October 1, 2012
…Warns that Nigerians’ll resist use of army to rig 2015 elections
From PETRUS OBI, Enugu
Former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu has declared that it is an insult for anyone to say an Igbo man cannot be president in 2015, warning that Nigeria will continue to wobble on her journey to nationhood and socio-economic development unless a president of Igbo extraction is realized.
Kalu who received the zonal leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in his country home, Igbere, Abia State called on Igbos to stop being problem to themselves by being pessimistic, but prepare to lead the country in 2015, and urge other Nigerians to support the Igbo presidency project, if Nigeria must make genuine progress.
Said he: “The country is troubled because the God anointed people are not there yet, until they take over the mantle of leadership, Nigeria will not have a pride of place in the world; we have no pride of place, we go to the United Nations we look like a rat, we go to European Union we look like a rat, we go to comity of the world leaders we look as if Nigeria is not speaking. “Forty eight years after the civil war, it is an insult for somebody to tell you that Igbos cannot be president.
If all these tribes can be president, who among them is more qualified than an Igbo man. We are the salt of this nation; we are the best things that happened to this nation. Anything good comes from the East and we are the genuine Easterners; unless we rule this country the country will never be okay.” Orji lamented that 52 years after Independence, the economy, roads and other social infrastructure had collapsed and called on Nigerians to come out and defend democracy.
He urged Nigerians to resist the use of soldiers and armed policemen to rig future elections, insisting that the way and manner the current crop of leaders emerged accounted for poor performance and continued decay in infrastructure. He advised current governors to be themselves and work for the welfare of the people that elected them into office and to stop being lap dogs of the president, stressing that governors who had been subservient to presidents since the nation’s independence never achieved much in office as they ruled with fear.
“It has also been shown that those who boot-lick presidents in Nigeria since independence never do well; they don’t even tar the roads, they don’t give free education, they do nothing to salvage their states because they believed the president is their boss; if the president asks them to go and put their house on fire they will go and do it, which I feel is not in consonance with democratic concept. “We have enough as a country to feed our 200 million people; we have enough in human and material resources to make our roads better. People are not being given what they bargained for because they are not genuinely elected; these results are written, supported by the army and the police, these people are shameless.”
He vowed to sensitize Nigerians to resist election rigging in future saying: “They will never do it again. It is going to be one man, one vote and no army man will carry any ballot box again in Igboland or in Nigeria, we will not accept that. It will not happen again. Even if he is general to heaven, we will fight him and fight his whole family. If they do what is unconstitutional, we will repeat what will be unconstitutional too because that is the only way we are going to check this rubbish.”
The former governor who became popular for criticising the Obasanjo administration for the bad roads in the South East decried the deplorable state of roads in the zone and blamed both the federal and state governments for the situation. “People of our area, leaders of Igbo people have turned to perpetual liars. Government rule now on television, on radio and on propaganda. You cannot say you are good Leave the people who are being governed to say who is good or is right.”
SOURCE: 1 October 2012.
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