The senate chief whip, Orji Uzor Kalu on Tuesday while defending allegations against President Muhamadu Buhari that he merely imposed his preferred candidate Abdullahi Adamu under the cover of consensus insisted that consensus was not arrived at in President Muhamadu Buhari’s bedroom.
Kalu who represents Abia North who spoke to the senate Press Corps on Tuesday said the President was able with his wisdom to solve a major crises in the party as well as saving money for the contestants.
“The president in his Wisdom was able to solve the problem, do you know how much money that was saved for the pockets of aspirant by that consensus
“The consensus was not just taken in the president’s bedroom, the president consulted the governors, he consulted the leadership of the National Assembly which I was one of them and he consulted other stakeholders of the party, the youths and all the rest of them and the aspirants themselves.
“So I don’t see any other thing that can be better than that. I know many people, like you Journalists, you were already celebrating that we were going to fight at the eagle square and we did not fight and it came out successfully.
“I want to use this opportunity again to congratulate the president for that able way he solved the problem.”
He said most of them like Abdullahi Adamu especially as he was their colleague in 1999 and he was also their colleague in the senate
“I think he will play a fatherly role both to the former governors and the present Governors We needed somebody that have a figure of the President in the party. We are very happy with that decision.”
On whether he will agree with the people that said it is an imposition only coloured in the name of consensus he said, “It is not imposition it was a democratic agreement because there was consultation at every level of the party and if you have consulted widely it is democracy.
On his reluctance to declare to contest for president in 2023 general election he said
“I had told Nigerians that if this thing is zoned to the South East, I am already a candidate but how do you become a candidate? but with the proviso that they should zone it to South East and micro zone it even to my village if it is possible.” He said is not desperate but anxious to change the living standards of Nigeria and the economy for it to do better.
“Which is what I know how to do better. I can fix the economy in four years. I can bring back the GDP to be able to compete with the United States of America and Japan and all the rest of them.
“I can bring back the capacity utilisation to be under 4 or 5% and be rocking like Hurricane.
“Everybody can declare for president but will everybody get the Presidency’? The answer is no.”
On the need for the South eastern aspirants to come together for a consensus candidate he said they will work on that as a party and they will come back to consult the party members and consult the President.
On his effort to ensure the party micro zone the presidency to the South East he said,
“I’m doing nothing it is the decision of the party, party is supreme,
If they zone it to South East I am a number one candidate there are only two zones that have never been President in Nigeria the northeast and Southeast.
“So if they bring it to my zone I am capable. I have everything it takes to deliver APC to victory not by talking but by action and rework the economy that every Nigerian no matter where you live or stay will be happy in your pockets, in your house, in your electricity in your water and in everything and bring back the lost glory of Nigeria and the pride to carry the Nigerian green passport, I am capable.”
He said many of the aspirants who have already declared are jokers
“You people take politics as a joke whereby everybody say he is an aspirant. What is their experience, their public experience, their capacity to build?
I employ 13,000 workers in Nigeria and I have capacity to manage people.
“Politics is the ability to make everybody happy that is what it’s all about is no good because president president is about is not who becomes president, President is about openness, is about ability to manage you Journalists, ability to manage professors, legislators like Ahmad Lawan you have to manage them, these are what politics is all about. “Politics is not just coming to say you want to answer the name president, they are anxious to become president, are they ready to work? Are they ready to come to their work early to face the job?”
On what the President should look like he said,
“The President should be one that is ready to work for Nigeria. When the economy is down there are two major things the President should look at the economy and security
“These are focused points that somebody should look at to bring back the economy and make it strong. It is not the working of Buhari. “There is worldwide economic downtown I have businesses all over the world I have businesses in the DRC, we are losing money in all the west African countries and everywhere we have business. It is the same, it is a worldwide inflation in all the economies.”
