THE former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has taken the world by storm revealing
Nigeria’s can of worm in the United States.
He made startling revelations about the happenings in Nigeria while speaking on the democratic process at the War College in Washington DC, USA.
Speaking further, he decried the stagnacy of Nigeria as a nation and said Nigeria actually needs three things namely, obeisance, rule of law and accountability to move forward as a nation and minced no words in saying Nigeria, Africa most populous country is buried in tribalism and religion, adding that in the country, people do not see good in those who wish it well.
He said, “people see no good in other people’s job. The leaders and the governed have become so greedy that they forget the ethics of a nation. A nation is supposed to be a committed area that must have the interest of the citizens as priority. It is only in Nigeria that a form is clearly specified to identify tribe, state, local government and religion. That means that the government of Nigeria, since 1960, has been in support of tribalism. There is no country in the world that wants to move forward and still have such specifications in a form.”
Taking on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he said, “Corruption is the greatest problem in Nigeria. Those past leaders who claimed to be fighting corruption were only accumulating wealth. Most of them came to be leaders of our community with only N20, 000 and below, and they make no pretence in showing their wealth and affluence in their different communities now.
On his part, he presented himself as man of transparent honesty while he served as a state governor for eight years adding that it did not occur to him to embezzle government funds.
His words: “I was governor for eight years. And in those eight years, I never knew somebody could take public fund as his own. I never knew somebody could take away people’s money. People who had nothing came into office and turned to multi-billionaires and nobody asks questions about how the money was made. I call on the government to restore a process whereby the KPMG, PWC, Deloitte and others be given opportunity to audit all our past leaders. You cannot just make someone a governor today and next, he buys a house on Victoria Island without stating how he got the money. Likewise a minister and he is already buying houses in Maitama or Asokoro.”
Continuing, he said, “Among the people who supported political movement in Nigeria in 1998, a few of us are being tried. I had mentioned this in most forums I had been. The former President Obasanjo wrote to your President, George Bush Jnr., requesting that I should be arrested in United States. But your president, after investigation, said no. ”
”They equally wrote to the British Prime Minister, but he disagreed after investigation. But I am being tried in Nigeria. I cannot dwell on this since it’s in the court of competent jurisdiction.”, he added.
