The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has come under fire following his threats to install All Progressives Congress administration in Abia State in 2027 without acknowledging the power of the people in a democracy, Ejiofor Alike reports
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, recently boasted again that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would take over Abia State currently controlled by the Labour Party (LP) in 2027.
Addressing a crowd of his supporters and APC members at the Abia Hotels, Umuahia, Kalu argued that time had come for Abia State to be governed by the APC.
In democracy, taking over a government by a political party through the ballot box is the grundnorm.
However, the deputy speaker failed to acknowledge the fact that the choice of sacking LP from the Government House in Umuahia does not reside with him but with the people of Abia State in line with the tenets of democracy.
Indications that his threat was a direct assault on democracy became more obvious when he boasted that he could not be number six man under the APC-led federal government and allow LP to control his state.
Kalu further insinuated that installing APC administration in the state is one of the ways of showing appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for giving the people of the state political appointments.
Kalu said: “We are going to take over Abia in 2027; we want to work with the President to move our state forward.”
Despite acknowledging that the state government had made some progress, he insisted that his obligation as the opposition leader in the state is not to sing the governor’s praises.
“We can be friends; we can be family but as long as we are in another political party, our job is to be the watchdog of the administration. The leader of this administration might be my friend, but I am the opposition leader,” he added.
In a subtle confirmation that President Tinubu’s government is getting more revenues than the previous administrations, Kalu argued that Tinubu should rather be commended for the visible achievements in states, which he attributed to the president’s generosity in releasing more funds to states.
“The miracle maker is not the governors but the president who releases money to states now. The real miracle worker is a man who stopped fuel subsidies and did not keep the money in his pocket or in Abuja but released it to states,” Kalu explained.
Kalu’s undemocratic utterances started in August 2024 when he declared with an air of finality at a media interview that Otti would be the last LP governor in Abia State.
Though he admitted that Otti has done well as a governor, he still insisted that the state needed to be governed by APC because of President Tinubu’s contribution to the state.
He said, “This will be the last time that a Labour governor will govern Abia State. I say it without mincing words. The next governor of Abia State will be APC governor.
“I have told him (Otti) publicly and privately that the APC governor will be next in Abia State. How it will happen, I don’t know, but it will happen,” Kalu said.
Kalu’s claim that he did not know how APC would take over the state fueled the suspicion that he does not believe in the power of the ballot box because it is only through it that a political party can take over a government.
The deputy speaker maintained that he could not hold the position of the sixth citizen of the country while another party governed his state, stressing that the 2027 election would end this.
“We are friends, we work together, but I will not be the number six citizen of the country, and another party will govern my state. The next election in 2027, APC will be there.
“APC will determine who will become the next governor of Abia State. I don’t care about who the person is. “However, one thing I know is that the platform, APC, will be the next governor of Abia state,” he said.
For many residents of Abia State, what all these threats mean is that Kalu is plotting how to truncate the people’s will in the 2027 governorship election.
By threatening to remove Otti who is the first governor to bring relief to the people of the state since 1999, Kalu obviously wants the state to return to the days of mis-governance.
He is aware that the state was the worst-governed among the five South-east states from 1999 to 2023.
Apparently enraged by Kalu’s utterances, his colleague in the House of Representatives from Abia State, Obi Aguocha, had fired a salvo at him, saying that his comments smacked of arrogance and power drunkenness.
Aguocha, an LP lawmaker, upbraided Kalu for displaying indiscretion in his “quest for national political relevance.”
The LP lawmaker reminded Kalu that his “patently repeated boasting and referring to yourself as No.6 in the order of leadership hierarchy of the federal government portrays you less as a leader and more like a man with an open display of brazenness and rabid indiscretion”.
He warned Kalu to tread cautiously, saying that the Bende Federal Constituency seat being occupied by him was actually won by the LP in the 2023 poll, and insinuated that the result was manipulated in favour of Kalu and the APC.
The LP federal lawmaker pointed out that Kalu had even contradicted himself, having admitted that Otti is doing well for the people and then turning around to say that he would be ousted in 2027.
He said that it amounted to “a brazen and uncontrolled outpouring of emotional fury” for Kalu to declare that he was duty bound to deliver Abia to APC and Tinubu as a payback for favours he received from them.
For too long, Otti had ignored and tried not to be distracted from governance by the likes of Kalu.
But recently, he sent a strong warning to politicians allegedly plotting to rig the 2027 governorship election, saying only the will of God and the people would decide who leads the state.
Speaking in Umuahia, the state capital, the governor cautioned those boasting about reclaiming the state through underhanded tactics to reconsider their plans or write their will. He warned those plotting to rig the election to be ready to face the consequences.
“I’ve heard that some people are boasting they must take back this state; that they will just sit and write results. My advice to them is simple — if they are so eager to write, they should start by writing their own will before that time,” he said.
Despite the transformation going on in the state since Otti assumed power, Kalu has continued to make undemocratic utterances, fuelling the suspicion that he has sinister motives to use the ‘federal might’ to truncate the will of the people in 2027.
The people of Abia State should keep vigil and protect democracy in the state.
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