•General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), now and then
Despite the explanations provided by former Head of State Yakubu Gowon in his memoir, ‘My Life of Duty & Allegiance’, on key events that defined his administration, several lingering questions remain unanswered.
While the 859-page autobiography has generated widespread interest for its insider account of the 1967 to 1970 Nigerian Civil War, Gowon’s role during the conflict, his unexpected rise to national leadership, themes of faith and reconciliation, military politics and the events leading to the 1975 coup, some salient issues received limited attention.
Among the issues drawing renewed attention are civilian deaths during the 30-month civil war, humanitarian crisis and alleged starvation in the defunct Biafra Republic, alleged corruption linked to the oil boom era, human-rights concerns, and several other unresolved matters, reports The Guardian.
The war was fought between the Nigerian Government under General Gowon and the secessionist state of Biafra in the Eastern Region, headed by the region’s former military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Modern estimates and historical accounts indicate that the war claimed between 600,000 and three million lives, mostly women and children, amid allegations of war crimes and genocide, with many victims reportedly dying from starvation.
Although Gowon emphasised national unity and post-war reconciliation in the autobiography, observers note that the book appears cautious in addressing the scale of suffering experienced by noncombatants during the conflict.
Historians have long argued that the war left deep emotional and social scars across the country, particularly in the former Biafran territory where memories of loss and displacement remain strong decades later.
The memoir has also stirred renewed debate over starvation and humanitarian conditions in the defunct Biafra during the war. Critics say the book did not extensively examine allegations that blockade policies worsened famine conditions in the secessionist region, despite the international outrage generated at the time by images of starving children.
It remains one of the most sensitive aspects of the war and continues to shape conversations about justice, memory and reconciliation in the country.
Questions have equally been raised about the memoir’s treatment of corruption and human-rights concerns during Gowon’s administration.
His administration coincided with a period of enormous oil wealth, rapid expansion of government institutions and growing allegations of corruption among the elite.
The popular phrase often associated with his regime, “Nigeria’s problem is not money but how to spend it,” came to reflect both the confidence and extravagance that characterised the oil boom years.
While the former Head of State acknowledged the broader shortcomings of military rule, including the concentration of power, some pundits argue that the memoir stops short of a detailed reflection on corruption during the oil boom years and allegations of wartime abuses.
For many observers, the memoir’s significance now lies not only in the revelations it contains, but also in the difficult questions it still appears reluctant to confront fully.
However, the autobiography has also been widely acknowledged as an important contribution to Nigeria’s political and military history due to the first-hand insights it offers into some of the country’s most defining moments.
For many younger Nigerians, it provides an opportunity to revisit a turbulent era that continues to influence national politics, ethnic relations and debates over federal unity.
Other commentators insist that the publication is unlikely to end longstanding debates surrounding the civil war and the legacy of military rule in Nigeria.
They argue that the book may have reopened difficult national conversations about accountability, reconciliation and the unresolved historical questions that continue to shape public memory decades after the conflict ended.
In an interview with our correspondent, prominent Abuja-based human rights lawyer and activist, Dr. Maxwell Opara, argued that the former Head of State showed no genuine remorse over the Nigerian civil war despite previously claiming to have repented.
Dr Opara said the memoir reflected what he described as Gowon’s “unrepentant mind,” questioning why the former ruler failed to publish the account while the former Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was still alive.
According to him, the book should have contained a direct apology to victims of the war and families devastated by the conflict.
“The war was avoidable. It was somebody’s inability to follow agreement,” Opara said, adding that Gowon owed apologies to orphans, widows, parents and others who lost loved ones during the 30-month civil war. He maintained that many Nigerians still carry deep emotional scars from the conflict decades after it ended.
The lawyer further argued that if Gowon truly desired reconciliation, he should have appealed to the federal government to release detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, as a symbolic gesture.
He added that the continued agitation for Biafra and perceived marginalisation of the Igbo people showed that issues arising from the war remained unresolved.
“For the fact that Biafra agitation is still on, marginalisation of Igbos is still persisting and injustice is still persisting against the Igbos, no Igbo person will forgive Gowon,” Opara stated.
Recalling his family’s ordeal during the war, he said his father narrowly escaped death after staying back to assist his mother with household chores when federal forces attacked his friends on their way. He also alleged that some persons were buried alive in the region during the war by soldiers loyal to the federal government.
Coming to the defence of former Head of State, public affairs analyst, Emeka Opah, said the memoir merely reflected Gowon’s personal account of the Nigerian civil war and would not have been different even if Ojukwu, were still alive.
Opah argued that no single book on the civil war could ever gain universal acceptance because of the differing perspectives surrounding the conflict and the emotions it still evokes decades later.
Opah maintained that Gowon, as the then Head of State, possessed privileged information about the political crisis and events that led to the outbreak of the war, making his account one of the most authoritative narratives on the conflict.
He noted that there was no living or dead individual with greater access to state intelligence and military information on the period than the former military ruler.
He also observed that Ojukwu chose not to write his own detailed memoir on the war, leaving historians and the public with limited firsthand perspectives from the Biafran side.
According to him, those questioning Gowon’s account should compare it with other historical records and publications on the civil war before reaching conclusions, insisting that there was no indication the former Head of State deliberately distorted facts in his memoir.
The development comes as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service announced a major documentary on the Nigerian Civil War, featuring eyewitness testimonies and previously unreleased archive footage from the frontline.
Titled ‘Surviving Biafra’, the 75-minute film explores contrasting perspectives from both sides of the conflict and includes deeply personal accounts from individuals who lived through the war.
