Senator Victor Umeh has called on former Military Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd.), to apologise to the Igbo people and document his role in Nigeria’s civil war.
Umeh, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly, made this demand in an interview with Arise News on Wednesday.
He stated that Gowon must provide a detailed account of the war, especially in light of recent revelations by former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida.
Babangida had reaffirmed that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo-led coup but a “revolutionary movement” by young officers.
“I think Gowon owes Nigerians a duty to write his own account of that war and the things that led to the war and the way the war was carried out and the way the war ended. Because when the war ended, he promised the Nigerian people reconciliation, restitution, and rehabilitation, particularly to the Igbo side of the nation. That he did not implement until he was overthrown in 1975,” Umeh said.
The Senator criticised Gowon for avoiding discussions on his role, urging him to take responsibility. “So, he himself should stop playing the ostrich. Just like Babangida came out as an elder statesman at 80 now, he decided to speak the truth, including on matters of June 12. People should not retain certain things until death. Gowon was a principal person in the whole episode.
He was one that destroyed the regional arrangement in Nigeria and created the 12-state structure from which we had all these things.”
Umeh also insisted that Gowon must apologise for the war’s impact on the Igbo people.
“He needs to come out and put his statements clearly, and because of the way he handled the war and the way he treated the Igbos, including the massacre of the Igbo people, he owes the Igbo people an apology.”
“It was quite relieving that former president Babangida’s book has one more time confirmed what we have always known to be the State of Affairs with that coup.”
Umeh further stressed the need for national reconciliation. “The Igbos of Nigeria have been held in so much contempt with successive administrations in Nigeria, starting from Gowon, and we were put on a very dark spot in the affairs of this country that we organised a coup that killed some important people in Nigeria. But truthfully and reassuringly, this book has exposed that the Igbos themselves crushed the coup.”
Speaking on Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s demand for N10trillion in compensation, Umeh said what matters most is equal treatment.
“Now that it is clear that Igbos did not organise any coup to kill anybody for selfish reasons, it follows that all the things Igbos have been denied in Nigeria by the successive government, starting from Gowon, down to the present day even, that Igbos should be seen as Nigerians with the same rights and privileges that other Nigerians should enjoy in the affairs of government.”
He concluded by urging the government to change its attitude toward the Igbo people.
“A change in attitude of the present government towards reintegrating the Igbos fully into the Nigerian project, and casting away that suspicion that Igbos organised the coup, that made them to be removed from the scheme of things in Nigeria. If we put a stop to it, it begins the healing process.”
