Don’t say my brother has been this … vote for me for Abia’s redemption, Mascot Uzor Kalu tells Abians
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
The governorship candidate of Action Peoples Party (APP), Mascot Uzor Kalu, has called on Abians to do away with the sentiment that he could not be governor of the state because his elder brother, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has ruled the state.
Kalu who was responding to people opposed to his aspiration, noted that in other climes, if people identify that you have leadership potentials, they recruit you for the advancement of their state or country.
The elder Kalu was governor of Abia State from 1999 to 2007 and got elected in the Senate in 2019 where he emerged the Senate Chief Whip. Many contend that the younger Kalu should rest his ambition because the leadership of Abia was not meant for their family only.
Kalu dismissing those with such positions as having nothing to offer during a special radio interview in Umuahia, gave classical examples where competence, not family relationship considerations have helped to develop states, particularly in the United States of America.
Mascot who was the first Chief f Staff to Governor Theodore Orji in 2007, said: “Let me tell you this, those who bring these things up are people who don’t have anything to offer. If you have something to offer, you won’t mention it or bring it up as a topic.”
According to him, such a sentiment was one of the reasons Abia state was backward and undeveloped.
Mascot, a business mogul who had his education in the US, attributed the development of Texas, USA, was because of non-sentimental politics.
“If you go to the US where I had my training, George Bush Snr. finished being President, George Bush Jr. became the Governor of Texas.
His brother was a Governor in Florida. George Bush Jnr. is the one responsible for the economic revival that you’re seeing in Texas today. “Texas used to be one of the old country states. But he said, no, we can’t just be an oil state and we don’t invest in infrastructure. He pulled a lot of resources together to invest in infrastructure, all of a sudden, Houston, Texas took off.
“In New York, you have Governor Cuomo who ruled for 12 years, and within a space of 16 years, his son became Governor and ruled New York for 11 years, meaning in the last thirty-nine years, the Cuomo’s have ruled New York for 23 years.”
In his determination to pull Abia state from the backwaters of development, Mascot urged the Abians to stand by him and vote for his party, the APP.
“We can no longer be blinded by all of these things. If I, Mascot Uzor Kalu, can be the saviour that can bring us (Abia) out of the menace that we’re in, people should stand and vote for me, and not to say that my brother has been this and that. And the constitution gives me the right to do so.
“My brother is my brother and I stand by my brother’s record when he was governor. I will review his administration, build on the things he did well and improve on the things he did not do well,” Mascot said
