at the Abuja airport, in reaction to the ongoing
Biafra protests in eastern parts of the country, he was
quoted to have said,
"If he is the Commander- in -Chief, and one
of his soldiers is killed, he will kill
everybody."
The former Governor of Abia State said the pro-
Biafra protesters have the legal right to self-
determination, but faulted the manner in which
its been done. He advised the federal
government to dialogue with the pro-Biafra
protesters and put an end to the agitation.
Below is the full speech:
"Those boys are right, they have a right to
demonstrate, but not violent demonstration, not
killing soldiers because if I am a Commander- in
-Chief, and you kill one of my soldiers, I will kill
everybody. You cannot kill soldiers. You cannot
kill police. You have a right to say no, we want
our own Republic.
The United Nations charter gives them the right
to ask for self-determination. It is not a right of
determination to go and destroy people’s
properties, to go and destroy Nigerian Armed
Forces, whether it is Nigerian Army, Nigerian
Navy or Nigerian Police. These are not the
rights. They have the right to speak for self-
determination. This is the full right.
If I am president, I will set up either traditional
rulers and some political leaders to go and ask
the boys what they really want, what is really
their problem, what can be done to stop them
from asking for this. This is how Boko Haram
started killing members of Catholic Church, and
as a Catholic, I spoke vehemently against it. I
told you airport correspondents that they will
finish killing the Catholic and will go and start
killing everybody and it happened.
When kidnapping just started, then I was
governor, they were kidnapping white people
and I spoke out. I said when they finished
kidnapping white people and there were no
more white man to kidnap, they would start
kidnapping us and that is what is happening in
the country today.
So, I will advise the Federal Government. This is
a federation, you need to manage the federation.
Some people must ask for self-determination. It
is the management of the people that matters.
President Buhari, as a matter of fact, should set
out traditional rulers, set out people, set out
securities and intelligent agencies to intervene.
They should be more intelligent than policemen
or military people carrying guns. They should
find a way and tell the boys that what they are
doing is not the right thing to do. So, it is left
for the Federal Government. This is the right
time to nip the agitation in the bud, but not by
force. It is a wrong strategy hearing people
saying that we will quench it by force. We
cannot quench anything by force because it is
their right to ask for self- determination.
But is it the right thing to do in a bigger country
like ours? It is only a president that doesn’t
know what he wants that will want a section of
his country to go. I think negotiation is part of
democracy," Kalu said.
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