Biafra: At 90 you’re expected to tell the truth – Obidigbo slams Gowon over autobiography

Elder statesman and convener of the Igbochukwu Organisation, Dr Chike Obidigbo, has expressed regret that Nigeria’s former head of state, retired General Yakubu Gowon, deliberately omitted key facts about the genocide of the Igbos during the Nigerian Civil War (1967‑1970).

Obidigbo said that at the age of 90, Gowon should have followed the example of former military president Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida by confronting the web of misinformation and uncertainty surrounding the events that led to his conflict with Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, shortly after the Aburi Accord was signed.

He added that he and other Nigerian elders—including Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Theophilus Danjuma, and President Bola Tinubu—must now recognize the need to stop misleading the younger generation, especially as they approach the end of their lives.

Obidigbo, who said he had taken time to reflect on the historical lessons presented in Gowon’s book *My Life of Duty & Allegiance* before speaking, observed that the biography reads like a command narrative that reflects the former head of state’s personal stance on the contentious issues that shaped Nigeria’s troubled history.

“I can assert without hesitation that Jack failed to include the essential facts and truths concerning the most significant historical challenge that has affected Nigeria’s political economy,” he said. “It is possible that, accustomed to the command and control dynamics of the military, which remains his domain, the former Head of State prioritised loyalty to the institution over the nation.”

“One aspect that I believe Gowon should have expanded upon is the reality that Biafra and the attempted secession by the Eastern Region was not originally Ojukwu’s concept. The former Head of State is aware that Ojukwu was a casualty of unforeseen circumstances and the unintended repercussions of the pogrom in Northern Nigeria that led to the conflict,” he remarked.

According to Obidigbo, “I know this to be true. In April 1967, Ojukwu received visitors in August, which included the then British Deputy High Commissioner to the Eastern region, Mr. Roland Walter Parker, the Managing Director of Shell BP Development Company, Mr. Stanley Gray, Mr. Frederick Stephens, the chairman of Shell International, who was visiting Port Harcourt at that time, and a representative of Sir David Hunt, the then British High Commissioner to Nigeria.”

“The purpose of these visitors’ assignment to Enugu was to persuade Ojukwu to withdraw the Eastern region from Nigeria, and to discuss the future of petroleum exploitation in a new nation anticipated to emerge from the then Eastern region. They believed that Gowon had received British support to abandon the terms and conditions for peaceful association as agreed upon in the Aburi Accord in Ghana.”

Obidigbo further stated that Ojukwu revealed he had informed the visitors that, given the itinerant nature of his people, Nigeria had provided them with the necessary space to conduct their affairs. He also expressed that, since the country was in its formative stages of unity, such a secession might not serve the best interests of the new nation, Nigeria.

Additionally, Ojukwu conveyed to his visitors that he lacked the resources and adequate materials to wage a full‑scale war against Nigeria, which was collaborating with Britain and other Western allies. He concluded that any discussions regarding the fate of oil at that time were not only premature but also decisions that he could not make alone.

The elder statesman noted that it was at this point that the British agents assured Ojukwu of their complete support, both locally and internationally, which included funding, weapon supplies, and the immediate release of the accumulated royalties that Shell was withholding from Ojukwu.