In this image is the incumbent Senate Majority Whip in person of Orji Uzor Kalu and the Senator representing Abia North senatorial zone in the red chamber. He has just won a reelection and positioned himself for a possible emergence as the Senate President in the 10th Senate.
Kalu who was released in June 2020 from the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service Kuje for defrauding the government of Abia State where he was a governor for 8 years using his company, Slok Nigeria Limited. He was convicted by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday, 5 December 2019 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for N7.65 billion fraud.
While his reelection is a considered as a plus for the APC led administration, a successful and impactful penetrative adventure in the seemingly dominated region that has donated over 85% of the entire votes in the Presidential elections to the PDP between 2011 and 2019. It is however putting a lot of questions not only the party’s struggle for identity but also the thought process of the citizens and voters in that region by electing an ex-convict to power.
It is yet to be known how the Peter Obi tsunami is not enough to stop the aba born industrialist and politician. In a contrasting election that saw a fellow underperformer Okezie Ikpeazu losing out and coming a distant third in the Abia South senatorial zone to the candidate of All Progressive Grand Alliance candidate Eyinnaya Abaribe. One would have thought the people of Abia North will do the same to a man whose corruption trial dated back to 2007 when the Economic Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) first arrested him before the apex court finally ruled in 2016 that he stands trial in a legal battle that took 9years.
From the years of Orji Uzor Kalu, to Theodore Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu. The people of Abia state are yet to witness any transformational development as it seen across neighboring states of Ebonyi and Enugu despite all of them serving two terms each and has held on to power for the past 24 years of our democratic governance.
It is obvious that just concluded election was based on religion and tribe whether the contestant is good or bad we don’t care so far it belongs to our race(tribe) or religion. The concept of individualism, nationalism and patriotism lost in the election and we need to get people back on track through pen and dialogue.
Orji Uzor belongs to the class of election manipulators and terrorists working against free and fair elections in Nigeria.
His emergence doesn’t reflect the popular wish of the electorates but an epitome of the decay, corruption and thievery in our electoral system.