US Group Faults Gowon Over Aburi Accord Claims

By Oluwakemi Kindness

A United States-based group, Rising Sun, has faulted former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), of allegedly misrepresenting the true reasons behind the collapse of the 1967 Aburi Accord.

In a statement released on Sunday in Abuja, the group describes Gowon’s recent claim—that the accord failed because General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu insisted on regional control of the military—as historically inaccurate.

The statement, jointly signed by Rising Sun President, Maxwell Dede, and Secretary, Rev. Fr. Augustine Odimmegwa, says the demand for regional control of security forces was consistent with the principles of federalism and aimed at preventing further bloodshed.

“The Aburi Accord called for a decentralised federation and joint control of the armed forces, not a central military command,” the group said. “These were collective resolutions, not Ojukwu’s personal demands.”

The group argued that had the accord been honoured, Nigeria could have avoided the civil war, widespread killings, and famine that followed. It accused Gowon of reneging on the agreement under pressure from British authorities and Northern elites.

According to the statement, the British government, through its High Commissioner in Lagos at the time, influenced Gowon to reject the accord in order to protect colonial-era interests such as Shell BP.

Rising Sun said Gowon’s latest remarks had unintentionally vindicated Ojukwu and the Biafran cause, stating that the demand for regional autonomy was a call for justice and self-preservation, not secession.

The group urged historians and researchers to revisit the original documents and recordings from the Aburi meeting, adding: “History has passed its verdict—and it is not in Gowon’s favour.”