Orji Uzor Kalu in Sports is entirely different from Orji Uzor Kalu in Politics

Orji Uzor Kalu in Sports is entirely different from Orji Uzor Kalu in Politics

In Sports, he is the most successful Govenror and the most Sports friendly Govenror EVER in the history of Nigeria

Under him, Enyimba, the People's Elephant, won both the Nigeria Premier League and the CAF Champions League, twice back to back in 2003 - 2004

Under his regime, Nigeria League Football reached the very top of African football and he made us all proud by his unalloyed support for Enyimba from installing the best sports infrastructure, to motivating the players so well, that every player in Enyimba during his tenure, was a millionaire and had fleet of cars

Every player in Africa, wanted to play in Enyimba which saw players come in all the way from Zambia, Southern and Northern Africa, to play for Enyimba

Under his regime, Enyimba produced top players for Nigeria which include Victor Nwaneri, Onyekachi Okonkwo and Vincent Enyeama who became a National legend

Also under his regime, Enyimba won the Best Team in Africa award in 2004, won their first ever Federation Cup title and PL title to record a Double in 2005 while their coach Kadiri won the Best Coach in Africa Award in 2004

But off the field of play and away from Sports, this same Orji Uzor Kalu was a disaster

As a Sports Personality, I was happy when he contested for the positions of CAF and FIFA Presidencies, though it was overtly ambitious of him, given that there are guidelines he hasn't met to aim that high but at least, he can add them to his CV

The fact nobody is up in arms against his sentence, tells you all you need to know and while the Sporting community appreciates his immense contributions to the industry, unfortunately, Sports and Politics are parralels and as such, all his good works in Sports, cannot be transferred to Politics

Nke onye metalu, ya buru

By Ugochukwu 'Thanos' Ifeanyi