Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, representing Abia North, shared details of his private conversations with the late General Chukwuemeka Odumegu Ojukwu, the central figure of the first Biafran movement, during the General’s final years.
During an interview on Arise Television on Sunday, the 7th of December, 2025, Kalu disclosed a critical difference in Ojukwu’s view between the original agitation and the current one. He stated that Ojukwu had confided in him that while the initial Biafra struggle was deemed “necessary,” the current, second wave of agitation was “no longer necessary.”
Senator Kalu also took the opportunity to firmly reject suggestions that he was less committed to his Igbo heritage than others in the Southeast.
“I am full blooded Igbo,” Kalu asserted, confirming his deep personal connection with the late General: “I was with late Ojukwu in the later days of his life, and his wife, Mrs Bianca can testify to this that I was always coming to the General, and the General was coming to my village to stay some days or weekends.”
Kalu recounted the specific advice Ojukwu gave him regarding the current resurgence of the movement: “And then Ojukwu told me that the first struggle for Biafra was necessary, that the second one is no longer necessary.”
The Senator questioned the rationality and consequences of the violent approaches employed by some contemporary agitators, which he argued are self-destructive to the Igbo people and region.
“Even if these boys want Biafra, who are you going to rule when you kill all the Igbos? When you stop all Igbos from doing businesses? When on Mondays, if you see people going out for business, you start pursuing them and killing them? I mean, it is not rational. It is not just nice.”
Kalu urged for a shift from confrontation to political dialogue, particularly in the wake of Nnamdi Kanu’s legal situation. “I thought with what happened to Nnamdi Kanu, these boys should come together in a table and say, how do we get peace to resolve this matter politically? And not still talking tough as they are trying to behave.”
He emphasized that any continued demand for Biafra must be conducted peacefully through established political channels, calling for negotiation and a focus on a referendum rather than armed struggle.
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“So I think even if they want Biafra, they should drop their arms and go with their flags and demand for what they want and negotiate for it and talk for a referendum.”
Kalu concluded his remarks by invoking the opinion of Ojukwu’s widow, Minister Bianca Ojukwu, suggesting she holds a similar perspective on the need to protect the region from internal conflict.
“Even the man that fought the civil war, the wife is saying the same thing I’m saying. Minister Bianca Ojukwu knows the thought of her husband, and nobody will believe on the destruction of Igbo land. Enough is enough.”
He ended with a passionate appeal to end the destruction plaguing the Southeast: “Let us stop destroying ourselves. Let us stop destroying our properties. Let us stop destroying what we have.” He painted a grim picture of the current economic reality: “Look, there is no more commerce in the entire Igbo land. How are we going to live? Things are difficult. Things are very bad for people living there. So how are we going to live? These are the issues.”