Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
Former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has said Buhari’s administration is doing a lot to see that activities of Boko Haram and herdsmen become history.
Kalu stated this in his country home at Igbere, Abia state, after a meeting of All progressive Congress (APC) representatives.
Kalu said (late former President Umaru Musa) Yar’Adua had wanted to address the issue of Boko Haram but could not and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to give a realistic strategy on how the insurgency problem would be solved.
He explained that when he was Abia governor, the state was not safe and that he brought a strategy, sat down with Abia people, the Nigeria Police, the community and everybody and they fought and stopped armed robbers who terrorised the state. They ran away and the state became a safe place to stay, he said.
“I know president Buhari will do it. President Buhari is a military General; he understands war, he want to reassess the situation by himself as a commander, as you can understand that fighting Boko Haram and herdsmen is like war,” Kalu said.
He explained that Nigerians have been living with herders for a long time and there was no trouble unlike what obtains presently.
“What is going on, today, is politically motivated. I was born and brought up in Aba, I know Ama Hausa, the home of northerners. If you go to Kano, you see Sabon Gari, the home of the people who went there.
“The question is; ‘what has gone wrong?’ That is the fundamental question we should be asking.
“What is happening today is sabotage of the democratic process. We are calling on those perpetrating them to stop or the long arm of the law will soon get hold on them,” said Kalu.
Earlier, after a meeting of representatives of the 17 local government areas in the state, to re-assess themselves on what they to do concerning the future of APC in the state, Kalu told newsmen that the meeting was organised to ensure that APC is strong enough to win elections in the state and also, at the centre.
“Not only for Abia members who will contest, but also, for the president,” whom he said has been promised 75 percent South East votes. He said their assessment shows that APC is in order and on course, to give PDP a run for its money in the election.
“We want people to put away rigging, rigging will end in 2019. What happened in Anambra (State) was by legitimate vote. If it is by writing, APC would have won but the president said, ‘no, allow whoever wins to win the election.’
“The PDP machinery of rigging is dead on arrival in 2018. What parties need to do is to go and work for the people to earn their votes,” the former governor said.