ABUJA, Nigeria (AP), Former Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon has unveiled his long\u2011awaited memoir, defending his choices during the country\u2019s brutal civil war and insisting the book is meant to clarify history rather than reopen old wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 881 page autobiography, scheduled for public presentation on May 19, 2026, at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, revisits Gowon\u2019s nine years in power, including the 30 month conflict between Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. President Bola Tinubu is expected to attend as guest of honor, while former Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma will formally unveil the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gowon, who ruled from 1966 to 1975, said he wrote the memoir to explain the reasoning behind his wartime policies. \u201cBy choosing to write, I took a conscious decision not to reopen old wounds but to clarify my thinking on policies and plans at a period often narrated by others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside the memoir, the book offers Gowon\u2019s personal defense of his wartime leadership: He argues that his decisions were shaped by conviction and circumstance, not ambition, He revisits his post war policy of \u201cNo Victor, No Vanquished,\u201d describing it as essential to reconciliation and rebuilding Nigeria, He reflects on the burden of leading a fractured nation, saying his story is one of \u201cconviction evaluated by circumstances at the crossroads of expectations and reality”, He stresses that many accounts of the war have been written by others, but few reflect his own reasoning as Nigeria\u2019s leader at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nigerian Civil War, fought from 1967 to 1970, claimed more than a million lives, many from starvation in Biafra. Gowon\u2019s post\u2011war policy of \u201cNo Victor, No Vanquished\u201d sought reconciliation, but critics argue his wartime decisions left scars that still shape Nigeria\u2019s politics and ethnic relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Historians say the memoir will provide a crucial primary source for understanding Nigeria\u2019s trajectory. \u201cThis is not just Gowon\u2019s story, it\u2019s a window into how decisions were made at the highest levels during one of Africa\u2019s most devastating conflicts,\u201d said one analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others caution that Gowon\u2019s narrative may be seen as self\u2011justification. Survivors and descendants of war victims are likely to challenge his account, particularly on humanitarian issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The war drew global attention at the time, with relief agencies struggling to address famine in Biafra and foreign governments divided over whether to recognize the breakaway republic. Britain, the Soviet Union, and others backed Nigeria, while France and humanitarian groups pressed for aid to Biafra. Gowon\u2019s reflections may resonate internationally today, as questions of secession, reconciliation, and post\u2011conflict governance remain relevant across Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly six decades later, Gowon\u2019s memoir is both a personal defense and a national reckoning. By revisiting the choices that defined his leadership, he invites Nigerians and the world to confront the past with clarity, even as the wounds of history remain tender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP), Former Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon has unveiled his long\u2011awaited memoir, defending his choices during the country\u2019s brutal civil war and insisting the book is meant to clarify history rather than reopen old wounds. The 881 page autobiography, scheduled for public presentation on May 19, 2026, at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":30991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2096,776,4,478,8,458,3],"tags":[15837,15836,15833,15828,15827,15834,11883,15832,15826,15824,15831,15835,15829,15823],"class_list":["post-30986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-educational","category-featured","category-financial","category-jobs","category-legal","category-naija-news","tag-abuja-book-launch-events","tag-african-history-and-politics","tag-african-political-memoirs","tag-bola-tinubu-conference-abuja","tag-civil-war-reconciliation-nigeria","tag-historical-leadership-in-africa","tag-nigeria-breaking-news","tag-nigeria-historical-memoir-release","tag-nigeria-political-history-books","tag-nigerian-civil-war-history","tag-no-victor-no-vanquished-policy","tag-post-conflict-reconciliation-stories","tag-theophilus-danjuma-book-unveiling","tag-yakubu-gowon-memoir"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Yakubu-Gowon1.jpg?fit=719%2C405&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30993,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30986\/revisions\/30993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}