It is purely by the grace of God that a child from a very wretched family background could attain the envious status of the ‘rich’, including educational, social, political and economic attainments. The Almighty God is always benevolent and merciful, especially to those that believe He exists, have faith in Him, respect Him and love their fellow human-beings.
Any man that appreciates that omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence are incontrovertible qualities of God would, in the first instance, accept that life, in itself, is transient and that no condition can ever be permanent. Equipped with this fundamental religious background, any one that attains whatever position in life would be guided by the knowledge that such a position in life is bound to be ephemeral and that the only way he could be honoured by time is by using the position to impact positively on humanity.
But contrary to the above expectation, man on attainment of certain positions of influence in the society especially in control and management of political power, exudes arbitrariness, wickedness, discrimination, segregation, inequity, greed, kleptomania and every other trait of inhumanity. Man becomes excessively possessed by the extra-ordinary urge to become extremely materialistic and possessive. He then forgets that life is just transient and that any attainment or possession is equally temporary. In fact, the wealthier and more influential man becomes, as long as he does not know God, the more ungodly and ruthless does he become. In extreme cases, man starts to play god, having jettisoned the fact that God picked him from grass and mercifully catapulted him to grace. When the extremity of man that knows not God gets to the level as mentioned above, God manifests Himself as the jealous God and what follows is vicissitude.
For any body that knows the pedigree of the immediate past governor of Abia State; Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, his growth to power was an example of ‘grass to grace and...? For a young man whose paternity was shrouded in controversy and whose mother had to depend, in the main, on meagre income from her on-the-table wares of local gin; popularly known as Kaikai, Ogogoro, Ekpeteshi or Akpuruachia, kola-nuts, bitter kola and snuff at the bank of Aba waterside to have grown to become the governor of his state, shows that there is nothing God can not do for His creature.
Orji Uzor Kalu went through very excruciating experience in his adolescence, passing through the hills and valleys of abject poverty. Despite his very poor upbringing, Orji Kalu ended up becoming the governor of Abia State in 1999. As was captured in my preamble, some persons like playing god not quite long after fortune has smiled on them.
Quickly on assumption as governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu unveiled his agenda, which, notably but regrettably, was woven around vindictiveness and vendetta. He had deep animosity for the traditional institution and in order to announce his arrival he had to rubbish the institution by splitting the autonomous communities in the state in such a way that each kitchen could become autonomous.
As a school dropout, Orji Uzor Kalu, whose real surname is Nsiegbe but in order to deceive the unsuspecting public to believe that he is a child of the wealthy Nnanna Kalu of Abiriba, may his soul rest in peace, changed his family name to Kalu, hates the elites. Therefore, as governor, one of his principal pre-occupations was to torment and ridicule the elites of the state. In this way, he appointed his Commissioners and Special Advisers and fired them disgracefully not more than six months after their appointment. The most disheartening was not that they served only six months but that they had their appointments terminated either at Sam Mbakwe Air-Port, Owerre or the Port Harcourt International Air-Port as he was traveling out of the state. Some political appointees that served under Orji Uzor Kalu ended up developing high blood pressure as a good number of them did not know if they would be allowed to stay upto such a time when they would be able to clear the loan they obtained to pay to Orji Uzor Kalu through his mother; Eunice Nmecha Nsiegbe, for their appointment.
Orji Uzor Kalu has pathological hatred for the hard working people of Abiriba. His only grouse against the people of Abiriba; a people that stand tall among not only the Igbo but Nigeria as a whole for their extra-ordinary ingenuity and enterprise, is because Abiriba people had declared him a persona-non-gratta as he was busy dropping the name of Chief Nnanna Kalu as his father and using same to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. When he became governor, he concluded it was an opportunity to take his pound of fresh from the Abiriba community. Abiriba people are homogeneous. They have a common ancestry and had been ruled via a time-honoured dynasty; The Enachoke. In his bid to cause confusion where there should be none, Orji Uzor split the Abiriba community just to truncate the unity the people had enjoyed for centuries. This unwarranted confusion led to the loss of many lives. Thank God, with his exit as governor and eventual liberation of Abia State from his evil rule, the good people of Abiriba are once again unified and united. They may not stop expressing their gratitude to the government of Sir T.A. Orji.
I have said it severally that Orji Uzor Kalu; Nsiegbe in truth, was and remains a huge bundle of deceit. As governor, he would stop at nothing to deceive the people of Abia state. The roads he constantly claimed or claims to have built were the first set of roads to be described as Dubai or Taiwan roads in the lexicon of civil engineering in Nigeria. Orji Nsiegbe was the only governor in Nigeria who brought three different personalities to commission a particular road at three different times. The Obohia Dubai road which he claimed to have reconstructed was at different times commissioned by the then President Obasanjo, Vice-President Atiku and President of the Senate; Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That road that gulped huge amount of money did not last more than six months before it was washed away.
Orji Uzor Nsiegbe was born and bred in Aba. He, however, has irreconcilable hatred and antagonism for the people of the Old Aba Division. As governor, he had boasted that the people of Aba zone would remain marginalized in the state for at least, twenty-four years. He arrogated to himself the powers of God. He had no programme for Aba just like he added no value to the state capital of Umuahia.
Even after leaving office after eight years as governor, Orji Uzor asserted his greed on the state for more than three years, collecting more than one hundred million naira every month. Yet in his deceitful kleptomaniac’s style, he would swear, without anybody asking him, that he was not collecting any money from Governor T.A. Orji. While Orji Uzor Nsiegbe was busy playing god, he did not know he was only living in fool’s paradise. Today, God has shown him that He is a jealous God. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe is now treated like an incurable leper. The Presidential Palace he built at Igbere, using Abia State money while the state government was squatting in a rented apartment, hardly witnesses the presence of any dignified indigene of Abia State. So the aim of diverting state fund to building a personal Presidential Palace in his village has been defeated. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe does not come into the state in the day time any more as he avoids being booed at by Abians. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe has been deserted by his former supporters whom he relentlessly deceived and exploited and he is now left alone in his moribund political party; Progressive People’s Alliance. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe’s fortune has nose-dived. He has abysmally failed elections twice in the recent past; (1) Presidential Election in 2007 under his P.P.A. and (2) Senatorial Election in 2011 on the same P.P.A. His brother; Nnanna, whom he had imposed on the people of Aba–North/Aba–South Federal Constituency for eight years in the House of Representatives and who never raised his hand on the floor of the House, not to talk of opening his month to make any contribution, equally failed election in 2011. As a leper, no Abian wants to interact with Orji Uzor Nsiegbe hence the leadership of People’s Democratic Party even in his Igbere ward has rejected his overtures to return to the Party. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe has made himself an abandoned property as another senatorial electoral mishap awaits him in 2015. These are only some of the vicissitudes of Orji Uzor Kalu nay Nsiegbe. Orji Uzor has had his cake and can not eat it. He should stop lamenting.
Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; ksc, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)
Umuiku-Isi-Asa
Ukwa –West L.G.A
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