General Yakubu Gowon launched his memoir, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, to a packed audience in Abuja on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
The list of former heads of states at the events include General Abdulsalami Abubakar and President Goodluck Jonathan. Vice President Kashim Shettima represented President Bola Tinubu.
The book presenter, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma launched the book with N3 billion for a number of copies to all 20 universities that have awarded him honorary doctor of philosophy degree.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, purchased some copies of the book for N500 million.
Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, reviewed the book, which Yakubu Gowon said was to set the record straight about some historical events in Nigeria, especially about the civil war.
According to the book, Northern military officers believed Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was complicit in the January 1966 coup d’etat and wanted to move against him, per The Cable report.
Also in the book, Ojukwu, a colonel who was then the governor of the now defunct Eastern region, refused to accept Gowon’s leadership, insisting that the most senior army officer, Babafemi Ogundipe, a brigadier, should have been appointed to the position.
Ojukwu declared the secession of Biafra from Nigeria in May 1967, leading to a 30-month civil war
Gowon was a lieutenant colonel — two ranks below Ogundipe — when he assumed office as head of state.
Joseph Wey, a commodore, and Adeyinka Adebayo, a colonel, were also senior to Gowon, and he was promoted to major-general and later full-star general within one year.
“The case of Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe was, however, not as straightforward because the course of the coup had made it obvious that he could no longer function effectively in the command-and-control structure of the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces. With the concurrence of the UK government, he was appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK,” Gowon wrote.
“Ojukwu refused my offer of friendship. By extension, he wilfully refused to recognise my leadership. He felt that the ‘normal’ protocol of seniority in service should have been upheld in selecting General Ironsi’s successor under the new administration, regardless of the circumstances by which I assumed power. Admiral Wey effectively persuaded former Supreme Military Council members to take cognisance of the situation and support my leadership, highlighting my ability to command respect from junior officers and my willingness to lead during a difficult time.”
Gowon did not believe Ojukwu was supporting Ogundipe or defending the army hierarchy for altruistic reasons.
He wrote: “Left unsaid at the time was Ojukwu’s strong view that I was junior to him in the hierarchy. He failed to appreciate that he had been under serious threat because the young Northern officers believed he was complicit in the January 15, 1966 coup. I pre-empted any attempt to move against him, in part, because of my respect for all the Regional Governors and, more importantly, because I saw him primarily as a colleague and officer with whom I thought I had worked to restore normalcy in those early days of uncertainty. I believed that, together, we could rebuild the army and allow the country to continue its course in history.”
Despite his reservations, he went ahead and retained Ojukwu as the governor of the East.
“My decision to retain Ojukwu in office was altogether altruistic though subsequent events made it seem a huge mistake. But with the situation at hand, it did not matter whether he agreed or not with the fact that change had occurred. Even if he did not agree with my new role, the soldier in him never said he would leave the Army. I let him be,” Gowon wrote.
Ojukwu subsequently declared the secession of Biafra in May 1967 over the reprisal killing of Igbos in the north after the January 1966 putsch.
This led to a 30-month civil war which came to an end in January 1970 with the surrender of Biafra