Wounds that time healed

We thank God for the long life of General Yakubu Gowon, the youngest ever, the most smartly dressed ever, the most cheerful ever, probably the most compassionate ever, the second most gentle ever, the most dazzling ever, the only bachelor ever, cumulatively the third longest ever, and the second longest lived person ever to rule Nigeria.

Youngest ever, who became the military Head of State at 31. Smartest ever, in terms of appearance in military uniform with his very engaging voice that was very pleasant in the radio. Most cheerful ever, because the other ruler who was frequently smiling with a gap tooth, his cheer was thought to be non-genuine. I said probably the most compassionate, because the first and only prime minister would give General Gowon a good run on the scale of compassion. The second most gentle ever, because no one could beat the prime minister in gentle mien.  The most dazzling ever, because as school children we were electrified when we saw Gowon at the Race Course; he walked down the podium and went through the rows of students. We would say, “Up Gowon!” and he would say, “Up Student!”  We would say,  “Go On With One Nigeria!” and he would say, “God bless you!”

General Gowon was the only person to become Nigeria’s Head of State before he got married. Two years after in 1968, I was sitting in front of my father’s house in Sokoto when a Government House kit car stopped and handed over to me twelve huge white kolanuts for my father. The Military Governor of North Western State, Chief Superintendent of Police Usman Faruk, distributed it for the Head of State’s wedding to the trained nurse, Miss Victoria Zakari. General Gowon’s nine year stretch as Head of State was surpassed only by General Obasanjo’s cumulative eleven and a half years and General Buhari’s cumulative nine and a half years as military and civilian Presidents. General Babangida’s eight years was only slightly shorter.

At 90, Gowon is the second longest lived former Nigerian ruler, just short of the age of President Shehu Shagari, Gowon’s former Federal Commissioner of Finance who passed away at 93. Gowon has outlived almost all his peers, including his Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, Vice Admiral Akinwale Wey; his Deputy Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, Major General Hassan Usman Katsina; his Chief of Staff, Army [as it was then], Major General David Ejoor; his Chief of Staff, Navy, Rear Admiral Nelson Soroh; his Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Kam Salem; his Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr. T.A Fagbola and his Head of Special Branch, Alhaji M.D. Yusuf. His Chief of Staff, Airforce, Brigadier [before General Murtala changed the Airforce’s titles] Emmanuel Ikwue, is still living. Of Gowon’s eleven military governors and the Administrator East Central State, only Brigadier Oluwole Rotimi and King Alfred Diette-Spiff are living today.

It was supreme irony that the most gentlemanly of the string of Army Generals who once ruled Nigeria was also the one who led the Federal forces to fight the civil war of 1967-70. As Southern Americans who, in the 19^th century, tried but failed to secede from the United States, often say, “What was civil about the civil war?” Though over a million lives were lost, the war preserved Nigeria as Africa’s most populous country. When the war ended in 1970, Gowon became known all over Africa for his declaration of “No victor, no vanquished,” quickly followed by the Three R’s policy of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. It was probably the most compassionate end to an African war anywhere.

Let me see. General Gowon’s rule of Nigeria ended on July 29, 1975, nine months short of 50 years ago. At least 70 percent of Nigerians living today were not born that time. At least another 10 percent, who were born that time, were too young to know what was happening. Roughly 80% of Nigerians do not know what happened the day Gowon’s regime was overthrown, so they could do with a small reminder. General Murtala Mohammed’s forceful speech that evening said, “The country has been left to drift…This situation, if not arrested, would have inevitably led to chaos and even bloodshed.” The new government, Murtala said, “will not tolerate indiscipline. This government will not condone abuse of office,” which he implied were the hallmarks of the Gowon regime.

Were they? Fifty years later, when so much [dirty] water has gushed under the [Alau Dam-style] Nigerian bridge, General Gowon’s standing is completely reassessed to the level of political sainthood. Gowon never shot coup plotters, as two of his successors did. Before he departed for the OAU Summit in Kampala in 1975, he knew some officers were plotting a coup against him but he told them to make sure there was no bloodshed. Although the Murtala regime probed his administration and declared ten of his 11 military governors, the Administrator East Central State and several of his Federal Commissioners guilty of corruption, Gowon himself was never implicated in corruption.

In the current situation of cost-of-living crisis, Nigerians old enough to remember the Gowon era will probably liken it to Heaven. The US dollar was 20 kobo under Gowon, compared to 1,660 naira today. During his time, we had the large two-shilling coin that we called “dala,” because it was equivalent to one US dollar. In contrast to these days when negotiations to increase the minimum wage take forever, Gowon not only speedily accepted Udoji Commission’s recommendation for a hefty wage increase for civil servants but he gave it two years’ retroactive effect. He then paid two years’ arrears, which even Udoji Commission did not recommend!

The main charges that gave Gowon a bad image in the news media at the time was, one, he stayed too long; two, he did not change his military governors and federal commissioners; three, many of them were accused of committing corrupt acts and, four, he reneged on his promise to hand over to civilians by 1976. With the benefit of hindsight, all four accusations sound laughable today. Stayed too long? Both Obasanjo and Buhari have cumulatively exceeded Gowon’s stay as Nigeria’s rulers, never mind the claim that they were elected. Most of Gowon’s military governors were in office from May 1967 to July 1975 when the regime fell, a total of 8 years. Can you count, in this Republic, how many governors ruled their states for eight years and then continued to rule their states by proxy after those eight years?

Some Gowon era military governors and federal commissioners [i.e. ministers] were accused of corruption. Two pioneer anti-corruption crusaders, Godwin Daboh and Aper Aku, sensationally swore affidavits in court in 1974 accusing a federal commissioner and a military governor, respectively, of corruption. Let me remind Nigerian youngsters what we called “corruption” in those days. As curious school boys we used to sneak during break time to the venue of the judicial commission of inquiry that probed the former North Western State military government. The most sensational charge then was that the North Western State government acquired a lone drilling rig to drill boreholes all over the state but that at one point, the Military Governor sent it to his hometown, where it drilled a borehole at his farm and came back. Note that he did not steal the rig; it only drilled a borehole and came back. Today, if a Local Government Chairman does that, will you waste your time alleging corruption?

Critics at the time harped on General Gowon’s October 1, 1974 speech where he said 1976 [the promised date for returning power to civilians] “is no longer realistic.” Is that not much better than what happened in 1987-1993, when a “transition to civil rule program” was amended 100 times, by Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s count; a presidential election was held, only for the result to be withheld and the election annulled? General Gowon did not use an Association for Better Nigeria [ABN] to obtain a court order to stop the conduct of a scheduled election; he bravely made a broadcast and said the date was unrealistic. That was only one amendment.

Some people alleged at the time that Gowon was trying to prolong his tenure, when he had already ruled for nine years. Ok, compare that to “Third Term,” when a Senate committee rigmaroled its way through a constitutional amendment to elongate the tenure of an elected president, who had already served a cumulative eleven and a half years as Nigeria’s ruler.

Everyone is entitled to a mistake during his lifetime. General Gowon did try to return as an elected President during the Option A4 primaries of 1993. I was with General Hassan Usman Katsina, trying to do a biographical interview, when he complained to me that Gowon had been to his house to tell him that he was going to contest in the election. General Hassan said he pleaded with him “not to expose us to ridicule.” General Gowon won the Wusasa Ward NRC primaries and would probably have been unbeatable at the state and national levels, but he was stopped at the Zaria Local Government level. The late Dr Shehu Lawal, who  was Permanent Secretary, Political in the Kaduna Governor’s Office at the time, told me that Governor Dabo Lere did everything he could to get Gowon elected but the atmosphere had been poisoned by the Zangon Kataf inter-communal riots of the previous year.

Today, we remember General Yakubu Gowon from our youth for creating 12 states; for keeping Nigeria one; for his compassionate end to the Civil War;  for his arduous road tours of all the states; for his spectacular state visits to UK and China; for his chairmanship of the Organisation of African Unity; for his charismatic hosting of the All Africa Games and Nigeria-Ghana Games; for the Adebo and Udoji salary awards; for shifting us to right-hand driving in 1972; for discarding pound and shilling in favour of Naira and Kobo in 1973; for his standing shoulder to shoulder with Queen Elizabeth, Mao Zedong, Indira Gandhi, Gamal Abdel Nasser, U Thant and Kurt Waldheim; and for being the Father of ECOWAS. One former Nigerian military ruler sensationally returned to school after his tenure and did a Diploma in Theology but Gowon returned to school after his tenure and did a B Sc, M Sc and Ph D. Talk about setting good examples.