Contrary to reports on social media platforms, former Governor of Abia State and eminent businessman, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has said he met with President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, on a peace initiative of the Orji Uzor Kalu Foundation and its partners across the globe.
Social media reports had insinuated that Kalu, the senator-elect for Abia North, visited Venezuela to cut oil deals.
Clarifying the matter, while speaking with journalists at the Simon Bolivar International Airport yesterday, Kalu, said for any nation to thrive, there must be peace and harmony.
He revealed that he used the opportunity of his visit in Venezuela to meet with members of the Afro-Venezuelan community as well as called on the governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, China, Russia, Nigeria and others to fashion out an inclusive and integrated strategy to overcome the crisis facing Venezuela.
He stressed that foreign leaders and diplomatic corps across the globe were deliberating on the challenges being faced by Venezuela, in a bid to restore normalcy.
Kalu said: “I am in Venezuela in my capacity as the founder and chief promoter of Orji Uzor Kalu Foundation. The visit is in-line with our foundation’s objective of promoting peace across the world.
“We are working with development partners and critical stakeholders to ensure peace and prosperity in Venezuela. We are living in a global community and as such, we must continue to promote and sustain peace initiatives across the world.”
Declining to give full details of his meeting with President Maduro, Kalu noted that upon his return to Nigeria, he would brief President Muhammadu Buhari and convey a note from the Venezuelan president to the Nigerian leader.
“President Buhari has continually played leading roles in promoting world peace. This feat will, in no distant time, earn Nigeria’s President, the Noble Peace Prize,” he said.
The former governor, who was seen off by Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister, Yvan Gil, has since departed Caracas for Germany. He is expected back in Nigeria this weekend.