TheCable

Orji Kalu, former governor of Abia state, says the Igbo will support President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 if he gives the south-east an “emergency consideration”.

“If the president is going to run again, we will force him to declare our area as special, and we are going to give him 75 percent of the votes,” Kalu said during an interview on Arise TV.

The former governor said the region is asking the president for the provision of power and roads.

“Some places like Aba and Onitsha can provide anything you need. We can manufacture everything there if we have adequate electricity,” he said.

When asked the solution to the agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Kalu said all the youth are asking for is a suitable environment for their businesses to thrive.

“Give us good light in Aba, give us good roads in Aba, give us good roadside light in Onitsha. We are not asking for you to do any other thing, we are capable of manufacturing things. Everything done in China can be manufactured in Aba and Onitsha,” he said.

“We are capable, Nnewi is already doing it and they will go hi-tech with technology if given the necessary encouragement. We have the people but we don’t have the management. We don’t have the asset.

“The people that did the privatisation of the electricity sector, did it wrongly. The electricity companies were handed over to friends and that was not the right thing to do.”

‘OBASANJO IS VERY PETTY’

The former governor also berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo for his reported bid for a third term.

He said while most of the then governors during Obasanjo’s tenure succumbed to pressure from the former president regarding the third term, he refused to be “bought over”.

He said this is why he is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Kalu said: “The man (Obasanjo) is very petty. I don’t have any regret in saying so. You see, if younger people did something to you, you should be able to forgive them.

“If younger people have said something against you, you should be able to also forgive them because that is the right thing to do. If Obasanjo had imbibed this kind of virtue, we would have gone far with our democratic process but he left serious things and started chasing shadows.

“Instead of calling for unity, he put a lot of division because he wanted a third term. In looking for third term, he was able to divide the governors, although most of them are not speaking the truth today.”