By Newsmata
With less than two years into President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first tenure in office, the Senator representing Abia North in the National Assembly, Orji Uzor Kalu has declared that he remained the only presidential candidate for the 2027 election, insisting that he must complete two terms in office.
The former governor of Abia State also challenged Nigeria’s former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida to write another book because according to him, the stories he told in his recently launched autobiography, ‘A Journey In Service: An Autobiography’ ’, was not complete and needed him “to write more of the stories because the stories were not finished”.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, Kalu said “Well, in our party, we have only one presidential candidate now. And Tinubu has to do eight years. You can see the repairs he has done to the economy, and things are starting to pick up again”.
He said while Tinubu has not personally declared his intention to run for re-election, the APC leadership had already endorsed him.
According to him, “This president is not even doing politics. He has never told anybody he wants to run for election or not. But as a party, we have mandated him to run and given him a vote of confidence”.
Senator Kalu further stated that the National Executive Committee (NEC) reaffirmed its support for Tinubu’s leadership, with a motion moved by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and announced by APC National Chairman Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, “So, things cannot just get better in one night”.
On Babangida’s book which had been trailed by controversies and sharp criticisms, especially for allegedly coming to late, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu said Nigerians are unfair to him.
In the 420-page memoir, Babangida at last admitted that Chief Moshood Abiola won the annulled June 12, 1993, election, drawing flaks from many Nigerians.
Kalu however rose in his defence, stating that he should rather be given credit for coming forward with the revelations.
According to the former governor, “On the Babangida’s book, I think Nigerians are very unfair to Babangida because he came out on his own”.
“When I say the story is not complete, I wanted President Babangida to write more of the stories because the stories have not finished. There is more to the story, there are officers who told Babangida you cannot hand over to this man.
“He came out on his own to say things nobody ever said. For example, he said that the (1966) military coup was not an Igbo coup, and people have held the Igbos on the ground for this particular sin which they never committed.” He therefore commended him for exonerating the Igbo people in his memoir, arguing that his revelations were meant to heal wounds rather than reopen them.
Tasking the former military president to write a second book detailing the roles other military officers played in the fallout of the June 12, 1993, election, Kalu insisted that more military personnel should come forward to share the truth.
He posited that “More military people that were there should talk about this. There should be a second part of the book because if you mention only one name or two, it is not complete.
“They should go all hog and tell Nigerians the truth. Babangida should write a second book, I know that Babangida was in danger throughout those periods. If you remember the way he left power, you will know something was wrong”.