Former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), has revealed that General Yakubu Gowon’s unfulfilled promise to protect Igbos in northern Nigeria was a major catalyst for the Nigerian Civil War. In his newly launched book, Journey in Service, presented in Abuja on Thursday, Babangida detailed how the failure to uphold that commitment led to the 1966 pogrom, where thousands of Igbos were brutally massacred across northern Nigeria.
Babangida traced the origins of the crisis to the emergence of then Lt-Col. Yakubu Gowon as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces following the assassination of Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi. According to him, Gowon’s rise to power immediately triggered tensions with Lt-Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who strongly opposed his leadership. Ojukwu, in a broadcast from Enugu, rejected Gowon’s appointment and insisted that Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, the most senior army officer at the time, should be named Head of State.
As the political turmoil escalated, Gowon sought to stabilize the nation by convening a meeting with regional leaders, known as the “Leaders of Thought,” to find a path forward. In what Babangida described as a political masterstroke, Gowon also ordered the release of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Yoruba leader, from Calabar prison, securing crucial support from the Yoruba political elite.
Despite these moves, the fate of the Igbos in the North remained dire. Babangida revealed that while peace talks were ongoing in Lagos, the most horrific massacre of Igbos erupted across northern Nigeria on September 29, 1966. The widespread killings sent shockwaves across the country, leading to a mass exodus of Igbos to the East. In response, Ojukwu withdrew his delegation from Gowon’s reconciliation meetings, arguing that Igbos outside Eastern Nigeria were no longer safe.
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With the country in deadlock, Ghanaian Head of State, Lt-General Joseph Arthur Ankrah, intervened, offering a neutral ground for peace negotiations. His mediation led to the historic Aburi Peace Conference, held in Ghana from January 4 to 5, 1967. Babangida recounted that the meeting, attended by both Gowon and Ojukwu, resulted in the Aburi Accord—an agreement that was meant to prevent war. However, the federal and eastern Nigerian delegations later clashed over its interpretation. While Ojukwu’s camp maintained that the accord called for a loose federation, the federal government insisted it was meant to uphold Nigeria’s unity.
The final breaking point came when the federal government enacted Decree 8, which was intended to implement the Aburi Accord based on its own understanding. Ojukwu, refusing to accept what he saw as a distortion of the agreement, boycotted a crucial Supreme Military Council meeting in Benin on March 10, 1967. Babangida stated that this dispute over the interpretation of the Aburi Accord ultimately became the last spark that ignited the Nigerian Civil War.
The revelations in Babangida’s book provide new insights into the deep-seated tensions that led to one of the darkest chapters in Nigeria’s history. As debates continue over historical accounts of the war, Journey in Service adds another critical perspective to the conversation on the conflict that reshaped Nigeria forever.
