Why Aburi Accord Collapsed – Gowon Recalls
Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, June 18th, 2025
(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has stated that that an important reason for the collapse of the Aburi Accord, which was the last major attempt to stop Nigeria’s civil war, was due to a fundamental disagreement with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu concerning who should take charge of military forces in the country’s regions.
Gowon stated this while speaking in an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday, as he stated that despite that despite the fact both parties were in sincere dialogue in the January 1967 summit in Aburi, Ghana, the eastern region leader, Ojukwu, later advocated for a form of regional autonomy that the federal government declined.
Gowon said: “Although we said that the military would be zoned, you know, but the control… he wanted, you know, those zones to be commanded by the governor. Say you have a military zone in the north, it would be commanded by the governor of the military in the east, it would be commanded by, you know, by him.
“And, of course, we did not agree with that one.”
He further disclosed that the Federal delegation never saw the Aburi meeting as a means for constitutional restructuring or military devolution.
“We just went there as far as we are concerned to be able to meet as officers now, and then to agree to be able to get back home and resolve a problem at home. That was my understanding. But that is not his understanding”, he added.
Gowon also disclosed that when he came back to Nigeria after the summit, he was sick and was not able to immediately reply to the terms Ojukwu had announced publicly. This delay, according to him, caused misunderstanding and unilateral declarations.
“Unfortunately… I was having a serious attack of a kind of fever or whatever it is, and I could not make a decision”, the former Head of State said.
Also, he accused Ojukwu of issuing unauthorised statements about the Accord without waiting for joint clarification.
“Ojukwu was one who, when he came, he went and made… a statement about the Aburi Accord”, Gowon said.
To solve the issue of the confusion, Gowon stated that the federal government called for a follow-up meeting in Benin, where he called all regional governors to agree on the next path forward; however, Ojukwu refused to attend.
“We had to organise that, you know, a meeting of all the governors. And he was invited to attend so that we could deal with the Accord. And we met at Nifo in Benin. And he did not turn up”, he said.
According to Gowon, had it been that Ojukwu attended the Benin meeting, the parties might have been able to prevent escalation.
Gowon stated the government was willing to work in the “spirit of Aburi,” however, it would never let national military control pass to regional governors or accept the possibility of secession.
He said: “The only thing that I added was that no region, you know, will, you know, can secede from the country.”
It is worth mentioning that the collapse of the Aburi Accord is widely viewed as a decisive moment that caused the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in July 1967, a war that lasted until 1970 and led to the death of over a million lives.
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