25 Years Ago: The Man Orji Uzor Kalu, What The Gen-Z Don’t Know About Him.
By: Onyegbula Chijioke
There’s an adage in Igbo land that says, if you don’t know where the rain began to beat you, you won’t know where it stopped.
Currently the globe is in the information age where news whether true or false flies like the speed of light and people move with such information without verification. There’s this urge in vogue, where people rush to be the first to break the news not minding if it is verified or not, but the hunger to create content has become the order of the day, which is on a targeted mission of killing investigative journalism.
Those of us who are from Abia State, who grew up in Abia State when the former Governor of Abia State, His Excellency, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu was at the helm of affairs in the State from 1999-2007 have carefully reviewed, read and listened to a lot of lies and misinformation spread against this forerunner of a new Abia.
I have sat down to distil and synthesize some of these make believe stories erroneously told to this generation to disabuse their minds against this exceptionally good man called Orji Uzor Kalu and I have risen to give an unbiased account of what I witnessed and what other Abians enjoyed when Kalu called the shots in the State 25 years ago.
Apart from Sir Michael Okpara who was the former Premier Old Eastern Region, Kalu is the first and most celebrated initiator of the Free Education scheme in Abia State, where pupils and students who schooled in Abia State from Primary to University never paid a dime as school fees, courtesy of Kalu’s free education revolution. This encouraged many parents who couldn’t afford school fees to send their wards to school. I could remember how my father struggled to pay my school fees then, until Kalu came to his aid and other thousands of parents in Abia State who were relieved of this fundamental rights of formally educating their children.
Not just free education, I and many other students who schooled in Abia State from 1999-2007, were given free mathematics sets, textbooks, exercise books and other writing materials. Like that wasn’t enough, I went to school on a daily basis from Monday to Friday with a free coaster bus which consistently carried us from 7:00 am to 8:00 am and back to our houses from 2:00 to 3:00 pm at the close of school. These coaster buses carried pupils and students simultaneously across the 17 Local Government Areas of Abia State. I and other students enjoyed those free rides and had massive fun. As a result of the free transportation, I and other students came to school early and also regularly. We looked forward to it and it improved our learning experience. This also meant a lot to our parents, because it exempted our parents from transportation fare of their wards and helped them channel the transportation bills to other items on their scale of preference.
While we were in school, Kalu didn’t leave school supervision to his subordinates, he painstakingly toured all the secondary schools in Abia State by himself, making sure all the infrastructural development were put in place, inspiring students that they could become anything they ever wanted to be if they put in the effort to make a difference. I remember vividly when he visited our school in Government College Umuahia, where he revealed he is an Old Boy of our school. I was greatly inspired by his speech and demure. After 25 years, this free education has metamorphosed to an army of responsible citizens in different strata of labour market in the society, who have become useful to themselves and families and are adding huge value to the GDP of Nigeria and other nations of the world as a result of Kalu’s foresight, ingenuity and tenacity of purpose.
Aware that agricultural activity and innovation is one of the ways to bring development, erase hunger and fight poverty, especially when it’s introduced to young students with sharp malleable minds, Kalu shared palm seedlings to all the Staff and students of all the primary and secondary schools across the 17 Local Government Area in Abia State. I was a beneficiary of this well thought out idea of former Governor Kalu. I got about three (3) palm seedlings like other students across the State. When I took mine home, my father took it to the village and planted it. Today, those palm seedlings have grown and they’re of tremendous economic value to my father. I know this is also the testimony of other students who nurtured and took good care of those palm seedlings given to us by Kalu.
Furthermore, Kalu as the Chief Security Officer of Abia State 25 years ago, maintained maximum security of lives and properties of citizens. Due to incessant bullying and harassment by the “Mafia group” in Aba, thinking out of the box, he introduced “Bakassi Boys” which helped bring peace and tranquility to Aba and Umuahia, the busy business hub of Abia State. Kalu also extended this idea to other southeast states like Anambra, who borrowed a leaf from Abia State to forestall the activities of gangsters in Onitsha, Nnewi, Akwa and other busy towns in Anambra. This singular formula of working with registered non-state actors worked wonders in suppressing the ugly head of insecurity in Abia and Anambra all thanks to Kalu’s doggedness and resilience.
Considering road construction, Kalu did exceedingly well when he was in charge in the State. So many urban and rural roads were constructed during his time as Governor. This I can testify to, because the road leading to my village in Nneato, Umunneochi was constructed by him from Leru junction down to Umuchukwu, boundary between Abia and Anambra State. The most important revelation about this news is that these roads that were constructed roughly 9125 days ago by Kalu are still available, efficient, strong and durable till tomorrow. This is to show they were constructed by the contractors maintaining global civil engineering standards without any compromise as supervised by former Governor Kalu. This particular road brought many developments to Umunneochi as a whole.
As a student in secondary school, I could hear our teachers discuss in the staff room about their welfare packages which were given to them as at when due. As a young boy, who was close to my Form Teacher, whenever I went to see her, I could hear she and her colleagues say they were never owed and their salaries were paid consistently on or before the 25th of every month. This was also the testimony of many civil servants who worked in the state. They were able to save and make plans for the future. They bought cars, lands and built houses due to proper and consistent payment of their monthly entitlements. They never went on strike not even for a day, as a result of the robust relationship Kalu’s led government had with the leadership of Abia State chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress.
I am writing this to show as proof that indeed, Kalu impacted Abia State positively. Government is a continuous process by which those who succeed their predecessor, should carry on with the blueprint and aspirations of their predecessors and not jettison them just because the predecessor and successor are in different political parties.
To the Gen-Zs, Kalu who was Governor 300 months ago and who’s currently the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District is a wonderful personality, who keeps his words and was instrumental in elevating Abia State from the military rule to an enviable of heights of what democratic governance can offer. He laid the foundation of what we are enjoying today as a State and prosperity will always be kind to him for casting his name eternally in the hearts of Abians
