Gowon: Celebrating a rare General at 80

In his final year, he was appointed House Captain and one of his duties was to ensure that Muslim students under his care woke up to attend early morning congregational prayers. Yakubu successfully completed secondary education in December 1953 and by that time, a military career had become one of the opportunities available to finalists […]

In his final year, he was appointed House Captain and one of his duties was to ensure that Muslim students under his care woke up to attend early morning congregational prayers. Yakubu successfully completed secondary education in December 1953 and by that time, a military career had become one of the opportunities available to finalists of Barewa College. As far as back 1949, two of the final year students of the college, namely Zakariya Maimalari and Lawan Umar had joined the Army and eventually became the first Africans ever to attend the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England. The following year, in 1950, Kur Mohammed and Abogo Largema followed the footsteps of Maimalari and Umar. In 1952 Yakubu Pam also enlisted in the Army and trained at Sandhurst. So in 1953 it became the turn of Yakubu Gowon and a few of his classmates who attempted to enlist in the Army but only Yakubu eventually made it to Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army.
My friendship with Yakubu, which started in the college, continued after both of us had passed out of the college. I spent ten of my 13 years as an educationist in the public service of Northern Nigeria in Zaria and Kaduna and that made it possible for contact between us to continue. When in April 1965 he visited Zaria and Kaduna to see friends and relatives and bid them farewell on his way to the UK for another course, he visited me at Federal Training Centre where I was the principal. He left Nigeria by sea in May of 1965 and I still have the postcard he sent me when he reached Accra. Our friendship was strengthened when I took for my second wife a classmate of his wife at Queen of Apostles College Kaduna, the present Queen Amina College (QAC).  
General Gowon, then a Lieutenant Colonel, returned to Nigeria about mid-January 1966, two days before the first military coup, on a day when all his senior colleagues – Maimalari, Kur, Largemo and Pam (senior military officers from the north) were murdered in cold blood. His friends and relatives were worried about his fate before but it turned out that he was alive, saved by the fact that the coup plotters were not aware of his return.  
Although Nigerians were told that it was a mutiny and that the coup had failed, General Ironsi seized power from the remnants of the erstwhile civilian administration of Tafawa Balewa. In spite of the assurances by Ironsi that the military would stay only for a short period, in May 1966 he announced the dissolution of the federal structure and turned Nigeria into a unitary state. This he did against all advice from all quarters, including three of the four regional governments.
Following the counter coup In July 1966, General Gowon was appointed the head of the military government and Supreme Commander of Nigerian Armed Forces, a title he inherited from Ironsi. But he immediately dropped the title of Supreme Commander and adopted Commander in Chief in line with the universally accepted practice.  He also returned the country to federal form of government. The Eastern Regional Government refused to recognise General Gowon as Head of State and the relationship between Eastern Region and the rest of the country became strained. In early May 1967, the Eastern Region declared itself the Republic of Biafra and on May 27, Gowon ordered ‘police action’ against the Eastern Regional Government, and simultaneously announced the creation of twelve states in the country. One of the reasons for the creation of the states was to constitutionally remove Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers provinces from Eastern Region, in accordance with the expressed desire and wishes of the people.
The police action marked the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War, which was to last up to December 1969, although it officially ended on the January 15, 1970. No doubt, Gowon’s strength of character was tested during this period. Almost the entire international community not only supported Biafra but was also hostile to Nigeria. Among the major powers, only British Labour Government under Harold Wilson stood firmly by Nigeria. On the African continent Niger Republic and Cameroon assisted Nigeria greatly, while Nigeria’s principal adversaries were Tanzania under Julius Nyerere and Ivory Coast under Felix Houphouet-Boigny, two of the only four that recognised Biafra. But in spite of the international pressure, Gowon maintained his cool and prosecuted the war as humanely as possible. He issued a code of conduct to the government, in accordance with the Geneva Convection. The war itself was fought without resorting to conscription, and without external assistance of any kind. At the end of the war, General Gowon famously declared “No victor, no vanquished.”
The late Chief Sunday Awoniyi wrote a citation on General Gowon’s 70th birthday in which he lauded his conduct that had “such magnanimity, such large-heartedness unprecedented in the history of civil wars [and] with great zeal and urgency, he set about the task of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation. He showed great courage and resilience; and it is to his eternal credit that in spite of great pressure, he stood his ground and refused to be vengeful. There were no trials, no executions”.
When he announced the creation of twelve states, he also announced the formation of a new Federal Executive Council with majority civilian membership. He chose the twelve ministers (then designated as commissioners) very carefully from among Nigerians of proven integrity with considerable experience of public service either as politicians or top civil servants on the basis of at least one from each state. The Cabinet was backed up by an experienced and committed team of technocrats. While the war was being prosecuted and satisfactory progress was being made, General Gowon ensured that normal activities of government continued unabated. With the war successfully prosecuted, he and his team of ministers gave full attention to the normal government business of protecting life and property as well as providing economic amenities and social services to the populace.
General Gowon recorded tremendous achievements during his 9-year period of leadership. He succeeded in governing Nigeria mainly because of his personal character and his leadership by personal example. He was very honest, conscientious, and humble, and was never swayed by thoughts of personal aggrandisement.
The Nigerian Constitution of 1954 through which Nigeria formally became a federation, provided full autonomy for the Regions in respect of all matters within the competence of the legislature of the regions, as defined in the legislative lists in the schedule of the Regional governments. When the states were created in 1967, they were given the autonomy of the regional government. To emphasise this point, each government had its own constitution and General Gowon treated the state government in exactly the same way as the previous civilian Federal Government regarded and treated the three Regional Governments in the spirit of true federalism.
General Gowon was prudent, accountable and transparent in the management of public finance.  The law of the land had already clearly set out how public resources, including finances were to be managed and used. All government incomes must first enter the Consolidated Revenue Fund and the process of releasing and expending them has been duly defined. All expenditure must be appropriated by the law- making body (Supreme Military Council). A warrant could then be issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General would then authorise funds release. This was a constitutional issue which the Gowon Administration strictly adhered to. To his credit, this approach ensured probity and discipline in the use of the country’s revenue.
From 1966/67 to 1974/75 financial years, when Yakubu Gowon was the Head of State, the revenue which accrued to the Federal Government totalled slightly over nine billion naira out of which the expenditure incurred for salaries and allowances as well as the loss from the Civil War and the many projects executed totalled slightly over five and a half billion naira with about three and half billion surplus. After nine years as Head of State, he could not at a stage pay the school fees of his children. It was General Buhari’s administration that approved the payment of the fees and also allowed him some funds for his basic comfort.
This tribute will not be complete without a tip of the hat to Mrs Victoria Gowon. Throughout the leadership of the country by her husband, she kept her distance from governance of the country. Full of grace, she was content with being the wife of Head of State and ensured tranquillity at home, which was necessary for her husband to deal with the great task of managing the problems of Nigeria. Nigerians saw Victoria only occasionally, usually when she accompanied her husband to public functions such as Independence Day celebrations and she conducted herself with decorum and within the constitution and the law in which there is no provision for public executive functions involving tampering with public funds. Because of what we have seen of the conduct of wives of Nigerian public office holders, I think Nigerians owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs Gowon for doing it the way it should be done.   
I would like to end this article with another quotation from Chief Awoniyi’s citation on General Gowon on the occasion of that 70th birthday. “In retrospect the overthrow of General Gowon on the 29th July 1975 marked a watershed in the history of this country. A benchmark of what we had been and what we can still become given the right leadership. He is a watershed between humane, predictable, carefully planned governance on the one hand, and arbitrariness, insensitive ruler ship masquerading as dynamism on the other hand. Today, nearly three decades down the years, we have experienced a decline in probity in governance and in everything that is honourable through duplicitous, self-serving manipulative leadership. We have witnessed the destruction of time-tested systems and procedures which are indispensable to orderly, transparent governance. To do away with them is to destroy the basic ingredients for transparency and accountability and to facilitate the enthronement of corruption in the conduct of public affairs through arbitrariness, impulsive decisions and actions.” I am sorry to state that today the bleak situation in Nigeria described by the late Chief Awoniyi has become much worse. But with God is the refuge. I wish General Gowon many happy returns.    
Fika is a veteran scholar, author and administrator.