs for the people who are in actual fact the owners of the looted resources. Quote me, if one party system will bring the much needed development in Nigeria, so be it. Nigerian politicians, whether those of the ruling or opposition parties, are not yet politically deft! They are only criss-crossing parties, while some are falling on top of each other to marry the president’s daughters, looking for relevance or political benefits.
Even if Ohakim accused Kalu falsely of plotting to kill him, what about it? Afterall Kalu himself once cried to the whole world that Tony Anenih had plotted to remove him from existence and we learnt later that it was a false accusation. Ohakim only mastered his (Kalu’s) stupid tricks well. Everything Kalu accused Ohakim of, He (Ohakim) learnt from him (Kalu): Is it ingratitude? Ohakim learned from kalu. Is it stealing to buy properties all over the world? Ohakim learned from Kalu. Is it crying wolf? Ohakim learned from Kalu.
Kalu should save Nigerians from his cacophony, we know who he is, his false political empire built on fraud, deceit, lies, hatred, etc is crumbling like a castle built on a sandy beach; soon, in 2011, his party will loose the control of Abia State and then he would be standing alone in the political wilderness. I would want to ask Kalu how does it feel when you are left alone and in the cold? It should be clear to him by now that he is finished politically. Payback time is here. Kalu should know that posterity would judge him also harshly.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kalu really threatened Ohakim, because that’s his way of life (intimidation). Kalu believes that he has power over life and death based on his reliance on some diabolical forces which will always deceive and fail him and his ilk. There is no doubt in my mind that Kalu will “cut his pound of flesh” from Ohakim sooner or later for hitting him (Kalu) where it hurts most, because he never forgives perceived affront on his person. If kalu likes, let him use people masquerading as members of a mass movement or the Israeli secret service, MOSSAD or the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) to “deal” with Ohakim. The whole world is watching; if anything happens, we would know who to hold responsible for that.
Ohakim is now afraid for parting ways with his political master, and is seeking power and protection where there is none. Ohakim should seek forgiveness from God for “biting the hand that fed him” no matter the circumstances which influenced his decision. He (Ohakim) should put his trust in God, because He’s the only protector who never fails in this world. Ohakim should know that “unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Psalm 127:1)”
My advice for Kalu and Ohakim and every other person is that people should endeavour to put their trust in God rather than on human beings or lesser gods which always fail, but, God never fails. Although Ohakim is richer, popular and well connected than me, there is a little lesson he can learn from me: I am not afraid of my life, because, he who fears for his/her life looses it. I am standing on the rock called Jesus and since God is with me, what can a mere mortal do to me? Nothing! God has strengthened me. Principalities and powers will always falter whenever they jammed a child of God. He who is inside me is greater than all forces anybody can marshal out in this world. I’ll be waiting for MOSSAD, MEND or any person or persons to come and harm me, but before then, he/they should know that the LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? And that the LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1). That’s what Ohakim should‘ve been telling Kalu, rather than behaving like a “rat beaten by the rain”!
Emenike Nwankwo put it succinctly better than me, let’s read what he wrote:
“Looking in from outside is never good at any level. There is too much aching and bad feeling in this Orji Kalu over his friends exit from his hash grip. What he has not explained to us is why he is angry that his friend changed party. Is Ohakim still not governor and why is just changing party a crime against Orji Kalu who changed party from PDP to PPA so he can "win" his second term? If the intent is to serve well, and his friend has not done so, then he should tell us that. If it is Ohakim’s decision, then why is he bitter?
If Ohakim has acquired some property overseas from his loots under Orji Kalu's watch, then one can only credit that to Orji Kalu and his party's mode of transactions when in Office. Orji Kalu is bitter and as such can not be trusted to be truthful about Ohakim his so called long term friend that he hardly knew. How can he be friends with some "meek" Ohakim and yet hardly knew him for over 30 years? What was the agreement he speaks of that Ohakim did not keep - has it anything to do with looting Imo Treasury?
What we should then be concerned is why Orji Kalu should be vouching for Ohakim whom he hardly knows for contracts and business opportunities, even when they have associated for 30 years and Ohakim virtually lived in his government home? Another question is what was a governor doing at a burial in another state for a whole day? Was there some "important" rituals that were being performed that he must personally supervise? Was he just sitting down, dancing, or holding meetings as the organizer for the entire day? How can that be true for a sitting governor when even regular individuals who work for their livings could hardly spend that much time in any one place? I do not think it was his friendship that was at issue and for which he must be present from 9 to 6 for the burial. There is more to that for which he must be present. We want the truth from Orji Kalu - Is Ohakim in some kind of secret fraternal order with him? What informs this long friendship with one he does not know well and must get informed of his ways by a police chief as he claims?
Some thing good to note - I wish Orji Kalu could speak as he wrote - impeccable English or is he using a ghost writer? As long as it is his views that were expressed we know he could buy any one to write them. What we are yet to understand is what relationship he holds with the Truth. Historically, we know Orji Kalu did not speak the truth when it comes to governance, and it was his footstep that informed Ohakim’s ways of owning mansions and properties as the master taught him. If it is politics of just ordinary service to the people, then Orji has nothing to worry except give support to his bosom friend. They can not be friends only as Jonas was with the shark in which Jonas is a good boy as long as the Shark could have him for lunch.
Orji should be happy that he has raised a better crook than he was as governor for us in Imo State. We surely appreciate him for that and are asking him to take heart for what goes around comes around. Let me also advice him so dearly as a friend I admire since 1999 when he surfaced as governor, to keep his hands and nose off Imo State's treasury, now that he stated they had an agreement before Ohakim became governor which has become breached. I think Ohakim has the ability to loot as he pleases without help and if he is correct by the list of wealth Ohakim has acquired in just 3 years of office, then we know we have got our own good able looter -in-chief that needs no support or help from the national master looter in chief, who has done well for himself and his kingdom.
Kalu my dear, there are many in PDP who also feel betrayed by you and are even more bitter and sad. It is the politics you guys built that makes you all turn against each other in effort to become the main contact with the Hausa -Abuja political masters. You have played the game and are now on the sideline as spectator even as one with power. BE Happy with how the Lord has blessed you and remember, politics is a game, sometimes you lose sometimes you win.
Our only concern is that the people, whether in Owerri or Umuahia never got any chance, be it in PDP which made Orji Kalu, or PPA which was also made by Orji with PDP. You are the master and have no reasons to shed any tears. If you can dish it, then be strong like the rest of us who have lived with disappointment and take it like we have. To all of us on the outside looking, PPA is no different from PDP as it is a matter of time before you, Orji Kalu, also go back again to PDP only to sing a different tone to the people who have remained hostage as the political punching bag.
Meanwhile, I have not heard Orji Kalu write about how his Turban friends in Sokoto betrayed his presidential ambition and did not even give him a zeep chance even after he sold his soul to become non-tribalized and official apologist for the Biafran state and Igbo people. I like Orji Kalu, because he has guts and always think he is one of us and as such can speak and complain like one of us. We know best, however. Let Orji Kalu be, so he can live upto our new expectation for him as a past governor. He was by his own account a business mogul who made his money in business long before he became governor.
Me think he will be a better mogul today with the experience in politics and international reality and the billions in bank accounts at his disposal. We are waiting to see when he will truly stop depending on government for daily living and begin to derive from that his business ingenuity that served him well before he became governor. We want to see employments, his business names, operations, and empire in black and white so we can say, this man is great and was not just a common government looter and thief who stole from the mouth of dying children and pregnant women who could not receive medical care in Abia State while he served as governor.”(End of Quote)
Here ends the article
THE THANXS IS ALL YOURS!!!
FOOTNOTE FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT EARLIER; THIS IS WHAT ORJI UZOH KALU WROTE:
That show of shame in Owerri (2)
By Orji Kalu [Okalu@orjikalu. com]
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Last week I gave an overview of what transpired in Owerri on July 25, 2009. In the said article, I warned against the plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to decapitate the opposition and foist a one-party state on the nation. I also drew attention, in the same article, to the determination of the Nigerian people never to be deceived again by any politician.
In this concluding part of the article, I will pay attention to the relationship between the Imo Governor Ikedi Ohakim (the man at the centre of the show of ignominy that took place in the Eastern Heartland town of Owerri) and my humble self-spanning over 30 years. Contrary to the devious insinuation in some quarters, spearheaded by Ohakim and his band of his ego-trippers and charlatans, I have nothing personal against him. Even his decision to switch political camp and continued campaign of calumny against my person cannot make me think evil against him. Perhaps he has resorted to self-help as a preemptive strategy to box me to a corner and turn the tide against me to justify his calamitous mistake. Unfortunately, that strategy, to me, is not only puerile and old-fashioned but wicked and senseless.
Would anybody, who is aware of all that I have done for Ikedi Ohakim in the past 30 years, believe that the man could be too mean, callous and desperate as to allege that I was planning to kill him? Who would believe such gibberish? He wrote a petition to the State Security Services (SSS) that I was after his life long before the show of shame took place. Who is Ohakim for me to plot to kill him? He knows deep in his heart that I have never been in league with anybody, all through my life, to harm anybody – no matter how highly or lowly-placed. I have been in active business for the past 25 years but I have never quarreled with anybody. I do my things cleanly and openly with mutual respect, honour and candour.
Is it not curious that Ohakim was just realizing that I was after his life 26 months after I championed the campaign to make him governor? Ohakim lacks integrity and self-esteem, if so. I say so because he was with me in my Abuja residence in the presence of Dr. Sam Nkire until 1 a.m. a week before he staged the show of shame in Owerri. When I asked him that night to confirm the rumour making the rounds that he was planning to defect to the PDP, he vehemently denied it - assuring me that in the event of such happening that I would be the first person he would notify. In my usual way, I believed him since I heard it from the horse’s mouth. But inside of Ohakim, he knew he was lying to me.
He lied to me, his friend and benefactor that had stood by him and his family all these years. He defected to the PDP without even having the courtesy to tell me, despite all his assurances. How could a man of his calibre, a whole governor, tell barefaced lies against me while I am still alive? He goes about telling people that he made effort to reach me on phone but could not. I challenge him to ask the telecommunications companies to print-out the call log to show if he ever called me. This is a man who used to call me three times daily!
When he launched his three books in Lagos, I told him pointblank that I would be in Igbere for an important engagement, which had been scheduled long before he fixed the date for the book launch. I am that open.
What brought Ohakim and I together was his travails - and he had a litany of them for all the period I had known him. Despite the strange things I was told about him by those who knew him inside out (including top police chiefs) I still stood by him. It is not in my character to judge people by what others say about them. His close associates and those who had had soured business relationships with him warned me that I would regret my association with him. They also told me he was a slippery character who feeds fat on character-assassination and blackmail.
Probably, I did not believe these stories because I was too empathic over his plights. Without sounding immodest, I wish to state that I took care of Ohakim and his family for the past 30 years before he became governor. I took care of all his needs and literally gave him my shoulder regularly to lean on. This is why I feel betrayed by his harlotry and open campaign to smear my hard-earned reputation. I am yet to come to terms with why his wife, knowing all that transpired between Ohakim and me, opted not to advise him against his present negative dispositions against me. I stood by Ohakim when every other person abandoned him and his family. When his father died five years ago, I bore almost the entire cost of the burial. He was virtually living in Government House, Umuahia throughout my tenure as governor – inundating me with regular visits and requests for assistance, which I willingly obliged. On the day of the interment of his father, I arrived in
his village at Ossuh-Owerri, Isiala-Mbano as early as 9 a.m with the full paraphernalia of the office of governor, and did not leave until 6 p.m. What else could a friend do for his cherished friend?
Even though I played a strategic role in the making of Governor Ohakim, I have never asked him for any form of favour. In fact, I have never visited Government House, Owerri or his village more than once in each case. My first and only visit to Government House, Owerri, was when our party held its national convention in Owerri, and I stayed there for less than one hour to wait for guests in order for all of us, in company with the governor, to leave for Grasshopper’s Stadium together. The same thing was applicable to his village, which I visited only once - during the burial of his father in 2004.
Those who know me very well can attest to the fact that I am always content with whatever I have. I believe that those elected to serve the people should be given a free hand to do so. There is nothing Ohakim can do for me. Nothing absolutely! He needs me more than I have ever needed him. I was the facilitator of the first contract he did at the Central Bank of Nigeria. I personally guaranteed him for the job when nobody or bank agreed to offer such a guarantee. When he was working in an aluminium company in Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos, I was the person bringing most of the customers that patronized him. See how Ohakim has paid me back for all that I did for him!
I have always known that human beings can be funny at times, but little did I know that Ohakim, for all that I represented in his life, would treat me so shabbily and wickedly. I leave him to his conscience and God.
I must confess that I am not angry with Ohakim because he defected to the PDP. My grouse about him was his malicious allegation that I was plotting to kill him and use MASSOB to make Imo ungovernable for him. Writing a petition on the allegation to the SSS, without even confronting me to know whether it was true or false, showed that he told lies to destroy my reputation. As I wrote in the beginning of this piece, his devilish plot has boomeranged. In fact, it has turned round to hunt him and his fellow conspirators.
How I wish he would cast his mind back and see what I had gone through for his sake, yet he had the mindlessness to accuse me of a crime I knew nothing about. Has he forgotten too soon how many persons I knelt down for so that he would become governor? I knelt down for one of his closest aides, whom he dotes on every day, for him to be allowed to run. I did the same for a popular businessman and a family resident in Abuja who vowed that he would become governor over their dead bodies. It is sad that after all these sacrifices all Ohakim could pay me back with was blackmail.
He is my elder brother and I have never disrespected him. Why then treat me this way? Did he need to malign me to justify his defection to the PDP? The decision to defect to the PDP was entirely his. Why then drag me into it?
I know that those he has joined camp with now are watching him. They know certainly he would treat them the same way some day if they trust him the way I did. He left the Alliance for Democracy (AD) for the PDP, then to PPA and now back to PDP. Who knows where the tide would take him to next?
He should not forget that one day - very soon - he would finish his tenure as governor and leave. The longest period he can stay in office as governor, according to our constitution, is eight years. After that, he will pack his bag and baggage and leave. That is when the gravity of his folly will dawn on him. I was governor for eight years and when it was time I left the stage.
The same fate awaits him. How he will be treated at the end of his tenure by the people will be determined by how he conducts himself while in office. It is foolhardy for him to think that posterity will judge him well if he does not merit it. Is it because he now owns plush mansions in South Africa, Lagos, Abuja and the United States of America less than three years in the saddle as governor, that is making him lose his decorum and sanity? I had these things long before I became Abia State governor, yet they did not influence me negatively or make me lose my control.
I thought he knew that why he sought the opportunity to become governor was to deliver quality dividends of democracy to the people. And that much he assured me when I tried to sound him out before he was given the mandate to run on the platform of PPA.
The Ohakim I knew before May 29, 2007 was always behaving like a lamb – very meek and unassuming. But some persons still insisted he made up the stuff to hoodwink me. I almost believed the stories making the rounds then about his unstable character because of certain things he did at some times which called to question his seeming docility. What happened in Owerri on July 25, 2009 has opened my eyes and reinforced the veracity of the popular saying that not all that glitters is gold.
Even some of the people – politicians, businessmen – who have teamed up with Ohakim in the new-found union were people I assisted one way or another. Today they are junketing with him and making unsavoury comments about me in the name of politics, forgetting, however, that everything we do on earth has its recompense. One day – surely – the bazaar will be over and we will all meet again.
I bear no grudge against him, even though what he did was despicable, ungentlemanly and impolite. I leave him to God and his conscience –if he has any modicum of it. But time shall tell.
Let me nevertheless remind him that one of the keys to success is being honest to your partner and stand by whatever agreements reached - no matter what it may cost you.
If politicians continue to show perfidy in their dealings with one another, then our democracy will never advance beyond its present stage.
It is left to the Nigerian electorate to decide the fate of such unreliable politicians, not me.
