By admin
Dear Biafran War Reports readers, how are you all doing once again ? Well I hope you all know that we care deeply care about your wellbeing and not just concerned with bringing you the history and truth about the Biafran war ? I also wish to thank you all once again from the bottom of my heart for your support, readership and increasing dedication to our new site, we are nothing without you all, and please do spread the word about our website via all media outlets and social media platforms thank you.
As you may know, today is the 30th of May, which is the day of Biafran independence. It was a great day of joy for the people of the former Eastern Nigerian region as the finally separated themselves from the country that had heaped so much savage brutality and oppression on them in such a short space of time.
But I must point out that this day of celebration then was also punctured by an air of apprehension by some in region, especially in the minority areas, as some of them had been secretly appealing to Nigeria to come and save them from a perceived “Igbo domination”, bear in mind that 3 days before the Lagos government had divided Nigeria into 12 states and gave the Eastern minorities their own states, against Biafran option of Provincial Government.
What we have chosen to bring to you dear readers today as the headline denotes is about the Aburi Accord, which held in the town of Aburi in Ghana, and was presided over by General Joseph Ankrah, in a last ditch attempt to stave off the breakout of the gruesome civil war that we now know as the Biafran War 7 months later.
The Aburi Accord was held in Aburi Ghana from the 4th to 6th of January 1967, after the breakdown by of the Constitutional conferences set after the killing of Gen Ironsi and about 30 officers of Igbo extraction and the subsequent genocidal pogroms by the Northern civilians and soldiers on the Eastern people, with Igbos as their main targets.
With the wanton killings of Igbos all over Nigeria and the seeming lack of moral courage by Lt Col Yakubu Gowon to stem this genocidal orgy of killings, the then Governor of the Eastern region Lt Col Emeka Ojukwu, refused to meet with the Nigerian government anywhere in Nigeria citing his own personal safety as a reason for not attending any meetings.
This personal safety issue is what prompted some British officials to approach the Ghanaian government to host this historic Ad Hoc summit. It was indeed the very final attempt by all concerned to try to get both parties that were now at an obtuse variance to swing back towards some resolutions.
Resolutions were indeed reached and they included but not limited to what we mention here:
1. No use of force to resolve the Nigerian problem.
2. Abrogation of all Decrees.
3. withdrawal of troops back to their own regions.
4. Confederated system of government.
5. Settlement of salaries of displaced persons and aid assistance.
6. A look at promotions in the armed forces and civil service etc.
7. The need of 3 regional governor’s votes to get a ruling at the Supreme Military Council.
8. The appointment of a chairman to be the head of the SMC.
All of these above were accepted by all parties in attendance. But once back in Nigeria, the Federal Government developed cold feet with regards to implementation of the Accord 100 percent. This is because the government advisers and also the British diplomats all convinced Col Gowon that he’d made a huge mistake by acceding to the treaty, which they now termed “Ojukwu’s Demands”, they also bizarrely claimed that Ojukwu was over prepared for the summit and that they only went to Aburi for a friendly chat ??? As in Nigeria was massacring its own citizens and there was breakdown of law and order and the country was drifting towards war, yet Ojukwu who’s people were massacred and in a state of mourning and rejection, is being accused of being over prepared for a meeting ?? Was he supposed to be happy, laughing, dancing and over-fraternising with people who were overseeing the destruction of his people ?? I guess the laissez faire attitude of Gowon and co, probably showed that they didn’t care about the killings of Igbos and others or that it was well organised as it seemed.
Anyway the failure to implement Aburi led to the Eastern Nigerian government to start to make statements and accused Nigeria of lack of faith and integrity and the Nigerian government still dragged its feet.
So instead of posting about the declaration of Biafran independence as most will be doing today, I’ve chosen to post about what led to the declaration of Biafra, which was the reneging by Gowon and the Nigerian government of the Aburi Accord.
This prompted the foremost and most read newspaper in Nigeria at the time, the Daily Times to post an editorial which i’m sharing with us today. It was basically asking the Nigerian government why it hadn’t told the people about what was agreed at Aburi 55 days after the summit ?? The article was very critical of the Lagos government reluctance to give information about the meeting to the nation, let alone implement its decisions. This report is from the 28th of February 1967.
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