The Tale of The 3 Red Capped Abia Senator.
In 1998, 38yrs old
Orji Uzor Kalu was running for governorship of Abia state, he got an urgent
call to be in Abia the following morning for an important political meeting,
off he went to Jibowu, Lagos where he joined the luxurious night bus to
Umuahia.
On that trip he sat
next to a certain 43yrs old Prince Eyinnaya Abaribe, as they got talking during
the journey, he made up his mind that this man would be his running mate if he
won the PDP gubernatorial ticket .
Prince Abaribe got
his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Benin and lectured for
3yrs at Edo State University, Ekpoma.
Both Orji Uzor Kalu
and Prince Abaribe were sworn in as Governor and Deputy Governor of Abia in
1999, along the line they feuded so bitterly that Prince Abaribe was impeached
by the Abia State House of Assembly days after he sent in his resignation
letter by courier on March 7th, 2003, barely 2 months to the expiration of
their 1st tenure.
Prince Abaribe ran
for the governorship of Abia on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform
in 2003, but lost to Orji Kalu.
Prince Abaribe
returned back to the PDP and ran for senate in 2007 and won, he was yesterday
announced as the Minority Leader of the Senate as he starts his 4th tenure as
the senator representing Abia South.
Theodore Ahamefule
Orji was a career civil servant till he was made principal secretary and
eventually Chief of Staff by then Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. In 2007, Orji Uzor
Kalu bent over backwards when it became obvious that his preferred successor
was not going to get his party, the PDP's gubernatorial ticket, he formed a new
political party Progressive People's Alliance (PPA) and got Theodore Orji to
run on that platform, President Obasanjo showed his unhappiness about this by
getting his then "attack dog" EFCC to throw the then Abia Chief of
Staff and PPA gubernatorial candidate into detention, such that he could barely
campaign and was in detention when his election held. His boss Orji Uzor Kalu
campaigned on his behalf and ensured his victory in a brand new political party
while he was in detention. Thus, making Theodore Orji the first person in
Nigeria to win a governorship election in absentia.
In June 2010, with
so much pressure from the PDP at the national and his misunderstanding with
Orji Uzor Kalu who was then the Chairman BOT of PPA, Governor Theodore Orji
resigned his membership of the PPA and decamped to the PDP, which prompted the
immediate resignation Kalu's younger brother, Mascot, as Theodore Orji's Chief
of Staff. The battle line was drawn between Theodore Orji and Orji Uzor Kalu.
Theodore Orji
completed his second tenure as governor in 2015 and was elected senator to
represented Abia Central, he was again sworn in for his 2nd tenure as senator
representing Abia Central Yesterday.
While his son,
Chinedum Orji, was elected as Speaker Abia State House of Assembly a day
before, Hon Chinedum Orji was also the immediate past majority leader of ASHA.
In November, 2016
Orji Uzor Kalu joined the APC. This year he contested for Abia North senatorial
seat and won.
Yesterday, Orji
Uzor Kalu, Theodore Orji and Eyinnaya Abaribe were all sworn in as the 3
senators from Abia state, as they exchange banters, beaming with smiles
together, it's hard to tell if they were the same bitter political rivals of
yester years.
Welcome to Nigeria,
where the first rule of politics is indeed SELF PRESERVATION with no PERMANENT
ENEMIES.
Scripted By: Emeka
Nosiri
0 Comments