A group based in the United States, Rising Sun, has criticized the former head of state, the retired general Yakubu Gowon, for a statement he made about the reasons for the failure of the ABURI historical agreement of 1967.
The group said that the reasons revasted by Gowon for the breakdown of the agreement were not a real reflection of history but an attempt to distort the facts.
The group declared this on Sunday in Abuja in a statement signed jointly by Chief Maxwell Dede and Rev. Fr. Augustine Odimmegwa, president and secretary of the group, respectively.
The statement condemned Gowon's position that Aburi's agreement failed because General Chukwueka Odumegwu Ojukwu wanted regional governors to control the military.
The statement added that the demand of regional leaders to control security forces in their territories was made in good faith, in search of justice and true federalism.
The group said that if Nigeria had followed Aburi's agreement in its true form, there would have been no war, genocide or famine.
“The attention of the Global Family of Sun Rising, USA, has been attracted to a recent statement accredited to the retired general Yakubu Gowon, in which he tried to distort the true reasons behind the failure of the historic Aburi Accord of 1967.
“His statement that the breakdown occurred because General Chukwueka Omegwu Ojukwu wanted regional governors to control the military is both ridiculous and dishonest.
“If Nigeria had followed Aburi's agreement in its true form, there would not have been a war. There would have been no genocide. There would have been no hunger as a weapon of war.
“The Aburi agreement, held from January 4 to 5, 1967 in Ghana, was a last effort to save what was left of Nigeria after the first military coup of January 1966 and the counterweight of July 1966, which saw thousands of orientals killed in cold blood throughout the north. The agreement, which was documented in writing and tape records, was little ambiguous:
“He reaffirmed the sovereignty of the regions, with each region to control their own matters. He requested a federation or loose confederation, where the center would be weak and strong regions. He revoked the control of the Armed Forces, not the central command.
“He agreed that the appointments for the Nigerian Military Council must be regional and consensual.
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“BeSe posations were not ojukwu's invention, they were the collective resolutions agreed to by all nigerian military leaders present at the meeting. Gowon's late repudiation of the aburi accord upon to lake British High Commission and the Northern Oligarchy, Who Feard A Return to The Economically Successful and Politically Autonomous Regions of the First Republic.
“General Gowon does not really realize that in the United States, the federalism model, state governors control their national guards and can activate them independently of the federal government?
“Is it treacherous in a federal system so that regional leaders require control over security forces in their territories?
“When confessing that the dispute in Aburi was the control of the military and not by oil or the so -called secession, Gowon has inadvertently claimed Ojukwu and all Biafrans. The world can now see that Biafra did not seek war, sought autonomy, security and self -government, in the face of a non -initial genocidal machine.
“We also remind the world that the British government was, through its high commissioner in Lagos, Sir David Hunt, which instructed Gowon to reject Aburi's agreement and ensure that power remained concentrated in the hands of the North establishment.
Great Britain did not want a successful federation of autonomous regions; I wanted a unified and centrally controlled Nigeria under the domain of Fulani, to protect Shell BP and other corporate interests of the colonial era. That is why Britain armed Nigeria with bombs, airplanes and diplomatic coverage to annihilate Biafra, ”said the statement.
The Group also explained that millions of Nigerians live with the consequences of the betrayal of Aburi's action, which has led the country to insecurity, economic collapse, false federalism and a unitary state disguised as a federation.
“His words are not just a distortion of the past, they are a dangerous attempt to disinfect tyranny and genocide.
“We make all historians, academics and justice lovers who seek the truth review the original tapes and documents of the Aburi Agreement, many of which are publicly available, to expose Gowon's lies,” the statement added.
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