The Nigerian Civil War Was Fueled by Hatred, Greed, and Cold Calculations—Not National Unity
The Igbo-Biafra Nationalists (IBN) and the Indigenous People of Igbo Nation for South East Self-determination (IPINS) express profound disappointment and outrage at the recent public statement made by the former Nigerian Head of State and chief architect of the Biafran Genocide, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd). Speaking on Saturday in Abuja while receiving a so-called Lifetime Integrity and Achievement Award, Gowon made the following tone-deaf remark:
“I remember the most difficult period of my life. It was not my choice, but I had to be there—and had to do what I had to—to keep this country together… It was never a hatred against any people, I can assure you… That is why, at the end, what do we have to say? As they say: no victor, no vanquished.”
This blatant attempt to whitewash one of the darkest chapters in African history is not only dishonest but deeply insensitive to the millions of Igbo lives lost, displaced, starved, and dehumanized during the 1967–1970 Biafran War. General Gowon’s statement is an affront to the truth, to justice, and to the memory of the innocent.
Let it be said without ambiguity: the Nigerian Civil War was not a noble mission to “keep the country together.” It was a calculated war of extermination against the Igbo people, waged through state-sponsored pogroms, aerial bombardments of civilian targets, and starvation-as-a-weapon policies. Gowon’s regime, with full complicity from both the Northern and Yoruba political establishments, orchestrated a campaign that remains one of the worst crimes against humanity in post-colonial Africa.
While the Northern soldiers were deployed to the battlefield, the Yoruba elite—led by the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo—shaped the war’s strategy from behind the curtains. Economic strangulation, the £20 policy, and the weaponization of hunger were not spontaneous acts of war—they were policies conceived and executed to break the Igbo spirit and cripple Biafra beyond military defeat.
Today, we must reject this sanctimonious narrative of “no victor, no vanquished,” which is nothing but a shield used to deflect accountability and suppress a reckoning with Nigeria’s genocidal past. There was a vanquished—the Igbo. There was a victor—the political elite who emerged richer, more powerful, and free of scrutiny.
Furthermore, we call on General Yakubu Gowon to follow the recent example of General Ibrahim Babangida and write a full, unfiltered memoir before he leaves this world—a book that speaks the unvarnished truth of the atrocities he supervised, including the genocidal starvation campaign, the deliberate seizure of Igbo properties, and the systemic exclusion of our people in the post-war era.
Nigeria cannot build a just or peaceful future while continuing to conceal its blood-soaked foundations. A nation that hides its darkest truths will forever live in the shadow of its unhealed wounds.
We urge all well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to reject historical revisionism and demand transparency, truth, and redress for the Biafran people. The ghosts of three million murdered souls will not rest until justice is done.
Signed:Edoziuno Chukwunonso
Spokesperson, Igbo-Biafra Nationalists (IBN)
& The Indigenous People of Igbo Nation for South East Self-determination (IPINS)
