https://leadership.ng/2019/07/14/i-support-ruga-settlement-says-orji-kalu/
By AHURAKA ISAH, SUNDAY ISUWA
The chief whip of the Senate and former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has said that he supports the establishment of Ruga settlement, adding that the policy worked well when he introduced it.
According to Kalu, the controversy over the suspended Ruga policy of the federal government is unnecessary.
Fielding questions from journalists on national issues in Abuja, on Friday, Senator Kalu said appointments of service chiefs should be spread across the six geo- polical zones in the mode of constitutional provision of one minister per state.
He disclosed that a bill to that effect, may come up in the Senate as a way of allaying the fears of marginalisation from any segment of the country.
“In terms of appointments, because the constitution says that every state should have at least one minister, that is statutory. It is good to also spread the service chiefs, which I will like, people in the Senate to bring a bill. So, we can make a bill that every region must have a service chief”, he said.
While the service chiefs are the chief of Defence Staff, chief of Army Staff, chief of Naval Staff, chief of Air staff and the inspector general of police, heads of strategic security outfits in this context are those of the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and political appointees such as National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Minister of Defence.
The Senate Whip, however, added that in as much as appointees in such category are more or less, personal staff of the president, Nigerians should focus attention more on service delivery of whoever is in power than the nature or composition of his appointees within the security circle.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari, in spite of alleged lopsidedness of appointments being attached to his government, has done more for the Southeastern geopolitical zone than any other previous government in terms of projects execution.
He said, “When you look at it, service chiefs are like personal staff of the president, they are not really constitutionally owned because you only work with military men you trust. That is the truth whether you want to hear that or not.
The recently suspended policy on Ruga settlement, according to him, was not properly marketed to Nigerians, particularly those in the southern and north central axis.
The policy, he disclosed, was perfectly implemented by him in Abia State in 2001, when he was governor without generating any controversy let alone mistrust or suspicion between Abians and their brothers from the North or other categories of Nigerians resident there.
“Wen people talk about Ruga, I wonder, in 2001, I initiated the Ruga practice in Abia. In Lokpanta, I built it and the cows were being sold in Umuahia and Abah. In 2001, I invited the Hausa Community and they said Umuahia and Aba we needed to decongest.
“I had meeting with the communities and they agreed in Lokpanta and that is the biggest cow market, both southeast and southsouth of Nigeria today. So, it is about the attitude of people to issues.
“Yes, Federal Government should always do very serious and extensive consultation whenever they want to embark on such issues. It is not just to go and put a deliberate policy and say I want to do Ruga. If people in villages don’t understand what Ruga means, they will panic and say they want to kill all of them.
“Some of us are the largest sellers of cow. I started selling cow as far back as when I was in the university, I am still selling cows till tomorrow because it is profitable, so most of the cows you see are not owned by Hausa people.
“We trade on cows. So people should have information because information is power and power is information”, he explained.”
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