By Tobi Akinnubi
October 5, 2025
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has finally found his voice lamenting that Igbo traders are being targeted in the ongoing demolition exercise at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex. But many can’t help asking: where was this outrage when bulldozers rolled into Ariaria International Market in Aba, displacing more than 50,000 Igbo traders, his own people, in his own state just a few months ago?
Silence then.
Sympathy now.
Convenience, not conviction.
SELECTIVE OUTRAGE IS NOT LEADERSHIP
Let’s be clear: if the demolitions in Lagos are unjust, they must be condemned. Nobody should lose their life’s work under the weight of a government bulldozer. But for a man who looked away while the economic soul of Aba was being crushed, Kalu’s sudden concern rings hollow.
Leadership is not about choosing outrage when it’s politically safe, it’s about speaking truth even when it’s uncomfortable. You cannot ignore the cries of traders in Abia and suddenly find your conscience in Lagos.
THE IGBO QUESTION AND THE HYPOCRISY OF POWER
Kalu’s statement tries to cloak itself in ethnic defense portraying the demolitions as an anti-Igbo agenda. But this is the same Kalu who said nothing when Igbo livelihoods were erased under his own nose.
What’s worse? The Ariaria victims weren’t outsiders. They were sons and daughters of Abia, his home, his base, his people. Yet their cries met silence.
It’s not tribal defense if your compassion depends on location. It’s political posturing.
WHEN THE PEOPLE NEEDED A VOICE
Ariaria Market isn’t just a commercial hub, it’s a heritage of Igbo creativity and resilience. For decades, it’s been the factory floor of West Africa, the heart of Aba’s economic power.
When the Abia government began tearing it down, Kalu said nothing. No statement. No solidarity. No defense of those same Igbo he now claims to represent.
Now, as the Lagos Trade Fair faces demolition, his sudden “Igbo defense” is too convenient to be convincing.
LEADERSHIP WITHOUT CONSISTENCY IS EMPTINESS
Real leaders don’t speak only when it serves their narrative. They defend justice wherever it’s under threat, in Aba or in Lagos, in the North or in the South.
Kalu’s selective empathy exposes a deeper sickness in Nigerian politics: leaders who see through tribal lenses, not moral ones.
You can’t claim to be a defender of Igbo interest when you kept quiet while Ariaria which is the symbol of Igbo enterprise was razed to the ground.
FINAL WORD
Kalu’s words about Trade Fair may sound noble, but they come too late and lack the moral backbone of a leader who truly stands for his people.
If he had spoken with the same energy during the Ariaria demolitions, his outrage today might have carried weight.
But when you choose silence in your backyard and noise in another man’s compound, the people can tell the difference.
History will, too.
