*Says Over 30,000 Igbos Killed, Businesses Razed, Families Shattered During IPOB Clashes
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Senator Orji Uzor Kalu said Nigeria’s escalating insecurity is the result of politically orchestrated sabotage aimed at derailing President Bola Tinubu’s administration ahead of the 2027 elections.
In a heated exchange on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the senator representing Abia North defended the federal government’s response while calling for a holistic political resolution to the sentencing of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu. He emphasized that justice should not be limited to Kanu alone but must also cover the thousands of Igbo victims of violence in the Southeast.
The interview aired amid breaking developments from Tinubu’s closed-door summit with service chiefs, including Chief of Defence Staff General Olufemi Oloyede, and heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defence Intelligence, Police, and DSS. The president ordered the redeployment of police from VIP protection to frontline duties, vowing “decisive action” and declaring, “Nigeria will prevail.” Okinbaloye framed the discussion against this backdrop, noting the release of 38 abducted worshippers from Eruku’s Christ Apostolic Church and PDP criticisms of the government’s “sluggish” response, including warnings against school closures as a “surrender to terrorists.”
Kalu kicked off by dismissing the abductions and school threats in Kwara, Niger, and Kaduna as “routine” election tactics, echoing patterns from President Goodluck Jonathan’s era. “What we are seeing is always a routine, something that goes with elections,” he told Okinbaloye. “People will try to pressurize the government… orchestrated by some members of the international community and local people who really want to destabilize government.”
Pressed on evidence, Kalu doubled down: “This is politically motivated… Nobody should tell you.” He alleged sponsorship by “politicians” and “individuals” buying “passionate mercenaries” to undermine Tinubu’s economic revival. “These people are sent out to destabilize a president that is ready to fight for our economy,” he said, linking it explicitly to 2027: “You know this is about 2027. It is not anything more than 2027.” While claiming the intelligence community knows the culprits, spanning ruling and opposition parties, Nigerians and foreigners, Kalu refused to name names, deferring to probes: “I cannot call anybody’s name. The intelligence community will work on it.”
On Tinubu’s response, Kalu praised the president’s canceled Sunday engagements and “sleepless nights,” assuring recoveries for abducted students and worshippers. “President Tinubu is equal to the task… Our service chiefs have gone fully on duty.” He highlighted National Assembly efforts, fresh from a meeting with Senate President Godswill Akpabio: “We are working on weekends… discussing security issues.” Solutions, he said, include closed-door talks on state policing, but blamed democratic “slowness” and constitutional two-thirds approval hurdles in state assemblies for delays. “Democracy is very slow… The 9th Senate recommended everything, but most came back without approval.”
Kalu touted recent Senate approvals for 100,000 soldier recruits and more police, countering under-policing in a population of over 200 million. “We need manpower… We have advertised,” he quipped when Okinbaloye asked if he had applied. On VIP police redeployments, a recurring directive, he agreed: “We see police carrying handbags… The president is just right.” Yet he lamented recruitment woes: “We cannot force anybody to join… People refuse to join the police or military.”
The exchange grew heated as Okinbaloye accused the APC of failing on “renewed hope” promises. “Your party promised security… Has your party provided that?” Kalu fired back, citing pre-2023 horrors: “Boko Haram took over all of Borno… Catholic churches in Maitama were bombed.” Now, he claimed progress: “They took whole villages; now it is hit-and-run sniper jobs.” Sabotage, he insisted, stems from national “hatred”: “People in Nigeria hate themselves… Nobody loves Nigeria.” He even turned the tables: “People like you are sabotaging it… The sabotage you are anchoring is the problem.”
Kalu, a self-described “pro-America” figure, addressed Trump’s threats of military intervention against alleged “Christian genocide” and Nigeria’s “Country of Particular Concern” designation from U.S. congressional hearings. Referencing a 1967 video by Murtala Muhammed warning of plots to deny Nigeria peace, he called it “pure sabotage” by jealous global powers fearing Nigeria’s rise: “If Nigeria is allowed, Nigeria will be number one economy in the world.”
He endorsed coordinated U.S. involvement: “It will be a very good thing… a combined effort” with technology and intelligence, not just soldiers. Recalling his push under President Olusegun Obasanjo for a 10,000-strong U.S. base in the Gulf of Guinea, earning him “CIA agent” slurs, Kalu argued it would curb oil theft and insecurity: “What is happening today will not happen.” On fears that CPC status could strain trade and diplomacy, he dismissed concerns: “Trump is not going to allow this… No president wants people to suffer.” Nigeria’s sovereignty as Africa’s “biggest black country” and UN and ECOWAS ally, he said, makes it indispensable: “We are not Mali or Sudan. This is Nigeria.”
Kalu revealed National Assembly outreach to U.S. counterparts, including NSA Nuhu Ribadu’s upcoming Washington trip: “We are talking… Efforts have been made seriously for the past three to four weeks.” Progress, he hinted, involves post-hearing briefings.
The interview’s emotional peak came on Kanu’s sentencing by Justice Omotosho. Echoing recent calls by Bianca Ojukwu and Kalu’s brother Mascot Uzor Kalu, the senator urged “sober reflection” over “noise-making”: “It is not time for fighting… If we must demand justice for Kanu, then we must equally demand justice for the thousands murdered in Igbo land, for those kidnapped, tortured and disappeared, for traders whose livelihoods went up in flames, for mothers raising children without fathers, and families buried without closure.”
Kalu advocated a “holistic political process,” likening it to the Niger Delta amnesty he helped secure under President Umaru Yar’Adua alongside James Ibori and Bukola Saraki. “We have to solve this problem holistically… Over 30,000 Igbos were killed, shops razed, businesses lost.” He decried the court’s focus on soldiers while ignoring Igbo victims: “Nobody talks about Igbos that were killed… A lot of Igbos were killed.” Personal anecdotes poured out, including a mother’s friend’s bankrupt rice shop owing N4.2 million and families fleeing villages.
As The Sun newspaper’s owner, Kalu defended its pro-Kanu coverage against Buhari-era ban threats: “I am for a free press… Write what you see.” He detailed his role in Kanu’s 2017 bail, later revoked, including 2016 meetings after Kanu’s return from Kenya and pressures on Buhari, Malami, and Lawal Daura: “I was the first that saw him… I personally put pressure.” Pledging to lobby Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi, Kalu said: “Let Igbos stop being emotional… Go on our knees and find a way that a man can be released. It is part of my job.”
On courtroom rants by figures like Daniel Nwankwo against Justice Inyang Ekwo, mistakenly referred to as Omotosho, Kalu condemned the behavior: “You cannot rant in a court… I take exception.” He recounted embracing Ekwo at his Supreme Court confirmation.
Reflecting on his Abia tenure, Kalu boasted of the Bakassi Boys vigilante force: “I established the Bakassi that survived almost the Southeast… I drove away all the criminals.” Offering to serve as an “emergency ruler” in troubled states, he lamented governors’ under-contribution: “States have a lot to contribute.”
Wrapping up, Okinbaloye sought assurances for fearful Nigerians facing school closures and sabotage. Kalu reiterated Tinubu’s round-the-clock work: “Leadership is not a bed of roses… The president is having sleepless nights.” Dismissing APC unpopularity, he said: “The party is growing… We are problem solvers.” On accountability, he deferred: “Our job is to make laws… We have never failed.”
The 45-minute clash ended abruptly, with Okinbaloye signing off on Tinubu’s police order and a nod to women’s special seats.
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