Nigeria: No, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Has Not Said Obafemi Awolowo's Food Blockade Was Key to Ending Nigerian Civil War

28 February 2025
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Allwell Okpi

No, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has not said Obafemi Awolowo's food blockade was key to ending Nigerian civil war

IN SHORT: Facebook posts claim that Olusegun Obasanjo said the food blockage supposedly initiated by then federal commissioner for finance Obafemi Awolowo was key to ending the Nigerian civil war. There is no evidence of this.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said the food blockage supposedly initiated by then federal commissioner for finance Obafemi Awolowo was key to ending the Nigerian civil war. This is according to a post on a public Facebook group with over 94,600 members.

The post reads: "Breaking News: Awolowo's Food Blockade Was Key to Ending the War - Igbo Soldiers Were Unstoppable - Obasanjo."

The claim can also be found here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of the report.)

Nigeria's eastern region seceded, declaring independence as the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967.

This led to a civil war that ended in January 1970 and had a death toll estimated at between 500,000 and 3 million. The Biafrans were predominantly of the Igbo ethnic group.

Obasanjo headed a commando division during the war. He later became military head of state of Nigeria from 1976 to 1979 and the country's democratically elected president from 1999 to 2007.

Nigerian troops captured the coastal city of Port-Harcourt in May 1968 and blocked Biafra's access to food and other relief materials. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of Biafrans starved to death, including women and children.

Awolowo was accused of masterminding the blockade. However, there is evidence that the leader of Biafra at the time, Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, refused to accept the Nigerian government's conditions for allowing the supplies.

Did Obasanjo make public statements about the blockade and its impact on the civil war in 2025? We checked.

No evidence of the claim

On 20 February 2025, another former Nigerian military head of state Ibrahim Babangida launched his book A Journey in Service. Since then, Nigerians have debated historical events, including the civil war and the annulled 1993 presidential election.

We found no evidence of the claim or a credible media report on Obasanjo speaking about the civil war.

It's unlikely that such a claim by Obasanjo would go unreported by the media. The same claim generated much debate when it was made in the book There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe, published in 2012.

The claim that Obasanjo made the statement about the blockade in 2025 is false.

The false claim was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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