Former Head of State Yakubu Gowon has alleged that former Biafran leader Chukuwemeka Ojukwu mortgaged Biafra’s mineral resources to the Rothschild banking family for about $10 million during the Nigerian Civil War.
Mr Gowon made the claim in his autobiography, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, subtitled No Going Back, launched on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Gowon, the deal was tied to French-backed support for Biafra during the war.
He wrote that France supported the Biafran government through some of its former African territories and hoped to benefit if Biafra succeeded in breaking away from Nigeria.
Gowon said Nigerian authorities later became aware of the arrangement after the Nigerian Consulate in New York intercepted information about the purchase of a B-26 aircraft meant for Biafra through a South American country.
“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,” Gowon wrote.
“Indeed, he had pawned the mineral wealth of Biafra to Rothschild for about $10m or an estimated N5m at the time.”
The former military ruler also stated in the book that he never planned to become Nigeria’s leader.
Gowon said junior military officers pushed him into office after the July 1966 counter-coup that led to the killing of Head of State Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and Western Region military governor Adekunle Fajuyi.
According to him, he initially suggested that more senior officers from the South should take over leadership, but the proposal was rejected.
“They wanted me to assume the position of Head of State and Supreme Commander,” he wrote, adding that the officers said he was the only person acceptable to them.
Gowon said he feared that rejecting the role could lead to more violence.
“I never aspired to and was unprepared for the new role that fate had now thrust on me,” he added.
Gowon became Head of State on August 1, 1966, at the age of 31. His government later fought the civil war against Biafra from 1967 to 1970.
He ruled Nigeria for nine years until he was removed in a coup led by Murtala Muhammed in July 1975.
