Senator Orji Uzor Kalu: Another Joseph in Disguise

Dapo Ipool

Joseph was a chaste and notable Bible character. In his lifetime, he was busy building the capacity of a nation builder while going through his harrowing wilderness experience.

His experiences of being thrown into a well and sold into slavery by his brothers, his puritanical chastity to resist the licentious Potiphar’s wife, Zuleika, the little time he spent in the Egyptian prison, were all his trying periods and preparation for divine greatness.

Despite his travails, Joseph’s relationship with God was pristine and without compromise. He chose to go to the prison rather than to infest his Bible trained conscience. He experienced outright unadulterated animosity from his envious brothers and was later sold out as a slave. Yet he lived his life by not apportioning blame.

He fervently believed that at the appropriate time, God would intervene, save and bless him to the envy of his traducers. At the appointed time, God saved his future, destiny and glory from being thwarted by the enemies of greatness.

In Psalms 105, the Bible made it clear that Joseph taught the Egyptian Senators wisdom. With that, Joseph was a reliable adviser and mentor to the Egyptian ruling elites. At every tumultuous moment in his life, God was always evidently with him.

God was with Joseph in his father’s house and He singled him out and gave him a dream; God was with him in Potiphar’s house, his master became prosperous beyond description; God was with him in prison, he used his gift to interpret dreams and they all came to pass; God was with him and he proffered lasting solution to troubling national economic problem and he became a notable Prime Minister. In all of these travails, God was busy preparing Joseph for future purpose.

With a relatable kismet, one will be vindicated to say like Joseph, like Orji Uzor Kalu, and going by the trajectory of his early days, Orji Uzor Kalu, OUK, as he is fondly called, has so many attributable tales which are in sync with the biblical Joseph.

As a student activist, OUK was actively involved in the popular “Ali Must Go” riots which was against the then Education Minister. His involvement in the protest led to his unlawful suspension by the school authority.

Having felt unjustly treated, his fellow student activists took the school authority to court to redress the perceived maltreatment but unfortunately, young Kalu left school to build his business empire from the $35 he lent from his mother.

Despite the infelicity and inaptness of his suspension, today, OUK holds a degree from Abia State University, a Certificate in Business Administration from Harvard University, and honourary doctorates from the Universities of Maiduguri, and Abia State, respectively.

At 19, OUK established SLOK Holding, a conglomerate that would consist of a number of successful companies, including the Ojialex Furniture Company, SLOK Nigeria Limited, SLOK United Kingdom Limited, Adamawa Publishers Limited, SLOK Vegetable Oil, Aba, SLOK Paper Factory, Aba, SLOK United States Incorporated, SLOK Ghana, Togo, Cotonou, Guinea, South Africa, Liberia, Botswana, SLOK Korea, Supreme Oil Limited, SLOK Airlines, Sun Publishing Limited, and First International Bank Limited.

In 1986, during the military junta, he was the youngest Nigerian to receive the National Merit Award from the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, at the age of 26.

As if that was not enough, OUK was later selected as the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce Industrialist of the year, and was awarded the Humanitarian Award of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka’s Humanitarian Club, the Volunteer Award of the International Association of Volunteers, the National Merit Award, the European Special Award in Brussels, and the World Bank Leon Sullivan Award.

At age 33, young OUK headed First International Bank Limited, and stewarded Nigerian commercial relations with China’s SinoPacific Shipbuilding Company while serving as the principal of SLOK Holding.

Before his foray into partisan politics, he was the Chairman of the Borno Water Board, and the Chairman of the cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited. OUK is the Chairman of the Daily Sun, a Nigerian daily print newspaper. Daily Sun as a reputable print media is similar in format to The Sun in the United Kingdom. OUK is also the Chairman of the New Telegraph.

The newspapers target domestic and foreign readers in major cities throughout the country with unbiased and objective coverage of political, social, and cultural events.

As an individual who loves identifying with his people most especially in the hours of extremity, he was passionately involved in the Njiko Movement, a socio-cultural group whose formation was to ensure an end to the unfathomable marginalisation against the Igbo, with the sole aim of having someone from the Igbo extraction occupy the most exalted office in Nigeria.

As a cosmopolitan entity with global appeal, OUK was conferred with the chieftaincy title of Danbaiwan-Hausa- meaning gifted son of Hausa kingdom. The lofty honour was done to him by the Emir of Daura, the country home of President Muhammadu Buhari.

With immeasurable success recorded as a business tycoon, he took more than a passing interest in politics by joining the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where he donated a huge sum of #100m (one hundred million naira) for the registration of the party, and again dropped #100 (one hundred million naira) for political campaign.

From 1999-2007, OUK served as the executive governor of Abia State. During his reign as governor, he rewrote the not too impressive narratives of governance, just as the state was administratively and economically in a parlous state. He assiduously worked for Abia people by bringing developments to the grassroot which later enlivened the economy of the state.

Having meritoriously served his term as the governor of Abia State, rumours were rife that he was nurturing presidential ambition which ruffled the feathers of the powers that be then, and the feckless chain of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was untrammellingly let loose on him so as to tame and reduce his political capital. Given the hostility he suffered in PDP, he moved to the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, and became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

In 2007, he became the PPA presidential candidate but lost the election to late Umaru Musa Yar’adua. As a political strategist, he went back to the drawing board to fine tune his next political outing. OUK with a high sense of political acuity sees beyond the prism of ethnicity and tribal sentiment as he joined the All Progressives Congress, APC, so as to mainstream the entire South-East people with the ruling party, all in a bid to actualize the age-long agitation for presidential consideration for the most travelled and highest number of billionaires region.

To the glory of God, in 2019, he sought to represent the good people of Abia North in the senate in an election that was keenly contested, and he trounced the incumbent Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, with over 10, 000 votes.

In the build up to the selection of Senate leadership in 2019, he evinced interest to be the number three citizen in the country having come from a region that some political pundits felt should produce the Senate Chairman, for the fact that the president is from the North, and Vice President from the South.

But as a loyal party man, he respected the supremacy of the party and that of the leaders and was made to be the Senate Chief Whip, a position he presently occupies with equanimity of competence and legislative aural.

As an experienced politician, his political vicissitude has helped the 9th senate to stabilise and ensure that some party’s policies and manifestos sail through without any encumbrance.

Always with an insignia of performance, several intervention projects had been brought to the length and breadth of Abia North senatorial district as Ndi Agwu Abam Primary School was rehabilitated; Okweji Memorial School, Ozu-Abam was rehabilitated; Agbagwu Primary School, Aro-town, Arochukwu, was rehabilitated; Ugwuafia Primary School was rehabilitated; Kpoke Primary School rehabilitated; Otamkpa Community School rehabilitated; Ahaba Imenyi Community School, Isiukwuato was rehabilitated; Umuelem Central School, Isuochi, was rehabilitated; Eziama Community School, Nneato in Umunneochi, rehabilitated; Ozuitem Central School was rehabilitated; Okafia Primary School was also rehabilitated, and Item Central School, Okoko in Bende, was given a facelift with complete rehabilitation.

OUK with his unyielding love for his people got so many intervention projects accommodated for Abia North senatorial district in the 2021 Budget, including the construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt from Ututu to Isu, in Arochukwu LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of 2km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Itumbuzo, Bende LGA, with construction cost estimated at #180m; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt from Apanu to Akanu, Item, Bende LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Uzo Rubber, in Amaokwe Item, Bende LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of 2km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Amankalu, Alayi to Akoli Imenyi, in Bende LGA, with construction cost estimated at #180; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Amaoku Alayi, Bende LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of 2km rural road with drainage and asphalt from Abia to Akanu Ukwu, Ohafia LGA, with construction cost estimated at #180; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Isiugwu, Ohafia LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90; construction of 2km rural road with drainage and asphalt in Uturu, Isuikwuato LGA, with construction cost estimated at #180; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt from Ozara junction to Umuasu, Isuikwuato LGA, University Road, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of 1km rural road with drainage and asphalt from Ndi Uduma Awaoke, Chief Awa Kalu, SAN,Road, Ohafia LGA, with construction cost estimated at #90m; construction of students hostels at Holy Rosary Secondary School, Umuahia, with construction cost estimated at #50; supply of motorcycles, sewing machines and generating sets for Ohafia LGA, at a procurement cost of #100m; supply of motorcycles, sewing machines and generating sets for Bende LGA, at a procurement cost of #100m; supply of motorcycles, sewing machines and generating sets for Arochukwu LGA, at a procurement cost of #100m; supply of wound gel and gynaecological(cervical and cancer gel) for hospitals in Abia North Senatorial District, at a procurement cost #100m; and the supply of rice and fertilizers for rural women in the five LGAs of Abia North Senatorial District, at a procurement cost of #100m.

OUK as a man of coat of many colours just like Joseph, has future leadership responsibility vociferously beckoning on him. God in His mysterious ways of doing things was continually with Joseph, as it was evident in his triumph over trials and temptation.

After Joseph regained his freedom from prison, he became Prime Minister in a foreign land. Similar kismet was also meted on OUK, and he came out triumphantly.

Some people saw tomorrow and raised the dust of unbending enmity and got OUK incarcerated but God as a chain breaker broke the prison gate and set his anointed free by giving him a resounding victory at the Supreme Court, as justice delayed was never a justice denied in his case.

And it became obvious to the blind and audible enough to the deaf that the sheer persecution of OUK is a disingenuous enterprise to depreciate his lofty political capital ahead of the much dreaded 2023 presidential election. With his proficient wealth of experience, OUK has the administrative paraphernalia and wherewithal to hold the highest political office in the country.

· Dapo Ipoola, a Public Affair Analyst resides in Lagos

Quote

“OUK as a man of coat of many colours just like Joseph, has future leadership responsibility vociferously beckoning on him. God in His mysterious ways of doing things was continually with Joseph, as it was evident in his triumph over trials and temptation”