Gowon Reveals Ojukwu Allegedly Mortgaged Biafra’s Mineral Wealth During Civil War
Former Nigerian Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has claimed that former Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, allegedly mortgaged Biafra’s mineral resources to the Rothschild banking family in exchange for financial and foreign support during the Nigerian Civil War.
Gowon made the revelation in his newly released 859-page autobiography titled No Going Back: My Life of Duty and Allegiance, which was launched on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Gowon, the agreement was allegedly worth about $10 million, estimated at roughly N5 million at the time, and formed part of efforts by the Biafran leadership to secure international backing for the secessionist movement.
He stated that France played a major role in supporting Biafra during the war through some of its former African colonies, adding that the support was tied to economic interests linked to the region’s mineral resources.
“As the war intensified, France provided enormous support to the rebel government through former African territories under its influence,” Gowon wrote.
“It later emerged that this was in exchange for what they had hoped to gain from him in the event of a successful breakaway from Nigeria.”
The former military leader further claimed that Nigerian authorities became aware of the arrangement after intelligence was intercepted by the Nigerian Consulate in New York concerning the purchase of a B-26 aircraft allegedly destined for Biafra through a South American country.
“Indeed, he had pawned the mineral wealth of Biafra to Rothschild for about $10m or an estimated N5m at the time,” Gowon stated.
“Our knowledge of this deal was fortuitous because the Nigerian Consulate in New York had intercepted information regarding the purchase of a B-26 aircraft that was to have been sent to Biafra through a South American country.”
The Nigerian Civil War, fought between 1967 and 1970, followed the declaration of the Republic of Biafra by Ojukwu and remains one of the most significant and controversial events in Nigeria’s history.
