…WANTS PAST NIGERIAN LEADERS TO DECLARE THEIR SOURCES OF WEALTH

DO you know your zodiacal sign? Try to find out as you may be exhibiting some, if not all  in your daily affairs without you knowing. But when people around you know, they are likely to better appreciate why you act or behave the way you do. This was exactly what Sunday Sun tried to establish last Thursday, after watching former Abia State governor and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, speak frankly on a special interview session on Arise Television.

Kalu belong to the zodiacal sign called Taurus, the zodiacal sign represented by the Bull. He was born on April 21. Kalu appears to have in great abundance the traditional Taurus traits. Investigations show that people who belong to this zodiacal sign are usually extremely diligent and would “remain persistent till the end of a project. Their conventionality makes them dedicated.”

They are known to be “reliable, practical, ambitious and sensual…They tend to be good with finances, and hence, make efficient financial managers.”

But they are also very “stubborn.” Investigations however further revealed that what many often see as stubbornness in people who belong to this zodiacal sign could be interpreted as “commitment, and their ability to complete tasks with whatever it takes. “ Therefore, look no further when next you see Kalu speak to issues that may appear a no-go area to you, but which Kalu would “stubbornly” never shy away from. He did just that last Thursday as he spoke on a wide range of issues: from politics, to sports, economy and corruption, where he declared that: “I challenge all the past leaders in the country, everyone including me to disclose the source of their wealth. Leaders in this country steal money, hide it, and then turn round to call other people thieves. How does a man who has never done any business before suddenly have money to build mansions? So who is the thief? Is it the man you gave $24 billion to provide electricity and the money vanished? Or me, who never borrowed a dime, yet did not owe workers?” The interview session was monitored by ISMAIL OMIPIDAN and CHINELO OBOGO in Lagos.

There is only one position I can run for at this point in time. I have been a two-term governor, so should I run again? It is nearly impossible even though a situation where a two-term governor can run has not been tested by any law. The only thing left between testing whether I can be governor again or testing whether I can go to the Senate is open.

No one can tell me what I want to do because it is personal. In the last election, it was said to be inconclusive. The results were supposed to come in at 4am, but by 2am, somebody announced the result. I am not pained because I know that I won those three elections but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used the agencies that they had powers over to re-write the results and I accepted it but I will continue to try to restore the mandate of the people.

Why did you then join the All Progressives Congress (APC)?

Because I have been in the opposition (Progressive Peoples Alliance) since 2006 and I joined APC because I want the test of relevance in Abia and South-east to be seen. There was need to see who the people would follow instead of speculating, and that was why I joined the APC.

Does that mean that because of your membership, APC in Abia is there to stay?

I would add a lot of value to the APC and it would be a collective decision between those who are joining and those that are there already. Our plan is that by 2019, APC will be a very robust party in the South-east.

You said recently that the North deserves to have two terms in office; but that seems to be against the sentiments of some people who say that President Muhammadu Buhari has not done well.

It depends on which side of the Atlantic or Sahara you are speaking from. To me, Buhari has done very well in some areas, but needs to do better in other areas. His illness has hindered the progress of what he would have done, but I believe that now that he is back, he will do better. When he was abroad, people said that he was gone, but I insisted that he was alive and would come back healthier and would contest the 2019 elections. This is not just about Buhari, but it is for the South-east because they need to present a presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. After Buhari’s eight-year tenure, no one can tell us that the South-east cannot produce the president, whether it is me or another person. In 2019, the Igbo will support Buhari massively. They did not support him in 2015 but they will support him in 2019. I am passing a vote of confidence on him as a person because he has integrity..

What has he done to deserve a vote of confidence?

I am not the only one passing a vote of confidence on him; the World Bank, the European Union and all the powerful countries are behind him for a second term because they feel that he has a lot to offer. Buhari does not need any endorsement from anyone because he is capable of contesting and he is popular enough to win against any other candidate.

If the president decides not to run in 2019, which of the northern candidates would you support?

We have not gotten to that stage, but I am convinced and I am sure that the president would run. I am not thinking of any other northern candidate other than Buhari; it was because of him that I joined the APC because of my personal relationship with him. There is no reason he should not contest again. If tomorrow, he says he will not run; there are other capable people like me. I have the capacity to change this economy and modernise it to meet the 21st century dream.

The president has not indicated interest in running for 2019 elections, if he says he would not run, will you contest the presidential election?

I have all it takes to contest for president, but I do not think it is the right thing to do now. Equity and justice demand that the north should be allowed to complete eight-year tenure, then the South-east would have their turn.

One of the APC governors, Rochas Okorocha recently erected a statue of the South African President, Jacob Zuma in Owerri, which attracted much criticism. What is your take on that?

Both men are my friends and I can make my opinion known personally to them. I do not need to tell them my opinion in the media.

The president just appointed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and Ohanaeze Ndigbo has protested, saying that someone from the South-east should have filled that position. Ohanaeze said the president has failed to play a father figure role in presiding over a plural society like Nigeria. Do you agree?

Chief John Nwodo is only playing his role as the leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo; but the position of the SGF is a personal thing. Throughout Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, the SGF came from our zone; it is not a constitutional matter. The SGF is a private staff of the president and in his wisdom, he chose someone from the same local government as the former SGF. We must not get the position of the SGF before we get what is due to us, after all, Port -Harcourt Expressway and Enugu-Onitsha Expressway were abandoned even when we had the SGF but today, major construction work is going on there. If Buhari can-jump start the economic activities in the South-east, we would be satisfied instead of giving us SGF who does not have the power to do anything. We are traders and what we want is electricity and good roads to move our goods and that is what Buhari is doing. Nwodo is my personal friend and brother, but it is not true that the APC zoned the position of the SGF to the South-east.

Do you think this administration has been able to tackle the economic problems in the country? Would you give them a pass mark?

No, I would not. He has done well in security and keeping the country together. He has also revived the agriculture industry because young people are now taking to farming and many jobs are being created. In the past, people who ought to go and get work, preferred to go to the church and mosque to pray, but the Bible says we should work, but people prefer to pray and fast instead of working.

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has indicated his intention to contest the presidential election. As a friend, would you advise him not run against the president?

He is a respectable member of our party and I would not advise him not to contest. He is my personal friend, but if today he is running against Buhari, I will support Buhari because it is the right thing to do. Atiku knows me well and he knows I speak frankly. When Obasanjo said no governor should go to Atiku’s house, I was the only one still going to visit Atiku. I am not like other politicians, I am very strong willed.

Is there a leadership vacuum in the South-east APC, because there seems to be lots of bickering as to who is the leader of the party in the South-east?

We have a national vice chairman of the South- east and he is the leader of the APC in the South-east, so there is no leadership vacuum. We all succumb to his leadership, he presides over every meeting that APC has in the South-east and we all report to him.

You were one of the first persons who went to see Nnamdi Kanu in Kuje prison, but you later turned around and called for the proscription of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). Why?

I never mentioned anything about proscribing IPOB. I went to see him because it was within my right to do so. When I was in Kuje prison myself, our cardinal (here in Abuja) came to visit me and prayed for me, so there is nothing wrong in going to see someone in prison. When I went to see Kanu, I advised him on what to do, but he chose not to listen to my advice. It was the South-east governors that proscribed IPOB. I am not in government, so I do not have the power to proscribe IPOB.

Does it mean that you were not in support of Operation Python Dance 11 which took place in the South-east?

Those kinds of operations are usually done everywhere. This is not the first time such was done, it was done last year and it was very successful. So, I commend the army because Python Dance is a military training which is compulsory. They had Operation Crocodile Smile in the South-west and Operation Lafia Dole in the North-east, so it is normal for such trainings to occur. There is need for our military to be combat ready to secure the nation at all times. I was in the South-east during that period and I can confirm that the soldiers were not harassing people. The media should stop blowing these things out of proportion because they are normal activities that the military carries out from time to time.

On the third floor of the White House in the US, all those men you see in black suits most times are serving military officials who are working with the President; they are there to give advice because they are well trained. The military has a role to play in every country.

How does the country handle issues that may lead to separatist movements in the future?

Once there is justice, fair play and rule of law, we should not be having such issues. If for instance, I am accused of wrongdoing, I should be tried in the court of competent jurisdiction. The government must learn to obey the court of competent jurisdiction even if the order is wrong. Also, the Igbo should get justice; the government should create an enabling environment. Since the war ended, our people have felt marginalised, and if you ask me whether the Igbo are marginalised, I will say yes because there has been no federal presence in our area.

But you just said construction work has begun in the South-east?

Are you in support of the proposal for the South East Development Commission?

When we were governors, we almost succeeded in doing that, but some people aligned with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the effort was truncated. I proposed then that we should have a common purse where every month, we will save N100 million each which will be used to carry out developmental projects like electricity, rails etc. We agreed, but after I had issues with Obasanjo, my colleagues started behaving funny because they were trying to curry his favour. I became like a leper among them because of my disagreement with Obasanjo over delivering on our electoral promises. I am a successful businessman, so I do not fear anyone neither am I afraid of speaking the truth to power.

If such a commission is set up, will it answer the question of infrastructural deficit and political alienation in the South-east?

If the president will run again, we will force him to declare the South-east a special area that needs emergency because we can give him 75 percent votes. We can manufacture anything we need in Aba and Onitsha if we have stable electricity. Look at the kind of stealing that took place when we were governors, where people spent over $25 billion saying that they were providing electricity, yet, we have not seen anything. We are not asking for much, what we want is good roads and constant electricity and we are capable of manufacturing anything that you can buy from China. We have the resources, but there is no enabling environment. The privatisation of electricity was wrongly done, it was given to friends, and it is not the right thing to do.

What about the state governors, is the allocation they get not enough to build the South-east of their dreams?

The South-east and South-south governors should have had more cooperation because they have a president that does not bother them. When we were governors, Obasanjo was policing all of us. He will leave his own presidential duties and will want to do our jobs for us. His eyes were on our allocation to know what we were doing with it, and that is one of the good aspects of Obasanjo that I like. If he can leave being petty, he is a great man. He should cultivate the habit of letting some things go especially if younger people offend him because that is the right thing to do.

If he had imbibed the attitude of forgiveness, we would have gone far in our first democratic process, but he left important issues to chase shadows. Instead of fostering unity, he created so much division because he wanted to get a third term in office. He polarised the governors even though most of them are afraid to speak the truth. They all knew that Obasanjo wanted a third term; they offered all of us third term governorship tickets, but I refused.

Is there a way that the South-east can unite and develop the region so that the call for secession will end?

The Igbo calling for secession are not even up to 20 percent. The Igbo are the salt of the nation that is why anywhere you go in the country, apart from the indigenes of that place, the next in population will be the Igbo. They are agents of development anywhere they go, but we cannot build expressways that the Federal Government is supposed to build. I am in support of power devolution so that the FG can hands off on roads, agriculture and education and hand it over to the states. FG should reduce the 61 items in the exclusive list to nine. Restructuring sounds too strong; I call for the total amendment of the constitution entirely, to represent the views of the people. Buhari can implement some sections of the 2014 National Conference.

But the President has repeatedly indicated that he is not interested in the report of the conference?

The media might have been misquoting him because he knows that money was spent on that conference. The APC can review the recommendations of the conference.

Many are wondering why you did not speak out about these issues while you were governor?

When I was governor, I consistently spoke out about these issues and my colleagues can bear witness to that. I was very vocal and that was what caused the closure of some of my businesses like Hallmark Blank and Slok airlines. My businesses were affected because we are in a country that has no rules, if not, you cannot just wake up and close down a bank that has 135 branches and 5,000 workers because Orji Kalu has majority shares in the bank. My airline had 14 aircrafts on ground, but the license was revoked without following due process. It only scares investors because people will not believe in what you are doing.

I believe in accountability. I was the first to publish a list of all my assets in the papers; I was the first to call world class auditing companies to audit my government before I left, so I am not afraid of accountability.

But you have issues with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and you have been in and out of the office of the anti graft agency, what is happening?

It is because of the third term ambition of Obasanjo that these things were happening.  I am in court with the FG and I will give account of myself. I never bought a new house throughout my eight-year term. All the houses I have were built before I became governor and the records are there. Obasanjo wrote to Tony Blair to arrest me in London, but Blair refused, saying that I have not committed any crime. He wrote to former President George Bush of US to arrest me, but Bush told him to present evidence of crimes committed, but the FG was unable to do so. I have only one house in London which I got in 1991, so how can you now say I stole money to buy a house in London? I can’t discuss the issue because it is before a court of competent jurisdiction. The Britons know that I’m credible and the Americans know I’m credible; I’m welcome everywhere I go. They know I am a businessman with $4 billion net worth.

What is your relationship with Obasanjo like now?

I don’t have issues with him, but when a man who has told more than three people in private that he wanted a third term comes out to deny it, then there is a problem.

Is your problem with him just about his third term agenda?

It is just that. He was the first to call me the action governor, so what changed it? When he came for campaign in Abia, the roads were impassable, and I promised him that they would be repaired in six months and they were done. So what changed? At that time, all the 34 governors, the president and the Senate President were against me, and I survived the fight. I am very transparent. I challenge all the past leaders in the country, everyone including me to disclose the source of their wealth. Leaders in this country steal money, hide it, and then turn round to call other people thieves. How does a man who has never done any business before suddenly have money to build mansions? So who is the thief? Is it the man you gave $24 billion to provide electricity and the money vanished? Or me, who never borrowed a dime, yet did not owe workers?

Do you think that it is right that the FG continues to bail out states, yet they cannot pay salaries?

If I am a governor, I will not take security votes of N1 billion against payment of salaries. Despite the fact that there was free education, I never owed workers salaries for one day. I have never entered the government house since I left as governor, so I don’t know what the states are doing in their various states. I have only visited a few state Houses of late, like Kogi, Minna, Oyo, Osun and Lagos and some governors have done well, though not all of them.

If you win the senate election, what change would you bring?

INEC has said no one should campaign so I won’t say anything right now.

In the area of sports, you were conferred with the title of Pillar of sports because of your contribution and the fact that during your tenure Enyimba won the trophy twice. What is happening to our local leagues now especially Enyimba. Why are they not winning trophies anymore?

I don’t know because I have not spoken to the governor since he became governor. To run sports is very difficult because you have to motivate the boys. Most of the players then were bought by me directly because sometimes, the coaches can be sentimental. I chose the best, which is why during my time Enyimba was winning trophies.

Do you think our Super Eagles have what it takes to go far in the World Cup?

Pinnick is doing well and the Super Eagles is getting better. Both of us were offered the leadership of the football federation but its good Pinnick is the head and he knows what he is doing. Nigeria can do well if we start training today and Pinnick understands these things; it takes a lot of discipline on all sides. If the boys are well motivated, we can even win the World Cup.