Re-echoing Biafran War: T.Y. Danjuma says, ‘If Ojukwu had acted like Jonathan, there would be no Civil War’

Chairman of Boko Haram Victim Support Fund and former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Danjuma Theophilus Danjuma, yesterday exhumed memories of Nigeria’s bloody civil war by blaming the leader of defunct Biafra republic, late Odimegwu Ojukwu, for the civil war, which claimed the lives of nearly a million Nigerians.

Danjuma, who is a former Minister of Defence, stated this on Wednesday after President Goodluck Jonathan paid him a private visit in his Asokoro residence in Abuja.

He noted that had the late Biafran warlord conceded victory to the federal troops after the fall of Enugu during the civil war in the same manner President Jonathan accepted defeat after the March 28 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the nation would have been saved “a full year of bloodshed”.

Speaking after a closed-door meeting he had with President Jonathan, Danjuma told journalists that by conceding defeat in the March 28 presidential election to Buhari, the President had set a record, adding that Africa and the world should emulate Jonathan.

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His words, “The outcome of the election and the manner in which President Jonathan conceded victory to Buhari, is totally un-African, it is very important in the history of Africa.

“If Ojukwu did the same after the fall of Enugu, if he had conceded victory to the federal troops, he would have saved the nation one full year of bloodshed.

“President Jonathan has set a history, a record as something to be emulated by the rest of Africa and indeed the whole world. It’s an excellent thing he did,” he said.

Global Reporters recalls that the retired Army general had in January drew the anger of some ex-Niger Delta militants, including Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo and Government Ekpemudo (a.k.a Tompolo), when he called for their arrests for threatening war if Jonathan loses the presidential election.

The repentant militants, aside declaring the former minister persona non grata in the home region of President Jonathan, demanded that Danjuma should apologize within seven days or face their wrath. They accused him of being among the northerners who have been made very comfortable in life as a result of the oil money from the Niger Delta region.