Denge Josef Onoh has dismissed as a “historical lie” recent statements attributed to Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, alleging that the late Biafran leader, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, sought to deceive the world by claiming that Nigeria committed genocide against Biafra during the civil war.
Gumi, in a recent interview reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that America might deploy troops to Nigeria if the alleged Christian genocide continued, claimed that Ojukwu had used the genocide narrative to mislead the international community. According to him, the attempt failed because Nigeria’s then head of state and his deputy were both Christians.
In response, Onoh described Gumi’s remarks as “factually bankrupt” and a “deliberate attempt to rewrite the blood-soaked pages of Nigeria’s Civil War (1967–1970) for petty and divisive ends.”
Gumi had said that Ojukwu “allegedly wanted to use it (genocide) before, saying that Muslims were killing Christians, only to be undermined by the fact that General Yakubu Gowon, the federal head of state, and his deputy were Christians.”
Onoh countered sharply, saying: “This is not scholarship; it is sophistry, a cheap sleight of hand meant to gaslight survivors and sanitize atrocities under the guise of peace and stability.”
He further argued that historical evidence does not support Gumi’s assertions.
“Absolutely, and with profound justification rooted in the pogroms that ignited Biafra’s tragic bid for survival in the fall of 1966, orchestrated by massacres that swept through northern Nigeria, regions under federal influence, claiming over 30,000 Igbo lives in weeks,” Onoh said.
He emphasized that the events were not “random clashes but targeted ethnic and religious cleansings: Igbo Christians hunted in their homes, churches burnt, women and children slaughtered in mosques turned killing grounds.”
Onoh referenced eyewitness accounts and reports from international observers such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and British diplomats, who documented mobs chanting “Araba!” while attacking perceived “infidels” and “saboteurs.”
He explained that Ojukwu “did not invent this; he documented it in his seminal, A Statement on the Nigerian Crisis (September 1966) and in his Ashram Declaration (May 1969), where he decried the genocide of Igbos as a calculated extermination by northern elements, often framed in jihadist rhetoric.”
According to Onoh, “the war itself saw federal forces, predominantly northern Muslim troops bombard Biafran civilians with impunity, leading to a famine that claimed two million souls, mostly children, in what even Gowon’s own advisors privately called a ‘final solution.’”
He dismissed Gumi’s argument that Gowon’s Christianity negated allegations of ethnic or religious complicity as “a risible deflection.”
“Leadership faith does not absolve systemic complicity. Gowon, a devout Anglican, presided over an army where northern Muslim officers like Murtala Muhammed wielded outsized power, directing operations that blurred ethnic vendettas with religious fervor,” Onoh stated.
Onoh further remarked that Ojukwu’s struggle was “not against Muslims as a monolith but against a federation that failed its minorities—a fight for equity that echoes my own pleas today for inclusive governance under President Tinubu.”
He added: “Gumi’s narrative isn’t peace; it’s erasure, designed to delegitimize legitimate grievances and stoke fresh sectarian fires. I honor Ojukwu’s memory by rejecting such lies, not indulging them.”
Onoh went on to criticize Gumi’s broader influence on national security issues, describing him as a “self-anointed mediator to bandits and terrorists whose actions have prolonged their reign of terror, emboldened killers, and fractured our national fabric.”
He recounted that “during the 2021 wave of school abductions in Kaduna and Niger States—where over 1,000 children were seized by Fulani militants—he led ‘peace missions’ into forest enclaves, distributing Korans and medical aid while advocating a ‘blanket amnesty’ for these criminals.”
According to Onoh, such interventions only “romanticized their militancy” and shifted public perception, enabling an escalation in kidnappings.
He noted that by mid-2025, over 5,000 people had been kidnapped and ₦2.57 billion in ransom paid, with 638 villages destroyed in Zamfara State alone.
Onoh recalled that “the World Institute for Peace demanded his arrest in 2024, accusing his rhetoric of emboldening perpetrators by undermining military resolve.”
He also cited Gumi’s previous accusation that the Nigerian Army was religiously divided, prompting the military to warn him to “mind his utterances.”
Despite repeated controversies, Onoh said Gumi has continued spreading divisive theories.
In 2025, the cleric claimed that “white evangelical Christian supremacists” were behind Nigeria’s instability while describing Boko Haram as “a CIA creation” meant to target Muslims.
Onoh added that “Gumi’s gospel is not stability but selective impunity: amnesty for northern armed groups, scorn for southern agitators, and historical amnesia that pits brother against brother.”
He concluded with an appeal for unity:
“To Sheikh Gumi: Cease your distortions. To Nigerians: Reject division. Let us build the unity Ojukwu died dreaming of, one where no cleric’s word trumps the people’s will, and where equity, not ethnicity or faith, guides us. President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope calls us to heal, not hate. I stand ready, as always, to bridge our divides, for Enugu, for Sokoto, for Nigeria eternal.”
