As Nigeria heads toward the 2027 general election, two of Abia State's most prominent APC figures, the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu and Senator Orji Uzor Kalu are both seeking to extend their tenures. However, what we seem to have here is a case of one bird not wanting the other to perch peacefully.
Start with the constitutional question. Unlike the executive branch, Nigeria's constitution places no term limit on senators or members of the House of Representatives. The two-term cap that dominates conversations about "third term" politics applies specifically to the presidency and to state governorships. A senator or House member can, in principle, run for re-election indefinitely, subject only to their party's primary process and the will of voters. Strictly speaking, then, there is no legal bar standing between either Orji Uzor Kalu or Benjamin Kalu and another term. The real contest, for both men, plays out in APC primaries and at the ballot box, not against any constitutional ceiling.
That legal clarity, though, is precisely what makes Orji Uzor Kalu's conduct on the zoning question in Bende so troubling and I am not alone in that view. A number of Abians across the senatorial zone share the same unease. Senator Kalu appears bent on undermining his own party by working against Benjamin Kalu's ambition to secure another term.
Pressed on why his body language reads as opposition to the Deputy Speaker's re-election bid, one much struggles to find a defensible reason. Benjamin Kalu has performed well beyond expectation as a legislator over the past eight years, and his scorecard compares favourably with Orji's own record, a record that, critics would argue, has amounted to little more than photo opportunities with fellow senators, alongside a broader ambition to entrench his own political dynasty in Abia.
What makes this harder to justify is that the same Orji working to block a rising figure like Benjamin Kalu from returning to the House is simultaneously chasing a third term of his own. The contradiction recalls Orwell's famous line from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." It is difficult to read Orji's posture as anything other than a man applying one standard to himself and another to everyone else, a habit that, over time, starts to look less like principle and more like self-regard.
That contradiction is what makes the recent "Bende Stakeholders" episode worth examining closely. A group using that name reportedly pressured Benjamin Kalu to step down in 2027, on the argument that two terms are enough. But the claim collapsed almost as quickly as it surfaced: stakeholders from Bende Local Government Area publicly dissociated themselves from the communiqué, and a former LGA chairman described the group as an impersonation of a long-defunct "Bende Forum," urging the public to disregard it.
The deeper question is one of consistency. This would not be the first time Orji Uzor Kalu has resisted a third-term bid by someone else while pursuing one of his own;a similar pattern is said to have played out in his history with the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije. Set beside the current Benjamin Kalu situation, the pattern raises a fair question about what standard, if any, Orji applies consistently to himself.
It isn't esoteric knowledge that since Benjamin Kalu's emergence as Deputy Speaker, Orji has, in the view of many observers, sought in various ways to check his rise. If that reading is correct, it suggests Orji continues to see Kalu as a rival to whatever ambition he is currently nursing, a dynamic more about self-preservation than principle.
Strip away the personal rivalry, though, and there is a genuine and fair question underneath it for the voters of Bende and Abia North: should incumbency be renewed on the strength of a demonstrated record, or should it rotate as a matter of principle, regardless of performance? That is not a question with one correct answer, it is a values question on which reasonable voters disagree. Some Nigerian constituencies favour long-serving legislators precisely because seniority brings committee chairmanships, budget influence, and access that a freshman lawmaker simply doesn't have. Others prize rotation as a check against any one family or bloc entrenching itself in a seat indefinitely, however rotation’s voice is weak here as the two blocs in Bende, namely Umunna and Ikwuishi are at a disparity, with Umunna having a stint at the House of Representatives for 24 years, while Ikwuishi where the Deputy Speaker hails from has had 11 years.
Abia North and Bende voters are entitled to weigh that trade-off for themselves using the actual legislative record, project delivery, and constituency outreach of each candidate. That, and not inconsistent politics, hypocrisy, personal rivalry or dynasty-building, should be the yardstick.
