GOWON @90: A General and gentleman

Today is General Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon’s 90th birthday. 

As streams of encomiums keep pouring in for the former head of state, former chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), former Chief of Army Staff and convener of Nigeria Prays, the messages encapsulate the many feats he has attained while, however, revealing the many paradoxes in his life.

As an army General it is expected that by training he would be a tough talking ogre breathing down fire at the slightest chance. But nay. By mien and demeanor, the General is as soft spoken and calm as a nurse.

He is the only Nigerian head of state to have assumed office as a bachelor, also the only one to have married while in office.

• My story, by General Gowon
• “Go On With One Nigeria”: The life, times and legacies of General Yakubu Gowon

General Gowon came to power after a bloody coup in which his predecessor, General Johnson Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi and others were killed, but he was the first Nigerian leader to be overthrown in a bloodless coup.

The paradoxes get more intriguing. 

His administration suffered the worst crisis, a civil war, that should have brought the country’s economy to its knees but surprisingly, that was when the economy grew to the extent that the country witnessed a period of El dorado remembered with nostalgia as the oil boom era.

The General explains that aware of the cost implications of wars, he instructed that the war should be prosecuted with minimal damages to basic infrastructure.

Even with such a healthy treasury, he left the government with no property to his name and a lean bank account. 

General Gowon attributes this to the financial discipline among his cabinet members led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who served as minister of finance and their concern for the wellbeing of the nation.

He is the first Nigerian leader to go on exile after being overthrown, also the first to be pardoned.

He was stripped of his rank as a General in 1976, after the botched Dimka coup, but it was restored 11 years after in 1987.

He left Nigeria without a college degree, but came back with a PhD.

At 32, when he became head of state, he remains the youngest person to have ever ruled independent Nigeria, and at 90, he remains the oldest person alive to have ruled the country.

He spent nine years as head of state and has now attained 90 years of age. In mathematics, it could be said that the number of years he spent in office has been multiplied by 10.

Though, not part of the coup that brought him to power, the lot fell on him to take the mantle as the most senior officer from the North.

But his administration ran into turbulence the moment he accepted to be head of state as there were many issues to deal with not least of which was the threat by Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to pull the then Eastern region out of Nigeria.

Matters got to a head that the two sides had to go to Aburi in Ghana to discuss.

Gowon explained that the meeting had to hold in Ghana because Ojukwu said he did not feel safe meeting in Nigeria.

After the meeting, presided over by Ghana’s Lt. Gen. Joseph Arthur Ankrah, who was chairman of OAU, the centre still could not hold and the nation was plunged into a civil war that lasted 30 months.

Gowon’s administration was sacked 49 years ago in 1975 but the many issues that defined his administration are fresh.

Immediately after receiving the instrument of surrender, he made the famous statement that there’s ‘no victor no vanquished.’

Again, he launched the three R programme of Reconciliation Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

He was alleged to have said that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it due to the economic boom experienced at the latter part of his tenure.

His passion to ensure Nigeria remained one united country made it imperative to recalibrate the initials that made up his name into one that agrees with his principle: ‘Go On With One Nigeria.’

His nine year reign as head of state saw to the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed during the war in record time as well as programmes aimed at uniting the citizenry like the unity schools and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Almost five decades after, there are many things people want to know about the former head of state and his administration. It is simply not possible to get all the answers in an interview. The brief encounter with the General to celebrate his 90th birthday, however, provides a window to some of the issues.