{"id":23,"date":"2019-08-27T20:09:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T20:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orjikalu.com\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2019-08-29T20:17:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:17:43","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/orjikalu.com\/?page_id=23","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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About Me<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dr Orji Uzor Kalu<\/b> was born in April 21, 1960 to the family of Mr. Johnson Uzor Nsiegbe Kalu and Mrs Eunice Kalu. He is the chairman of SLOK Holding and the Daily Sun and New Telegraph newspapers in Nigeria, who served as the governorof Abia State, Nigeria from May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007. Prior to his election, he served as the chairman of the Borno Water Board and the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited. Kalu was also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the chairman of the PPA Board of Trustees. He was the party’s presidential candidate in the April 2007 general election. He is currently a member of the ruling party after he officially announced his resignation as a PPA BOT. Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the 9th Assembly is the Chief Whip of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Background<\/span><\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Kalu attended Christ the King School Aba and\u00a0Government College Umuahia. After studying at\u00a0Barewa College, Zaria, he enrolled in the\u00a0University of Maiduguri where he studied political science. During his time at the university, Kalu became a student activist, and participated in the \u201cAli Must Go\u201d\u00a0<\/sup> riots against the education minister.\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0His participation resulted in his suspension. While his fellow students later took the school authorities to court, Kalu left school to build his own business.<\/sup><\/p>

With only $35 to his name that he had borrowed from his mother, Kalu began trading palm oil, first buying the oil from Nigeria’s eastern regions and then selling it in the country’s northern regions. \u00a0He then began buying and reselling furniture on a large scale.<\/p>

In the course of trading on palm oil, Kalu discovered that quality furniture was a thing of luxury in the north and was imported from abroad. Sensing an opportunity, he began sourcing for quality furniture in the east (Aba to be precise<\/em>) and reselling them in Maiduguri. Before long, breakthrough came and he abandoned oil palm trading; focusing instead on furniture trading.<\/p>

As business progressed, Orji Uzor Kalu ventured into the manufacturing of the same furniture he was trading on. Within that same period of time, Kalu was granted pardon and the suspension was lifted by the school authority. But Kalu rejected the amnesty on grounds that not all the student activists were granted pardon. Orji Uzor was quoted as saying:<\/p>

\u201cAll of us in the students\u2019 union leadership collectively agreed to embark on the demonstration against the university authorities. When the crises went out of control, the university senate decided to rusticate all of us. Some students went to court to contest the rustication, but I preferred to start trading while waiting for general reprieve for everybody. But in a classical divide-and-rule tactics, the authorities decided to pardon some of us who didn\u2019t go to court and left out some of the others. This was unacceptable to me because it smacked of betrayal of the colleagues in the students\u2019 leadership if I accepted the offer. So, I rejected the pardon on principle.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

This situation alone proved that Orji Uzor possessed the true spirit of leadership and from this humble beginning; he expanded his business and became a conglomerate. His company, Slok Group comprise of:<\/p>