General ‘Jack’ at 90

In a country where life expectancy is below 60, Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon, Army General and former military Head of State, has cause to thank God. He left power 49 years ago following a coup, the same way he was catapulted to the front burner in 1966.

Outside power, unlike latter-day soldiers of fortune, he does not have stupendous wealth to flaunt. He has maintained a good profile, praying for the country he ruled for nine years not to go under, offering patriotic advice to successive governments without waging war on those at the helm of affairs through dubious letter writing. More importantly, Gowon has been inspiring all and sundry with his trademark time-tested humility, contentment, and affinity.

Hale and hearty, his magnetism has endured, and nothing has deprived him of his deserved peace of mind.

In contrast to his military training, Gowon was a benevolent leader. Although he neither personalised power nor oppressed anyone with his supreme authority, he did not quit office when the ovation was loudest.

As Commander-in-Chief, he was conciliatory. His Christian background may have helped him greatly in steering the affairs of the country during a very complex period that was characterised by the threat of disintegration. He had opted to rule with the fear of God and respect for Nigerians.

The eminent soldier knew that the power of the gun was not enough. At 31, he knew his limitations. His predecessor, the late General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, did not leave a worthy legacy beyond, perhaps, military professionalism. In the area of governance, Aguiyi-Ironsi lacked sensitivity. He was unmindful of the fast-approaching danger that consumed his six-month inept, directionless, and roller-coaster government.

When he sensed that a civil war was looming, Gowon, a bachelor-leader, ran to experienced elders from the North, West, and East to reinforce his administration. This paid off handsomely as his government became stable. He thus became a symbol of national unity, peace, and harmony.

However, there were two challenges. It was said that Nigeria was good in those days; there was plenty of money and government did not know how to spend it. What then, was the purpose of the Development Plans? Also, the transition programme from military rule to civilian government was shifted from 1971 to 1976, making politicians outside the cabinet to kick against the move. The Gowon government did not last till 1976.

Like most men who have tasted power, particularly retired soldiers, Gowon attempted a return to office. It appeared like an addiction to the highest office among Africans. Perhaps, the prevailing political suasion of that time might have informed his decision. But his return bid was stalled in those days of Option A4 when Nigeria was on the fast lane to the botched Third Republic. After his loss, the former Head of State has kept his cool, playing the role of a respected statesman everywhere. And it gives him the clean political air to breathe anywhere he goes in this vast country.

Gowon had a premonition about the end to his government. As an experienced officer who had spent nine years in office, he could not ignore the handwriting on the wall. Even with the information at his disposal, he could not avert the 1975 coup. At the airport, on his way to Kampala for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) meeting, he urged one of the coup plotters, his relation and Commander of the Brigade of Guards, General Joe Garba, to make the putsch bloodless.

Six months after he was ousted in a bloodless coup, a bloody coup that was eventually foiled claimed the life of his successor, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed. The saving grace was that the ex-Head of State was in exile. If Gowon had been in Nigeria, only God knows what would have happened to him as the military government wanted him to return to the country to answer charges of complicity at a military tribunal set up to probe the bloody putsch.

Trapped abroad by the home situation, Gowon quickly adjusted to the reality of life outside power. At 40, he went to the university where he obtained a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral degrees in Political Science. He passed through the university and allowed the university to pass through him.

The discontinued study of history is a casualty of the curricular retardation in the nation’s schools. Many youths could hardly connect to the past and its instructive lessons, the thorny journey to nation-building, the sacrifices and mistakes of successive leadership, and the avoidable pitfalls.

As Nigeria prepared for independence, coups in Egypt (1952) and Sudan (1958) alerted Northern leaders to peep into the future. It was a tribute to their power of foresight. While Southern youths embraced university education and other professional training, Northern political leaders and traditional rulers encouraged more of their bright offspring to join the Army. They were confident that by sheer population, no other section of the country could dominate the Northern Region in the military, either under civilian or military rule.

Indigenous leadership after the 1960 independence only lasted six years. One Yoruba and four Igbo soldiers plunged Nigeria into doom in 1966 when early leaders were murdered. The North recorded more casualties. Notable politicians of Igbo extraction were spared. The original coup plotters lost the battle midway, but their efforts paved the way for Aguiyi-Ironsi to assume political control.

Aguiyi-Ironsi abolished federalism, which he replaced with a foggy unitary system that is still troubling Nigeria today. His regime lacked a national outlook and, instead of dousing the tension, his tribal sentiments escalated it.Related News

Six months later, there was a retaliatory coup by northern officers who terminated the Aguiyi-Ironsi government and ended his life.

Aguiyi-Ironsi’s death created a succession crisis. His deputy, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, could not command the loyalty of his colleagues. He accepted his fate and hurriedly left the country, only to reemerge in the United Kingdom as the High Commissioner. The military governor of Eastern State, Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, cried foul. He insisted that the order of seniority should be followed. There was a pogrom in the North and Easterners were targeted for liquidation.

Gowon, the then Chief of Army Staff, was well trained in military institutions of global repute, including Sandhurst, to defend Nigeria’s territorial integrity against external forces. But he was not trained to assume political leadership, a role which the adventurist soldiers foisted on the military.

Gowon became Head of State, endorsed by the North, West, and the minorities in the South. But the East, led by Ojukwu, rejected his leadership and opted for succession. Up came the ill-fated Biafra Republic and the 30-month civil war, which claimed millions of lives on the federal and secessionists’ sides.

Gowon felt the heat at Doddan Barracks in Lagos, the seat of federal power. He was said to be highly emotional about the turn of events. He wanted to avert the war but without success. When war became the last option, he also sought to end it quickly. But it dragged on for three years.

 Certain bloody reports may have been deliberately kept away from Gowon to reduce his worry. The more elderly Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Admiral Adewale Wey, was his companion who often calmed him. There were arrangements for His Excellency to get married to reduce the stress on Wey, who spent longer times with him, in a bid to ward off mounting apprehension.

Gowon’s peaceful nature and not necessarily naivety may have led to the concessions he gave to the Biafrans at the Aburi Declaration in Ghana. Reality dawned on the federal delegation that it had pushed Nigeria into an unintended confederal arrangement. There was a reversal of terms and retracing of steps. Ojukwu later opted for a war he could not win.

The Federal Executive Council and the Armed Forces rose to the occasion by ensuring Gowon’s determination to keep the country together. The Finance Minister, Chief Obafemi Awolowo; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Dr. Clement Isong; and Super Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Abdulaziz Attah, managed the war economy without borrowing. It meant that Gowon had a competent team. Others who served in the FEC included Femi Okunnu (Works and Housing), Shehu Shagari (Economic Development), Aminu Kano (Communications), Adebayo Adedeji, Shettima Ali Mongonu, Kiagbodo Clark, and Anthony Enahoro.

The creation of states also reduced Ojukwu’s spread of influence as Southern minorities reiterated their commitment to one, indivisible Nigeria.

Nigeria won the war under Gowon, who subsequently made his famous “no victor, no vanquished” speech as evidence of his quest for unity and oneness. He followed it up with an amnesty for the majority of those who had participated in the Biafran uprising. He also began a programme of “Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation” to repair the extensive damage done to the economy and rebuild the infrastructure in war-ravaged areas.

In Lagos, Gowon constructed roads, built bridges and flyovers. He built the National Gallery of Arts at Igannmu and established the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

Ambitious soldiers grumbled at the officers’ mess that civilian leaders dominated the military regime. In response to their complaints in hushed tones, Gowon appointed two military officers – Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo – as Federal Commissioners for Communications, and Works and Housing.

But the Murtala Mohammed government later accused its predecessor of running a corrupt regime. Of the 11 military governors and one civilian administrator, only two – Mobolaji Johnson of Lagos State and Oluwole Rotimi of Western State – were given a clean bill of health. But no act of corruption could also be traced to Gowon, whose modesty, candour, and humility were never surpassed by any other military leader.

In retirement, he has been fatherly, simple and reflective, shunning avarice or primitive accumulation of wealth.

At 90, life still goes on for the Great Jack, the beloved father of the nation, in whom many Nigerians are well pleased.