From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, yesterday said he believed President Muhammadu Buhari will take Nigeria to the Promised Land, and urged all Nigerians across religious, ethnic and political divides to support him for greater success.
The two-time governor expressed this view while speaking with journalists, during the funeral service held at the Cathedral of St Peter, Aremo, Ibadan, in honour of Chief James Babatunde, fellow of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners. The deceased was 79 when he passed on.
Said Kalu: “We are heading to the Promised Land. Buhari is leading us to the Promised Land, but people don’t understand. There are two types of components that make democratic process – the hardware and the software. The hardware is what you see, such as road construction and reconstruction. The software is obedience to rule of law, accessibility to people’s mind, obedience to court order, making sure that court of competent jurisdiction’s orders are respected, and making sure that everything done in the law is totally agreeable.
“Our problem in Nigeria is very simple. People are not obeying traffic lights. Big people don’t want to obey simple rule; ‘do not cross this line’, this is the problem the country has. This is what Buhari is saying, that, ‘no, you cannot do without due process.’
“Buhari is trying to say to Nigerian people that, ‘yes I might be slow, but we have to go through process which is internationally acceptable’. So, we are on course. Things have been very difficult, I agree. But my grandmother used to tell me that when a tailor gets a brand new cloth, he has to first cut it into pieces, then make it into a very fine dress. That is where we are today. Everybody must be crying, we’ll get it (the nation) back on course.”
Responding to a question on the assertion made by the United Kingdom that the agitation for restructuring would determine the direction of 2019 general elections in Nigeria as well as the call by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) should forget secession and support restructuring of the country, Kalu said: “Restructuring is what comes gradually. Everybody is shouting. Let them stop saying restructuring. Let them say we need fiscal federalism.
“If you are saying restructuring, people will term it that you want the country to be divided. You want the local government to be this, you want this and that. What we are saying is very simple: ‘the duties of the federal government are so much. How can it be talking about education, road, agriculture? They should take away all those things out of their hands. Like Ibadan – Lagos Expressway, it should be shared among the three states: Lagos,Ogun and Oyo. If you go to another highway, Lagos-Benin Expressway should be shared among Edo, Ondo, Ogun and whoever is there. By so doing, all these challenges of going through deplorable roads will be a thing of the past. The union is so big that the Federal Government should not be doing certain things; that is what we are saying. Nobody is saying: divide the country. We are just saying, there is a need to restructure the country economically.
“Even Buhari himself made a statement few days ago that there’s need to restructure the economic aspect of this country, and everybody agrees. There is a will for us to put this into use. Whether the British authority or any authority is saying that restructuring will be the determinant of the elections may not be true. The democratic nature of Nigeria will still make people vote for whomever they want.”
Kalu, who is the Seriki of Ibadan and Aro of Ogbomoso, conferred on him by a former Olubadan and the Soun respectively, said he has never hidden his intention to represent the people of Abia North Senatorial District in the National Assembly from 2019, even as he vowed to support President Muhammadu Buhari for second term in office.
“He is a popular man. Let’s assume he came in with 12 million votes, and let’s say 1.5million are gone, he still has 10.5million behind him,
“We believe in openness of democratic process. You can see the impact the APC is making. People are not seeing this, because they were used to being dashed free money. From nowhere, you will just see people packing money in a basket and give you. They won’t ask where the money is from. We are now telling young people, go and start poultry, go and start agriculture, go and start doing hibiscus, potato and so on. They should start doing something. This is what the system is saying.”
Asked of his opinion on official claim of Nigeria having exited recession, Kalu, a successful international businessman, responded: “I don’t even think we have exited recession. I beg to disagree with any economist or anybody who put that in place. I believe honestly that we are still in recession. I have told many television houses and newspaper houses that we might exit recession by December 2018. The capability of recovery is being put in place and I can assure you that we are recovering. We have not fully recovered and I am sure we will recover by December 2018.
“So, anybody judging Buhari on recession now is making a mistake. There are a lot of jobs that they are putting in place and yes, some economists who might be in a hurry can say we have exited, but in the real course of economic dynamics, we have not exited. If you still check the capacity utilisation, it is very poor; goods in warehouses are still stocked up.
“The greatest problem we had was the devaluation of naira. Many people lost their capital; many businessmen, traders, manufacturing houses, lost their capital. So, it will take two to three years for them to recover and that is where we are going. Even, the World Bank agrees with my theory that this recession will be exited in December 2018.”