‘What Gowon Said Was A Big Lie, He Should Apologize To Igbos’ – Senator Umeh

The Senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has accused the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, of lying about the Nigerian Civil War during a recent interview on ARISE Television.

Naijaonpoint recalls that the 30-month civil war claimed millions of lives and destroyed the buoyant economy of the Eastern Region, considered to be the fastest-growing economy in Africa.

In an interview with journalists in Akwa, Umeh said it is unfortunate for Gowon to concoct lies against a tribe, even at his old age, that the 1966 coup was not against the Igbos.

Umeh stated that the 91-year-old former military leader should apologise to the Igbo people for betraying the historic Aburi accord and starting a brutal conflict that was aimed at exterminating the Igbo people of Nigeria.

According to Umeh, the counter coup was the cleansing of the Igbo in the Nigerian Armed Forces, and he challenged Gowon to name military officers from his region who were also killed in the counter coup.

He said: “I listened to Gowon’s television interview and I felt so sorry for him for the things he said. Igbo people have suffered gravely because of that coup. I felt that with Babangida’s statement during his book launch, that it wasn’t an Igbo coup because he named Yorubas and Northerners that were part of the coup, it was a big relief and I challenge Gowon to write his own book so that Nigerians will read his own version.

“Maybe at 91 years he has forgotten what happened, but some of us who worked with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and interviewed him about the war, know that what Gowon said was a big lie.

“It was unfortunate for him to say that the war was not against the Igbo people of Nigeria and that he heard about the insurrection in Abeakuta and the assassination of General Aguiyi Ironsi from somewhere, only for him to later emerge as the Head of State after the counter coup.

“He should apologize to Igbo people for the role he played in that civil war, instead of coming to insult the sensibilities of those who were the victims of the war.

“Igbo people were not only killed as military officers, their businesses were also destroyed across Nigeria. Gowon also misrepresented the Aburi accord, which to me, is the greatest travesty. I worked with Ojukwu for five years and I asked him questions about the Aburi accord and he told me that they all agreed on Confederation, which meant that the regions should be confederate units so that every region would continue to develop at its own pace.

“After the agreement, the Ghanaian leader, General Ankra, Gowon and Ojukwu, were at the back of the same car when they were being driven to the airport and Ankra took the hands of Gowon and Ojukwu and joined them and said they should go and implement the Aburi accord. Ojukwu told me that he told Gowon that if he announced details of the accord on their return, he, Ojukwu, would be the first person to nominate him as the Head of State of Nigeria.

“Unfortunately when they returned to Nigeria, Gowon didn’t announce the implementation of the Aburi accord as was agreed in Ghana. When he came back, his advisers told him to renege on all the agreements reached at Aburi. Gowon betrayed the Aburi accord reached with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and lit the fire of a war that devastated the Eastern Region.”

Umeh added that although Gowon claimed the reason for fighting the civil war was to make Nigeria one, Nigeria is still not united.

He added, “President Bola Tinubu was in Benue State where the people of Gowon’s zone were being slaughtered on daily basis, which means that he didn’t do anything to make Nigeria a better country. Truth is an open wound and the right thing for him to do is to give the right account of what happened in Nigeria under his watch. He was the one that brought mistrust between the Igbo and Yoruba and Igbo have paid dearly for it.

“When Ojukwu was alive, he was talking and Gowon refused to talk, only for him to start talking because Ojukwu has died, which is unfortunate. General T. Y. Danjuma is still alive and I wonder how he will be feeling after hearing Gowon say that he was not part of the counter coup.”