Little was known about
General Yakubu Gowon before the coup of 15 January 1966. This young man was
born on the 19 October 1934 to a preacher who hails from the Northern minority
group the Angas in Plateau state of Nigeria.
His started his early
education at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican School
in Wusasa before proceeding to the prestigious Government College Zaria
(Barewa) during 1950—1953. He was College Captain as well as a star athlete. He
had intended to study medicine, engineering or education, but his British
teachers persuaded him that he had the makings of a great commander. Gowon
enrolled in the army in 1954 and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1955;
attending prestigious military institutions such as Sandhurst, Warminster and
Camberley.
General Yakubu Gowon was an accidental leader
who came into lime light after the murder of his superior commander General
Aguiyi Ironsi on the 29th of July 1966 by soldiers of Northern extract over the
killings of their political leaders in a failed coup that brought Ironsi to
power.
The original plan of
the mutineer was to secede out of Nigeria. After much persuasion by British
diplomat who advised that the North will be economically stagnated if they
pulled away so the idea of breaking away was dropped.
Gowon was selected to
rule by the mutineer whose head was the
hawkish Major Murtal Mohammed who masterminded the rebellion that lead to the death of 50 Igbo senior Military
officer and 154 other ranks.
According to Gowon, he
was happy that God in his wisdom has brought the leadership of the country back
to the North.
The perpetrators did not want the world to
think that their coup was an ethnic war or a Muslim Hausa-Fulani plot to
recover lost political grounds from the predominantly Catholic Igbo. To the
mutineer, Gowon was a plus for this project.
The nervous Gowon in
his maiden speech was quoted as saying “the burden of leadership has been
placed on my shoulder and I plan to stop the country from drifting into
anarchy". But three months into his rule the killings of Igbos of Eastern
origin went unabated. This angered the easterners, especially Lt.Col. Ojukwu (as
he then was) who was one of the four military administrators appointed by the
late Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, for his role in quelling the first coup of 15 January
1966 where he was stationed as the commander of the 5th Battalion in
Kano.
The political tension
and the killings of the Igbos in Nigeria at that time was so intense, this prompted
the then Ghanaian head of state General Thomas Ankrah to call for a conference inviting
Col. Gowon and the four military Governors comprising of Col. Ojukwu, Col.
Robert Adebayo, Col Kastina and Col.Ejoor to the mansion of Kwame Nkrumah the
former head of state in Aburi, Ghana in a bid to finding a lasting solution to
the crisis in Nigeria.
At the conference Ojukwu Intellectually
towered above the rest in his arguments. At the end of the three day conference,
concession and agreements were reached. General Ankrah who called himself the
big brother told the officers to keep to their agreement and they should feel
free to call on him for their advice.
On getting home Gowon
was advised by his high ranking senior civil servants not to append his
signature to the document which they believe would lead to the eventual breakup
of Nigeria.
The agreement of the
Aburi accord was not honoured by General Gowon which resulted in a 30 months long
civil war which resulted in the death of Five million Nigerians.
During the outbreak of
the civil war events which occurred showed that Gowon had little or no control over
his troops leading to an untold massacre that has never been seen in the
continent of Africa since its inception. According to one foreign correspondent
with the BBC; He reported that what Gowon tells the foreign press is different
from what is being seen at the Biafra enclave. The attack on civilians by
Nigerian Air force Jets and his field commanders was nothing other than an
ethnic cleansing.
General Gowon should
be applauded for declaring a “no victor no vanquished” after the war. But in
later years he said that Ojukwu was lucky to have escaped because he would not have
shown mercy just like the Nazis who were executed after WWII.
Wanting to integrate
the Igbos into the main stream of Nigerians politics he established the three
Rs. Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Reintegration. This move was hailed by
the international community as Nobel gesture for accepting the defeated Igbos.
Those who knew Gowon
said he could not hurt a fly but as Lord Acton once wrote “All power corrupts. Total power
corrupt absolutely”.
Like all Totalitarian
regime, Yakubu Gowon’s regime was very repulsive and abusive on Nigerian.
Decree no. 24 of 1967 was enacted which
gave the Inspector General of Police the
power to arrest and detain people indefinitely which when challenged in court
usually met a brick wall. The habeas
corpus statute of the law was rendered useless to protect the individual
freedom.
When Gowon was sacked,
50 detainees breathed the air of freedom in August 11, 1975.
Historians call the
70s a missed golden opportunity in the history of Nigeria. It was a period that
Nigeria witnessed an increase in revenue from the oil boom.
During this period,
Nigeria needed a leader that could utilise this God given opportunity but from his
statement “The problem of Nigeria is not money but how to spend this
money". One can say that he was overwhelmed by the amount of money flowing
in as revenue from oil.
In the person of
Gowon, Nigeria witnessed a flamboyant head of state who drives around with a
large entourage. The prime minister, Tafawa Balawa only drove about with one
police orderly.
Gowon's
government embarked on massive importation of cement for construction of
elephant projects. In no distant time a lot of ships were on the Nigeria water
way taking turns to berth. The government of Nigeria spent $2000 dollars a day
on demurrage. The BBC conducted a documentary on this incident calling it “a
city within a city” due to the light of the cluster of ships at night.
The people
of Nigeria will remember the regime for the Udoji Bonanza and its aftermath on
the economy of Nigeria. From the words of an informed economist Dr. Samuel
Aluko, he said never before in modern economic history has a country spent an
estimated $500 million to about $700 million to public service workers in one
or two lump sums.
“His government was unashamedly
corrupt to the marrow. Everyone knew it. They did not even try to hide it from
the public gaze”. –Nigerian Tribune editorial, August 1 1975.
From an
historic point of view, it would not be an understatement to say that it was
during this regime that corruption became an institution in Nigeria. After 50 years of independence Nigeria was
listed as one of the most corrupt country by Transparency International.
Gowon’s government became a safe haven for corrupt elements.
Inflated contacts
were awarded with impunity by senior civil servants at an astronomical cost
three times higher than elsewhere in the continent.
However
General Gowon’s who assumed power humble and unassuming would be remembered for
his legacies in breaking the regions into 12 states, the introduction of
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in July 1973, the process of Indigenisation
of the economy and the Universal Primary Education (UPE).
General
Gowon maintained a cordial relationship with neighbouring countries. This
resulted in the formation of the Economic Community of West Africa State
(ECOWAS) in May 27, 1975 in a treaty signed in Lagos.
However from
his majestic throne, he was brushed off the throne like a fly off the dressing
table by the Murtal Muhammed government that brought him into power in the
bloody coup of 1966.
After the
coup that ousted him, he went into exile in London. He enrolled at the University
of Warwick where he settled into a modest life style. In 1976 Gowon was
implicated in a coup d’état lead by Lt.Col Buka Dimka, which resulted in the
death of Murtala Mohammed.
He was
pardoned by the President Sheu Shagari’s regime in 1983, presently he is the
coordinator of the group called Nigeria Prays a non-denominational group. He is
also involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Guinea worms.
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