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Economic Confidential,
November 2008
FEATURES
Kalu Leadership Series; An Insult on Intellect
By Norris Benedict, London
Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of the south east Nigerian
state of Abia is undoubtedly a young man with hot blood flowing in
his veins. This intense adrenaline push on his system has giving him
the impression he can foray into anything his deluded self impresses
on him. I won’t be surprised if he looks at himself every morning
and asks “Orji what is it that you haven’t achieved, is it money,
power or ‘intellect’”? This delusion of grandeur is suffered by a
man who preaches tolerance and patience but is on record not to have
worked successfully with any of his deputies throughout his failed
eight year tenure. He centralized governance around himself and his
mother and consequently ran the state aground leaving a legacy of
roguery and perfidy. He made sure he installed an ex convict and
fetishly secured protégé as his stooge and for this reason Abia
state literarily remains a heap of refuse as at today.
After his reign as governor that saw the unbridled looting of the
state treasury, dilapidation of socio economic infrastructure,
breakdown of security, law and order, Kalu made an ideologically
blind but equally woeful attempt at contesting the Presidency. In
addition he professed the leadership and voice of the ndigbo, a
wonderful group of people who have been unfortunate to be led by
clueless self appointed dregs who masquerade as political and
cultural leaders.
He failed in all these as he wasn’t privileged to see the
fruitlessness of such self deception; having a mind ever so roaming
and scheming but unfortunately lack lustre, he played his cards on
the table and checked out the next option to prove his ‘mettle’.
Obviously, he considered dabbling into the heavily fortified world
of scholarship and literature, a world that is not for all comers no
matter how much you have, no matter the political and economic
height you may have reached in life. Scholarship, intellect and
literature has remained so fortified that rich realists who have the
courage to tell themselves the truth have gone out of their way to
get publicists, writers and academics to handle that aspect of their
lives that relate to strategic thinking and knowledge.
But that is not an option for Mr. Kalu, he believes he can do
anything hence his latest project, the Kalu Leadership Series, a
platform with which he has penned down a pile of jargons aimed at
rewriting facts posterity has definitely documented for history.
Surely urged on by his hireling of yes men at the Sun Newspapers, he
has grown so comfortable to aspire to do weekly article write ups on
his highly partisan daily.
But what actually is the Kalu Leadership Series, what does it
stand for, what does it profess, what ideologies of leadership does
it propose and what mannerism underlines its literature and finally
what does it symbolize? I am at a loss to all these posers as a
cursory look at different editions of the weekly sham shows a
collection of write ups so empty of meaning and sense.
A closer look at the articles will show you the hypocritic self
righteousness of the writer. All he does in his nauseating
chronicles of falsehood, is to appraise the pathetic situation the
country has found itself(of which he played an important role),
apportion blames, pen down lies on his patriotic strides at
developing his state, make hullabaloos about his patriotism and
desire for a united Nigeria, brag about his international
connections and then most popularly hang all the problems of Nigeria
on Obasanjo’s neck, call for his probe and then do a summary on
imaginary writers who mailed in to express ‘love and appreciation’
for his ‘literary innovations’. What sheer bunkum, what tissue of
pathological barefaced lies peddled by a man so morally deficient
and depraved.
Orji Kalu is a man known to tell so many unverifiable lies, the type
most people wouldn’t bother or have the privilege to crosscheck. The
scale of this lies has effervesced with the unfolding of his latest
platform. I make it bold to say lies and literature have no meeting
point, they run parallel to each other.
His recent lie in his latest piece tells of how he met President
elect Barack Obama. He described it as dramatic, stating he was
introduced to Obama by Hillary Clinton and asked to support Obama. A
healthy sound mind will ask or imagine a sight of Kalu with Clinton,
what will they discuss, how will they communicate fluently for
mutual understanding? Do they share anything in common; can they
comfortably hold a discussion for more than five minutes without
running out of items due to sharp contrasts in their personalities,
ideals and leanings? One of them subscribes to democracy in its real
sense of the people determining who rules them while the other
believes in thuggery and ballot stuffing. One is pleasant and
gracious in accepting defeat while the other is crude, brash and
arrogant in apportioning blames. One believes in a world of equity
were every one should be treated the same with equal rights while
the other subscribes to George Orwell’s farm where some animals are
more equal than others. One sees political power as a means of
committed service to the people while the other sees it as a means
of self glorification and aggrandizement. They share nothing in
common so how can they ‘flow’ to the extent of Hillary asking him to
support Obama; on which basis? I always say it two plus two can
never add up to five.
For those that don’t know, Mr. Kalu the present day social and human
rights crusader cum intellectual activist seats amongst a comity of
scoundrels who have been designated to bury the Economic Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC. They have been mandated to undermine any
due process activity that will lead to proper accountability in the
system. He is amongst the favorites of the current inept Nigerian
federal leadership because he possesses the attributes they love,
that of falsehood, debauchery and thuggery. He remains a bailed
criminal who looted his state dry while his shipping and other
business concerns flourished. His flagrant light fingered activities
set of a chain of economic events that gave birth to Slok Airlines
and the Sun Newspapers, the platform from which he perpetrates his
second and latest insult on scholarship after his ‘Kalu goes to
school’ shame at Uturu. This man is a typical example and represents
all that is wrong with Nigeria, a symptom to the chronic diseases
that have plagued and prevented the giant of Africa from standing
upright despite its blessings.
For those that have been hoodwinked by his posturing to tolerance,
they should recall the events that led to the burning to death of
two boys in June 1999 in front of a popular eatery called Safari
restaurant in Umuahia. These boys were eliminated over issues
relating to one Orji Uzor who wrote GCE exams for one Orji Uzor Kalu,
amidst the controversy over the certificate which was later declared
missing they were giving the bakassi treatment.
That Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu ever thought, considered and indeed
articulated weekly articles in this 21st century is a terrible slap
on the Nigerian academic family.
Norris Benedict, London
fsixteens@gmail.com |
