Former Abia State governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, has revealed what will end the needless agitations in the south eastern part of the country.
According to Kalu, creation of an additional state in the South-east zone, would put it at par with the other zones in the country.
Kalu made this submission when he spoke with newsmen during annual youth summit of Junior Chamber International, Ikoyi, hosted by the Orji Uzor Kalu Foundation at Camp Neya, his country home in Igbere, Bende LGA.
He said the decision of the government to proscribe the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) remained the only option that would guarantee stability which he said the country needs desperately at a time like this .
“I think a lot of hate speech had engulfed the country, and the matter escalated because the IPOB leader refused to abide by the terms of his bail. If he had agreed, and probably appealed against the conditions, the situation wouldn’t have gotten to this point. When two people are fighting and the court says, don’t fight, you obey the court. The court decision was not a personal decision of Justice Binta Nyako but the decision of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Kalu explained.
“Some of you know what Ojukwu said here when he was alive, one day it will be made public. If we say we are marginalised, everyone is marginalised. We are marginalised because our people refuse to work. As soon as one becomes a governor or minister he buys houses in Ikoyi and abroad and the people will celebrate him.
“Remember when I was governor, the army and police used to do joint patrol. We should not box ourselves into a corner because my conscience will not allow me to do what is evil,” he said.
“The demography of this country shows that if you go to Kontagora, after the aborigines the next is the Igbo. The same with Jos, Kano, the West, name it, so we need the peace and unity of the country more than anyone else,” he said.
The former governor and chieftain of APC, however, appealed to the Federal Government to take the issue of restructuring seriously, saying, “We have gone past going to Abuja to share money every month.”
He pleaded with the federal government to go back to the 2014 confab report, “The South East zone should have one more state,” Kalu said, lamenting that rather than discuss the interest of the zone, “some Igbo leaders go to the president with the CV of their wives and children, but I go to him to tell him the problem of the people.”
“We need peace everywhere, we condemn hate speeches,” Kalu said.
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