A former Governor of Abia State and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, has said the Igbo can be sure of producing the country’s president in 2023 if they support the re-election bid of President Mohammdu Buhari in 2019.
Kalu urged the Igbo to wake up and learn from their past political experience, adding that the future of the tribe in Nigerian politics is brighter now than it has been in the past with the APC.
Kalu spoke in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on Sunday shortly after attending the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, St. Peter’s Parish 2017 Annual Harvest and Thanksgiving Service on Abiriba Street, Umuahia.
Maintained that producing an Igbo president is a task every true Igbo indigene must key into, adding that the APC is the best platform to achieve the dream.
He said: “The future of Ndigbo is the brightest today in APC.
“Once Buhari finishes his second tenure, I’m assuring you that either I or any other Igbo man stands a better chance of becoming the president of Nigeria.
“The right thing to do is to work for the presidency.
“We don’t need other thing than the office of the president.
“If you see what I have done in our villages as governor, you will know what will happen if somebody like me becomes the president.
“You know that the entire Nigeria will be developed.
“The future is very bright and Ndigbo will enjoy being in APC.
“That is why we are working very hard to win the Anambra State election and will win the State.
“It is possible to have Orji Kalu in Aso rock, if I am alive and in good health.
“I’m very capable to be president because I understand macro and micro economics of Nigeria.
“I don’t even see any Nigerian more capable than I am to run for the office and work for the people.”
Kalu disclosed that the APC-led Federal Fovernment is already reconstructing the Uzuakoli/ Bende Ohafia Road in the State through his intervention.
He said: “When I was governor, I was busy maintaining that road.
“It is a State Government road.
“But when I left office, it was overlooked and the road became deplorable.
“So I appealed to the Federal Government for an intervention on that road and they are doing rehabilitation work now.
“The rehabilitation is not being done by any member of the National Assembly.
“It was by my request.
“I told the federal authorities that I can’t go to my village anymore and I’m a member of the ruling party because I had once spent over five hours on the road because of its deplorable state.
“I showed Mr. President the pictures and he ordered for immediate rehabilitation of the road.
“We are doing the road to help the people so that our can be happy and stop working on their vehicles all the time.
“That’s what good governance is all about.”
The ex-governor added he tarred almost all the lanes in Umuahia, some roads in Aba to make life easier for people, saying: “It is just that people have refused to acknowledge what is right and good and unless Abians come up to speak the truth we might not see a better day because you cannot hide the truth.
“When I was governor, I gave free education, I gave free medical services, I built roads, and paid workers.
“Paying salaries was a sacrifice I made to help our people.
“It looked like it was an easy thing, but people have realized that it was not an easy job.
“It takes a man with a high level of discipline to be able to do it.
“It takes a good manager and administrator to achieve that and it is really open today and people can see the difference.”