I support establishment of Ruga settlement — Kalu

Senator Orji Kalu

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.

The Senator, while Fielding questions from journalists on national issues in Abuja, on Friday, said the Ruga settlement 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.”