A search Light on General Yakubu "Jack" Gowon at 80

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 5^th 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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