the battle of father and son........

As Saturday’s senatorial election approaches, two-term Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, and his estranged godson, Governor Theodore Orji, are locked in a battle of supremacy in the 24-year-old state, writes Stephen Ukandu

Saturday’s senatorial election will not be a tea party in Abia State, where former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu is eyeing the Abia-North senatorial seat and incumbent Governor Theodore Orji is eyeing the Abia-Central senatorial seat. Although the two men are not struggling for the same seat, the supremacy battle between them is expected to hit a crescendo in a few days’ time.

Born on April 21, 1960, Kalu started out early in life with $35 he borrowed from his mother. With the money, Kalu began trading in palm oil by buying the product from the then Eastern Region and selling it in the Northern Region. He later delved into buying and reselling furniture on a large scale.

Before cutting his business teeth and forming a thriving business empire, Kalu became the youngest Nigerian to receive the National Merit Award at the age of 26 in 1986. He came into public reckoning when he served as Chairman, Borno Water Board and Chairman, Cooperative and Commerce Bank. Kalu served as Governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. Kalu left the PDP to form the Progressive Peoples Alliance and served as the party’s board of trustees chairman. Imbued with the belief that the Igbo should ascend the country’s presidency, Kalu, who supports the cause of the Ndigbo, emerged PPA’s presidential candidate in the April 2007 general election and remains a member of the PPA.

After holding sway as governor for eight years, Kalu decided to bequeath his political hegemony to his godson, Orji, whom he personally chose and foisted on the party despite resistance by some close aides.

The insistence by Kalu that Orji should succeed him later turned out to be a miscalculation as the pair later fell out in about two years. Kalu, who admitted he foisted Orji as the candidate of the party, said: “Orji was hiding his true colours from me. Everybody warned me because what they were seeing, I wasn’t seeing. He was one aide I had who never ate on the same table with me for eight years. Something was wrong. All my commissioners, all my Special Advisers, all the people I worked with, the Speaker of the House, members of the House of Assembly, all of them ate at my table.”

Orji, in 2009, became uncomfortable with the marriage that he no longer made pretensions that he was under a “political bondage” in the hands of his political godfather. Some political watchers said he was merely a stooge while the alliance lasted as Kalu determined how the state was ruled. A supporter of Orji, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “It was so bad that Orji was said to have no say on who became a member of his cabinet but was forced to endorse any list of commissioners handed over to him by Kalu.”

In 2010, Orji mustered the courage to take his destiny in his hands. He declared political freedom from Kalu and his mother, Eunice, who has immense socio-political influence in Abia State and beyond. Orji accused the Kalus of running Abia as a private estate. He later dumped Kalu’s PPA, the platform on which he came on board, and had a brief stopover in the All Progressives Grand Alliance before finally defecting to the PDP.

As the battle raged, loyalists of both gladiators joined the fray. Orji’s former deputy, Chief Chris Akomas, who was said to be loyal to Orji, became the first casualty in the emerging power game as he was impeached by the state House of Assembly. Shortly after that some commissioners, other political aides and Kalu’s men, who refused to crossover to Orji’s camp were also consumed.

But Kalu is no political novice and his political influence cannot be underestimated. Indeed, some political watchers believe that anyone who underrates the political might of the former governor does so at his own peril. It is also believed that Kalu, a stupendously rich politician with lots of business conglomerates will naturally deploy his enormous wealth to actualise his ambition. He is already on an aggressive campaign in all communities in the zone.

Orji’s political ally and candidate for Abia-North senatorial ticket, Chief Mao Ohuabunwa (PDP), though more vocal than Kalu, is by far no match to the ex-governor’s financial muscle. Many ‘Abians’ believe that Kalu would spoil the party for Ohuabunwa. Investigations have also revealed that many PDP politicians, who felt aggrieved at the party’s primaries, are switching loyalty to Kalu.

However, despite the fear of Kalu’s influence, members of Orji’s political family have boasted that Kalu will eat the humble pie by Saturday.

But the suspicion in some quarters that Kalu has received assurances from “powers from above,” is heavy in the air. Many believe that the ‘Abuja support’ is serving as an impetus for Kalu’s determination to see that President Goodluck Jonathan wins next Saturday’s presidential election.

Just recently during the presidential rally of the PDP in Umuahia, Abia State capital, the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu , Kalu’s childhood friend and former colleague, openly appealed to the people of the state to receive Kalu – who is still a member of the PPA – back into the PDP fold. He said that Kalu was already working with them at the national level.