A Peoples Democratic Party stalwart in Abia State has described the recent rally in Umuahia by former governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu, as a farewell dance to political relevance.
Charles Ogbonanya, the deputy chief of staff to the Abia State governor, said in a press release in Abuja on Monday that the crowd that accompanied Mr. Kalu in the march merely did so for the money they were allegedly offered, adding that the event sounded a death knell on the former governor’s political career.
Mr. Ogbonanya appealed to members of the public to ask Mr. Kalu why it took him eight years after leaving office as governor to return to the people in “a triumphant entry”.
He explained that Mr. Kalu had during his tenure in office impoverished the people of Abia State to the extent that they saw government as an albatross to their well-being, noting that but for the current political situation in the country the former governor would have been “stoned on site”.
He alleged that Mr. Kalu divided the state so much during his tenure as governor that all the leading lights of Abia relocated to Abuja to avoid kidnap, assassination, armed robbery and brigandage.
Saying the former governor lacked the pedigree for a triumphant entry, Mr. Ogbonanya argued that the former governor had made several attempts in the past to contest for Senate but failed.
He said currently, the former governor belonged to no political party because none was “willing to accept such a baggage of liability into its fold”.
He said Mr. Kalu had picked nomination forms to contest for Senate in both the PDP and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), which he claims to have funded and founded.
“Kalu tried to smuggle himself into the PDP through the back door by using the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, but was resoundingly rejected by the people of Abia”, Mr. Ogbonanya said.
He advised Mr. Kalu to realise the fact that governance was different from trading in “spare parts where trickery and sharp talk are tools”.
He said Mr. Kalu’s recent entry had nailed his political coffin and was only waiting for March 28 to be buried in the grave of political infamy.
