No presidential candidate can outspend me – Orji Kalu declares

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, one of Nigeria’s presidential aspirants has said that the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, and other aspirants cannot outspend him during the upcoming All Progressives Congress presidential primary election.

Orji Kalu stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, adding that Tinubu isn’t a hindrance to his becoming next president.

Asked if he sees the former governor as a threat, Kalu answered, “No! and I am not a threat to his ambition. By the time we meet in Eagles Square, this issue will be settled.

“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.”

On why he decided to run fr president after an initial denial, Kalu said the situation of the country made him make a U-turn.

Apart from boasting that he has support from all regions in the country, Orji Kalu also said as a “recognised billionaire”, there’s nothing others can spend that he can’t spend.

He said, “It was circumstance 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.”

Kalu headed First International Bank Limited at the age of 33. He also stewarded Nigerian commercial relations with China’s SinoPacific Shipbuilding company while serving as a principal of SLOK Holding.

On 11 July 2007, Kalu was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on charges of corruption while serving as the governor of Abia State. He was later released on bail, and accused the Obasanjo regime of persecuting him during and after his tenure in office, an accusation mentioned by former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell in his book, “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink.”

Kalu has been a staunch supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, a “close friend and father, who deserves all the support to make Nigeria better.”