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Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who represents Abia North and is a former governor of Abia State, says he puts loyalty to his political party ahead of ethnic solidarity. He also expects President Bola Tinubu to win a second term comfortably. He made the remarks on Monday, November 9, 2026, during an appearance on Arise PrimeTime, the flagship evening programme of Arise News Television. The interview is among the more candid public statements by a South East politician in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) this campaign season.
The timing sharpens the debate. Under the revised timetable published by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the presidential and National Assembly elections are set for Saturday, January 16, 2027, with governorship and state assembly polls following on February 6. That puts the first vote just over two months away. The electoral body’s own INEC channels remain the authoritative place to confirm any later changes to the schedule.
Kalu’s central argument is simple. He dismissed expectations that he should back Peter Obi or other Igbo presidential aspirants contesting outside the APC. His reasoning, as he put it, is that a politician’s first duty is to the party that carries his name. “Party loyalty is number one,” he said, according to a report of the interview. In a separate account of the same conversation he said, “I am not ethnically loyal,” describing himself as a Nigerian first.
He did not disown his Igbo identity. He said he is Igbo by birth and that he has fought for Igbo interests over the years. What he described instead was a layered approach to identity that changes with the setting. “When I’m in Abia, ethnic loyalty in Abia,” he said, and he added that in Lagos he sets ethnic loyalty aside to fit in among other Nigerians. Put plainly, he separates cultural belonging at home from political choices made at the national level.
The position is consistent with what he has said for months. In January he declared that Abia would be captured by the APC in 2027, and that he would work for Tinubu’s victory and for any APC governorship candidate in the state. That includes opposing the re-election of Governor Alex Otti, who was elected on the Labour Party platform and whom Kalu has described as a personal friend. Kalu said at the time that the two should not lose their friendship over party differences. The relationship has not always been smooth in public, however. Early in January Kalu accused Otti of launching an unwarranted and intemperate attack against him for reaffirming his loyalty to the APC.
On the national race, Kalu was bullish. He described opposition forces as fragmented and said the APC retains deep grassroots support that social media sentiment does not capture. He added that APC lawmakers and other stakeholders are already mobilising in their constituencies to consolidate the party’s electoral strength. It is not a new line from him. In April he told Channels Television that no one could defeat Tinubu in a free and fair poll, and he dismissed claims of APC interference in the electoral commission.
Claims of a divided opposition are plausible on the surface, though how much they will matter at the ballot box is something voters, not senators, will decide. Obi is now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, and he recently voiced concern over a Federal High Court judgment nullifying Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the African Democratic Congress candidate. Obi had earlier left the ADC, citing a toxic political environment and recurring internal crisis. Opposition parties that were once expected to line up behind a single ticket are now operating separately, which is the context Kalu is drawing on when he talks about disarray.
His argument about ethnicity also meets resistance in the South East itself. The region voted heavily for Obi in 2023, when he ran on the Labour Party ticket. Critics of APC outreach in the zone say that vote reflected shared aspirations rather than ethnic reflex. One commentator, Linus Okorie, made that case in an opinion piece disputing a separate claim by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu that the South East would deliver more than 70 percent of its votes to Tinubu. The Deputy Speaker is a different politician from the senator, but his remarks and the reaction to them show how contested the question of South East loyalty has become. The Deputy Speaker has urged the region to avoid wasting votes on opposition parties and to build strength within the APC.
Analysts have long noted that Nigerian elections sit at the meeting point of two pulls. Ethnic and regional solidarity often shapes voter behaviour, while party discipline is seen as vital for cohesion and for effective legislative work. Kalu’s view falls squarely on the second side. A voter who disagrees can fairly say that a party label does not erase a region’s grievances. A voter who agrees can argue that parties cannot function if members break ranks every time a candidate shares their ethnic background. Both arguments will be tested in January.
The economy featured heavily in the interview. Kalu defended Tinubu’s reforms and said the country was beginning to experience greater predictability, while acknowledging the challenges facing ordinary Nigerians and arguing that reforms often bring temporary difficulties. He urged Nigerians to weigh long-term objectives instead of focusing only on immediate hardship. He said the government should now concentrate on reviving agricultural production, improving security and helping manufacturers access raw materials. Earlier this year he struck a similar balance. He acknowledged progress at the macro level but said grassroots challenges persist because of insecurity and other disruptions. Readers who follow how these policies are playing out for companies and households can find ongoing coverage on Business Tech.
The senator also addressed his own ambitions. On speculation that he could become Senate President, he said he is not lobbying for the office but would accept it if party leadership, and Tinubu in particular, offered it, and he insisted he had never asked the President for it. He also spoke about the collapse of his relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and promised to groom younger Nigerians for leadership. Those remarks give a fuller picture of a politician who has moved between parties over the years and now describes steadiness as a virtue.
For now, Kalu’s statements are the views of one influential member of the ruling party, delivered in a televised interview, and they should be read that way. They are neither a forecast backed by polling nor a verdict from the South East. What they do offer is a clear statement of how a prominent APC figure from the region intends to answer the question many Igbo voters will face before January: whether the party on the ballot or the identity of the candidate should carry more weight. The answer will not come from interviews. It will come from voters in Abia, across the South East and in the rest of the country when the polls open.
