Friday, October 27, 2017

Gowon's Aimless Cut On Odumegwu-Ojukwu

By Sunny Igboanugo
Wouldn't it have been better for former head of state General Yakubu Gowon to just say that his inexperience, age and poor education were responsible for the Nigerian civil war rather than sticking to a 50-year-old propaganda, which has refused to stick.
*Gowon and Ojukwu eating from the
same plate in Aburi 
Having gone to Aburi "unprepared" and completely overwhelmed by an Oxfords-trained graduate, wouldn't it have been better for him to just accept that he simply fell to the manipulations of the British and bureaucrats back home rather than blame the war on "Ojukwu's lies?" 

General Yakubu Gowon claims part of the Aburi agreement was that he should speak first on return to tell the world what happened. He admitted that he didn't on the excuse that he took ill. Assuming but not conceding that were so, would it not have been more auspicious for him to let Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu know that much instead of allowing the long silence that followed?
Ojukwu admitted to this part of the agreement, but posited that it was not only Gowon's silence but that the Nigerian side began to deny "everything" that made him not only speak out but release the supportive Aburi tapes as backups. 
Before he died, Ojukwu admitted also that given the same circumstances, he would have acted differently at 77 than a 33-year-old, implying he might not have gone to war or done so the way he did.
But here, Gowon, apparently still pressing to be seen as a nationalist, compassionate and lately, Godly, appears afraid of giving an inch to accept blame.
But, no matter how he tries, he will not only go down in history as the man who betrayed, plotted against and killed his boss who practically entrusted him with his life, but one whose burden will include the sad memory of supervising the death of millions of infants, women and ordinary folks, including the over 1,000 souls wasted in the just-marked Asaba massacre. There's no escaping that fact.
At 82, people like Gowon ought to be burnishing their souls in preparation for the inevitable. Living in denial is hardly a way of doing so. You could pretend all you could and try to deceive man all you could in the hope of being recorded on the good side of history, but the Good Book is replete with examples that only through confession, remission and contrition could sins be forgiven. 
You can deceive man, but you can't deceive God. 

2 comments:

  1. I like your piece; you hit the nail on its head but the term that needs correction is "..implying he might not have gone to war..." Ojukwu did not go war against nigeria. Gowon brought war into the Igbo bedroom- the last line of defence for a man.

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  2. Gowon appears to be suffering from dementia associated with ageing. It is better he forgets everything about Ojukwu who is no more, and in whose presence he could not speak. No matter the volume of lies he tell he presided over a genocidal war against the Igbo. We should put this behind us a move forward. Each time Gowon opens his mouth to talk about Ojukwu and why he went to war he angers many people who have correct information about the entire episode. Even foreigners who are familiar with Aburi Accord believe that Gowon put the nation at war by going back on the Aburi Accord. Chinua Achebe's last book titled "There was a Country" exposed everything and the role played by everyone. The facts in the book was why the Nigerian government initially banned it from coming in. History was abolished in Nigeria just to hide the facts of the civil war from younger generations of Nigerians. Unfortunately, history would have helped to heal wounds. The likes of Gowon would not have had the opportunity to be telling lies.

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