Why as D/Gov- elect, Kalu’s mother ordered  me back to Lagos – Abaribe

Ezurike Ugochukwu

The former Deputy Governor of Abia State and now Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has brought to the fore some of the reasons the mother of the governor, Chief Mrs Eunice Orji kalu ordered him back to Lagos where he was before their election.

Abaribe who was elected in 1999 with Dr Orji Uzor Kalu  as the governor stated that the governor’s mother who was popularly known and addressed then with the prefix of ‘Mother Excellency’.ordered him to return back to Lagos where he lived, alleging he was conspiring to take power away from her son even when they had not been sworn in.

Eunice, Abaribe & Orji Kalu

The Senator who launched his 333 page book titled: Made in Aba, A life of coincidences.”  on  Monday 1st of March, a date that coincided with his 66th birthday having been born on March 1, 1955.

The book no doubt chronicled his ordeals, how stormy it was for him to serve under that regime as a deputy governor, his many troubles; his refusal to partake in the ritualistic Egusi peeling orgy at the domain of the almighty Mother Excellency.

Abaribe recalled how the provision of accommodation offered him by the then Military Administrator of the state before inauguration became his albatross.

He said , “Having been elected into office, with no house in the East, except my parents’ home in the village, the military administrator, Anthony Obi, provided each of us with a Peugeot 504 car and requested that I reside in the Government Lodge, pending our swearing in and taking over power. Kalu, who had a home in Aba, lived in his own house.

“Many of my political associates from Obingwa area, found it convenient to hang around the Government Lodge because I was there; there was a lot of free food and drinks available too.”

He recounted how the Aba North Local Government Chairman came to inform him that Kalu’s mother who lived at the famous number 8, Nweke Street wanted to see him.

“When I went to find out what it was all about, it turned out that it was a summon of sorts! According to her, she had gathered that we were loafing around in the Government Lodge, conspiring on how to remove her son from power. I was stumped!

“We had not yet been sworn in; not taken over power. I was puzzled and I told her so. She stated that she was advising me to go back to Lagos and only return when it was time to be sworn in. She was not advising me; she was ordering me to leave the Government House forthwith. Audacious misses the mark! The office of the Governor was to be two-pronged in Abia as I was discovering!

Eunice Kalu

“The fact that I ignored Kalu’s mother’s admonitions did not improve my prospects with her. I instantly became a marked man. Stubborn became my name. I dared to defy the one and only Mother Excellency in the world!”

Abaribe narrated how some seeming acrimonies were concocted by people even when Orji may have not instructed, he stated how he was taken to a prophet day before thier official swearing in for a secret oath of allegiance.

“On the matter of loyalty my ordeal, whereby people were said to swear allegiance on all sorts of objects, my experience was that some people around Kalu took it upon themselves to engage in invidious activities, purporting to be directed by him.

“To the extent that I knew, he never brought up any such conversation; nor did his mother. If by then they had cleverly outsourced that aspect to others, I leave that to others to fill their own stories.

“In my case, on the night before swearing into office, the Aba North Local Government Chairman informed me that Kalu’s people were not comfortable with me as I had not sworn to anything.

“According to him, since I claimed no interest in such activities because I was a devout Christian, he could take me to a prophet instead. To get him out of my hair, I acceded to the request Kalu’s younger brother, Uzor, came along too.

“Between the time we were elected in January, to the swearing-in by 29 May, 1999, two significant events occurred that should have foreshadowed our tenure in government for me, had I been more second sighted.

Orji Uzor Kalu

Abaribe said the over three years he served  was like hell on earth. He was surviving impeachment attempts on him, even as the governor was unwavering in his determination to remove him.

One thing certain according to him is that once the chief executive decides on what to do, it may drag a little longer, but it must come through, even when he seems to  be drifting away from it, people around him will go extra miles to get it actualized.

In his case, several efforts by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and the then Senate President Chuba Okadigbo to broker peace could not stop that thought.

Abaribe who was also a former lecturer at the University of Benin recounted further: “I lasted exactly three years and nine months in office, before I threw in the towel. The bumpy ride ended on 7th March, 2003, when I finally resigned and switched parties.

“The one tenure was characterised by three attempts at impeachment. The one thread that runs through them all is that government can make no error.

“Once the idea stuck in the head of the chief executive, persons around him would leave no stone unturned to actualise the desired end.

“The first attempt at impeaching me died on the floor of the House of Assembly, roundly defeated for the baseless shenanigan that it was.

“The second attempt I survived by a hair’s breadth: by just one vote differential. The third, I did not bother to respond to.”

Abaribe is presently serving his forth term in the Senate representing Abia-South Senatorial District,
While Orji Uzor Kalu who is in his first term is representing Abia North.

President Bihari and Enyannaya Abaribe

Enyinnya Harcourt Abaribe has stood out  an only voice in the wilderness, as a voice for the masses, he had on many occasions asked President Muhammad Buhari to resign over non performance especially on issues of insecurity in the land.