By Bellow Sani l May 21, 2026
A lawyer representing detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has accused former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, of distorting the historical facts surrounding the collapse of the 1967 Aburi Accord and the events that eventually led to the Nigerian Civil War.
According to the lawyer, Gowon’s recent comments on the Aburi Accord were part of an attempt to conceal what he described as the federal government’s betrayal of agreements reached during the peace meeting held in Aburi, Ghana, shortly before the outbreak of the war. The statement alleged that Nigeria lost a historic opportunity to avoid civil conflict because the accord was not fully implemented.
The Aburi Accord was negotiated between January 4 and 5, 1967, by military leaders of Nigeria, including then-Head of State Yakubu Gowon and Eastern Region leader Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. The agreement was widely viewed as a last attempt to prevent Nigeria’s disintegration following the 1966 coups and ethnic violence that destabilized the country.
Kanu’s lawyer argued that the accord supported a loose federal arrangement that would have granted significant autonomy to Nigeria’s regions and reduced tensions between the federal government and the Eastern Region. He accused Gowon of later reneging on those commitments after returning from Ghana.
The statement further claimed that the breakdown of the agreement contributed directly to the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted from 1967 to 1970 and resulted in widespread destruction, famine, and the deaths of millions of people, particularly in the former Biafran territory.
The lawyer also criticized what he described as repeated efforts by some Nigerian political figures to reinterpret or minimize the causes and humanitarian consequences of the war. He insisted that historical records, including documents and recordings from the Aburi meeting, contradict Gowon’s version of events.
The controversy follows renewed national debate over comments recently made by Gowon concerning the civil war and the reasons behind the collapse of the Aburi peace agreement. Several pro-Biafra groups and activists have since accused the former military leader of attempting to rewrite history and avoid responsibility for decisions that escalated the crisis.
Supporters of Gowon, however, have continued to defend his role during the conflict, arguing that his government acted to preserve Nigeria’s territorial unity during one of the most dangerous periods in the country’s history. The civil war remains one of Nigeria’s most sensitive historical subjects more than five decades after the conflict ended.