Gowon: I Did Enough to Stop Igbo Killings in North, Accusations Are Misinformation

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has rejected claims that he did not do enough to prevent the killing of Easterners in Northern Nigeria in 1966-1967 or that his government failed to hold perpetrators accountable.

In his newly released autobiography, _My Life of Duty and Allegiance_, Gowon said the allegations were “wrong and full of mischief” and deliberately ignored the efforts he made to stop the killings across Nigeria.

*On the 1966 Pogrom*

The killings followed the July 29, 1966 counter-coup that ousted and killed then Head of State Gen. Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi and Western Region Governor Col. Adekunle Fajuyi. The counter-coup was seen as a reaction to the Jan. 15, 1966 coup, which killed several northern and western political and military leaders including Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Northern Premier Ahmadu Bello, and Western Premier Samuel Akintola.

Gowon said the violence in the North, especially in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Bauchi, and Jos, was triggered after Radio Dahomey reported alleged mass killings of Northerners in the East. He said the mob action was carried out mainly by ordinary people reacting to the broadcast, though he did not rule out possible encouragement by partisan politicians.

“I arranged to make a few public broadcasts in English and Hausa, which were specifically intended for the listening ears of the people of the North,” Gowon wrote. “My overriding objective was to calm their nerves and, in the process, restore normalcy.”

He said he also addressed soldiers directly, warning that he would personally shoot anyone who harmed innocent citizens without just cause. Gowon recounted how he investigated reports of soldiers killing civilians and discovered that a dismissed naval rating, Godwin Daboh, was falsely labeling people as “saboteurs,” leading to some executions.

*Efforts to Prevent Breakup*

Gowon said some northern officers considered pulling the North out of Nigeria after the July 29 coup. He said he persuaded them against it by explaining the consequences for the North in terms of assets and liabilities.

“Their perspective was that rather than allow the status quo to remain, the Northern officers and men would move to the North as a first step and eventually exit from Nigeria,” he wrote. “I quickly disabused their minds and made them understand the futility of the North leaving the union.”

He also noted that Britain and the United States told him neither country would support the breakup of Nigeria or provide aid to any seceding part.

*On Aburi and the Civil War*

Gowon blamed the collapse of the Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference and the eventual outbreak of the Civil War on the Eastern delegation’s refusal to return to talks and on what he said was Gov. Emeka Ojukwu’s twisting of the Aburi Accord to suit a Biafra agenda.

He also recalled clashes with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, then Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, over payment for arms during the war, and said he chose not to resist the 1975 coup that removed him from office while he was at an OAU meeting in Kampala.

Gowon said his goal throughout the crisis was to protect every Nigerian and preserve the unity of the country, adding that he spent many sleepless nights working with regional leaders, traditional rulers, and military officers to end the bloodletting.