THE GOWON LIE: How The North Was Fooled And How His Own Memoir Convicts Him

 By Khaleed Yazeed

I have completed reading General Yakubu Gowon's 881-page memoir, My Life of Duty And Allegiance. I read every page, from the opening reflections on his childhood in Daura and Wusasa to the closing chapters on his exile, his prayers, and his long twilight as an elder statesman. 

*Gowon

I read it slowly, the way a man reads a document he knows will settle something inside him, and I read it with a question burning in my chest: how was the North led into a war that consumed more than a million lives, and how was that story sold to us? 

From my own understanding of those 881 pages, one conclusion stands above every other. Gowon is judging himself. He has convicted himself. He has written the indictment in his own hand, signed it with his own name, and published it for the world to see. A prosecutor becomes unnecessary here. A truth commission becomes redundant. Historians need not comb through archives in London and Lagos, because the general has laid the evidence on the table himself, chapter by chapter, page by page, and invited us to examine it.

OJUKWU: Exile, Diplomacy And Survival (Book Review)

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Volumes have been said and written about the Nigeria/Biafra War: the pre-war hostilities that degenerated into the pogroms that eventually provoked the mass exodus of Eastern Nigerians from several parts of the country to the East; the secession of the people of the East to create a separate entity for themselves where they felt they could take charge of their own security and dignity as humans; the war that followed and the gallant efforts by the Easterners to pick the bits and pieces of their lives and survive the devastating effects of the bitter war.

But despite the very huge body of historical (and fictional) works that have accumulated on the war from Nigerian writers, foreign observers and journalists, a key aspect of the story continues to be conspicuously missing. The leader of the defeated republic, Biafra, left the country for Ivory Coast few days to the end of the war in January 1970 and remained there as an exile for twelve years before returning to a hero’s welcome in 1982 following the unconditional pardon granted him by the Shagari government.

Naturally, there have been intense yearnings by many people to be updated on the developments that marked those years between the end of the war in 1970 and Ojukwu’s return from the Cote d’Iviore in 1982. What were the things that occupied the Biafran leader in exile? What were his plans for Nigeria for which several meetings were held in Cote d’Iviore, Ghana, Nigeria and some European cities? Who were the Nigerians that visited him several times in Cote d’Ivoire and how were their trips arranged to ensure that the security operatives of the Yakubu Gowon’s regime which were keenly interested in him and his activities in exile were not aware?  How did he build the very formidable network of trusted contacts, friends, loyal and dutiful associates and aides that facilitated his ability to easily send and receive messages to and from Nigeria and  know almost every significant event that occurred in Nigeria within the shortest time – in fact, even before many people in Nigeria got to know?            

Accomplished electronic and print media journalist, eminent writer and public relations expert, Kanayo Esinulo “who worked at General Ojukwu’s State House…” in Biafra and followed him “to Cote d’Iviore and served as one of his closest aides all through his years of exile” has finally bowed to pressure from friends, colleagues, journalists, scholars and diverse interested parties, to write a book that admirably fills that gap.

On Biafra And Democracy

By Obi Nwakanma

These are busy times for Nigeria. May is the month of blooms. But in the last couple of weeks, two parallel celebrations came to underscore the fragility of the Nigerian state, and the hollow rituals of its self-annunciation.  First, on May 29, the president like the other presidents before him since the year 2000 when it was initiated by Olusegun Obasanjo, celebrated what it now calls “Democracy Day.”

*Odumegwu-Ojukwu 

I personally think this a truly annoying misnomer because May 29 carries with it, the germ of a profound national tragedy. It was on May 29, 1966 that the Pogrom of Easteners commenced in earnest in Nigeria. On May 29, 1967, General Ojukwu declared the birth of the Sovereign state of Biafra, and announced the excision of the East from the old Federation of Nigeria.

Why Federalism, Confederalism Or Restructuring Is Not Enough

By Chinweizu

Sundoor999@gmail.com

22may18

The Federalism of the First Republic, of the 1963 Constitution,  is being demanded by some as the solution to Nigeria’s problems. The proponents of this view seem to think that once Nigeria returns to that constitution, with possibly some slight modifications, they and their interests will be protected, and their cherished “One Nigeria” can go on.

*Chinweizu 

But they are mistaken, I think.

They haven’t considered why that constitution failed them. If it failed them before, can’t it fail them again?

Like the 1963 constitution, the 1960 Constitution limited the powers of the Federal Government to Defence, Foreign Affairs, and a few other items.

No Cure For Yakubu Gowon Fever

By Tony Iwuoma

Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, was gifted with opportunity for atonement when he recently appeared on AIT’s People, Politics and Power programme. Unfortunately, the man, who wanted to ‘go on with one Nigeria’ (Gowon), flunked the grace of history.

*Gowon

Perhaps, the greatest take-away was Gowon’s inadvertent exoneration of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He had actually set out to vilify the venerable Biafra leader by heaping inordinate falsehood on the dead, who can no longer defend himself. Gowon claimed he went to Ghana for the famed Aburi Accord unprepared. That, according to him, accounted for why highly cerebral Ojukwu bamboozled all of them and wringed the concessions he got. He added that secession was not on the card in Ghana and, of course, it couldn’t have been. It was not on Ojukwu’s agenda either. However, secession crept into the matter when the pogrom against the Igbo in the North continued unabated and Gowon, admittedly, could not halt it. According to Gowon and rightly so, the Igbo saw Biafra as the only hope for safety and freedom.

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?"