Sen. Kalu is serving his second-term as a Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).  Senator Kalu was first elected into the 9th Assembly, where he served as the Chief Whip of the Senate and Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions. He had served as a two-term Governor od Abia State under the platform of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) on May 29, 1999, and re-elected in  2003. In 2006 before completing his final tenure as Governor, he decapmed the PDP and founded the Progressive People's Alliance (PPA), where he was the party's Presidential candidate during the April 2007 general election.