Kalu: Bourdex’s Political Diapers
There is a distinct difference between a heavyweight champion and a ringside spectator who thinks he can box because he has watched a few matches. There is a gulf between the architect who lays the foundation of a skyscraper and the passerby who throws stones at the windows. This week, that gulf was made painfully obvious by David Ogba Onuoha Bourdex, a man who seems to have mistaken his social media timeline for a political platform, and his personal bitterness for public advocacy.
In a recent, rambling diatribe titled “The Politics of Distraction,” Bourdex attempted to dress down Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. Instead, he only succeeded in exposing his own political immaturity, revealing himself as a novice still wearing political diapers, crying out for attention while the adults are busy doing the heavy lifting of governance.
It is almost comical to watch Bourdex try to stand toe-to-toe with Kalu. It is the equivalent of a candle trying to lecture the sun on how to shine. Senator Kalu, the current Senator representing Abia North is a man whose political trajectory is etched in the bedrock of Nigerian history. From his days as a transformative Governor to his current status as a ranking Senator and a national bridge-builder, Kalu has defined what it means to be a statesman. Bourdex, on the other hand, seems to have built his entire political identity around a singular, obsessive strategy: attacking Orji Uzor Kalu.
Bourdex’s recent article claims that Kalu has “suddenly rediscovered his voice” for a “new theatre of accusation” regarding Nnamdi Kanu and the security situation in the Southeast. He accuses Kalu of manufacturing enemies to stay relevant. This assertion would be laughable if the subject matter were not so serious.
The truth, which is visible to everyone except perhaps Bourdex and his shrinking circle of cheerleaders, is that Kalu has never lost his voice. He has been the most consistent, courageous, and vocal leader from the Southeast in the last two decades.
When others were cowering in silence, afraid of the mob, afraid of the gunmen, afraid of the political ramifications, it was Kalu who visited Nnamdi Kanu in prison years ago. It was Kalu who consistently advocated for a political solution while simultaneously warning our youth against the path of violence that would destroy our economy.
To now accuse him of “manufacturing insecurity” is a hallucination born of a desperate mind. Kalu cited the figure of 30,000 souls perished and economies shattered not to mock the dead, but to force us to face the reality that cowards like Bourdex want to ignore.
Kalu speaks of the dead because he values the living. Bourdex prefers silence because he values his safety over the truth. That is the difference between a leader and a politician who is still wetting his bed.
Bourdex claims Kalu has forgotten the “forgotten roads or abandoned communities.” One must wonder if Bourdex actually lives in Abia North or if he is reporting from a parallel universe. If there is one thing even Kalu’s fiercest critics admit, it is that he is the “Roadmaster.” Since returning to the Senate, Kalu has turned Abia North into a massive construction site. From Bende to Ohafia, from Isuikwuato to Umunneochi, rural roads that had not seen asphalt since the colonial era have been constructed. Schools have been renovated. Scholarships have been distributed. Empowerment materials have been given to thousands. These are facts, verifiable and tangible. For Bourdex to claim Kalu has abandoned development is not just a lie; it is a delusion. It suggests that Bourdex is so blinded by his envy that he cannot see the asphalt beneath his own feet.
The accusation that Kalu used fear to “whisper into INEC’s ears” in 2023 is the classic cry of a bad loser. In the 2023 elections, Kalu won because he worked. He won because the people of Abia North know the difference between a Facebook tiger and a real-life benefactor.
While Bourdex was busy crafting conspiracy theories about “manufactured results in the dark,” Kalu was busy campaigning in the remote villages where Bourdex would be afraid to tread.
Kalu won a landslide victory not because of federal might, but because of local love. To insult the intelligence of the Abia North electorate by suggesting they were disenfranchised is an insult to the very people Bourdex claims to want to lead.
Bourdex speaks of 2027 with a palpable panic. He warns the Federal Government not to be “baited” by Kalu. This reveals Bourdex’s profound misunderstanding of national politics. Kalu does not need to bait Aso Rock. He is a part of the national fabric. He is a founding member of the APC, a personal friend to the President, and a stakeholder whose opinion is sought after, not tolerated.
The Federal Government recognizes Kalu as a stabilizer, a man who can speak to the North and the South with equal respect. Bourdex, looking from the outside in, thinks this influence is a game. He does not understand that influence is earned through years of reliability and bridge-building, not through writing malicious articles.
The irony of Bourdex’s piece is titled “The Politics of Distraction.” Yet, who is truly the distraction here? Kalu is busy inspecting projects, sponsoring bills, and engaging in high-level diplomacy to bring peace to the Southeast. Bourdex is busy writing about Kalu. Kalu is the protagonist of the Abia North story; Bourdex has reduced himself to a bitter commentator in the margins. It is a tragedy of a man who needs an enemy to survive because he has no achievements of his own to stand on.
Let us be clear about the issue of IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu. Bourdex attempts to position himself as the defender of the agitators, warning them not to be used as “political props.” This is the worst kind of hypocrisy. Kalu has been the only leader bold enough to tell the agitators the hard truth: that destroying our home does not grant us freedom.
He has been a father figure, chiding the child when he is wrong but fighting for the child’s release behind closed doors. Bourdex, in his political infancy, thinks leadership is about pandering to emotions. He wants to clap for the fire while the house burns, hoping the smoke will blind the voters to his incompetence.
The people of Abia North are indeed wiser now, as Bourdex rightly noted, but not in the way he thinks. They have seen the difference between the noise of a novice and the results of a master. They know that a man who has built a business empire, governed a state, and excelled in the Senate is not in the same weight class as a man whose primary political output is envy.
It is time for Bourdex to grow up. Politics is not for children who cry when they cannot have their way. It is for men who can take the heat, speak the truth, and build the roads. Orji Uzor Kalu is far ahead, marching toward 2027 with a scorecard full of achievements and a conscience clear of malice. Bourdex is left behind, screaming at the wind, trying to convince the world that the giant is afraid of the ant.
Senator Kalu should not be distracted by these tantrums. When a child cries in his crib, the father does not stop working to feed the family. He simply closes the door and lets the child cry himself to sleep. Bourdex is merely crying himself to sleep, wrapped in the comfort of his delusions, while Orji Uzor Kalu continues the serious, adult work of building Abia North and Nigeria. The electorate knows the truth. They know that come 2027, they will choose the man who builds bridges, not the boy who burns them. They will choose the man of honor, not the man of distraction. They will choose Orji Uzor Kalu, the man who has proven, time and again, that he is the undisputed leader of his people.
Rubby Obinna
December 24 2025.