Tuesday, May 26, 2026 - Former member of the Enugu State House of Assembly and ex-South-East spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, Denge Onoh, has criticised former Head of State Yakubu Gowon over his remarks on civilian casualties during the Nigerian Civil War, describing them as a dangerous downplaying of the conflict’s human toll.
Onoh was reacting to an interview Gowon granted on Arise
Television, where the former military leader reportedly recounted visiting
former Biafran areas after the war and noticing black marks on palm trees,
which he was told were bullet impacts. Gowon was also quoted as saying that
“most of the bullets fired by the Nigerian army hit palm trees, not people.”
Onoh rejected the claim, insisting it contradicts
established historical records, eyewitness accounts and international reports
on the civil war. He said the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) resulted in an
estimated three million deaths, largely from starvation, disease linked to
blockade conditions, and direct combat operations.
“Reducing
these horrors to bullets harmlessly striking palm trees does not withstand
basic scrutiny. It ignores the well-documented humanitarian crisis, including
widespread kwashiorkor among children, mass displacement and the devastating
human cost of prolonged fighting across the South-East.” Onoh said
He further questioned Gowon’s interpretation of the war in
his autobiography My Life of Duty and Allegiance, suggesting it reinforced a
defensive narrative of the conflict. According to Onoh, presenting the war as a
“police action” while downplaying civilian suffering amounted to personal
justification rather than full historical accountability.
While acknowledging Gowon’s post-war “No Victor, No
Vanquished” policy and the 3Rs programme, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and
Reconstruction, Onoh said true national healing required honest acknowledgment
of victims’ suffering. He warned that attempts to soften or reframe the war
through “anecdotes like the palm trees story” risk undermining public trust in
the historical record.
Onoh ucited global examples of wartime remorse, including
U.S. officials involved in the Vietnam War and German leaders who later
apologised for Second World War atrocities.
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