Former Nigerian head of state makes explosive first-person disclosure in 859-page autobiography launched in Abuja on Tuesday. KEHINDE ADEGOKE writes.
Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, leader of Biafra during the 1967–1970 civil war, secretly pledged Biafra’s mineral resources to the Rothschild banking family for about $10 million — around ₦5 million — to help secure French-backed military and diplomatic support.
The allegation, made on the authority of former Nigerian Head of State and wartime Commander-in-Chief General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), is contained in Chapter 14 of his newly released 859-page autobiography, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, publicly presented in Abuja on Tuesday.
The disclosure, which TheDiggerNews.com obtained from the book at its launch, represents the first time a Nigerian head of state has placed on record a named financial transaction linking Ojukwu’s secession campaign to a European banking dynasty — and provides, for the first time, an alleged financial architecture behind France’s clandestine support for Biafra, long acknowledged in historical accounts but never fully explained from the Nigerian government’s intelligence perspective.
What Gowon Says
According to the autobiography, as the civil war intensified and Biafra faced mounting military pressure from federal forces, Ojukwu turned to France — Nigeria’s most consequential external adversary during the conflict — for arms, diplomatic recognition, and strategic cover. The French, Gowon writes, did not act solely out of ideological solidarity. The transaction that underwrote their support, he alleges, was Ojukwu’s pledge of Biafra’s mineral wealth to the Rothschild banking family for approximately $10 million, or an estimated ₦5 million at the prevailing exchange rate.
The Rothschild, a leading European private banking dynasty with ties to French finance, are identified by Gowon as intermediaries in securing French-backed support.
Gowon does not describe the arrangement as a loan. He describes it as a pawn—a pledge of sovereign mineral resources in exchange for financial consideration, made covertly and without the Nigerian federal government’s knowledge or consent.
Why It Matters
France’s support for Biafra has been publicly documented for decades. France supplied arms and ammunition to Biafra even as the French government publicly denied any involvement, with weapons reportedly channelled through neighbouring countries, including Gabon. What has never been established with named sourcing is the financial transaction that motivated or enabled that support.
Gowon’s memoir now supplies a named party, a named mechanism, and a named sum — from the perspective of the man who led the opposing side and had access to wartime intelligence. That is a materially different category of allegation from historical inference or circumstantial analysis.
The disclosure also raises questions that historians and accountability researchers have long sought to answer: whether Ojukwu, in pledging the mineral wealth of a territory whose population he claimed to represent, had any democratic mandate to do so; whether the Rothschild banking family — or its successor entities — ever sought to enforce, redeem or quietly extinguish that pledge after Biafra’s defeat in January 1970; and whether the French government’s internal records, some of which have been partially declassified, contain any reference to the transaction.
None of those questions can be answered from the autobiography alone. What the autobiography does, for the first time, is put a former head of state’s name on the allegation.
The Broader Intelligence Picture
Gowon’s disclosure fits a pattern of Biafra seeking foreign support, especially from France, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Tanzania, and Zambia. France, under Charles de Gaulle, played the largest role, supplying arms and offering Biafra international credibility.
De Gaulle’s motives have historically been attributed to a combination of Francophone expansionism, desire to weaken Anglophone Nigeria, and interest in the oil resources of the Niger Delta. Gowon’s account adds a third layer to that analysis: that, beyond geopolitical strategy, there was a direct financial transaction — one that placed Biafra’s mineral assets in the hands of a European banking house while the war was still being fought.
Significance for Historical Record
Gowon himself stated that the autobiography became necessary because many accounts of the civil war era had been written over the years without fully reflecting his own reasoning as Nigeria’s leader at the time, and that he took a conscious decision not to reopen old wounds but to clarify his thinking on policies and plans at a period often narrated by others.
The Rothschild disclosure suggests that clarification in at least one chapter cuts considerably deeper than mere reflection. It is a named, specific, first-person intelligence allegation from the man who commanded the federal side — one that, if corroborated by independent research, would materially rewrite the financial history of the Biafran secession.
The Rothschild family, now operating primarily through Rothschild & Co, a Paris-headquartered global financial advisory firm, has not responded to these claims as of the time of this report. TheDiggerNews.com is reaching out for comment.
Ojukwu died in November 2011. His family and associates have not yet responded to the disclosure.
𝗞𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟭𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲. 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀, 𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗔𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺, 𝗔𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝘀, 𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺.
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