Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd) fought in the Nigeria/Biafra war where about 3 million people were killed. The former Chief of Defense Staff made a shocking confession recently. Hear him: “If you must know I am regretting fighting in the civil war. I am regretting even to this morning because we did not learn anything from the war. The war could have been avoided but about three million lives were lost and a lot of properties destroyed. There were emotional trauma and many effects of wars but we learned very little or nothing. It is sad. Let me tell you, if I knew this much then, I would not have participated in the war. It is useless fighting that war. No country fights civil war twice.”

“What led to the war then has come back and in a bigger form and everyone is fighting against another in Nigeria. The pro-Biafra groups are there in the South East, Boko Haram is in the North, Niger Delta Avengers are in the Niger Delta and the herdsmen are killing everywhere. The war could have been avoided if the Aburi Accord (reached in Ghana) was not unilaterally jettisoned by General Yakubu Gowon. We had an opportunity to restructure the country then but that was not done. Some civil servants went to Gen. Gowon and told him that the Aburi agreement was not in the interest of the country. Even if there was any part of it (the agreement) those in power then were not satisfied with, the best thing they should have done was to sit down and panel beat it.”

“They said the agreement would return the country to confederacy and that the Federal Government would become very weak. They should have sat down and adjusted some parts of it instead of jettisoning the agreement. It is not gentlemanly to renege on any agreement. This would have saved the nation the war, the lives lost would not have been, the fund spent to fight the war and the country would have been saved. It would have saved everyone the stress too. But the sad thing now is that we learnt very little or nothing.”

– Culled from The PUNCH