Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, a presidential aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said he cannot be intimidated by the financial might of the National Leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has also declared his presidential ambition.
Speaking on Channel TV’s Politics Today on Friday, Kalu said he is the first politician to be regarded as a billionaire, saying he is willing to match Tinubu and other aspirants of the party at the Eagle Square, Abuja, when the party holds its primary.
Kalu, a former Abia State governor, added that politics is not only about money but about the people, boasting that he has their support. He also revealed that although he had assured Tinubu that he would not contest for president, the circumstances across the country have forced his hand.
“Mind you, politics is not only about money; it is about the people you are going to govern…the people of the north-west, the people of north-east, the people of north-central, the people of the south-east, the people of the south-west, and the people of south-south, and we have the people. I can move the people and the people are with me.
“I told Tinubu that I was not going to run, that is the truth. It was circumstances from the south-east, south-west, north-west, north-central, and north-east that made me decide to join the race. I was governor with him (Tinubu), there is nothing difficult in challenging anybody.
“We are all going to meet at the Eagle Square, and we will square it out there. There is no difficulty. I am the only political businessman that is first recognised as a billionaire, and I am not sure that there is anything those people can do, in terms of money, that I cannot do. I don’t think they can speak to anybody in Nigeria or in the world that I cannot speak to,” he said.
Kalu is the Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail in December 2019, for allegedly stealing public funds.
He was however freed after the Supreme Court, which upturned the sentence and ordered a fresh trial.
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