By Dr. Violate Akifagbowo
In Abia politics, voices often rise in cacophonous attempts to rewrite history, the recent outbursts by Hon. Ginger Onwusibe serve as a stark reminder of the difference between political apprenticeship and seasoned statesmanship.
While Hon. Ginger appears content to wander in a self-constructed wilderness of rhetoric, painting every accomplishment as a brand-new miracle, the factual reality of Abia’s journey points toward a singular force of nature: Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
To understand the “Promised Land” that Abia is currently navigating, one must acknowledge the man who cleared the thickets and laid the very first stones of the path—Senator Kalu, the “Abia North Star” who remains the most potent political force in the region.
Hon. Ginger’s narrative attempts to sell a tale of two eras—Egypt and Canaan—conveniently forgetting that the very freedom he enjoys to speak today was fostered in the democratic cradle Kalu built.
It is easy to stand on the balcony of a finished building and claim you laid the foundation, but history is an uncompromising witness. When Orji Uzor Kalu took the reins of Abia in 1999, he wasn’t inheriting a state with the massive federal allocations available in the post-subsidy era of 2026; he was pioneering governance in a vacuum.
He was the architect who took a fledgling state and gave it an identity, an economy, and a voice that resonated even in the hallowed chambers of the presidency.
The attempt to castigate Kalu while praising the current administration’s “painted road” projects reveals a shallow understanding of political continuity.
Senator Kalu is not a man of the past; he is the man of the perpetual present. His work in the Senate today is a masterclass in how a true leader serves his people regardless of the title he holds.
While Ginger Onwusibe occupies himself with “Financial Crimes” committees and political posturing, Senator Kalu is busy attracting federal lifebloods to Abia.
From the massive reconstruction of rural arteries to the electrification of communities that had been in darkness for generations, Kalu’s touch is everywhere.
He is not “attacking” any government; he is simply holding the mirror of excellence up to those who think that painting a few kilometers of asphalt constitutes a revolution.
Ginger’s rhetoric about “Abia not being for sale” is a curious choice of words, given that Senator Kalu has spent his entire life investing his personal and political capital into the state.
Kalu did not enter politics to take; he entered to build. Long before the current administration’s “strategic planning,” Kalu was the one who institutionalized the concept of free education and healthcare in Abia.
He was the one who stood as a bulwark against the third-term agenda that threatened the very democracy Ginger now uses as a platform. To suggest that a man of Kalu’s stature—a global businessman and a high-ranking national legislator—is interested in “confiscating resources” is not just factual inaccuracy; it is a laughable desperation from someone still trying to find his political compass.
The reality is that Hon. Ginger and his cohorts are the ones wandering. They are trapped in a cycle of “us versus them,” unable to recognize that Kalu represents the “Promised Land” of political stability.
While the current administration enjoys the fruits of a digital age and increased revenues, they are building on a landscape that Kalu preserved. When Kalu speaks, it is the voice of experience correcting the exuberance of the uninformed. His critiques are not arrows of malice but the compass of a father ensuring the house doesn’t tilt.
The “Civil Service” narrative touted by Ginger ignores the factual weight of history. Senator Kalu’s era was one of human capital development. He didn’t just pay salaries; he built careers. He didn’t just clear arrears; he created the wealth that allowed the middle class in Abia to exist in the first place.
For Ginger to suggest that Abia was “Hell” under Kalu’s influence is to insult the intelligence of every Abian who remembers the vibrancy of the Enyimba city and the dignity of the Umuahia civil servant during the Kalu years. It was Kalu who gave the average Abian the “Can-Do” spirit that Governor Otti is now trying to harvest.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is a force that cannot be contained by simple partisan headlines. He is the bridge between the struggle of the past and the prosperity of the future. While Ginger wanders through the thicket of political insecurity, throwing stones at the giant of Igbere, Kalu remains focused on the bigger picture: a prosperous, united, and federally-aligned Abia.
The Senator understands that the “Promised Land” is not a destination reached by one man in two years; it is a continuous journey that requires the steady hand of someone who has been there, done that, and is still doing it.
The people of Abia are wise. They see through the “Egypt” metaphors and recognize that the light they see today was sparked by the fire Kalu started decades ago. To castigate Kalu is to castigate the very soul of Abia’s resilience. Hon. Ginger Onwusibe would do well to stop the wandering and start learning at the feet of the master.
Kalu is not interested in the “sharing of funds” that Ginger so frequently mentions; Kalu is interested in the sharing of vision, the sharing of power at the national level, and the sharing of a future where Abia is not just a state in Nigeria, but a leader in Africa.
Akifagbowo wrote in from Australia.