This morning (Friday October 31, 2008) I was pleased to listened to "Focus Nigeria" on African Independent Television (AIT) in which the Former Governor of Abia State, Chief Uzor Orji Kalu featured, he was taken up on a number of political issues in Nigeria and I must confess that perhaps it was an opportunity in which Kalu utilized to shed more light on a number of issues pertaining to his relationship with Olusegun Obasanjo, the nation's former President, the state of Igbo in the Nigerian polity and generally the economic situation of the country.

Lack of free flow of information in the World of Blackman is also a reason we suffer untold set backs today, what happens in our electronic media houses sometimes irritates me, especially when guest are dissuaded from making certain revelations in which presenters believe will affect the Big wigs in our society is regrettable. It was for this reason that the use of telephone dialogues between viewers and guests was scrapped by African Independent Telephone to further limit the free flow of information on AIT. I remember vividly, a certain time a former Minister of Information was invited to Kakaaki program and he was confronted by a viewer in a telephone dialogue who likened him to another former Minister of Information in the days of Abacha believed to have woefully failed the nation with his propaganda attitude. This embarrassed AIT, and the result was a Kakaaki without telephone dialogue with callers.

Many still remember that oath of secrecy which nothing to the Federal Government but a lot the Nigerian people and Freedom of Information Bill almost as old as the regime of Obasanjo still lying on the tables of our Law Makers. In Africa we hate openness and as result prefer secrecy.

I personally appreciate the urge of Kalu to speak on, on a number of issues which concerned Obasanjo in spite of the presenter's attempt to kill the spirit in him responsible for telling us all how Obasanjo carried on with the business of the nation's leadership. It does not make Kalu a saint but it is events that make history and history becomes history when events come to the open. I am sure that he would have given us a lot more if Gbenga the presenter had allowed him to continue, but he (Gbenga) feared for his job and indeed acted in retention of his precious job. It was from Kalu we learnt that Obasanjo arbitrarily gave out Bakassi to Cameroun because he was wanted the Noble Prize for Peace but had his ambition killed by fellow Nigerians who believed he did not deserve it for merely turning fellow citizens who had equal citizenry rights as him to Camerounians within months.

Kalu also told us that in year 2000, he accosted Obasanjo in the presence of Dr Asiodu and suggested to him (Obasanjo) that a particular Japanese firm be contracted to supply the whole nation with constant supply but Asiodu would later tell him that though he had a good advice but Obasanjo never listened to anyone. True to this, Obasanjo began to refer to him as a "Commissioned Officer." The result is loss was loss of brilliant idea to non-listening ears. On why he (kalu) did not record any meaningful achievements in Abia State as a Governor, he remarked that States in Nigeria are tied to Federal assistances.

On the state of Igbo in Nigeria, Kalu emphasized that with the end of Civil War, the Igbo ought to have been forgiven a long time ago by the Nigerian Government, his advice to them is that they should contribute their own successes in the Nigerian State by dropping the idea that they are marginalized. In this way, the ethnic-group will move forward, how I wish Kalu had been asked how this would have translated to progress for the Igbo in Nigeria.

Kalu seems to me as one of those leaders that assumed office with brilliant ideas and resplendent zeal to function but the unknown which often prevailed in the Nigerian politics never allowed him to achieve this. It is a lesson to our politicians. This was what Gbenga's program "Focus Nigeria" set out to teach.