Messrs Ojukwu and Gowon have continued to trade blame over the collapse of the negotiations and the eventual outbreak of war.
Some years ago, the then Eastern Region leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, spoke on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) about the outcome of the Aburi meeting held in Ghana on 4 and 5 January 1967 during the turbulent period preceding the Nigerian civil war.
The outcome of the meeting has been controversial in Nigeria because it was one of the major events that preceded the civil war in which millions of Nigerians were killed.
At the time, the Eastern Region, dominated by the Igbo ethnic group, was agitating for secession and the creation of the Republic of Biafra under Eastern leaders.
Yakubu Gowon was Nigeria’s Head of State then. Efforts were made to resolve the crisis through dialogue between the federal government and the Eastern Region led by Mr Ojukwu, including a peace meeting facilitated by the then Ghana’s Head of State, Joseph Ankrah, at Peduase Lodge in Aburi, Ghana.
Despite the peace talks, the country later descended into a three-year civil war. Since then, both sides have continued to trade blame over the collapse of the negotiations and the eventual outbreak of war.
Before his death in 2011, Mr Ojukwu accused Mr Gowon of betraying the agreement allegedly reached at the Aburi meeting, including an understanding that Nigeria would be restructured in a way that allowed the then four regions greater autonomy.
However, in his autobiography, “My Life of Duty and Allegiance”, launched in Abuja on Tuesday, Mr Gowon maintained that there was no agreement at Aburi to allow the Eastern Region to secede and establish Biafra.
Although Mr Ojukwu is no longer alive to respond to the claims in Mr Gowon’s book, an old NTA interview in which he spoke extensively about the Aburi meeting recently resurfaced on social media.
The exact date of the interview could not be independently verified.
In the interview, Mr Ojukwu insisted that records and transcripts of the Aburi meeting showed that both sides reached the partitioning agreements, contrary to Mr Gowon’s recent account.
“The tapes are available, the records are there. In fact, about two weeks ago, I saw a set of the records again. The transcripts are available but we were talking about the Nigerian situation and certainly at the end, everybody said, ‘You told them this, you did that,’” he said.
He argued that the disagreements that followed Aburi were influenced more by external pressures than by differences between himself and Mr Gowon.
“The fact was our case was so clear that I actually believe that at the end of Aburi that the problem was not Gowon but the problem was the ambassadors in Lagos who were pressing for something else because we understood each other, we agreed on every single point,” he said.
Mr Ojukwu also recalled that the minutes of the meeting were drafted jointly by his chief secretary and officials from Mr Gowon’s side, after which both delegations reportedly agreed on the final document.
“The drafting was in fact with my chief secretary with two other chief secretaries from the other side. I said No and drafted, we looked at it and we agreed. General Ankrah read over thr whole report to us again, asked us if we wanted to amend anything. We said No.”
The former Eastern Region leader also claimed that the atmosphere after the meeting was cordial and optimistic.
“At the end of all that, the position was so good that Ankrah drove Jack Gowon and myself to the airport. Jack was sitting on the left and I was sitting on the right. He was in the middle and in the course of that journey, at a point Ankrah shook his head and said, ‘Thank you, thank you. if only we can go on like this, we’ll be all right’,” he said.
“Suddenly, I picked up Gowon’s hand, put it on Ankrah’s lap, brought my other hand, placed it my other hand on it and I said, ‘General sir, hold us together, I want to say something. So, General Ankrah put his hand on top of the two hands and I said, ‘General, I want to assure you that I am totally satisfied with everything we said. I will even go further and say to you something I did not say at the conference and that is, that once we have implemented everything we have said, I would ask you for one favour and one favour only, and that will be to be the one to propose Jack Gowon as the Head of State of Nigeria.”
