By Chiedu A. Onyiloha
I read Uche Ezewudo’s article, “2027 Politics: Ben Kalu’s Needless Battles with South-East Governors,” published in ThisDay newspaper, Sunday, May 25, 2025 (p. 47), and decided to address some of the inherent issues that negate ethics, public trust and patriotism. Ezewudo avers as follows: “If the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led presidency and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) hope to secure votes and reasonable support from the South-east in the 2027 general election, this is the time they must call the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, to order and separate themselves from his ill-advised current brand of politics”. This statement suffers credible premises that lead to unreasoned inference. Ezewudo’s wild-chase leads him to advise President Tinubu to make friends amongst the South-easterners in the country. What reasons did the writer adduce as basis for advising APC to disregard Hon. Kalu? Again, one fails to find the rationale of Ezewudo’s thought: “It remains to be known why Kalu believes he will proceed further from where he currently finds himself today by daring those he should woo to accept him as a leader? His question is neither here nor there for a writer who ought to know that Hon. Benjamin Kalu is the highest-ranking national leader in the South-east. The people of the South-east recognize this irrespective of their political affiliations.
Ezewudo’s counsel to the Tinubu-led administration to look for “men and women, including young ones, wise and humble enough to win powerful friends for him. He does not need politicians who believe that they have arrived and that this is the time to take over political leaderships in their zones”, is very disturbing. His argument is vacuous and limping. Invariably, Tinubu and APC will look for Hon. Kalu when their 2027 electioneering campaign starts in South-east. Thus, Ezewudo’s remarks about Hon. Kalu as “not being a humble servant”;“not being in good terms with the South-east governors”;“not being grateful for the grace of the office”; among others, are fictitious and malevolent.
Not yet done with his vituperations, Ezewudo, alleges: “…it seems his aides and other praise singers around him have sold the wrong propaganda to him that he has already emerged the political leader of the South-east and that he is that one man today who should be relied upon to deliver the South-east to President Tinubu”. Here, he is in a denial about the obvious reality: that Hon. Benjamin Kalu, is the national political leader of the South-east in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the same Ezewudo contradicts himself by asserting, “This is the attitude one expects from Kalu, who though Nigeria’s number six citizen today (if there’s anything like that)….”
Ezewudo’s article is replete with logical gallops: “Although he has consistently dismissed media reports of possible rifts between him and governors of the South-east states of Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, and Ebonyi since the launch of the Peace in South East Project, which was unveiled in Bende in 2024, insiders say his attitude, utterances and actions show otherwise.” How would a patriotic citizen like Hon. Kalu neglect a peace initiative? Is it possible that a peacemaker will receive knocks instead of accolades? It is not possible that Nigeria’s number six citizen who is also of the South-east extraction cannot be celebrated by his own people. The Deputy Speaker’s Peace in the South East is a laudable project with multiple benefits for the region and the country. Any South-east state governor, who fails to acknowledge the positive impacts of the project, leaves much to be acknowledged as a leader.
In the same article, Ezewudo, contradicts himself, take for instance, “As the so-called number six official in Nigeria, we agree that Kalu, with near zero personal political structure in the South-east, has enjoyed enormous God’s grace, given his rapid elevation to his current plum position”? The logical acuity of the writer (Ezewudo) is questionable since elsewhere he has dismissed the political significance of the Deputy Speaker in the South-east. Earlier, he acknowledged “providence” with reference to Hon. Kalu, and later, lost the insights of the grace of God by referring the latter’s position as a “plum position.”
Paragraphs after paragraphs, Ezewudo, was not tired of his reckless assertions:”Take the case of his home state, Abia State, a Labour Party state under firm control of Governor Alex Otti, does it not sound ridiculous to hear a Kalu labouring hard to give an impression that he currently has what it takes to deliver it to Tinubu and to APC? It is very difficult for any reader to understand what a writer like Ezewudo wants to achieve by such illogical arguments. Common sense dictates to us that Governor Otti and Deputy Speaker Kalu though of different political parties and at levels of governments, yet, they can work together as brothers and South-east leaders for the good of their zone and the country. Sadly, the failure of Ezewudo to appreciate this is a result of bias and self-seeking agenda.
It is incredible that sentence after sentence, illustration after illustration, Ezewudo deployed literary armoury aimed at deceiving his unsuspecting readers not to see any positive thing about Hon. Benjamin Kalu: “Kalu as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, may have, without doubt, emerged a leader of considerable significance today, but it seems necessary to tell him that with the right attitude and approach, he still has so much to achieve.” Before now, Ezewudo has referred to him as “so-called number six citizen,” and now, the same Hon. Kalu has emerged as a “leader of considerable significance today.” These incoherencies are vivid signs of pettiness and screenshot of a proverbial writer without clothes whose stock-in-trade is arm-chair critique as reflected thus: “…he still has so much to achieve”. One wonders if Ezewudo re-read his manuscript and maintained the thrust of his argument. It will not take an eagle-eyed reader much time to note this deceptive submission, “…he still has so much to achieve.”
In the last paragraph, Ezewudo has a sudden reconciliatory tune in reference to Hon. Benjamin Kalu: “He needs to know that to achieve true leadership position, he may need to make more sober assessment of his strategies, claims and true political value to APC, Tinubu’s re-election and his Bende Federal Constituency in the 2027 elections and beyond”. Pitifully, the writer loses touch with his tirade and assumes the unsolicited role of adviser-in-chief to Hon. Kalu whom he has disparaged as having no electoral or political significance in Nigeria. Viewed critically, Ezewudo’s article is a non-existent reality and should be disregarded as a piece characterized by bogus claims and spiteful accusations. His essay is replete with untruths aimed at creating a public distrust of Hon. Benjamin Kalu; regrettably, Ezewudo’s mission was stalled by his own literary flaws: a dearth of supporting materials, logical incoherencies, and irreconcilable line of arguments.
Dr. Onyiloha writes from University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State