Abia flourished under Kalu from 1999 to 2007, wrong to say nothing was on ground — Rev. Ubani

Popular Abia-born cleric, Rev Chika Ubani, has described the former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, as an icon of hope who led the state in the right direction.

According to the cleric, the former governor is an excellent, natural-born leader who provided unprecedented leadership during his tenure as Governor of Abia State, saying: “Abia flourished under the leadership of Orji Uzor Kalu from 1999–2007.”

Ubani called on politicians and leaders to stop degrading the state with comments capable of overheating the polity, noting that “it is unacceptable to describe governance in Abia as wasteful for 24 years.”

“We were all here when Obasanjo tagged Kalu as the action governor — when he saw his developmental strides in a few months in office. Abia witnessed massive changes in all sectors that even forced people to relocate from other cities to Aba. Governance is continuity; we expected his successors to continue from where he stopped, like what Governor Otti is trying to do now.

“Are you forgetting that even Ohanaeze Ndigbo adopted Kalu as its presidential candidate in 2007? If Kalu had failed, would the apex body of the Igbo sociopolitical group have adopted him? If Kalu didn’t do anything, I’m sure that Abians and Imolites would have rejected the PPA in 2007. Our people saw Abia flourish under him, hence the massive support across the board. It is shocking for people who ruined the state after Kalu left to come back and say Abia was in the wilderness for 24 years.

“Like my brother, Chief Uche Aguoru said, Kalu became the governor of Abia State in 1999 upon the return of the 4th republic politics. During his time as governor, he pioneered most of the developmental milestones subsequent governors have been building on, including the Aba Independent Power Project that is being celebrated across the country today. I can vividly recall how he recovered most parts of Aba from infrastructural decay. Parts of Cemetery Road and other areas of Aba were fully submerged under mud then, save for the intervention of OUK.

“He established an indigenous home-grown and people-oriented security that effectively contained and to a very great degree decimated the activities of criminals and mafia groups that brazenly held the commercial town of Aba to ransom unchallenged. They overpowered the police and were even imposing taxes on residents, grounding commercial activities until OUK stepped in. He established and equipped the Bakassi Boys, who later became Abia Vigilante Services, and charged them with the responsibility of returning security and sanity to Aba and Abia State at large. Till date, we are yet to see a better equipped and more successful vigilante outfit in the whole of Nigeria. When he left, others were lackadaisical about insecurity — and even recently, Governor Otti said he was indifferent to enforcers of sit-at-home.

“During his time, OUK was rated as the best-performing governor, and Abia was the most celebrated state in terms of infrastructural development after Lagos at the time. He influenced the context in which development could be evolved and sustained, earning him the moniker ‘Action Governor.’”