Orji Uzo Kalu (OUK) was seen on national television weeping. It was at the valedictory plenary of the 9th Nigerian Senate. He was the Chief Whip of the Senate. When it was his turn to deliver his speech, he said what majority of Nigerians of his Igbo extraction would say, Nigeria has not been fair and just to us. He went memory lane, on a voyage of discovery to narrate his personal ordeals. His contributions to the growth of his former party, PDP, his contributions to the growth of national economy, his unjust persecutions, destructions of his businesses, his imprisonment on trumped up charges of stealing and the solidarity from his brother Senators. OUK declared he was not a THIEF. Emotion choked him and OUK, the Chief Whip of the Senate wept.
He wept publicly and in the presence of his tormentors. He melted like a wax before the sun. The strong and tough talking man wept like a weak and captured man. He was wimpy in his presentation.
OUK probably did not read Ngugi Wa Thion’g’s chart buster novel, Weep, Not Child nor did he hear the courageous charge of the matriarch of the legendary Kennedy family of America, Rose Kennedy who in the faces of great tragedies in her family, declared to his children that no matter what happened or how or even why it happened to them, they should not cry. The Iron Rose as she was called because of her rare courage said to her children, *The Kennedies Don’t Cry* But OUK is not a Kennedy. He is himself. No doubt, he had had his own share of the consequences of political choices and practices.
What struck me was the deluge of reactions to his weeps. Many said he harvested what he planted. Some said he was a traitor (probably, to the Igbo course) and others said OUK has had personal victimization more than any other politician of Igbo extraction.
I will lend my voice to the raging but varied opinions by way of interrogations. First, how was OUK a traitor? Was there at anytime the Igbo nation came together to articulate a common unified political view, idea, choice and practice encased in a particular political party like the Yoruba nation did in Alliance for Democracy, AD at the start of the present political dispensation? The Igbo nation played national politics through the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. OUK was among the leading forces then in all material and financial senses. He supported the party like other Igbo politicians. When he fell out with the party, he floated a new party Progressive People’s Party, PPA. He demonstrated his political clout by winning his state Abia in spite of the rampaging dracula that was President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was OUK and Aswaju Bola Ahmed Tinube, now President and few other political figures then who showed courage in challenging OBJ especially in his third term and undemocratic tendencies. For his courage, OBJ hunted him the way a hunter hunts rabbits. OBJ in his vindictive nature went for Kalu’s businesses. His Slok organization was targeted and fought down. OUK was slammed with various charges on corrupt enrichments. Like he painfully asked, when did he become the thief? Was it before or after his investments in the formation of the PDP? Most of his colleague governors who were less confrontational had their charges dropped.
I think OUK overstretched his political fights and lucks. Were I to be his adviser, I would have advised him not to run for the office of the Senate presidency. He should have remembered and be guided by the various philosophical wisdoms in Igbo proverbs and folklore. OUK, as it is said in the local parlance, fall my hands by weeping. Leaders and Warriors don’t weep in the presence of their soldiers or opponents. A weeping General scares his troops away and creates morale problems for them.
OUK, the native son should avoid another round of weeping no matter what. Let him learn from his kinsman, Mazi Nnamdi Kalu who in spite of his ordeals, persecutions and the determined efforts of his tormentors to break his spirit has remained resolute. This has been his winning force. He constantly disarms his them through his bold face and unshakable spirit.
OUK should learn this art of survival.