A United States-based group, Rising Sun, has sharply criticised former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), over his recent remarks on the failed Aburi Accord of 1967. The group accused him of distorting history and blamed him for the civil war and the resulting humanitarian crisis that followed.
In a statement jointly signed by its President, Chief Maxwell Dede, and Secretary, Rev. Fr. Augustine Odimmegwa, and released on Sunday in Abuja, the group rejected Gowon’s claim that the collapse of the Aburi Accord was due to General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s demand that military control be devolved to regional governors.
“The 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,” the statement read.
“His claim that the breakdown occurred because General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu wanted regional governors to control the military is both laughable and dishonest,” it added.
The Aburi Accord, held in Ghana in January 1967, was a pivotal peace meeting aimed at preventing a full-blown war after the political instability and pogroms following Nigeria’s 1966 military coups. It proposed a loose federal structure and decentralised military command.
Rising Sun insists the agreement was clear and documented, affirming regional sovereignty and shared military control. According to the group, Ojukwu’s stance was backed by all military leaders at the meeting, not a personal agenda.
“If Nigeria had followed the Aburi Accord in its true form, there would have been no war. There would have been no genocide. There would have been no famine used as a weapon of war. Instead, Gowon reneged, Nigeria reneged, and the blood of millions is on their hands,” the group declared.
The group alleged that Gowon’s eventual rejection of the Accord was due to pressure from external forces, particularly the British government and Northern power blocs.
“Gowon’s later repudiation of the Aburi Accord upon return to Lagos was not due to disagreement with the terms, but under direct pressure from the British High Commission and the Northern oligarchy, who feared a return to the economically successful and politically autonomous regions of the First Republic,” the statement claimed.
They added that, “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.”
Rising Sun also argued that the central issue of the war was not secession or oil, but the right to regional self-governance and military control within a federal structure. “By confessing that the dispute at Aburi was over control of the military and not over oil or so-called secession, Gowon has inadvertently vindicated Ojukwu and all Biafrans,” it said.
Concluding the statement, the group called on historians, scholars, and the international community to revisit original documents and audio from the Aburi meeting to uncover what they described as “the truth Gowon and others have tried to bury.”
They added, “Millions of Nigerians continue to live with the consequences of that betrayal — from insecurity and economic collapse to a false federation. The truth must be told.”
