|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A civil society organisation, the Igbo Mandate Movement Group, has condemned a petition filed against the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, describing it as “frivolous, mischievous and politically motivated.”
The group said the move represents the latest in a sustained campaign allegedly aimed at undermining the political career and public image of one of the South-East’s most prominent lawmakers.
The petition, authored by a former First Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, was addressed to the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee and the National Youth Service Corps, requesting a review of records relating to Kalu’s professional qualifications and national service history.
In a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Igboeli Arinze Napoleon, the Igbo Mandate Movement Group said the petition follows a pattern of credential challenges that have trailed Kalu at every stage of his rise. When he was nominated as a Commissioner in Abia State, detractors alleged he had never graduated from the University of Calabar — a claim disproved when Kalu subsequently obtained an LL.M and a Ph.D from the same institution and delivered its 50th Anniversary Convocation Lecture. When he sought election to represent Bende Federal Constituency, it was first alleged he had dodged NYSC service entirely; when that was debunked, the allegation shifted to claims that his NYSC certificate was a forgery — a claim that required a formal letter from the then NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Y.D. Ahmed, to finally extinguish. “The same forces of retrogression have returned with yet another iteration of the same discredited narrative,” the group said.
On the substance of the current petition, the group laid out the facts of Kalu’s 2010 service year. He graduated from the University of Calabar in 1998, but the Nigerian Law School — which then operated only two campuses in Lagos and Abuja — could not the volume of qualified graduates in promptly absorb. The resulting backlog left many law graduates waiting years for admission. Kalu travelled abroad during the wait to acquire further qualifications. Upon returning to Nigeria and being mobilised for NYSC in 2010, he was posted to the Enugu North Local Government Area and served in the office of the Chairman. He participated fully in camp activities, emerged as a Platoon Leader, and was decorated with the Citizenship and Leadership Award.
At the same time — by a remarkable coincidence — his long-awaited Law School admission arrived, placing him at the Enugu Campus in Agbani, just thirty minutes from his NYSC post. Faced with the choice of deferring admission and waiting another three to four years, or abandoning his NYSC service in breach of the NYSC Act, he chose to honour both obligations simultaneously. His primary assignment schedule was organised to allow him to discharge his LGA duties before attending Law School classes. He met all weekly and monthly NYSC clearance requirements, exceeded the mandatory 70% Law School attendance threshold, and was so distinguished academically that he was among only three students selected to serve on the research team of the then Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, the eminent Professor Ernest Ojukwu.
On the legal question, the group argued that any NYSC declarations critics seek to invoke are prospective in nature — they state what “shall not” be done going forward and cannot be applied retroactively to Kalu’s 2010 service. “Laws are not retroactive in nature,” the statement read.
“Such declarations do not carry the force of law and would not survive the scrutiny of an affidavit on oath.” The group added that a call to the Bar is a professional certification, and that corps members across Nigeria routinely acquire professional certifications — in management, cybersecurity, project management, and accountancy — during their service year, with full NYSC knowledge.
Beyond defending Kalu, the group used the statement to call for urgent policy reform. Thousands of Nigerian law graduates still face years-long waits between graduation and Law School admission. The group argued that Kalu’s ordeal — both in 2010 and now, as it is being weaponised against him — exposes a systemic failure that demands a legislative response, one that ensures law graduates can access the Law School in due time and that corps members in the legal profession are not punished for navigating a broken system with initiative and good faith.
“Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu deserves commendation — not condemnation,” the statement concluded.
The group called on the LPDC and NYSC to treat the petition with the contempt it deserves.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.