Nigerian ex-Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.), spoke on Channels TV on Friday Oct 23, 2015 during his visit to Nassarawa State in Lafia. This was also published by the mainstream and online media in Nigeria.
Gen. Gowon (photo) was the Nigerian Head of State, who prosecuted the 30-month fratricidal Nigerian civil war a.k.a. Nigeria-Biafra war against the late Biafran Head of State (called a “rebel leader” by the Nigerian sate), then Biafran General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Gen. Gowon monitored by Channels TV in Lafia said, inter alia:
“What I saw was true and that’s what my old colleague, Ojukwu saw. It is not because of hatred and that is the reason at the end of the war, in order to make sure there was no hard feelings, that’s why we used the expression: ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’.”
Gen. Gowon was referring to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) pro-Biafra protests in Port Harcourt and some parts of the southeast – for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the Radio Biafra director.
Gen. Gowon’s take is that ‘Pro-Biafra groups are not a threat to Nigeria’s sovereignty’.
My take on this is that while I believe in the indissolubility and sovereignty of Nigeria i.e. ‘One Nigeria’, I’d like to bring the hindsight of history to bear.
After the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1970, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, declared a ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ mantra. But Gen. Gowon also declared and enunciated what he then called the “Three Rs” i.e. – ‘Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction’ – of the war-ravaged former Biafran territory which had re-metamorphosed back to Nigerian territory – especially Gen. Gowon’s former East Central state (i.e. Igboland, the actual theater of war).
Did Gen. Gowon keep to his declaration of his “Three Rs” after the war in 1970? NO!
I rest my case.
MadjackMedia 