Responsibility For The Civil War. Righting The History!

To the myriads of Igbo youths who were mostly unborn at the period of our civil war and who are obviously misguided and misinformed about the true state of affairs regarding the Nigerian Civil war, I hereby address them directly by stating in unequivocal terms that:

While we must sympathize with the bereaved, it is pertinent to ask the question: Who declared the Biafran war?

Having come to terms with the inalienable fact that your son, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared this visibly unwinnable war, the responsibility for the death of over 3.5 million people must be placed squarely at his doorstep!

And millions of other Nigerians also died! Ojukwu must bear the blood of these also on his head!

Did he and the grand Igbo council that took the final decision to declare war expect that nobody would die in such a war? Or that federal troops would fold their arms while Biafran soldiers took pot shots at them?

The Igbos by declaring the war, showed clear intent to kill other Nigerians but got bloodied instead!

While above statements may not be literally true, it is true by inference as Ojukwu knew quite well that the Nigerian nation would respond with a war... so he started amassing arms and preparing for war fully confident that the Igbo numerical advantage in well-trained commissioned army officers would swing things in Igbo favour!

The Igbos claim being dominated without their consent but they also, did not seek the consent of the South-South before drafting it into Biafra...yet Biafra extended from the Atlantic right through to the Mid-West! Ironsi filled up almost all appointive positions with his kinsmen...a trigger factor in the entire fiasco!

The Igbos set out to dominate their hospitable hosts even in this day and age...pitching them against South Africans, Gabonese, Ghanaians, Ivoriens and Liberians. They assert that Lagos is a No Man's Land!

And the annoying element is that Gowon declared only police action for the first initial month after the Igbos declared war on their fellow countrymen!

Since Yakubu Gowon reneged on agreements reached at the Aburi Accord, he must bear a large chunk of the responsibility for the bloody and senseless war!

This accord mainly sought to share political positions and by inference, assets...mainly shareable by the political elites.

Ojukwu thus tricked his people into war for his own selfish ends.....

I repeat:
Since Yakubu Gowon reneged on agreements reached at the Aburi Accord, he must bear a large chunk of the responsibility for the bloody and senseless war!

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.

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