Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, representing Abia North Senatorial Zone, on Monday, said he ran Abia State government with his personal money.
Kalu, who was Abia governor between 1999 and 2007, said he also gave the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, N500 million.
He stated this on Monday while fielding questions on Channels TV's Politics Today programme.
While claiming he never benefited anything as a governor, he noted that he instead lost a lot of money.
Kalu said: "I spend my own money being governor, like I'm spending my money today being senator. I used to finance the state.
“That is, I never benefited anything from being governor. Rather, I lost a lot of money. The federal government took a lot of my businesses. So for me, politics had been more dangerous under the Obasanjo federal government at the time."
The Senator also alleged that he gave $1 million to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and N500 million to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 1998.
"When I put a lot of money at the time, by then, dollar was big money.
“Dollar was $84. I gave President Olusegun Obasanjo over $1 million. I gave the party (PDP) over N500 million to start the party.
"They were looking for money. The only few people who could have brought money then were TY Danjuma and Atiku Abubakar.
“Others had no money. All those people had no money to bring. And that is the truth.
"So for me, we are all friends. All this abusing Tinubu, abusing Orji Kalu, abusing Atiku Abubakar, abusing Amaechi should stop.
“What I think we should do, we should sit down as a family, talk about the needs of Nigerian people and deliver to them.
“I'm more anxious to see Nigerians eating three meals a day, going on good roads, going to good train stations, going to all these things, working in a decent factory and making decent money. This is what I would like," he said.
NATIONAL POST recalls that Kalu was in the news last week when he arrived Senate plenary dressed in President Bola Tinubu campaign wears.