By Sunday Chigozie
Eziama Afara

… three weeks after his statement in a viral video, there is fire on the mountain.

There was a video interview wherein the Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu made some political predictions and urged the Governor of Abia State Dr Alex Otti to cross over to APC for his reelection, considering the realities ahead in 2027. It was a friendly and harmless advice, which didn’t in anyway suggested directly or indirectly that the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu is harbouring any intension of contesting Abia Governorship against Governor Alex Otti.

Therefore, one wonders why Governor Alex Otti would take such a simple political invitation from a supposedly close friend to another level of animosity. Otti threw caution to the winds by spending Abia resources on social media e-rats to continuously attack the image of the Deputy Speaker; if he wasn’t behind it why hasn’t he made a public statement asking his brothers/friends/supporters, particularly Professor Chidi Odinkalu to desist from his unwarranted attacks on the person of distinguished Deputy Speaker?

. Is Gov Alex Otti really this callous as has been severally accused by his close allies and associates?

It is therefore unfathomable the extent Governor Alex Otti took the mere political advise from Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu when similar invitation was made to the immediate past Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu during his own time in office. Like the perfect and peaceful gentleman that he is; Dr. Ikpeazu laughed over the invite and simply and jokingly asked Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu to come over to his own party, the PDP. There was no drama, no bad-blood, rather they both laughed over it and still enjoyed robust relationship till date.

Again, same invitation was extended to former Governor T.A Orji, by the Deputy Speaker, Ochendo as he is fondly called simply replied by saying “…my family has joined APC, I have retired from active politics“; and the rest was history as both leaders laughed over it. Why has Governor Otti decided to make a mountain out of a harmless political invite, which other Governors before him didn’t consider as anything serious but has surprisingly triggered a very high level of bitterness in a Governor who pretends to be more Christian than others and follows renowned Pastors around to create a false impression on people.

However, it is pertinent to point out again and clearly too that in the said viral video, Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu never said he was running for the office of governor against Governor Otti, but only merely invited him to crossover to APC to run for his reelection because, Rt. Hon Ben Kalu foresaw that the structure Governor Otti was standing on was not sustainable.

Surreptitiously, Governor Alex Otti hired tik-tokers all over the world and a certain pay-to-twit minion of a Law Professor to malign and make mockery of a simple invitation, instead of brush it aside jokingly like other Governors. Thousands and millions of Abia taxpayers money was spent on Lagos state and Abuja based journalists, skit makers, social media influencers to launch series of attacks on his supposed friend and brother, Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu. Who does that to another, he calls friend for no just reason.?

The question begging for answer is why a Governor who is struggling to pay Seventy thousand minimum wage and didn’t pay wage award as at when other Governors were paying; could afford to be wasting billions of Naira on National Newspapers, TV stations, bloggers in Lagos and Abuja just to destroy someone he once called a friend?

Expectedly, the Deputy Speaker has remained calm without going to war on the media with a man he called friend, notwithstanding the provocative attacks on his integrity, howbeit his statement in the said viral video seems like a prophecy which is unfolding daily in Abia Labour Party. The structure Governor Otti is standing on now is shaking in line with Ben Kalu’s prediction, only the wise can read the handwriting on the wall. Governor Otti’s woes are compounded by the sack of many Abia workers, inability to show Abians where he built the N6.5billion recreational facilities, lack of transparency and accountability, the government’s penchant for propanganda, deception and lies.

Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu’s prophecy has come true in the sense that, If Abia Labour Party cannot deliver a simple Local Government elections peacefully without Governor Otti running around to secure platforms from Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) to Young People’s Party (YPP) for his nominated candidates to contest under, is it the INEC controlled Gubernatorial election that won’t give Otti even bigger stress?. Recall that the authentic Labour Party leadership just recently concluded to withdraw the automatic reelection ticket hitherto reserved for Otti.
Prophecies of those close to God usually come to pass, is Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu also among the prophets? It is even appearing to be so.

Consequently, these purveyors of political attacks on Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu took their media warfare against an important bill sponsored by the Deputy Speaker seeking to establish a UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIAN LANGUAGES at ABA, as can be seen in the National Assembly journal of 2nd October, 2024 and published by the clerk of National Assembly. There was nowhere in the said journal that “TINUBU UNIVERSITY” was ever mentioned. If not for mischief and wickedness why would these people fighting the Deputy Speaker mock a bill that will eventually upgrade the existing but moribund Nigerian Institute Of Nigerian Languages in Aba to a full university, and ultimately expose the decaying institution to better funding through accessing Tetfund and other federal government policies. Moreover, it will be at no cost on Federal government.

Apart from the many direct benefits to the host community like employment, infrastructural development etc that upgrading the institution to a full university will attract; Nigerian languages are daily eroded by lack of interest of the younger generation, teachers of these languages are diminishing by the day, parents are forgetting to speak it at home and in the process one of the core element of our identity ( language) fades away before our eyes in preference to the language of our colonial masters. We all should be worried as the representatives are worried.

Finally, it is high time, we all supported the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon Benjamin Kalu to continue putting Igboland on the map.

Chief Sunday Chigozie
Eziama Afara wrote this piece.