By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
People that grew up with him, those that attended same institutions with him, those that are his business partners, those that attend the same church with him as well as those having one relationship or the other with him, have one thing in common to tell you about Kalu Kalu Ulu, which is: At all time you can trust him as a reliable fellow and one that adopts a positive attitude to life challenges.
At last, Ulu has finally clinched the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to run for the state House of Assembly, representing Arochukwu state constituency in Abia North, Abia State.
He said that he was aggrieved at the show of shame that characterized election primaries in the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), his former political party, and decided to quit.
“It is the people that build party not the other way. We will build the Social Democratic Party and make it formidable also. What happened in APGA in the name of election is unbelievable” he told The Niche, on why he left APGA.
He said that he was the people’ s choice and candidate to beat as far as transparency, accountability, experience, competence, performance record, reliability and credible representation were the focus.
Listening to Ulu, the man fondly call K.K., shows the stuff of one who does not have the attitude of defeat without making attempt at surmounting the challenge.
He is not also one that responds to challenges with an attitude of denial, rather he is pre-active and responsive.
Of course, attitude is the foundation and support of everything we do, a key element in the process of controlling your destiny and achieving mastery in your personal and professional life.
He is a ‘’what -it-takes’’ (WIT) man who accepts challenges and sets out to meet it with courage and confidence.
However, his courage and confidence are not in the absence of fear. He feels the fear anyway, but will still move forward, committed to doing (morally and ethically) whatever it takes to produce a favourable end result.
In life one does not get what one wants rather you get what you are. If you desire love, be loving, if you desire friendship, be a friend, if you desire a closer relationship with the people or your mate, your children, or members of your extended family, do the things that will make it happen.
The desire of K.K has always been that of providing service to his environment, his community, to be a leading light for his people.
His record of achievements when he was a local government commissioner has remained a lasting legacy in the heart of his people.
He has the heart of gold, which he enthused “runs in their family.”
His late father was a great philanthropist in his time, so also is his younger brother, Anuma Kalu Ulu, an outstanding medical practitioner in the United States, reputed for his legendary exploits in humanitarian giving for the less-advantaged.
As a young chap growing up in his primary school days, he was nicknamed “Nwa-ekpo nta’’. On the face value of the name, it means “small masquerade”. But its deep literally meaning is one full of energy and capacity to take risk for the good of others.
Like Scott Holloway, K.K believes that the opportunities you desire lie dormant within you, waiting for you to give them life.
He has been around in the political space for quite some time now but it has not been easy for him to pull through, perhaps due to political party platforms that were always in the opposition.
But as an optimist he told The Niche that patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
For him “understanding that everything is a process which takes time will help you relax and enable you to enjoy every step of the way”.
But what drives him in his quest to serve his people?
According to him, “For me the urge is for public service, it is the drive to serve the public because of the need to offer committed service as against what we have been having where people just go into political office for their personal aggrandizement and parochial interest.
“I feel that there is a gap and that gap is in the area of quality representation. The primary role of the legislator is law making, so we have not had representatives that have been able to identify the real problems of the constituency so as to come up with relevant laws to intervene in those areas.
“If you look at the constituency, there is poverty, lack of amenities, poor state of the roads etc all these are the things that if you have a good representation the person should be able to make the necessary interventions on the areas the people are suffering from.
“We have deplorable roads, inaccessible roads, unemployment, people in the service that are not being promoted, suffering one form of deprivation or injustice to another.
“Generally, there is lack of meaningful projects that will bring life to the area. I hope to go there to fill this gap by interfacing with the people generally, just like I have been doing, to look at the key areas of need and be able to come up with legislation which I need to present to the House and use any diplomatic strategy and reach out to others including , lobby etc to ensure that things are done for the good of our people”.
He told The Niche that he would bring his experience to bear by ensuring that the executive arm is made to do the needful since he knew where the shoe pinches.
Said K.K” I will bring the executive to attend to the areas of need for my community, I also intend to be a kind of watch-dog on the executive in making sure that the excesses of the executive in not even adhering to the laws that have been made are checkmated.
“This is unlike what we have now where those in the legislature in the state House of Assembly are mere appendages and extension of the executive. None of them is able to come up to ask questions and be a watch dog in making sure that the executive arm of the government sits up to its responsibility”.
Asked if he is worried of being in the minority if he eventually wins, Ulu said it was wrong to have such thought as there would be surprises during the election as many in the so call unpopular parties would spring surprises being the choice of the people.
“There is no guarantee that I will be in the minority because if you watch the political terrain you will find out that most of us who are in the so called minority party or obscure parties are those who have proved to be most popular candidates in the popular parties, who won the elections but were being rigged out and because we have the people on our side our popularity with the people on ground, will play a key part in making sure that most of us will be returned by the electorate” he told The Niche.
K.K has made promises which he said were realizable and deliverable.
There are among other: articulation, aggregation, evaluation and presentation of all shades of colors of opinion that will move the constituency forward, adequate and result-oriented representation, championing realization of employment opportunities, wealth creation and social support for the people, assurance for effective legislative dexterity and probity among other expectations.
He is a politician loved by his people and is believed to be a unifier. But how far can the love be translated into electoral victory given the electoral fraud that normally characterize elections in the country? Only time will tell.
