By Law Mefor
The Right Honourable Benjamin Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, has recently blundered into one faux pas after another. These embarrassing social gaffes and transgressions are happening far too frequently. The latest ones give the impression that he is losing touch with the nature and psychology of his Igbo roots. Ndigbo are republicans, and no one in authority at any level can sway them in any way against their will. Simply because you are in a position of authority does not mean that you can dictate to Ndigbo, treat them shabbily, or force anything down their throat. When they do push back, they don’t take prisoners, and Honourable Kalu should avoid such a collision.
That was why when viewing the two most recent videos of Honourable Benjamin Kanu, in which he addressed Ndigbo both directly and indirectly or pledged allegiance to his political party or the president on their behalf, one had his heart in his mouth. With certain ethnic groups, it could be feasible to keep such pledges, but not with the Ndigbo. They will use their blood to resist it.
The first video was that Ndigbo shouldn’t participate in the End-Hunger protest. Not only were the justifications he offered banal, but even more so, the method he delivered the message was demeaningly offensive. There was no appeal. It sounded more like an order or command as if he had the authority to choose when Ndigbo should protest and when not to.
The consensus was that Ndigbo should avoid the protest in the South East and elsewhere before Kalu even spoke because some government officials and some e-rats had already labelled and gas-lighted Ndigbo as the protest organisers thus setting them up to take the blame and they had to dodge the bullet.
So, it wasn’t really necessary for Deputy Speaker Kalu to speak at that moment, and he ostensibly did so in an attempt to claim credit for persuading Ndigbo not to get involved—which was untrue. This is a prime example of “eye service,” as we call it in local parlance, and a desperate attempt to appease the ‘Oga at the top’. A real Igbo leader does not yield, falter, or bow down to outside forces to appease their whims. True Igbo leaders speak truth to power and do not throw their people under the bus to get into any good book.
If there was any doubt about Benjamin Kalu’s true motivations and his desire to appease the Tinubu Presidency, the second video dispelled it. Therein he warned Governor Alex Otti that he would be the final Labour Party governor of Abia State. He explained his strange and presumptuous reasons. According to Kalu, Tinubu provided the South East with the South East Development Commission, and the president and the APC should get credit for it by winning control of the Abia government house in the next guber election. He didn’t explicitly announce that he wanted to conquer the entire South East, but it was inferred that the president ought to be rewarded with control over all of the South East’s states by the ruling party.
While warmly acknowledging that Governor Otti is doing a great job and “would do the needful at the appropriate time,” Kalu stated, “Monkey should not be working and baboons will be chopping.” The question then becomes: Given Kalu’s declaration that the Labour Party cannot survive past Otti’s current tenure, what must Otti do? In all logic, Otti has two options: he may either join the APC or lose the election by any means necessary, democratic or not, legal or extralegal.
It cannot be deemed a coincidence when one takes into account how Alex Otti became governor. The people of Abia State voted for change and succeeded in getting rid of the PDP’s bad governance in the state since 1999. Therefore, is the Deputy Speaker saying that Abia cannot keep the Labour Party and Alex Otti in office even after he freely admitted that Otti is doing well?
The threat of Deputy Speaker Kalu simply means votes will no longer ensure the Abia people will keep Otti and the Labour Party in office come election time if they so desire. If so, it is a warning sign for democracy. Democracy is based on the majority’s right to rule while allowing the minority to express their opinions through vote. However, Kalu’s claim makes it quite evident that it won’t be the case this time since Otti’s hopes of using his good deeds to win back the governorship in the next governorship election cannot happen if he does not dump the Labour Party for the ruling party, the APC, as decreed by Kalu.
When the Honourable Benjamin Kalu was chosen as Deputy Speaker, he held out so much promise. With the older Igbo leaders succumbing to the corrosion of time, many saw in him a new hope for producing a new generation of leaders. The Igbo people now need a great deal of new leaders with the deaths of men like Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, and Dr Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. Even the relatively young Arc Ferdinand Agu and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah have also joined their ancestors, leaving behind very large shoes.
The hope had been that Deputy Spreader Kalu, who is ranked sixth in the Nigerian polity’s hierarchy of protocol, has a great historical opportunity to emerge as one of the new Igbo leaders. However, the way he has been acting lately leaves a lot to be desired, which challenges the trust and optimism that people once reposed in him.
Kalu deserves praise for initiating the South East Security and Development programme and for being instrumental in the passage and signing into law the South East Development Commission legislation. He shouldn’t throw away his good works by undermining Ndigbo or believing that his position automatically grants him the authority to speak for the Igbo people. By the time he realises that he is mistaken, it will be too late.
Kalu is however free to make a case that the South East needs to join the APC to have a bigger say in the party and the country, but he cannot insist that President Tinubu or the APC has the right to take over the South East without working for it. Kalu also needs to remember that the mutual mistrust that existed between the Buhari government and Ndigbo could not be cured by his construction of the Second Niger Bridge or any other project of that nature.
A candid piece of advice would be that making sure the Igbo people receive their due share in Nigeria is the only way Kalu can win over the Igbo people’s hearts. Asking for this isn’t too much. Kalu’s current strategy is doing more harm than good because it is further alienating the South East from himself and the Tinubu government.
The Deputy Speaker can, however, correct these errors by regaining perspective and by remembering that Ndigbo are republicans and will never yield to coercion or threat. Taa bu gbo, as Ndigbo would say, which means today is still early to begin retracing the missteps. For the wise, a word is sufficient.
Dr Law Mefor, an Abuja-based forensic and social psychologist, is a fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought; drlawmefor@gmail.com; Twitter: @Drlawsonmefor.
