From Ife where he visited the Ooni, through Owerri where he was guest to the Chairman of the South East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Ilonmuanya and Okigwe where he called at the home of the leader of MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, it has been travel galore for the former governor who has been in hibernation for a while now.
He is making a ceremony out of the visitations. Yet, the cases await him in court. His track records run before him like an anxious forerunner.
Having kept mum and physically away from the globally celebrated funeral of Dim Emeka Ojukwu which lasted for over three months, people had conjectured that, perhaps, Kalu must have been sick or highly psychologically devastated in his self-inflicted confinement. It is uncharacteristic of him to keep away from such moments.
He looks for such great moments to shine. But, since after being banished to Siberia and forced into an untimely political menopause by the liberation forces led by the Ochendo of Abia, the ex-governor has been living like a recluse, cocooned in solitary confinement. He has been nursing his wounds with dignified silence.
Today, Kalu might be thinking that it is time to re-launch himself, to step out of his enclave. Like the ancient mystical phoenix, he has emerged from hibernation to take on a new life. And in this calculated mission of self re-invention, he has found a good strategy in the cross-country visitations. But, as he travels, there is a dark shadow trailing him.
There is a heavy load of moral burden hanging over him like the sword of Damocles. His preachments about leadership have ended as a self-directed sarcasm, a kind of self-mockery.
His clamour for Igbo integration or is it Igbo president is the same old gamji that climaxed with his speech at the palace of the monarch of Enugu Ukwu in Anambra State, entitled: "I am the Face of the New Igbo", but which ended with the monumental "somersault" of 2003 when his second term bid was under threat.
VANGUARD NEWS
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