Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, a renowned human rights lawyer, has alleged that the true motive of the bloody Nigerian-Biafran civil was not to unite Nigeria but to control the crude oil reserves in the Eastern Region.
Omihrobo, from Delta State, expressed this thought in a new post on his official X account on Monday.
The lawyer referenced a recent interview granted by Gen. Yakubu Gowon on the events and circumstances around the Civil War from 1966-1970. Gowon was Nigeria’s military Head of State at the time and has been blamed for the death of millions of civilians during the war, mostly of ethnic Igbo extraction in Eastern Nigeria.
‘Oil War,’ Not Unity War
Omirhobo’s statement challenges the widely accepted narrative that the war was fought to preserve Nigeria’s unity. “The true objective of the Nigerian Civil War was not to unite Nigeria but to subjugate the Igbos, steal the crude oil under their control in the then Eastern Region, and put it in control of the North for the pleasure of Britain,” he asserted.
He dismissed the notion of unity, citing the country’s ongoing ethnic and toxic sectarian divisions 54 years after the war. “To hell with unity!” he posited. “Are we united today? The answer is NO; as you can see, we are always at each other’s throats. We are divided more than ever,” Omirhobo stated. He criticized General Gowon, describing him as a “coward and clueless opportunist” who, along with other Northern military men, killed their Igbo colleagues and civilians without cause.
Omirhobo claimed that Gowon initially planned to move the Central Bank of Nigeria to the North and secede under the code ‘Araba‘ but was persuaded by Britain to stay and control the oil-rich region. “Britain, our colonial master, called Gowon back and asked him, ‘You have all the loaf, why settle for half?’ Then Gowon started talking about unity when, in actual fact, it was the crude oil that was his objective,” Omirhobo alleged.
He also discussed the current distribution of oil wealth in Nigeria in which nearly all oil wells, although located in the southern part of Nigeria, are owned by the Northerners from a region that currently has no commercially available crude oil. He alleged that Northerners occupy top positions in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigeria’s state-owned oil giant.
“Today, all the oil wells in Nigeria are owned by the North, which does not have a single drop of crude oil. They occupy all top and plum positions in NNPC while the rest struggle for the crumbs,” he said.
Omirhobo’s statement, Gowon’s interview, and later a congratulatory message from one of Nigeria’s famous opposition politicians, Peter Obi, have all helped to reignite passionate debates about the circumstances and true motives of the war.
His perspective suggests that the legacy of the war and the control over resources continue to fuel divisions and restiveness in the country.
Background
In 1966, a group of soldiers staged a coup in which mostly northern political leaders were killed.
The coup was tagged ‘Igbo Coup‘ and led to, first, the slaughter of hundreds of Igbo uniformed officers across the county, including the then military Head of State, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi – who was an Igbo. This was immediately followed by a massacre of an estimated between 50,000-200,000 Igbo civilians in various parts of Nigeria.
South-Western Nigeria actively supported the civil war, greatly benefiting from the post-war Nigerian enterprise.
Before the outbreak of the crisis, the East was reputed to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, at 45% pa, fuelled in part by the masterful leadership of Dr. Micheal Okpara and the new oil revenues.
Much of the region is still believed to hold one of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves.
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