HOW A HERO EMERGES: AN ANALYSIS OF ORJI UZOR KALU IN LIGHT OF HIS PRESENT PREDICAMENT. By. Grace A. Ibeh, PhD

In classical Greek tragedy, which remains the foundation of modern literature, there are attributes every hero must possess. Among them are: the character attributes of the hero are fully revealed only after some time. The true character of a hero takes time to evolve. Unlike the ordinary actors in the drama who retain the character trait they entered the stage with, the hero enters the stage with a particular set of character trait, but as the drama progresses, the audience begins to see him differently. This is because as the audience looks more closely, it will begin to see things in the hero that were not noticed before. This is either because the hero evolves in his qualities or the audience has gained insight about the hero and evolved in its perception of the hero. The hero is never a flat character. He is a complex and evolving.

Another attribute of classical Greek hero is that he must have some obvious flaws. The audience first encounters the hero at a point when these flaws are in display. And this why the audience’s initial impression of the hero may be poor and negative. A perfect person cannot be a true hero. To be perfect is to be without a flaw and no hero can be without a flaw. The hero’s flaws are necessary for his character or personality evolution in the course of the drama. This is why the hero’s flaws are called tragic flaws. They are essential to him and they lead to his ruin.

A final attribute of the hero that I need to mention here is the trials of the hero. The hero must face serious trials that will be so severe they nearly take his life. You cannot be a hero without a trial. There cannot be a Job (as in the  Bible) without the incalculable losses he endured. But the hero must live. In the book of Job, God always said to Satan “But don’t take his life”. God himself was laying the defining attribute of the hero – kill him, but don’t take his life.

The tragic flaw of the hero is a shortcoming he has, but it need not be a dreadful shortcoming. In the case of Job, his flaw was that he loved God too much and was too faithful to God. You may not see that as a flaw in the normal way you understand the word. But it was a flaw in the sense that it set Job apart and it attracted the attention of someone capable of causing him incredible suffering.

I thought I knew Orji Uzor Kalu all these years I have read about him as Governor, businessman with dodgy tendencies. However, it was after his conviction in December 2019 that I actually began to analyze the man beyond what the mainstream gossip mill said about him.

To my shock, I began to see in him the attributes of a Greek hero described above. This is a guy who was super successful as a businessman before he joined politics in 1990s. He was a Governor at age 39. That meant he joined politics well before he was 39. And that meant he must have been a successful businessman at least ten years earlier, which means he was a successful businessman at age 25 to 28. Nobody becomes a successful businessman overnight. There must be the initial years of struggling to succeed. That means that Orji Uzor Kalu started his struggle before the age when it was legal for him to vote. One must come to this conclusion, whether you like Orji Uzor Kalu or hate him.

The critical point I’m making is that you really wouldn’t know this about Orji Uzor Kalu if you, as the audience, began to see him from the moment he entered the stage as a politician. This is a hero’s quality in display. What appears as the evolving or changing personality of the hero is actually the changing perspective of the audience. It is the audience that begins to see the hero differently as the audience gains more information about the hero. People of Rome did not know Julius Caesar until they got to learn more about him. Otherwise they had seen him as ambitious tyrant. It is clear that Orji Uzor Kalu must have been a smart fighter. You don’t get where he got at age 25 by sitting down and singing Kumbaya. All that his detractors must have said about him are just hokum, hogwash and hooey.

Then you look at the other attributes of a hero. What are Orji Uzor Kalu’s tragic flaws. He has an overarching urge to lead, to be ahead. He is a fiercely competitive animal. He is a fighter. He doesn’t fear. He doesn’t believe he has limits to his abilities. He believes he could change the world and that he should. Orji’s main flaw is his belief in his invincibility. He was the only Governor that fought Obasanjo and survived. He failed to realize that Obasanjo was the master of dissonance and could manipulate an EFCC-led impeachment against him. The same flaw blinded Orji Uzor Kalu and prevented him from understanding that once he became the Chief Whip of the ruling party in the Senate, he would be seen as a potential presidential candidate, and that many other contenders would like to cut him down. That was the flaw that led to his current predicament.

The conviction and imprisonment of Orji Uzor Kalu is the equivalent of the immense near-death trial of the Greek hero. That was supposed to destroy him. But that was not what happened. From my detailed research, the imprisonment of Orji Uzor Kalu is transforming him. It is bringing out certain qualities about him that people didn’t know he had. First, it cures the flaw. He now understands that there are people willing and capable to stopping him. So, he is now able to deal with that.

Having spent time in prison, Orji Uzor Kalu now understands what millions of Nigerians suffer in the hands of a failed justice system. He must see his imprisonment as God’s call for him to lead the reform of the justice system in Nigeria. He has made that critical connection between him and justice reform. That will be his legacy, his gift to his country.

Orji Uzor Kaku is only 60. We believe he will be out of prison very soon. But even in the worst case scenario, Orji will be out at age 67. So, his imprisonment cannot stop a fighter like Orji Uzor Kalu. Nigeria is yet to see the best of him. What he needs is just good health. The hero must stay alive. “But don’t take his life”, God said to Satan.