POLITICS TODAY IN NIGERIA - HOW YAKUBU GOWON LIED AGAINST BIAFRA AND GENERAL OJUKWU

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:23]I want to personally and of course on behalf of well-meaning Igbo men and women, Igbo sons and daughters to give General Gowon this message.

[00:00:39]We saw your the book you wrote, My Life of Duty and Allegiance.

[00:00:45]And we saw everything you wrote in the 181 pages of that same book you wrote, sir.

[00:00:55]There was never a place, never a paragraph, a sentence where you regretted the wasting of millions of lives of Igbo during the war.

[00:01:11]Everything about your book was your duty and allegiance. Your duty and allegiance. And your duty during the war was to waste life of Igbo. And probably allegiance to Nigeria is to make sure that as far as the Igbos decided to secede from Nigeria, they should be wasted.

[00:01:32]That is the only summary of the book you wrote, Your Life of Duty and Allegiance.

[00:01:40]881 pages.

[00:01:44]A book you would have used to heal Nigeria.

[00:01:48]A book you would have used to appeal to the conscience of Nigerians, to the conscience of the present-day leaders to treating people right.

[00:02:01]A book you would have used to make Ndi'gbo part and parcel of Nigeria.

[00:02:12]But you failed, sir.

[00:02:13]You failed because this stubbornness of Nigerian leaders are still found even in the early leaders.

[00:02:21]It shows that even the early leaders of this country are as stubborn as the present leaders of Nigeria.

[00:02:29]The ego OF NIGERIAN LEADERS INSTEAD OF THEM TO repent they they are always explaining.

[00:02:39]They are always blaming the next person.

[00:02:43]In your 881 pages of your life of duty and allegiance, you used half of the pages to blame Ojukwu for the war.

[00:02:53]You said Ojukwu did not come home and started announcing the Aburi Accord whatever whatever when Ojukwu waited for you to announce this confederation so that every confederate state in Nigeria every component part of Nigeria will manage their resources and give THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THEIR OWN PERCENTAGE.

[00:03:23]YOU CAME home and your ambassadors in Lagos, your commissioners in Lagos and your ministers in Lagos confused you.

[00:03:31]Something you signed something that your delegates, your secretaries from Nigeria and the secretaries from Biafra went to Accra to write and rewrite and review and go through and remove and impute and output everything was concluded in Accra.

[00:03:55]Even the general, the army general that was the the the president of Accra then, Accra, right?

[00:04:02]President of Ghana then, by then Accra.

[00:04:05]While driving two of you, you and Ojukwu, to the airport was very happy.

[00:04:12]Was very happy. Two of you promised the man that you're going to implement the Aburi Accord.

[00:04:18]You went to Lagos and they confused you.

[00:04:21]Something you signed in Ghana.

[00:04:25]Now you came home now in your book now you are blaming Ojukwu.

[00:04:29]You are blaming Ojukwu.

[00:04:31]When they said immediately you get home make sure that Nigerians know that this is what was decided in Ghana.

[00:04:37][clears throat] You were wasting time.

[00:04:40]You were dillydallying.

[00:04:42]>> [clears throat] >> You were trying to play games with what the lives of Nigerians and the lives of Igbo and the killings continued.

[00:04:51]And now you said Ojukwu didn't wait.

[00:04:54]Ojukwu was in a hurry.

[00:04:56]Because you were trying to play games with the life of Igbo.

[00:05:02]In your 881 pages of your life of duty and allegiance you never FOR ONCE TOLD US WHY THERE was a federal blockade.

[00:05:17]There was a federal blockade that blocked uh human rights and human organizations, charity organizations, charity from coming into Biafra, you know, to give them food, give them certain [clears throat] things for for for the survival of the war. You blocked every airplane. You blocked countries.

[00:05:39]You blocked charity organizations from flying into Biafra to deliver food.

[00:05:46]You didn't apologize.

[00:05:49]Federal blockade OF BLOCKADE OF ANY TYPE of any kind during the war is not a military strategy. It is a crime against humanity and you committed it, Gowon.

[00:06:01]Gowon, you committed crime [clears throat] against humanity, committed a crime against Igbo by BLOCKING FOOD FROM COMING INTO BIAFRA.

[00:06:11]AND YOU DIDN'T APOLOGIZE, YOU didn't say I am sorry.

[00:06:16]You are 90 years old, sir.

[00:06:19]Millions were all killed during the Biafran war.

[00:06:24]You blocked food, social [snorts] amenities, things that are that are supposed to to alleviate the suffering of men, women, old men and old women during the war in Biafra land you blocked food from reaching them.

[00:06:43]And more people died of your federal blockade than those bullets killed.

[00:06:52]And in your 881 pages, sir, you didn't say I am sorry.

[00:07:00]YOU HAVE FEDERAL TROOPS, AREA BOMBINGS, TARGETED SCHOOLS WHERE children and women are, TARGETED HOSPITALS, TARGETED CHURCHES, TARGETED MARKETPLACES, WHICH WHICH are never military strategy but a crime against Igbo. You bombed schools, YOU BOMBED HOSPITALS, YOU BOMBED MARKETPLACES, you bombed churches. These things are not allowed during the war, BUT YOU DIDN'T, GOWON, BUT YOU DIDN'T SAY I am sorry. To you, it is war.

[00:07:38]To you, Gowon, it is war.

[00:07:42]Even refuge camps.

[00:07:45]EVEN THE REFUGE CAMPS, GO ON. You bombed them.

[00:07:50]To you, it is war.

[00:07:53]Yet, it is a crime against a crime during the war. You don't do that.

[00:07:59]You said you're a military man.

[00:08:02]THERE WAS NOTHING MILITARY ABOUT THE WAR YOU PROSECUTED AGAINST BIAFRANS.

[00:08:08]NOTHING MILITARY ABOUT IT.

[00:08:11]EVERYTHING YOU DID, GO ON. I PUT IT TO YOU, SIR. Was to annihilate, exterminate the people.

[00:08:22]I am a Nigerian and a Nigerian. We know the kind of eyes you people from the north look at us that are from the east.

[00:08:28]We know.

[00:08:30]Thank God we know.

[00:08:34]NOW, EVERYTHING you did during the war, YOU EVEN TRIED to deny that Britain didn't help you people. We know you are lying, sir.

[00:08:42]Even to deny that America didn't to help you people. We know you are lying.

[00:08:46]AND WE KNOW THAT THIS ISSUE OF SOVIET UNION or the issue of Ojukwu using the Biafran mineral resources mortgaged to France so that France would be supplying Biafra with a weapons. We know you are just using it as a propaganda, sir, because we know the truth.

[00:09:05]EVEN WHEN FRANCE ASKED OJUKWU TO MORTGAGE it for 20 years for them, so that France will supply Biafra with all necessary ammunitions for the war, Ojukwu refused.

[00:09:16]Ojukwu said no. THAT WAS WHY BIAFRANS DURING the war resorted to self-help.

[00:09:22]Resorted to building our own bomb, building our own armored car, building our own ammunition.

[00:09:29]If France had helped Biafrans during the war, there would be no Nigeria.

[00:09:36]Let me repeat. IF WHAT YOU SAID THAT OJUKWU mortgaged the mineral resources of Biafra to France so that France will supply Biafra WITH AMMUNITION. IF FRANCE HAD SUPPLIED BIAFRA WITH THE KIND OF AMMUNITION you stated in your book, sir, there would be no Nigeria.

[00:09:58]You lied and we know you lied at 90 years.

[00:10:03]After the war, you said there was no victor, there was no vanquished.

[00:10:06]Everybody this and that, bobo tibo and all the rest.

[00:10:10]But after the war, what did you do?

[00:10:12]EVERY MILLIONS POUNDS, NAIRA OR WHATEVER THAT BIAFRA HAD, they only went home with the 20 shillings. You did it, Gowon.

[00:10:25]You did it.

[00:10:26]Yet you said there was no victor, there was no vanquished.

[00:10:31]You you you you same Gowon.

[00:10:35]You said there was no victor, there was no vanquished.

[00:10:38]But every Igbo man that has reached the height of his career in the public service, in the civil service was reduced to ordinary junior junior clerk, junior officer.

[00:10:53]No Igbo man or woman was allowed into the higher cadre of the public service and the especially the federal service.

[00:11:01]No Igbo man under you was a senior officer in the federal civil service. NO IGBO MAN was permanent secretary under you in the federal civil service. No Igbo man reached the federal position at the normal federal position of somebody that has reached the career in the federal service.

[00:11:19]Under you, Gowon. Yet you said there was no victor, there was no vanquished.

[00:11:24]GOWON.

[00:11:26]YOU REBUILT SOUTHWEST AND you rebuilt the north. You abandoned the east. Yet you said there was no victor, no vanquished.

[00:11:38]Even in Port Harcourt, YOU ALLOWED THIS SLOGAN of abandoned properties to take root in the in the especially in in Port Harcourt because they worked hand in hand with you during the war. They helped you to sabotage the Biafran war. They helped you to sell off the Biafran people. They helped you to to to In fact, GO ON. THE TRUTH REMAINS THAT INSTEAD OF YOU USING THE 881 PAGES to say, "I am sorry."

[00:12:09]Yes, it was the life of your duty and the life of your allegiance and whatever, but millions died before you.

[00:12:17]Thousands massacred before your very eyes.

[00:12:22]You would have used this 881 pages of the book you wrote to heal Nigeria finally, but you didn't because of the ego.

[00:12:34]Why would you apologize to the Igbo who are there?

[00:12:38]Who are the Easterners? Who are the South Easterners? Who are there? Why would I >> [clears throat] >> Why would I Why would I Why would I say sorry?

[00:12:45]BUT THE SORRY WOULD HAVE HEALED A WHOLE LOT OF THINGS.

[00:12:48]IF YOU HAD SAID SORRY IN THAT YOUR BOOK, YOU would have healed a whole lot of things. YOU WOULD HAVE SHOWN THE IGBO A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE from which they could now look to Nigeria or look onto Nigeria or look at Nigeria.

[00:13:02]YOU WOULD HAVE CHANGED A TERRIBLE MINDSET OF THE IGBO against Nigeria.

[00:13:09]If you had said sorry in your book, SIR.

[00:13:12]EVEN DURING the the Holocaust IN GERMANY, THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR OR CHANCELLOR KNELT DOWN AND BEGGED GERMANS, BEGGED the world, begged the Israelis, begged the Jewish the Jewish population and said SORRY FOR THE HOLOCAUST CAUSED TO BY ADOLF HITLER.

[00:13:35]SORRY, WE ARE SORRY.

[00:13:38]EVEN IN RWANDA AFTER THE >> [laughter] >> UH THE THE THE THE THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA THE PRESIDENT SAID SORRY.

[00:13:48]THE CURRENT PRESIDENT SAID SORRY. He was a rebel leader then.

[00:13:52]HE SAID SORRY.

[00:13:54]AND HE REBUKED RWANDA.

[00:13:56]HE DOESN'T CARE WHO IS A HUTU or who is a Hutu or doesn't care who is YOU KNOW HE DOESN'T CARE.

[00:14:02]EVERY SECTION OF THAT COUNTRY WAS REBUKED.

[00:14:06]EVEN AMERICA AFTER THIS AFTER SLAVERY SAID SORRY.

[00:14:11]AMERICA SAID SORRY TO BLACK AMERICANS THAT WERE SOLD AS SLAVES to America.

[00:14:17]THEY SAID SORRY.

[00:14:19]AND THEY REBUKED THEIR COLONY.

[00:14:21]REBUKED THEIR STATES AND MADE them comfortable.

[00:14:28]We have a lot of conflicts in the world that uh their leaders have come out to say sorry. But you go on. You chose not to say sorry.

[00:14:39]You you you you you are trying to be diplomatic.

[00:14:42]There are a lot lot of things you did not say.

[00:14:45]And those things you did not say are the truth and you know it, sir.

[00:14:50]You chose the ones you want us to hear.

[00:14:54]You chose the ones you want us to believe. But sir as a student of government and public uh public admin and of course political science sir we have raw manuscripts raw manuscripts of the Aburi Accord recorded video of the Aburi Accord and what transpired between you and Ojukwu in Ghana.

[00:15:20]And we know that if we should blame anybody for the 1966 coup, we should blame Awolowo.

[00:15:28]We should blame Awolowo.

[00:15:31]Because even the coup plotters said it.

[00:15:34]Their main job, their main purpose was to make sure that they strike and probably after succeeding, they would go to prison and bring out Awolowo and make him the president of Nigeria. Yet you people tagged it Igbo coup.

[00:15:49]You people are not yet ready to heal Nigeria.

[00:15:53]You people are not yet ready to say the truth.

[00:15:57]When you people are ready to heal Nigeria and say the truth, we Igbos will know.

[00:16:03]But for now, let us keep pretending that we are one Nigeria.

[00:16:09]Thank you very much.

[00:16:12]>> [music] >> Haha.