OUK TENDERS UNRESERVED APOLOGY TO ABIANS; ,SUES FOR PEACE.

Former Abia State Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, has apologised to people of the state for choosing Governor Theodore Orji as his successor in 2007. He expressed regret over the choice and acknowledged that it is a monumental mistake.
Kalu worked with Governor Orji as his Chief of Staff for eight years, after which he anointed him to become his successor. He had worked hard for the victory of the governor, who was in detention during the campaigns and election in 2007.
In a letter to the people of Abia State, entitled: “Now is the time for Peace and Reconciliation”, Kalu urged them to put the mistake of his supporting Orji behind them, and face the future.
The former governor said the challenges ahead of Abia people are greater and mightier than those they had already overcome, saying that there is an urgent need to convene a mini-Summit mid-January 2015 to discuss the way forward for Abia.
He cautioned that people of the state cannot afford to fold their arms and watch mediocrities toy with their collective destiny.
His words: “One fact all of us should bear in mind is that our state has drifted dangerously in the past eight years. We may wake up one day and discover, to our chagrin, that our state has been mortgaged on the altar of greed and selfishness, unless we do something drastic now to avert it.
“No time is better than now for us to work together to reposition our state. We are blessed with rich human and material resources, yet our state is very backward in terms of infrastructural development.
“We did our best to develop Abia State between 1999 and 2007, in spite of the staggering problems we met. We thank God for the wisdom and strength he gratuitously bestowed on us, which saw us through.
“What we achieved might not be adequately appreciated today. I am confident posterity will judge us better”.
He said that coming together to discuss the way forward in Abia State will eliminate acrimony, which is brewing steadily among those who felt short changed in the just concluded primaries of different political parties, and produce suggestions that will promote peace, progress and development of Abia State.
On the forthcoming general elections, Kalu said that since there is a resolution to collectively throw support behind President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection bid.