PPA chairman blasts “pretentious” Kalu

Orji Uzor Kalu

Says he lacks clout to win election anywhere in Abia

Abia State Progressive peoples’ Alliance (PPA), Chairman Prince
Emeka Okafor has blamed Orji Uzor Kalu for being architect of his
political woe, saying he does not have clout to win election
anywhere in Abia State.

The former Abia State commissioner for Commerce and Industry
who said this, Wednesday in an interview he granted newsmen in
Umuahia also accused Kalu of poor human management,
exploitation, ingratitude and insensitivity adding that he was used
for five years by Kalu who refused to pay him the monthly
stipend of N200, 000 agreed.

He accused Kalu of political prostitution saying he (Kalu), has
ceased to be a member of PPA as he has since renounced
membership publicly and decamped to the Peoples’ Democratic
Party (PDP) on several occasions.

“Kalu has come out many times to renounce PPA. He said he
had resigned as BoT Chairman. He said he had joined PDP. So, I
don’t ac¬tually know where he belongs.

“For five years he owes me. As a party chairman we were under
an agreement that he would be paying me N200, 000 every
month for my fuel. But he never did so.,” Okafor said.

He also punctured claims by Kalu as the sole financier of the
party saying that contrary to perceptions in some quarters, Kalu
does not fund PPA but only uses the party to further his personal
political interests.

“Kalu does not even believe in the party; he believes in
syco¬phants. He runs PPA as his personal estate and fond of
using and dumping his political allies,” Okafor fumed.
Asked why Kalu had to be rewarded with the senatorial ticket of
PPA for Abia North despite his alleged ‘multiple political interests’
- Okafor heaped the blames at the door steps of the PPA’s
national leadership saying that the National Chairman is in better
position to explain why Kalu contested under the platform of the
party.

A clearly angry Okafor however de¬clared that the former
gover¬nor had little chance of win¬ning any political office in the
nearest future anywhere in Abia State, and advised him to correct
his ways if he intends to rise again politically.
The PPA stalwart also absolved Kalu’s perceived po¬litical rival,
Senator Theodore Orji of any blames in Kalu’s unsuccessful
senatorial bids, insisting that the Igbere-born politician is the
architect of his own problems.

“Anybody accusing Orji of responsibility for Kalu’s abys¬mal
outings is not being fair. If Kalu has clout he would have won. He
is his own problem. It will be wrong to point ac¬cusing fingers on
Orji. If peo¬ple had confidence in him they would have voted for
him,” he said.

The former Commissioner further made a comparison of both ex-
Governors whom he had served in different capaci¬ties, and
concluded without apologies that Kalu has issues with human
management de¬spite his pretensions.
“From the way I look at Kalu, I see him as somebody who
doesn’t have the skill to manage human beings. That is his major
problem. Maybe what entered his head is the fact that he finds
people work¬ing for him without any for¬mal discussions on
what will be their interest.


“On human management, I think I will give it to T. A Orji. He is
somebody who knows what he wants but the other one does not
know what he wants as far as politics is con¬cerned. He might
be a good business man, I don’t know but if he is a good
businessman he should know he should not joke with
somebody’s stom¬ach. He added.

The PPA Chairman advised Kalu to accept his defeat in the poll in
good faith and con¬gratulate the winner; Senator Mao Ohuabunwa
of the PDP instead of engaging him in another legal tussle at the
tri¬bunal, which he said was not in the best interest of Abia North
senatorial district.

“To me, a progressive mind should congratulate anybody that
wins him in an election. Poli¬tics should be taken as sports.
When you lose you congratu¬late your opponent because there
are still other elections to contest”.

Confronted with the ques¬tion that he probably did not work for
Kalu during the just concluded re-run for Abia North senatorial
race since the said strike started since 2015, he did not mince
words to re¬spond in the negative. “No I did not. I told him point
blank in his house that he has to pay me before I will join his
team.”