A prominent Igbo youth organisation has fired back at the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), rejecting as entirely false the allegations levelled against Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, regarding his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate and Nigerian Law School records.
The Youth Renaissance for Good Governance with a membership of over 30,000 Igbo youths spread across all 36 states of the federation and in the Diaspora — described the COSEYL statement as a “nauseating report that bore enormous falsehood” and demanded that the group produce the source of its so-called indicting report.
“We wish to place before the Nigerian public and all well-meaning citizens of the South-East the irrefutable fact that there exists no credible, official, or verified report indicting the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu,” the group said in a statement signed by its National President, Dr. Ebekuo Madu, and National Secretary, Paul Nwachukwu.
The group pointed to a 2023 NYSC verification exercise as dispositive of the matter, noting that a senior NYSC director who participated in the investigation confirmed that Kalu’s certificate was duly obtained in full compliance with the NYSC Act. The NYSC, the group said, had already issued a verification letter to that effect.
On the LPDC, the group also alleged that the body was too busy to entertain frivolous petitions.
The statement also dismissed any prospect of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) entertaining what the group called “an infantile and politically motivated petition built on fabricated allegations,” arguing that the LPDC’s mandate was too weighty to be weaponised for political ends.
The Youth Renaissance group trained particularly sharp language on what it described as orchestrated political desperation emanating from certain quarters in Abia State. The group alleged that Kalu’s potential — including an undeclared but widely speculated gubernatorial ambition — had so alarmed rival political interests that they had gone as far as sponsoring protest groups from outside the South-East to agitate against him using public funds.
“Rt. Hon. Kalu has not even declared any intention to run for the governorship of Abia State, yet these desperate forces are so terrified of his potential that they have resorted to hiring proxies,” the statement read. “This is both shameful and an affront to the dignity of our people.”
The group noted that the pattern of attacking Kalu’s credentials was not new, describing it as a recurring feature of every election cycle targeting prominent South-East political figures. It urged COSEYL to focus instead on the tangible challenges confronting South-East youths rather than serve as an instrument of political vendetta.
The statement also acknowledged a growing counter-mobilisation in support of the Deputy Speaker, with segments of the South-East youth community said to be considering a solidarity rally on his behalf.
The group closed with a pointed cultural appeal: “NdiIgbo must rise above such shameless patterns of politics.”
COSEYL had not responded to a request for comment as of press time. Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu’s office also did not immediately respond.
