{"id":119963,"date":"2025-06-22T21:07:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T20:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=119963"},"modified":"2025-06-22T21:07:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T20:07:41","slug":"us-based-group-slams-gowon-for-distorting-1967-aburi-accord-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/us-based-group-slams-gowon-for-distorting-1967-aburi-accord-history\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Based Group Slams Gowon for Distorting 1967 Aburi Accord History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Oscar Okhifo<\/div>\n
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A United States-based advocacy group, Rising Sun, has faulted former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd), over his recent comments on the failure of the 1967 Aburi Accord, accusing him of misrepresenting the true causes behind the breakdown of the historic peace agreement.<\/div>\n
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The group argued that Gowon\u2019s explanation for the collapse of the accord was a distortion of historical facts and an attempt to rewrite history. Rising Sun made its position known in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja the nation’s capital.<\/div>\n
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In the statement jointly signed by Chief Maxwell Dede, President, and Rev. Fr. Augustine Odimmegwa, Secretary of the group, Rising Sun condemned Gowon\u2019s assertion that the Aburi Accord failed because General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu wanted regional governors to control the military.<\/div>\n
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The group insisted that the demand by regional leaders to control security forces within their territories was a legitimate call for justice and genuine federalism. They maintained that adherence to the Aburi Accord would have prevented the civil war, genocide, and humanitarian crisis that followed.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe attention of the global family of the Rising Sun, USA, has been drawn to a recent statement credited to retired General Yakubu Gowon, in which he attempted to distort the true reasons behind the failure of the historic Aburi Accord of 1967,\u201d the statement read.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHis claim that the breakdown occurred because General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu wanted regional Governors to control the military is both laughable and dishonest. If Nigeria had followed the Aburi Accord in its true form, there would have been no war, no genocide, no famine used as a weapon of war, and no carpet-bombing of villages. Instead, Gowon reneged, Nigeria reneged, and the blood of millions is on their hands.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The Aburi Accord, held on January 4-5, 1967 in Ghana, was described by the group as a last-ditch effort to salvage Nigeria after the first military coup of January 1966 and the counter-coup of July 1966, which saw thousands of Easterners slaughtered in the North.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe agreement, which was documented in writing and on tape recordings, was unambiguous. It reaffirmed the sovereignty of the regions, with each region controlling its own affairs. It called for a loose federation or confederation, where the center would be weak and the regions strong. It called for joint control of the armed forces, not central command, and required regional and consensual appointments to the Nigerian Military Council,\u201d the group stated.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThese positions were not Ojukwu’s invention. They were collective resolutions agreed to by all Nigerian military leaders present at the meeting. Gowon’s later repudiation of the Aburi Accord upon returning to Lagos was not due to disagreement with the terms, but rather under direct pressure from the British High Commission and Northern oligarchy who feared a return to economically autonomous regions of the First Republic,\u201d the statement added.<\/div>\n
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The group questioned Gowon\u2019s understanding of federalism, pointing out that in the United States,\u00a0 a model of true federalism,\u00a0 state Governors control their National Guards and can activate them independently of the Federal Government.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIs it treasonous in a federal system for regional leaders to demand control over security forces in their territories? Ojukwu’s position was that of reason, justice, and true federalism. It was Gowon who betrayed that spirit and plunged Nigeria into chaos,\u201d Rising Sun declared.<\/div>\n
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According to the group, Gowon\u2019s recent admission that the dispute at Aburi centered on control of the military and not on oil or secession, inadvertently vindicates Ojukwu and the Biafran cause.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u201cThe world can now see that Biafra did not seek war but sought autonomy, safety, and self-governance in the face of an unrelenting genocidal machine,\u201d it said.<\/div>\n
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Rising Sun also accused the British Government of actively sabotaging the accord for its economic interests.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u201cIt was the British Government, through its High Commissioner in Lagos, Sir David Hunt, that instructed Gowon to reject the Aburi Accord and ensure that power remained concentrated in the hands of the Northern establishment. Britain did not want a successful federation of autonomous regions; it wanted a unified, centrally-controlled Nigeria under Fulani dominance to protect Shell BP and other colonial-era corporate interests. That is why Britain armed Nigeria with bombs, aircraft, and diplomatic cover to annihilate Biafra.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The group further lamented that millions of Nigerians are still suffering the consequences of the betrayal of the Aburi Accord, which has led to insecurity, economic collapse, fake federalism, and a unitary state masquerading as a federation.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHis words are not just a distortion of the past; they are a dangerous attempt to sanitize tyranny and genocide. We call on all truth-seeking historians, scholars, and lovers of justice to revisit the original tapes and documents of the Aburi Accord, many of which are publicly available, to expose Gowon’s lies,\u201d the statement added.<\/div>\n
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The Rising Sun global family reaffirmed its commitment to resisting any attempt to revise history or justify the atrocities committed during the civil war, insisting that \u201cOjukwu stood on the side of justice. History has already passed its verdict.\u201d the statement said.<\/div>\n
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