Posted by By LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja on
The Presidency Wednesday decried what it termed Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu's attitude towards President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying it was worrisome.
The Presidency Wednesday decried what it termed Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu's attitude towards President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying it was worrisome.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Communication, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, who addressed journalists in Abuja on the governor's revelation that he paid $1 million to support the President's campaign in 1999 said Kalu's attitude towards the President was embarrassing to Abia people in particular and Nigerians in general.
Replying, however, Governor Kalu said that he personally handed a cheque to President Olusegun Obasanjo in his parlour at Ota, Ogun State.
Speaking earlier in Abuja, Ugochukwu said it showed lack of respect for the governor to always take on the President at any slightest opportunity, a situation which he told the newsmen had become a source of worry to Abia indigenes.
"What saddens us, especially those of us from Abia State is that he does not show respect to Mr President, the head of the nation and he expects us to show respect to himself as the governor of the state. Abia people are not happy with their governor.
"It's embarrassing and it's unacceptable. There are 36 governors, why is it him all the time? It is seriously embarrassing to some of us and the stories he has been telling are not true," he stated.
Ugochukwu, who is the immediate past chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said Governor Kalu's claim that he donated $1 million to the campaign fund of President Obasanjo was not true.
He explained that the President, from the very beginning, made it clear that any donation towards his campaign must be for strengthening democracy and not for any hope of reward.
He said on the contrary, it was the campaign office of the President that made some money available to the governor as the leader of the campaign in Abia State which he did not account for in 1999.
"I should also say that I was already in the campaign before Governor Orji Kalu joined it. When the campaign started, the only other Igbo man in the committee was the late Chuba Okadigbo. It was after Okadigbo dropped out because of the hostility of the Igbo towards the campaign at the time that Orji Uzor Kalu was invited to join. There couldn't have been any question of him giving the said $1 million or N500 million to the campaign. That is not true," he declared.
Ugochukwu, who said he was restricted from using foul language on the governor accused him (Kalu) of suffering from delusion, adding, "if he imagines something, he begins to say it."
However, Governor Kalu said that the cheque of his donation to President Obasanjo was drawn in the name of Temperance Farms and cleared in First Bank of Nigeria. He said that he personally handed over the cheque to President Obasanjo in his parlour at Ota, Ogun State.
Speaking through his Special Adviser, Media, Mr. Iyke Ekeoma, Governor Kalu said that he mentioned the donation to Obasanjo not to make a point about the gift but to show that he had money before coming to government.
Kalu said that Obasanjo's aides - Femi Fani-Kayode and Remi Oyo - were not present when he handed Obasanjo the cheque and therefore were not in a position to know what transpired and cannot therefore comment on it.
The governor said that Onyema Ugochukwu couldn't have given him money as he claimed because he was not the campaign coordinator for Obasanjo. He said Ugochukwu couldn't have given money when he was the highest financier of the PDP. He said that the allegation that money was given to him was diversionary and an attempt to cover the issue. "Why did it take them seven years to realise that they gave me money and I misappropriated it? The allegation is diversionary," the Abia governor stated.
Kalu said that the issue is that governors are being intimidated and called thieves, adding that governors are ruling a set of people to whom they are accountable. He said that if governors are denigrated by the Federal Government, they would lose rsepect in the face of the people and therefore not govern well.