Olaopa Felicitates Gowon at 90, Says Former Head of State Personifies Nigerian Essence, Spirit

The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, on Friday described former Head of State l, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, as the “personification of the Nigerian essence; the Nigerian spirit”.

Olaopa’s tribute to Gowon was contained in a congratulatory message as the former leader turns 90 Saturday.

Olaopa said that he strongly believed that Providence specifically inscribed Gowon’s life with a unique purpose that intersected that of Nigeria.

Noting that he did not make that claim flippantly, Olaopa explained: “To be born before the founding of such a combustible nation as ours, and to have matured to receive a calling to fight a war to elevate an artificial creation of the British colonialist – a mere geographical expression – to quote Chief Obafemi Awolowo – to the status of a state worth preserving, is nothing less than a defining trajectory.

“When as a nation we were confronted with a ‘to be or not to be’ dilemma in our evolution, General Gowon chose Nigeria. With that choice, General Gowon brought a significant dimension to the importance of the minority ethnic groups in crystallising the Nigeria Project. That being a clarion call to the majority ethnic groups that Nigeria did not only belong to all of us, it is God’s divine programme”.

Olaopa said that on the professional front, “General Gowon as a General in the Nigerian army was amply aware of the unsavoury image in public perception that the military elicited as an endeavour for the ‘never-do-well’ when he was commissioned. And yet, as part of a commitment to the military profession, and in his earnestness to become exemplary,
General Gowon was not content with his prestigious training at Sandhurst, at Camberley, and at Latimer. He would eventually detour to earn not just a degree at Warwick, he endured the academic rigour of adult learning to earn for himself a doctoral degree”

According to Olaopa, with that accomplishment, Gowon became a composite image of a true military professional that is not defined by his brawn or capacity to wield the gun, but by intellect and humanness even in a masculine profession.

“And at that in a measure that today, your Excellency has not just transformed into an involved nationalist, but also quite interestingly, a military intellectual capital of national significance”, he said.

Olaopa particularly stressed the relevance of Gowon to his profession and the civil service. He noted that Gowon “replicated the Awolowo-Adebo governance model that positioned the administrative leadership corps of super-permanent secretaries pre-eminently in the policy space, thereby succeeding in articulating one of the most-cited good practices in public administration literature that globally remains a legacy for all times to reinvent for the benefit of Nigeria’s emerging greatness “

Besides, he lauded Gowon for his spiritual efforts to keep Nigeria together.

“In spite of all that you represent, you would go on in these your twilight years to sustain the faith you have in that country you fought a war to keep as one, by creating an altar of prayer for Nigeria through the project of national prayers

“I therefore do not hesitate to submit that if a man has been providentially called to be part of Nigeria’s story so engagingly, then being professionally, politically, and spiritually involved in her wellness as you have done is the way to remain the nation’s eternal hero.”