- By Prof. Victor Ukaogo
Since Hon. Ben Kalu’s superlative outing on the floor of the House, no day passes without colleagues of mine including professors looking into my office jocularly to chant one APC slogan or another; all extolling the courage of our Abuja export even as a ‘fresher’ in the hallowed chambers.
One professor particularly said he was happy for Bende people for making the right choice. I was happy so to hear this from an outsider.
Ben Kalu’s name had become a house-hold name in UNN to both staff and students alike. His picture, that of OUK, UNN immediate past VC including our highly reverred DIG Azubuko Udah (rtd) hung in my office like a second skin. And Like OUK, Ben Kalu had twice been linked to one event or the other within the UNN community for which both sons of Bende have become well known.
The visit of DIG Udah,(another Bende export) to UNN, has remained indelible in the minds of many. Hon. Kalu was later to receive under incredible fanfare an Award from the Lion’s den late last year. In the Award ceremony, five Bende exports notably Hon. Ben Kalu, Chief Ikenna Ariwodo, my good friend Hon. Chibuzo Okogbuo, Rev.(mrs) Jemima Ola Kalu and the ever amiable Dr Uche Ogah, the APC guber in Abia State were accorded indescribable recognition.
After our locust years in Bende beginning from 1999, patient observers insist that only effective leadership can alter the equation of ineptitude that has become the lot of our people. With Hon. Ben’s courageous outing exhaustively aired today, it does appear probably that Bende prayers are being answered at the very long last.
For many, effective leadership requires creative thinking. Not a few that analysed Hon Ben’s outing affirmed our cries in Bende will be no more at least to a very large extent.
And all of these are not lost on people at all including youngsters without any known links to Bende. Some smart folks in my final year class that witnessed Hon. Ben Kalu’s investiture in UNN knew him as a ‘fresher’ in the Lower House having taken his campaign to the campus last year. But these folks introduced Ben Kalu’s budgeoning legislative maturity in the class as possessing requisite skills for legislative representation.
They linked Ben Kalu’s Bende worries as canvassed on the floor of the House to personal passion and manifest leadership potentials well endowed in him. The class today focussed on Foreign Policy and Leadership and I was pleasantly surprised when in my bid to establish a nexus between a nation’s foreign policy posture and leadership, these smart folks rattled me by introducing Hon. Ben’s name in their perception and varying perspectives of leadership and nation building.
And they are not without their reasons. One of them, John Ibiam wondered how Hon. Ben Kalu was able without shivers to get across to the bewildered House a well crafted motion in a chamber dominated by old timers. One after another, including the very quiet ones amongst them, spoke so passionately about legislative performance and political representation to the admiration of a colleague from UNIZIK who preferred joining me in class rather than staying in the office alone.
From what transpired in my class today, I am convinced that political consciousness is growing amongst the studentry much more than many are willing to admit. It is true that in many offices especially in the Faculty of Arts, OUK and BOK campaign calenders, pin ups etc abound but it is important to observe that the presence of several political figures such His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former VP of the federal republic, DIG Udah, Hon. Cosmos Ndukwe, former Majority Leader, Abia State House of Assembly, Hon.Chibuzo Okogbuo, former Minority Leader, Abia State House of Assembly etc have tended to increase political consciousness and participation in the UNN academic community.
I recall with deep sense of appreciation Hon. Chijioke Chukwu’s(Abia Deputy Minority Leader) private visit to my office in UNN recently and the students’ strident request for a public visit by the Abia parliamentarian.
Engagingly, I believe that leadership by example as has been usually demonstrated by our senator from Abia North H.E Orji Uzor Kalu, including our already performing Bende export, Hon. Ben Kalu as well as Hon. Chijioke Chukwu remain a veritable source of encouragement for our youths.
It’s all nice that as the 9th National Assembly with it’s variants in different states across Nigeria take off in their respective duties, members should strive to remain role models for our youths that owns the future.
