From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has slammed former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, over his recent statement that the Biafra war was borne out of unity and not hatred for Igbo.
Spokesperson of the group, Emma Powerful, reacting to the comment in a statement described it as a provocative, insensitive and shameless attempt to whitewash the atrocities of the Biafran genocide that he orchestrated.
Powerful added that Gowon’s claim that the Nigerian Civil War was fought for “unity, not hatred” was not only a grotesque distortion of history but also a deliberate insult to the millions of Biafrans slaughtered under his command and an affront to all victims of his premeditated genocidal campaign.
“Gowon’s crocodile tears over the violence in Jos and his hollow lamentations about Nigeria’s disunity cannot erase the bloodstains on his hands. His words are a painful reminder of the unrepentant arrogance of a man who presided over the massacre of over five million Biafran men, women and children, whose only crime was seeking self-determination in the face of systemic marginalisation and state sponsored pogroms.
“To compare his genocidal war to a quest for unity is to spit on the graves of our ancestors and mock the suffering of survivors. Gowon’s legacy is not one of unity but of unparalleled brutality, second only to Adolf Hitler’s slaughter of six million Jews,” Powerful stated.
The pro Biafra group has also demanded from the former Head of State some questions it believed were left unanswered after the war.
Among the pertinent ones he said were: “What happened at Aburi? Why did he renege on the agreements reached with Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu which could have averted the war?
“Why did he repeatedly seek guidance from a certain diplomat during negotiations, which he claimed betrayed Nigeria’s sovereignty to neo-colonial interests?
“Others are why did he perpetuate the falsehood that the January 1966 coup was an Igbo plot when evidence clearly shows it was a military action by officers from across Nigeria?
“Why did he refuse to return Nigeria to regionalism, a system he claimed fostered unprecedented economic growth, in favour of a unitary structure designed to exploit Biafra’s oil and gas resources.
“What transpired during the late Sir Ahmadu Bello’s visit to Sandhurst, where he addressed Nigerian cadets in Hausa, sowing seeds of division?
“As a self-proclaimed born-again Christian, why has he refused to publish his account of the Aburi Accord? What truth is he afraid to reveal to posterity?”
Powerful added that Gowon’s periodic speeches were not calls for healing but deliberate provocations that reopen old wounds, pointing out that his refusal to acknowledge the truth about the Biafran genocide, starvation policies, mass executions and aerial bombardments of civilian populations demonstrates his lack of remorse.
Further faulting his reasons of unity as the basis of the war, Powerful said “Unity cannot be imposed by force, and it cannot thrive in a contraption like Nigeria, an artificial creation designed by colonial masters to exploit indigenous ethnic nationalities.
“The diverse cultures and world views of Nigerian peoples are irreconcilable under a forced union that prioritises the interests of a few over the aspirations of many.
“Spare us your sanctimonious rhetoric about unity. The blood of five million Biafrans cries out for justice, and no amount of media posturing can silence their voices. If you seek peaceful coexistence, let your actions, not empty words, prove it. Begin by telling the world how you sleep at night after superintending over one of history’s worst atrocities,” Powerful said.