How Ojukwu ‘deliberately frustrated’ Nigeria’s last peace chance before Civil War — Gowon

Yakubu Gowon and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

How Ojukwu ‘deliberately frustrated’ Nigeria’s last peace chance before Civil War — Gowon

ABUJA — Former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has reopened one of the most painful chapters in Nigeria’s history, accusing late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, of frustrating repeated efforts to stop the country from sliding into civil war. The claim is contained in Gowon’s newly released 859-page autobiography, “My Life of Duty and Allegiance,” which offers a deeply personal account of the failed peace talks, political mistrust, and constitutional disputes that shattered negotiations between the federal military government and the Eastern Region before the 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War. Gowon, now 92 years old, spoke extensively in the autobiography about the tensions that followed the January and July 1966 coups and the events that eventually pushed Nigeria into a 30-month war that claimed an estimated one to three million lives. The book was launched at a well-attended ceremony at the Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Ojukwu deliberately and effectively thwarted every effort we made to amicably resolve our national issues,” Gowon wrote in the memoir. The former military ruler said several attempts were made to reach a political settlement after the killings of Igbos in parts of Northern Nigeria triggered outrage, fear, and growing separatist pressure in the Eastern Region. According to him, the federal military government agreed to the January 1967 meeting in Aburi, Ghana, believing dialogue could still prevent the collapse of the federation. “We went to Aburi with open minds and with the sincere hope of finding a basis for national reconciliation,” Gowon wrote. The meeting, brokered by former Ghanaian leader Lt.-Gen. Joseph Arthur Ankrah, brought together Nigeria’s top military officers at a time the country was already under severe strain from coups, ethnic killings, and deepening distrust within the armed forces.

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But Gowon said the talks ran into trouble after both sides returned from Ghana with different interpretations of what had been agreed. In a separate interview on Arise TV, Gowon provided further details on the fundamental disagreement that derailed the accord, revealing that Ojukwu’s demand for regional control of military forces was a red line the federal government could not cross. “Although we said that the military would be zoned, you know, the control… he wanted, you know, those zones to be commanded by the governor. Say you have a military zone in the north, it would be commanded by the governor of the military in the north; the military zone in the east would be commanded by, you know, by him,” Gowon explained. “Of course, we did not agree with that one.” Gowon emphasized that the federal delegation never intended the summit to serve as a platform for constitutional restructuring or military devolution. “What was presented by Ojukwu as the Aburi Accord was, in reality, his own interpretation of our discussions,” he wrote.

The former leader also disclosed that he was unwell upon returning from the summit and unable to respond promptly to the terms Ojukwu had announced publicly, which he said led to confusion. “Unfortunately, I know people would not believe it, I was having a serious attack of a kind of fever or whatever it is, and I could not make a decision,” he noted. Gowon accused Ojukwu of acting unilaterally by announcing the accord’s outcome without mutual clarification. To address the ambiguity, Gowon said the federal government organized a follow-up meeting in Benin City with all regional governors — an effort Ojukwu ultimately snubbed, citing safety concerns. “We had to organise a meeting of all the governors. And he was invited to attend so that we can deal with the Accord. And we met at Nifo in Benin. And he did not turn up,” Gowon recounted. He expressed regret that the opportunity to salvage the accord was lost due to Ojukwu’s absence. “If he had come to that meeting, we could have resolved it.”

Beyond the diplomatic breakdown, Gowon’s autobiography contains explosive allegations that Ojukwu was secretly preparing for war even as peace talks progressed. The former head of state claimed that the Eastern Region’s arms build-up suffered a setback in October 1966 after a DC-4 aircraft carrying weapons crashed in the hills of Northern Cameroon. “It did not matter that his plan was to buy some more time to enable him to stockpile arms and ammunition. We were also mindful that he had cleverly planned to apply the brakes on our ability to deploy the numerical advantage of the existing firepower of the Nigerian Army,” Gowon wrote. In a dramatic revelation, Gowon’s autobiography alleges that France supported Ojukwu’s secessionist efforts in exchange for control of Biafra’s mineral deposits. The former head of state wrote that Ojukwu mortgaged the mineral wealth of Biafra to the Rothschild banking family for approximately $10 million (about N5 million at the time) to secure French-backed support for the rebel government. According to Gowon, as the war intensified, France provided the rebel government with enormous support through the former African territories it controlled, with the backing provided in exchange for what France hoped to gain from a successful Biafran breakaway. The true depth of the transaction only became known when the Nigerian Consulate in New York intercepted intelligence on a B-26 aircraft purchase routed through a South American country.

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Gowon further alleged that Ojukwu confirmed the arms stockpiling during a meeting in Enugu in May 1967 with a delegation of the National Conciliation Committee comprising Obafemi Awolowo, Samuel Aluko, Jereton Mariere, and J.I.C. Onyia. According to Gowon, Ojukwu declared during that meeting that the Eastern Region had attained “equality of arms,” which would allow it to negotiate Nigeria’s future from a position of strength. Gowon quoted Ojukwu as saying: “Quietly I built up. If you do not know it, I am proud, and my officers are proud, that here in the East we possess the biggest army in Black Africa. I am no longer speaking as an underdog; I am speaking from a position of power.” However, Gowon dismissed Ojukwu’s claim as exaggeration, insisting that federal forces still maintained a clear military advantage. “I did not believe Ojukwu’s play to the gallery; I only said to myself that we would see about that,” he wrote.

The memoir also sheds light on the early tensions between the two leaders, revealing that Ojukwu opposed Gowon’s emergence as Head of State after the July 1966 counter-coup. Gowon disclosed that Ojukwu preferred Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, the most senior officer in the army hierarchy, to succeed the murdered Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. “Ojukwu refused my offer of friendship. By extension, he wilfully refused to recognise my leadership,” Gowon wrote. Despite Ojukwu’s refusal to recognise his authority, Gowon said he retained him as military governor of the Eastern Region in what he described as an altruistic decision. “My decision to retain Ojukwu in office was altogether altruistic though subsequent events made it seem a huge mistake,” he wrote. Gowon also revealed that he personally intervened to stop any move against Ojukwu, as some northern officers believed the Eastern governor was complicit in the January 15, 1966 coup that led to the assassination of key northern political and military leaders.

Gowon also defended the federal military government’s decision to create 12 states shortly before Biafra’s declaration, saying the move was aimed at addressing fears of domination among minority ethnic groups. According to him, several minority communities in the old Eastern Region wanted direct recognition from the federal government and feared being politically overshadowed. “The creation of states was intended to give all groups a sense of belonging within Nigeria,” he wrote. Gowon rejected claims that the federal government was eager for war, insisting that military confrontation became unavoidable only after the declaration of Biafra on May 30, 1967. The former military ruler also defended the ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ policy announced at the end of the Civil War in January 1970, saying reconciliation and reintegration were necessary to rebuild the country after years of bloodshed. “We fought to keep Nigeria one, not to destroy a people,” Gowon wrote. “We had to think about the future of the country beyond the bitterness of war,” he added. “We exhausted every peaceful avenue available to us. But Nigeria had to survive.”

Gowon’s claims have not gone unchallenged. The apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, swiftly rejected the former head of state’s account, accusing him of rewriting history. The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Ikechukwu Oji, insisted that Gowon was the one who reneged on the Aburi Peace Accord. “The Aburi Peace Accord was signed and the specific terms and conditions were stated in a document that is available in the archive,” Oji said. “Unfortunately, after Gowon got home from Ghana, he was wrongly advised by some international bodies and locals not to implement the agreement that had been signed.” Similarly, a group called Rising Sun accused Gowon of distorting history, arguing that the demand for regional control of security forces was a legitimate push for justice and true federalism. “If Nigeria had followed the Aburi Accord in its true form, there would have been no war. There would have been no genocide,” the group’s statement read.

The Aburi meeting, held from January 4–5, 1967, was one of the last-ditch efforts to preserve Nigeria’s unity in the face of mounting ethnic tensions. The failure to implement the accord ultimately paved the way for the declaration of the Republic of Biafra and the onset of a brutal civil war. The book presentation attracted significant financial backing from Nigeria’s economic elite, with former Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma donating three billion naira and ordering copies distributed to twenty university libraries. Industrialist Aliko Dangote contributed 500 million naira, while businessman Abdul Samad Rabiu purchased copies worth 25 million naira. Speaking at the launch, former President Goodluck Jonathan lamented that valuable chapters of West African history are routinely lost when key actors remain silent, while Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah described the volume as an important masterclass in selfless stewardship.