Benjamin Kalu and The Character Assassination Olympiad

By Igboeli Arinze Napoleon

Every good drama needs a plot twist. The campaign against Benjamin Kalu has had none. It is the same plot, the same characters, and — remarkably — the same allegations, reproduced across different seasons with the regularity of a public holiday. What changes is the packaging. What never changes is the outcome.

Let us trace the arc, because it is instructive in its consistency, similar to Fidel Castro’s experience where he allegedly escaped over 600 assassination attempts, Kalu has experienced character assassinations instead and if it were a sport he would be the spectators delight against the darts thrown by his detractors.

When Kalu was nominated as a Commissioner in Abia State, the story circulated: he had never graduated from the University of Calabar. He had no degree. His academic credentials were fabricated. He responded in the manner of a man who has nothing to hide by returning to the University of Calabar, obtaining an LL.M. and then a Ph.D., and then accepting an invitation to deliver the institution’s 50th Anniversary Convocation Lecture. The university whose degree he supposedly never earned stood before the nation and honoured him. Chapter closed.

When he sought election to represent Bende Federal Constituency, a new story emerged: Kalu had dodged national service entirely. No NYSC. No certificate. The NYSC replied. The Director-General at the time, Brigadier General Y.D. Ahmed, issued a formal letter confirming the certificate’s authenticity and Kalu’s compliance with the requirements of national service. Institutional verdict delivered. Chapter closed.

Undeterred, the narrative evolved. The certificate existed — but it was fake. A forgery. The NYSC conducted a formal verification exercise in 2023. A senior NYSC director who personally participated in that process publicly reaffirmed its outcome: Kalu’s certificate is genuine, obtained in full compliance with every requirement of the NYSC Act. No counter-verification has been produced. No NYSC director-general has issued a letter contradicting the 2023 findings. Chapter closed — emphatically.

Now to the present petition where the certificate cannot be called a forgery anymore — the NYSC itself has spoken. So the allegation has been repackaged: the process by which Kalu completed both NYSC and Law School in 2010 was irregular and a petition has been filed with the LPDC by a former First Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association. Press releases have been issued. Groups for hire, cheaper than the Nigerian minimum wage or at least the version of COSEYL controlled by one Goodluck Ibem and a few “anywhere belle face” come and raid activists have lent their name to the campaign.

Now, when the same COSEYL members kick against such, suspended the hired gun in Ibem and publicly issued an unreserved apology to the Deputy Speaker. That is not a good omen for the financiers and authors of the campaign’s credibility.

It is important to trace the source of such attacks presently for posterity sake. It is the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau and why should millions of state resources be contributed to pulling down Kalu? He has not even declared for Governor of Abia State. He has filed no forms, made no announcement, held no rallies. And yet they are spending enormous resources attacking him. That tells you everything about what they are actually afraid of.

However, here is what the petitioner and his sponsors do not seem to have accounted for: the LPDC is a serious body. Its jurisdiction is well-defined. Conduct that predates a man’s Call to the Bar falls entirely outside that jurisdiction. The conduct complained of NYSC service and Law School attendance in 2010 predates Kalu’s Bar call in September 2011 by a year. The LPDC cannot hear this petition. A panel of competent legal minds will see it for what it is: an instrument of political harassment, filed in the wrong forum, on the wrong facts, at the right time for those who fear him.

It is also important to note that this same Kalu has been chairman of a local government, a commissioner, a member of the House of Representatives, and has been screened and cleared by relevant security agencies at each stage. The Nigerian security and intelligence apparatus, which scrutinises public officials at every elevation, has had access to every document, every record, every piece of information the petitioner claims to have discovered. And at no stage did any of these agencies find reason to halt his progress. Yet now, at the precise moment when Kalu is leading the campaign for President Tinubu’s reelection in Abia State now, of all times this becomes suddenly urgent?

This is not investigation. It is interference. It is not accountability. It is sabotage. And it has the fingerprints of political desperation all over it.

The Deputy Speaker has attracted two federal universities to Abia State. He has been a vigorous advocate for Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. He has given the South-East a formidable voice at the centre of Nigerian governance. His record is clean. His credentials are verified. His integrity, tested repeatedly over more than two decades of public life, remains intact.

It is indeed obvious that this drama will end the same way as the others. With Kalu standing, and his detractors searching for another allegation to sell to the Les gullibles.

Igboeli Arinze Napoleon writes from Lagos