Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) said that the Aburi accord collapsed because the then Biafra leader, Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu wanted regional governors to control military zones.
Gowon was Nigeria’s military ruler from 1966 until 1975 when he was deposed in a bloodless coup, while Odumegwu-Ojukwu was military governor of the eastern region in that span.
In an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday, Gowon narrated what transpired after the agreement was reached in Aburi, a town in Ghana.
The meeting that led to the accord took place from 4 to 5 January 1967 with delegates from both sides of the divide making inputs.
The goal was to resolve the political impasse threatening the country’s unity.
The point of the agreement was that each region should be responsible for its own affairs.
The failure of the Aburi accord culminated in Nigeria’s civil war, which lasted from July 6, 1967, to 15 January 1970.
On what transpired after the agreement, Gowon said that the resolutions should have been discussed further and finalised.
The ex-military leader said he took ill after arriving in Nigeria from Aburi and that Ojukwu went on to make unauthorised statements about the accord.
Gowon said that he did not know where Ojukwu got his version of the agreement from.
He said: ‘We just went there (Aburi), as far as we were concerned, to meet as officers and then agree to get back home and resolve the problem at home. That was my understanding. But that was not his (Ojukwu) understanding.
‘It was Ojukwu who made some statements about the Aburi accord’.
He added that a follow-up meeting to clarify the issues in the agreement was scheduled for Benin City, with invitations sent to Ojukwu and other regional governors.
Gowon said that Ojukwu declined the invitation, citing safety concerns.
Gowon further said: ‘I don’t know what accord he (Ojukwu) was reading because he came to the meeting with prepared papers of things he wanted, and of course, we discussed them one by one. Agreed on some and disagreed on some.
‘For example, to give one of the major issues, we said that the military would be zoned, but the control… he wanted those zones to be commanded by the governor.
‘When you have a military zone in the north, it would be commanded by the governor of the military in the north, the military zone in the east would be commanded by him. Of course, we did not agree with that one’.
Ojukwu died on 26 November 2011 at the age of 78 years.
