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•Kalu’ll return to Senate; he’s best performing Senator from South-East
One of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in Abia State, High Chief Uche Ogboso, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done so much in repositioning Nigeria on the path of greatness, and so should be reelected to complete what he has started.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the former Director-General of APC campaign council in Abia State for the 2023 election, said the ruling party is poised to take over Abia State in order to give the people real and meaningful development.
The campaigns for the 2027 elections have started. What should be the message?
We have different campaign messages for different levels of the elections. You have the presidential, governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and the state Assembly.
Each of the candidates has his or her unique message. The presidential, which is the main issue, has a very far-reaching global and national campaign outlook. Then, the senatorial has to deal with the senatorial zones, depending on the problems of the constituents of the zone and who is involved, and the opponents.
The campaigns should be issue-based, constructive, project-oriented, and not just to smear and castigate people; saying things that do not exist.
Nigerians have come a long way, Nigerians now know better, so if your campaign is not issue-based, you will miss it at any level – presidential, governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and the state Assembly. It has to be realistic and to address what affects the people of the constituents and of the constituency.
Coming to the presidential election, which is the most important, what should APC be campaigning for?
The APC should be campaigning with the issues concerning the economy; all the strong policies that the president has initiated and also implemented, which are working well. Truly, there is hunger in the country, but a lot of good things, particularly as it concerns the economy and the foreign exchange and other things, I can tell you that the president has done so well.
But, to the ordinary people in the streets, the campaign should be to convince them to understand what the president is doing in their best interest, and then what he intends to do when he gets back to office.
The opposition parties are saying that there is nothing the APC will be campaigning with because President Tinubu has failed…
This is not correct at all. Before President Bola Tinubu emerged, the economy of the country was at the nadir, and for the less than four years that he has been in office, he has been implementing strong policies to reposition the country’s economy, and you are saying he has nothing to campaign with.
Somebody who has implemented a lot of structural changes; fixing a lot of roads everywhere in the country and constructing new ones, and you say he hasn’t done much.
A lot has been done, which our party will use to campaign with. Look at the reforms in the education and health sectors. Before, strikes by the staff unions of these sectors were the other of the day, but under this present government, you rarely hear of industrial actions by the workers of these critical sectors.
The president has achieved much that even the blind who could not see have heard about it. He needs just a little campaign to overwhelmingly win the election in January, 2027, to continue with his transformation of the country to greatness. The opposition parties are confused, so they don’t know what to say; they don’t even have a campaign message.
The APC gathered all the strong forces to win the Osun State governorship candidate, but the incumbent governor, who was the Accord candidate, defeated the ruling party. Political analysts say the same fate awaits Tinubu in 2027. What is your reaction to this?
That is a wrong assumption. There is a lot of difference between the presidential election and governorship election in a state. These are two different scenarios. The two governorship candidates belong to two different parties, and the voters in the state are concerned about the antecedents of each of the candidates.
This does not translate to the fortunes of the presidential election; its miles and miles apart. In a presidential election, many factors come into play. It is different from a governorship election.
Won’t the insecurity in the country be used as a strong campaign message against Tinubu, and the APC?
The case of insecurity is a protracted issue. It spans different governments over many years. Different presidents and different governors and different people at different zones have applied different kinds of remedies or strategies to contain the insecurity, but unfortunately, in some areas the methods being applied to address the insecurity are succeeding, while in some areas they have not been able to contain it.
You can’t use insecurity across the board to campaign against Tinubu. Most of the insecurity within states depends on the governance strategy of each state government. When the insecurity situations are so dire that the state cannot handle, the presidency’s assistance is sought. For example, the president is not in charge of security in Abia State, even though the police and other security apparatus are under the president, but the day-to day application depends on the governance structure or ability of the state governor.
So much money is released to the governors as security votes on a monthly basis to take charge of security within their area. For example, the insecurity in the East is not as prevalent as it is in some states in the North. This is as a result of security apparatus put on ground by the different state governments.
So, the security issue is mostly state-based, and it may not as they think affect the president in his reelection bid.
Atiku is asking INEC to disqualify Tinubu on the grounds of certificate forgery. He is also said to be pursuing the release of FBI records over Tinubu’s alleged drug matter. What do you say to this?
I have little or nothing to say about these issues because they are legal matters. The cases are in court, and you cannot discuss some cases in court because you may be charged for prejudice. Atiku can say or do anything provided he’s doing it within the legal frame; within the law open to him. So, saying something or alleging anything does not mean that that thing is correct until it is proved in a court of a competent jurisdiction. If Atiku is alleging A, B, C, D, he is free to continue to prove them in the law court. If he is able to prove them, then the decision of the court is the final.
So, I cannot say anything because that matter is a legal issue to be decided in the law court.
How will the 2027 elections stand in your state, Abia?
The truth is that the present government of Dr. Alex Otti has done better than some past governments in terms of some physical infrastructure, but there are some other areas that are lacking.
Secondly, the kind of money arising from the removal of the petroleum subsidy, which increased astronomically the monthly allocation to the state, does not match with what is on ground.
This is the area that opposition parties are hammering on, and saying that his government is opaque; it’s not transparent, it’s not clear, and asking that everything should be made transparent.
Expenditure should be matched with procurement requirements. He may be doing one or two things, and if the money he is getting now does not match what he’s doing, it means something somewhere is wrong.
What he is getting is not commensurate with what he is doing. That is why we are after getting somebody who will do more than he’s doing given the huge funds he is getting, and to make sure that monies available are transparently applied for the benefits of the people. Abia people will go for the person.
Many have praised Otti’s performance. Do you think any other party has a chance to defeat him?
We have studied the pattern of governance that he is giving to Abia people, and found that there is a lot to be done given the huge money available to him. Against this, we have got somebody we think has the capacity and capability of making things much better for the state, and much better than Otti is doing.
Like I said earlier, people are hailing Otti based on the performances of some of his predecessors because of the very low allocations they were receiving at their times. Now that there is a lot of money at his disposal, what is being done is not commensurate with what he is getting.
Who is the person that you think will win Otti?
My party is presenting Eric Opah. He’s a nice person, and a very transparent business man. You know most of these people like the present governor also came from the private sector. Otti came from the private sector, the difference is that he contested elections three times; people got to know him, and he became popular within these three times spanning 12 years. While he was in the banking sector he was not known, but during the time he contested and contested and contested, and made billboards, posters and was in the news, and campaigned all through the nooks and crannies of the state, people started hearing his name and knowing him.
Our candidate doesn’t need to contest as long as that to get through. The important thing is that if he has good campaign machinery; good handlers, then Otti is gone because the Abia electorate will vote for him.
The same thing goes down the line in the state – senatorial, House of Representatives and the state Assembly.
Like I said, apart from Governor Otti, who is trying based on the huge amount of money at his disposal, most of our representatives won the election through the Peter Obi wave in 2023. Some of them don’t even know their left from their right. Like the person who represents Aro/Ohafia Federal Constituency, he has not been able to do anything meaningful in any of the communities in the constituency. He comes from Ohafia, when you look around, you can’t see his presence. People are wiser and won’t vote for him again.
We have somebody that is going to replace him. He is a vibrant young man, very humble, and very well known because of his impact on the communities from his private rank life. The communities that make up the constituency have seen him as a square peg in a square hole and have decided to elect him. He has done so much for communities. He has built classroom blocks, renovated schools, mounted solar streetlights and other things, which elected people have failed to do. This is no more the time to just speak grammar, confuse people and then you receive votes. People really want to know who you are; what you have done especially, when you are not holding any office.
In Abia North Senatorial Zone, Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who is ably representing the zone, is the best performing senator in the entire South East
So this is the kind of people that should be encouraged to continue. People are fighting to come and take over from him. Well, it’s their political and legal right to do so. However, can they defeat him? It is not possible because he has etched his name in the hearts of the people, and they are enjoying his representation. As I’m speaking with you, the road passing in front of my house has been asphalted by him; he attracted the road, and so many within this area and within the zone. There is no local government that he has not done up to seven, eight or more roads. So, such a person in any clear contest will certainly go back.
He has attracted and executed more than 60 verifiable farm and rural road projects across Abia North Zone.
Senator Kalu’s legislative records since his election to the Senate in 2019 have been very excellent. He has sponsored numerous bills that have been passed into law, some of the important national bills he sponsored touched on education, taxation, health care, agriculture, security, justice, transportation, social welfare, environmental and economic development.
He has renovated over 90 school classroom blocks and furnished them with school desks and distributed textbooks, exercise books and teaching materials to pupils and teachers in Abia North Zone. His international and local university scholarships across the zone are unequalled
As I said earlier Abia State APC has credible candidates that can pass elections come 2027.
In the Ohafia South State Constituency, the same thing is going to play out again. There is somebody presently occupying that seat. Before him was Hon Ifeanyi Uchendu, who performed wonderfully well to the admiration of the constituents. He did so many things within the period as a member of the Abia State House of Assembly. He did them at a time when there was little or no money in the state unlike the present occupant of the office; you can hardly pinpoint to what he’s done. His campaign message is that: ‘We are Otti team; return the winning team.’ He cannot say I’ve done ABC. You see the difference.
