There has been rofo-rofo in some quarters since May 2016 that a former Governor of Abia State and renowned businessman, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, was captured in an interview saying: “Buhari’s government’ll favour Igbo more.” One area that is sensitive in that interview was where Kalu sent in his advice to Ndigbo, saying he has been praying to God to remove the “I know too much” from Ndigbo and give them love. He said that Ndigbo need to be given the heart to love one another than intelligence; they are too intelligent for his liking and they are too distrusting in liking their brothers. He added that the Igbo should love one another, because the Igbo are the trustees of the dream, they are the salt of the nation; they are everywhere in Nigeria. They should also love other Nigerians because it takes a good Christian to admit a good Muslim and the other.
Those who think that they have brought Kalu to the cleaners because he said that Ndigbo will benefit more under this government when it was glaringly showing that there is terrific hardship under the Major General Muhammadu Buhari-led government, do not know the stuff Kalu is made of. Kalu seems to be a student of Napoleon Hill (which I’m), who said in his book –Think And Grow Rich – that, every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. This might be what Kalu who is best described as a seer had seen and wanted Nigerians to see through his lenses. Kalu is one man that can be said that loves Ndigbo very much, and I will explain more.
He has fought for Igbo battles more than any person or group might think that he had not. The absence of love is the cause of many problems that are associated with the world today. Inter alia, lack of love is the cause of disunity among peoples. But if there is any man who is cosseted to love, that man is Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. I’ve always said that his love for his people – Ndigbo – is irrefutably. He frowns at any environment where there is a lack of love, hence his several calls for Igbo unity. These calls have no measurement. It’s coming after some Igbo organisations that the Igbo businesses were placed on their feet seemed to have failed. Dr. Kalu formed Njiko Igbo in that admiration to organize Ndigbo and to make them to love each other.
Acting as transient coordinator, he is spending millions of dollars in making the attainment of love among Ndigbo a reality, no matter a minuscule discordant voices to his visions with Njiko Igbo; one of which visions was for Ndigbo to actualise Igbo presidency in 2015. But Nigerian saw how the election and zoning hand clock changed in 2015.
The exceptional aspect of the Njiko Igbo is that it is not affiliated to any political party. Njiko Igbo is not into partisan politics, not against any political party in Nigeria. There are Shylocks, traitors, detractors and traducers anywhere in the world. There are people with these traits among Ndigbo, and they have fought and been fighting Kalu in making sure that he goes somber in his benevolence act of love for Ndigbo, but he has refused to relax in his obligation; rather he prefers loving Ndigbo by consulting widely on how to make Ndigbo to be their brother’s keeper, and not their brother’s killer.
He was with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, and the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, at their palaces in his love pursuit for Ndigbo, to discuss the issue bothering to them. From Abia to Anambra, Kalu has not been relaxing in the lock-up of his comfort; he has been sojourning for this onerous task. During one of Kalu’s visits to the palace of Obi of Onitsha in 2012, Igwe Achebe observed that the desires of Ndigbo in Nigeria can only be actualised if they are in unity. Achebe fingered the sizable investments that Ndigbo scattered across the world with extremely-small size of them invested in ala-Igbo. Again, he regretted how armed robbery and kidnapping were becoming immune in ala-Igbo, and called on the government to checkmate these.
It is noted that if the few things that Achebe outlined are addressed, it will help the Igbo to come back home and invest, whereas they can unite no matter where they have as residences. But it is observable that some powerful members of the public are playing politics with the Igbo and the government has refused to address these things, hence Kalu frowns and wants the Igbo to understand the ugly handwriting on the wall painting the Igbo in bad light for a worse future.
The overconfident Kalu sees the Njiko Igbo as an all-important socio-political dais for a president of Igbo extraction in 2015. While few Igbo sons and daughters are playing to the gallery against this conceivable and lustrous Njiko Igbo; Kalu comes out boldly, striding to fruition with the organisation. Kalu says that the aims of Njiko Igbo as the name connotes, include harmonization of different interests in the South East Zone of Nigeria, facilitation of a common South East position on national issues, rekindling the spirit of political participation among the citizens at the grassroots across the zone as well as channeling such enthusiasm to positive national goals, building bridges across political tendencies in the zone and extending such bridges to other geo-political zones for the full re-integration of the zone, among others.
Kalu saw anything that would be against the Igbo presidency in 2015 as retribution against Ndigbo. Kalu, as far as Ndigbo and the rest of Nigerians are concerned, represents the moon that shines down in the darkest hours, unlike most Ndigbo that want to be the sun that lightens up but refuse to be around at the darkest hours. So, is anybody thinking that he or she can do without Kalu in ala-Igbo? The fact remained that Kalu was well positioned to help the emergence of an Igbo as President of Nigeria in 2015. This is why it was not seen as a ruse when Dr. Kalu advised developing countries to take a hint from the democratization process in America. This, he said, would help in making certain, stable democracy, in countries. But what did the rest of ethnic groups in Nigeria think about the Igbo in achieving the 2015 presidency? Did some groups show lionic gait and, other expressing chameleonic approach?
As a man of love, Kalu beams his love for the South-west. He said: They always raise personalities against injustice. It did not just start with Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was ready to confront colonialism with bare hands. Prof. Wole Soyinka risked his life and went to jail not really because his friend Christopher Okigbo died in Biafra; he had a soft spot for the Igbo who suffered so much persecution. The road to 2015 will throw up more of such men and women.
Kalu has maintained that there is so much between Ndigbo and the rest of Nigerians, but the Igbo have been refused opportunity such as the President, Forty-something years after the Yakubu Gowon-led genocide against the Igbo erroneously called Nigeria-Biafra civil war took place. And even if the genocide may be taken as a war, it was then an uncivil war led by the War-head of State, Yakubu Gowon.
It is on record that Gowon was it who removed the Bight of Biafra from the Nigerian map in his continuous bid to extirpate anything Igbo. Kalu had said that if Ndigbo do not mind many of the mayhems meted out against them in some parts of the country and still embrace the rest of Nigerians as brothers and sisters, why can’t the same be shown to them in Nigeria at least in 2015?
In his own words, Kalu says: “There is so much between us. During the war, you found some Igbo living in Lagos. Chief Philip Asiodu even served in the Federal Government inspite of the loss of his brother, Sidney, to the bullets of Nigerian troops. Tony Igwe was busy playing soccer and Obisia Nwankpa sweated out in the gym. At the same time, Prof. Vincent Ike’s wife, a Yoruba, was part of the Biafran war efforts. Even the daughter of Lagos Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, was married to a Biafran naval officer, Ohiaeri-Duru. To cap it all, one of the gallant Yoruba officers who saw the war, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade, had since condemned it as unnecessary. That is why the Yoruba stand out.”
Conversely, it is a radiating nuisance the debasement by the Nigerian state not to allow this long handshake across the Niger always initiated by the Igbo to the rest of Nigerians to have direction, just as Americans expressed in the born-African Barack Obama. Kalu had cried that the South-west, for example, would prove their love for the South-east (in 2015); seeing this as the best way to bury all the accumulated suspicion between both groups.
Kalu says he knows that Yoruba could stand up and be counted. According to him, the war years showed it. He explicates that there was this Yoruba soldier who applied the brakes of his army truck to save the life of an Igbo pedestrian near Orlu at the end of the war in January 1970. An accompanying officer was so furious that he took control of the vehicle, drove for about 10 kilometers and forced the driver out into the dark. Time was 1.00 a.m. ’Ejoo oo, ejoo oo’ [please, please] the soldier pleaded. All to no avail. Fortunately, the drop zone was in Isu right in front of the house of the first Igbo Dental-Surgeon who had worked in Ibadan before the crisis. And he took the soldier in. Kalu lectures that the lesson is that there are more Yoruba out there who cannot kill Igbo dreams in 2015. But 2015 is gone!
Kalu has always been asking when the cry of Ndigbo would come to an end in Nigeria. Today, Africans in America are happy because one of them is allowed the number one seat in the White House, after years of humiliations and abuse. Ndigbo are suffering what these Africans in America once suffered. Kalu has been twice a presidential candidate and, was suspiciously frustrated. He gave President Goodluck Jonathan his support by stepping down owing to the view of the Igbo that they all must support Jonathan in the 2011 presidential elections. And they did. Kalu advertised this stepping down for Jonathan during the 2011 presidential elections in many of the national newspapers’ paid advertorials.
He has always made his effort to bring many Igbo leaders together, but most especially the like of Senator Annie Okonkwo, Gov. Rochas Okorocha, Victor Umeh, Chekwas Okorie and other Igbo sons, so that they can produce an Igbo president. Kalu is not doing politics now. He is doing this for Ndigbo now.
Due to Kalu’s unwavering love for Ndigbo, an observer captured his ability thus: “I have the confidence that Orji Uzor Kalu can do it. Everybody has his own God-given talent. Orji Uzor Kalu is an illustrious Igbo son. Please, let’s criticize objectively, those who are wasting their time saying that they are fighting Kalu… Orji Uzor Kalu is one of the few Ndigbo that have the courage, the charisma and every other thing required to unite or to fight for the Ndigbo. Anybody facing any type of suppression, watch out, that person has a talent. Name them – Orji Uzor Kalu, Chekwas Okorie, Chris Ngige. Etcetera.”
Nevertheless, all that Kalu requires is to remain focused just as he advised President Obama to remain focused and committed to his good work during the latter’s inception of office. For this reason, Ndigbo should come together so that they can cure this symptom of lack of love among them that Kalu has always talked about once and for all.
. Onwumere is a poet, writer and consultant based in Rivers State. He can be reached via:odimegwu@journalist.com.