NEWS ANALYSIS: General Gowon at 90, by Chris Adetayo
Yakubu “Jack” Gowon, arguably the most significant historical figure in the immediate post-colonial Nigeria, hit the 90 year mark on the 19th of October. A high watermark by any standard.
I wasn’t around when he led the country. Except perhaps the last couple of years for which I was too young to know what was going on in the world. So all I know of him when he was Head of State are things I have gleaned from history books of that era – of which there are plenty.
The bottom line fact is that he led Nigeria through 30 months of fratricidal civil war. Through his success, Nigeria as colonially constructed, stayed as one. He is, in that sense, Nigeria’s Abraham Lincoln.
He was a callow 32 year old man when he became Head of State. The circumstances of his ascent to that post, from the Jan 15 Coup to the July 29 Coup continue to be debated. Most accounts do not have Jack in the centre of either – until he had to rally troops to quell the mutiny that was led by a certain Major Murtala Mohammed. Like his predecessor, Aguiyi-Ironsi, he became the ultimate beneficiary of a coup he didn’t start.
What followed, for the first 42 months of his leadership, was a country in distress. Everyone mistrusted the other. Regional lines became battle grounds. The East refused to accept his leadership and declared secession. War broke out and was fought with no let. Ultimately, to his eternal credit, Gowon and the dream of One Nigeria prevailed.
More than 50 years after, there remain misgivings about him. Especially in the South East which formed the core of the secessionist Biafra. Understandable. Also, his management of the post-war oil boom has been panned. Indeed, these two issues have hindered a more rationale, more benevolent and less emotional take on his 9-year leadership.
His case is made worse by his own refusal or inability to blow his own trumpet. He has refused to write his account of the July Coup and the Civil War, while many lesser qualified folks, on both sides of the divide, have gone to town to either curate their own valor or outline why they lost. Some of his Government’s programmes, like the NYSC and Fed Govt Colleges, continue to endure – something that is hard to say for several successors. Yet there are virtually no credit given to him.
But what Gowon has never lacked, till date, is his abiding love for Nigeria, and for humanity. Of all the leaders that Nigeria has had, the case can be made that he is the most urbane of the lot. A Gentleman in the finest meaning of that English word.
Sometime in 1987, Phillip Effiong, the 2nd in command to General Ojukwu in the Biafran Army and Government, was asked if he would have shot Gowon in the thick of the war. Effiong, another fine gentleman, extolled the virtues of Gowon and concluded, “I could never shoot Jack”.
Nature has refused to shoot him too. Few get to 90 with the physical and mental gifts that he retains. Truly a blessed man.
Happy Birthday, Jack!!
