Nigeria, May 21 -- In his autobiography, My Life of Service and Allegiance, Gowon revisits the political turmoil that followed the 1966 coups, which ultimately escalated into a full-blown conflict.

He argued that repeated attempts at reconciliation between the Federal Military Government and the Eastern Region failed because Ojukwu allegedly rejected or reinterpreted agreements reached during negotiations.

Gowon placed particular emphasis on the January 1967 Aburi meeting in Ghana, mediated by then Ghanaian Head of State, Lt. Gen. Joseph Arthur Ankrah, which was convened to halt the deepening crisis and preserve Nigeria's unity.

According to him, both sides returned from Aburi with fundamentally different interpretations of what was a...