Igbo Women Group to Gowon: Confess Why You Jettisoned Aburi Accord

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), has been challenged to disclose the reasons his administration failed to implement the Aburi Accord which would have prevented the nation’s bloody civil war.

Igbo women group under the umbrella of  Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) took the former military leader to task following his statement that the civil war was the most difficult period of his life, during a public outing in Abuja weekend.

Gowon stirred the hornet’s nest in the speech he delivered when he was honoured with a Lifetime Integrity and Achievement Award at the 5th Convention of the Christian Men’s Fellowship, Abuja Anglican Diocese.

He reportedly said: “It was not my choice” to go to war as “I had to do what I did to keep this country together”, adding that his decisions during the horrible time were taken with good intentions.

But IWA, in a statement signed by its National President, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, has countered that Gowon could have still have preserved the unity of Nigeria without waging war if he had implemented the Aburi Accord.

The accord was signed by Gowon and the then leader of the Eastern Region, late  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu following a peace conference brokered by Ghana as part of efforts to stop the looming civil war.

It was generally believed that the Aburi Accord would have prevented the secession of Biafra without firing a shot but on return to Nigeria Gowon turned his back on the peace deal.

The Igbo Women Assembly, therefore, told Gowon that it was high time he finally confessed to the world why he repudiated the Aburi Accord and led Nigeria into an “avoidable internecine war with Biafra”. 

The group urged Nigeria’s war-time leader “not to die with the truth about Aburi accord and the real cause of the Biafra war”.

“Gowon should tell the world the truth about Aburi accord in Ghana and the Biafra war. He should not go to grave without confessing the truth if there must be true healing for those hurt by the needless civil war,” IWA said.

“There was a lot of war crimes, including the Asaba massacre, church and market bombings. How can we shy away from talking about the sad history of the war?”.

The women group regretted that Gen. Gowon, “who supervised the war and genocide against the Igbo is busy going around the country and praying” without confessing his sins.

“But we want to remind him that no amount of prayer can wash away the stain of the blood of over six million innocent Igbo children, women and men wasted during the war,” IWA stated.

On the Biafra Remembrance Day which was recently observed on May 30 with sit-at-home in the states of the South East zone, IWA said that “there is actually nothing wrong with honouring victims of the Nigerian civil war”.

The group insisted that there was no reason Biafra Day of Remembrance should ruffle feathers, wondering why “56 years after the civil war, the shadow of the war and the blood of innocent Igbo shed during the pogrom are still haunting Nigeria”.

“Instead of learning the lessons and apologizing, Nigeria is still harassing those remembering their loved ones who died in the war. We cannot stop talking of the war. Even the unborn generation will hear of it,” said IWA.

It reminded Nigerian authorities that  “remembering fallen heroes and heroines is a global practice that should not be criminalised” hence the usual security crackdown during Biafra Day should be discontinued forthwith.

The IWA National President argued that  “observing a day in honour of the war casualties, particularly the gallant soldiers who died defending their beloved ones, does not in any way amount to rebellion against the Nigerian state.

“Igbo women want to put it on record that those who died while defending us during the civil war were not goats but our beloved husbands and youths. We don’t believe that setting aside a day to remember them is a crime”.

She advised the Nigeria Government “to find a way to recognize the Biafra day as indelible part of Nigeria’s history instead of (engaging in) futile attempts to suppress the day or clamp down on those observing it”.

IWA also reiterated its call for the unconditional release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, saying that it would constitute part of the healing process and end insecurity in the South East.