Something good is happening in Abia politics

“NO permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests,” is a quote largely attributed to Lord Palmerston, a 19th-century British statesman. It is a statement associated with realism in international relations. If anyone would doubt the practical realisation of the above in today’s Nigeria, such a person would not come from Abia State. On January 31, 2026, Nigerian tabloid, The Sun, held its annual awards at the Expo Convention Centre, Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. One of the highlights of that occasion was the Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed on the former Senate Minority Leader, who, until recently, was the only Senator produced by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the country, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. He is now a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The lot to present the award to Abaribe fell on the chairman of The Sun newspaper, Senator Orji Kalu. As he held the plaque and the certificate, Kalu told Abaribe, “Ah ha, are you coming without your wife?” He gestured to Mrs Abaribe, who was just making her way to the podium. He then made the presentation in the following words: “On behalf of The Sun Publishing newspaper, I would like to present this award to the former deputy governor of Abia State and my colleague in the Senate, and to wish him well and thank The Sun newspaper for this award.” With those words, Kalu actualised the words of Lord Palmerston, who stated that there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but permanent interests. He also left an example for many politicians across the country on how to manage political enmity. To those who followed the politics of Abia State in the early part of this Republic, an event that would bring Abaribe and Kalu on the same podium would amount to an anathema. To many, it was unimaginable that a day would come when Kalu and Abaribe would stand shoulder to shoulder in broad smiles for whatever reason. This is because what unfolded between the duo in the politics of Abia State between 1999 and 2003 was only likened to war. Kalu and Abaribe, having emerged as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 1999 election, won the election and were sworn in on May 29, 1999. Only six months after they assumed office, an impeachment drive was launched against Abaribe. What happened subsequently was war, in very clear terms. So, it would appear curious that The Sun, a newspaper founded by Kalu, a supposed arch-enemy of Abaribe, the Abia South Senator, would line up the latter for accolades, after all, the enmity that unravelled while they served as governor and deputy in God’s Own State was unmistakable.

I happened to witness parts of the drama as they unfolded between the two Abia politicians between 2001 and 2003. Orji Kalu and Enyinnaya Abaribe got Abia divided into two halves. They were not equal halves, though. Abaribe’s half appeared bigger, even though Kalu was the governor. The governor, who hails from Abia North, intended to remove Abaribe of Abia South as deputy. Abaribe’s ethnic group, the Ukwa/Ngwa, cut across two senatorial districts and nine of the 17 local governments in the state. The Ukwa/Ngwa see themselves as the majority, who should be dictating the pace of governance in the state. So, they saw the attempt to remove Abaribe as deputy governor as an attack on their numbers. What started as an ordinary political game in Umuahia snowballed into a big battle that enveloped the state, as Abaribe became the symbol of resistance.

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Every attempt to impeach Abaribe as the deputy governor was seen as an attack on the Ukwa/Ngwa, for whom Aba, Enyimba City, was the capital. Before long, the slogan Otuonu (one term is enough) emerged as the catchword of the Abaribe backers. That slogan was couched in the perceived words Kalu was said to have offered during the electioneering campaigns of 1999, when he was said to have offered to spend only one term in office. After the first impeachment bid failed, another was to follow in 2001 and another in late 2002. All of those bids failed as a result of the machinations of the Ukwa/Ngwa lawmakers in the House of Assembly, who thwarted the bids at the last minute. Even though Abaribe had left office and the PDP at the twilight of Kalu’s first term, the state assembly claimed to have impeached him; the courts quashed the said declaration. In all those long months, tension was the order of the day in Abia. At a stage, Kalu the hunter became haunted, no thanks to his topsy-turvy relationship with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja. The party structure was taken away from the governor, and the deputy’s camp was in control of that structure. It was alleged at a stage that Kalu had to strike an agreement with the then governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now President Bola Tinubu), who was said to have persuaded the leaders of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to prepare the way for Kalu’s defection. That was in the build-up to the 2003 election.

To signpost the depth of the tension that soaked up Abia State at the time, it emerged that a ban was allegedly placed on Kalu, the governor, from visiting Aba, Enyimba City, until the end of his term of office. On one fateful day, Governor Kalu faced Aba for a function. His convoy ran into a band of fierce-looking young men, who were said to have blocked the way to Aba and forced a scamper in the governor’s convoy. In the process, the governor’s staff car was said to have been hit with machetes by the attackers, as they sought to enforce the ban allegedly imposed on the governor from visiting Aba. As the representative of The Punch newspaper coordinating politics reporting in the South-East at the time, it was interesting to make Aba and Abia a base. On a trip to Umuahia, from Enugu, shortly after the much-advertised attack on the governor, I ran into a press conference addressed at the NUJ Press Centre in the state capital. The subject matter was to condemn the failure of the Police to arrest or investigate Kalu’s attackers on the way to Aba. I took a copy of the address to the Police, who promptly gave me a headline, “Attack on Kalu a ruse.” That story marked me out as a reporter on the “other side,” even though I got reactions from the government.

The Police debunked the attack and insisted that nobody hit the governor. That, however, did not lower the tension as Abaribe had to battle out the last batch of the impeachment bid. Through some deft political moves, Kalu was able to regain control of the PDP structure in the state, as Obasanjo performed some political gymnastics on his core loyalists who queued behind Abaribe. Before Obasanjo’s drama, his loyalists and Abaribe’s supporters had concluded that the PDP structure was a sealed matter. Obasanjo’s turnaround on Kalu forced Abaribe to defect to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) upon the collapse of the last impeachment bid in the Abia State House of Assembly. Contesting on the strength of the Otuonu Movement was another tug of war. Though Kalu won the election, he would confess that it was a hectic political season for him. The Otuonu Movement spread like wildfire in Abia South and parts of Abia Central, particularly Isialangwa and Ikwuano axes. It flew on the wings of Obasanjo’s loyalists in Abia North, like Chief Ojo Madueke, Chief Tony Ukasanya, and Prince Ogbulafor in the central district, and Abaribe, Senator Adolphus Wabara, and others in the southern district.

For two men who were the arrowheads of the above battles, many would say that their relationship would remain “to thy tents, O Israel” and that such a scenario would pervade their lives till thy kingdom comes. But on January 31, The Sun newspaper brought to the fore what has been known to close allies of the duo for some time, now that there is no permanent enmity between them—that they do not maintain a no-love-lost relationship. And The Sun wrote while conferring the Lifetime Achievement Award on the Abia Senator, thus: “As the Senator representing Abia South, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s constituents believe that he is a man of courage who speaks truth to power. He is widely regarded as one of the strongest advocates of equity for the South-East of Nigeria.

“Senator Abaribe has served as a lecturer at the Edo State University, Area Manager for Southern Nigeria at SCOA, Senior Manager for Investment at NICON, CEO of the Integrated Mortgage Company, and as an evangelist of his church. His exploits in the corporate world prepared him for more challenging leadership positions in politics, as he later emerged as the Deputy Governor of Abia State in 1999.

“In 2007, Abaribe emerged Senator representing Abia South under the PDP. He has remained a Senator to date, even on the platform of different political parties.

“His book, Made in ABA: A Life of Coincidences, which tells his story, is an account of the life of a man who set out to make an impact despite all odds and who, at 70, has left an indelible mark.”