In these days of social media, fake certificates, and political harlotory with hirelings feeding from the crumbs, one doesn’t know what and who to believe anymore.
Just when the Courts were declaring degree certificates being paraded by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu as fakes, a write up surfaced by one Prof Kalu Kalu Diogu, proclaiming with magisterial authority that the same Kalu is the leader of APC and that the senatorial ambition of a former Commissioner for Finance in Abia state, Dr Philips Nto is irrelevant.
The write up by Diogu, a known political leech with microscopic political importance ought to have been dismissed along with the fake certificates paraded by his master because the story lacked proper attribution, that journalism jargon used to authenticate a write up.
However, because of the weighty, though, false claims that are inherent in it, and since Diogu has not disclaimed it, it has become necessary to dignify him with an answer. The two sweeping claims he made are that Orji Uzor Kalu is the leader of APC and not Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu, the distinguished deputy speaker of House of Representatives, and the second is that Nto’s senatorial ambition is irrelevant.
Before I delve into the matter, it is best we look at the character and precedent of Diogu who parades himself as a professor. Unlike Nto who everyone knows as an academic staff of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Diogu is yet to provide evidence to back his academic claims, not even the school where he teaches in Austin Texas. He lives in America and not in Abia. His main occupation was when he was fronting as a member of World Igbo Congress, a platform they used to siphon Abia government money. Politically, his highest attainment is being the friend and lackey of Orji Uzor Kalu. For the eight years, this his friend was the governor of Abia State, there was no single project, not even a culvert, that he attracted to his home Ihechiowa. Until Gov Alex Otti commenced the building of Ihechiowa ring Road, Diogu could not access his hometown Okpo through a vehicle.
So, he is least qualified to rule on the internal mechanism of Abia APC, except to massage the oversized ego of his master. While it is acknowledged that Orji Uzor is among the long standing members of Abia APC, it should be noted that the party actually provided him sanctuary when T A Orji and his son ran him out of town and rendered him partyless. Without APC, Orji Uzor Kalu’s political journey would have long ended.
It is also false to claim that through his victory in 2023, Orji Uzor sustained APC. Orji Uzor is currently in the Senate with a stolen mandate. He didn’t win that election. He lied to INEC that Ohafia was an IPOB enclave. Election was not conducted there.The voters were disenfranchised. That’s why the women of Ohafia are after Orji Uzor for branding them terrorists.
Indeed, Orji Uzor Kalu is living in denial. He is living in his part glory. He does not command any followership in APC in Abia state. From the least member of APC to the State Executive, all of them follow Ben Kalu as their leader. That is why orji Uzor is hanging around Abuja, issuing fake Press releases. The glory has since departed from him, and it is time for him to bow out for Dr Philips Nto to take over.
It is funny when Diogu dismissed the senatorial ambition of Dr. Philips Nto as inconsequential. If Nto is not relevant, why is Orji Uzor Kalu jittery and desperately wants to avoid a primary election but instead wants to be given a return ticket? If Orji is indeed popular, let him face Nto in a free and fair contest. He does not want that because he has alienated members of the party through his greed,arrogance, and selfishness.
How can you call yourself a leader of the party, and you see nothing wrong with you running for Senate and your blood brother contesting the governorship under the same party? That is sheer insanity and hubris.
As for Philips Nto, a man who has coughed out twenty million naira to purchase the nomination form would never be described as irrelevant. He is a disciplined and loyal party man who has aligned himself with the mainstream APC leadership under the leadership of Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu. In the real sense of it, Orji Uzor is irrelevant because in Abia APC, he is alone with his brother. When Gov Hope Uzodimma invited the APC in Abia state for an interactive session in Owerri, the entire APC in Abia was there except Orji Uzor Kalu and his brother Mascot What more shows that APC in Abia state is united under Ben Kalu.
Since Diogu who has never been a Councillor in Abia state has the temerity to dismiss a former Commissioner, a former Provost and World Bank consultant as irrelevant, yet his master is fretting over the impending political tsunami, let them march to the field. After all, politics is local and practical.
