GOWON’S GONG OF ‘GWO – GWO – GWO NGWO’

IfeanyiChukwu Afuba argues that poor crisis management rather than agitation for secession caused the civil war

Just as the social media excitement with Mike Ejeagha’s satirical folklore was fading out, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has briefly seized the stage with triumphal beats of his composition on the Nigeria civil war.

In it’s simplest outline, Ejeagha’s gwo – gwo – gwo – ngwo is about  manipulated heroism. There’s a sleight of hand, display of cunning, taking advantage of circumstances to upstage a formidable opponent. 

Tortoise outsmarted elephant and at every turn of elephant’s suspicion, would douse his doubt with ego massage, igniting 

 the chorus tune and beats of gwo – gwo – gwo – ngwo. 

Realpolitik, you may  say, extends into animal kingdom. But although elephant was victim of a  puppeteer, he was blissfully ignorant of it. That would be some consolation if we invoke Achebe’s thesis. Ezeulu’s affliction with insanity towards the conclusion of Arrow of God spares him the anguish of living with Christianity’s acceptance in Umuaro. Fortunately or unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the misleading pronouncements of retired general Yakubu Gowon on the Nigerian civil war and the rest of us. Nigeria is still a difficult project. And with her avoidable failings impacting negatively on much of her constituents, the sad reality cannot be ignored or whitewashed.

The setting for this latest make – believe  was the celebration of general Gowon’s 90th birthday. As is customary, past and present leaders heaped uncritical praise on his patriotic credentials. Not to be left out in the elite game, some desperate presidential aspirants also lent their voices to the adulation session. Amidst this eulogising, Gowon granted an interview to Daily Trust (October 19, 2024) wherein he took extreme liberty on Nigeria’s history and future as well as southeast perspectives on the Nigerian condition.

In reply to the question how did you take it when the war broke out”, Gowon stated: ” I have always said that if there’s no secession, there wouldn’t be a break out and there wouldn’t be a question of civil war because it got to the stage that the situation was getting pretty clear that a part of the country, the southeast wanted to secede.”

Presented with an opportunity to reassess his submission in another question, Gowon simply proceeded with his linear drawing. “If given another opportunity, what would you have done differently?” Gowon answered: “I don’t think I would have done anything differently. Every effort was made to make sure that the situation did not degenerate into a breakaway. I had a duty to make sure that the breakup of the country did not happen.” And finally, for our purpose here, this admonition. “On my message for the people of the southeast, I would say that the civil war has ended and Republic of Biafra is no more because people have accepted to be reintegrated as Nigerians.”

You cannot fail to wonder how anyone, even an outsider with just casual knowledge of the events, could ignore the 1966 – 1967 pogrom unleashed on people of eastern Nigeria, to be harping on secession as the cause of the civil war. But here was a principal actor at a time of national turmoil, still obsessed with state structure, to the point of disregarding insecurity of lives, in conflict resolution. The scale of the massacre of Igbos in northern Nigeria at the time and flight of survivors to the east, created the need for a new safety mechanism for the region. The interesting gap, in this 

narrative which the former Head of State chose to be silent on, is why the military dictatorship he headed, chose not to roll back the pogrom soon after it started.

A more detached assessment of the conflict would identify  poor crisis management as the cause of civil war rather than agitation for secession which   Gowon holds on to with iron grip. Following the January 1966 coup that sacked the Tafawa Balewa government, cries of araba, secession, reverberated across northern Nigeria. The incitement for separation in the north did not result in a civil war.  On February 23, 1966, the Republic of Niger Delta was declared an independent State from Nigeria. The move did not lead to civil war. Somaliland’s separation from Somalia since 1991 did not witness outbreak of war between the two authorities.  

Gowon’s idea of finding a solution to the 1967 situation consisted only of a supremacist mindset that brooked no dissent to the new power architecture. This explains why the junta easily blew away the opportunity the Aburi Accord presented for healing bleeding wounds. In accepting the Aburi principles, the eastern region under Colonel Emeka Ojukwu’s leadership already made compromises by dropping the demand that Gowon’s ascension violated the ladder of military hierarchy prevailing at the time. Conceding Biafra in the Aburi formula was not a small contribution in search of peace. Ojukwu’s version of the summit did not contest Nigeria’s indivisibility as a cardinal feature of the Accord. Just for the reasonable provision of reducing some powers of the federal government and increasing those of the regions, the junta disowned the document that would have saved the thousands of lives lost in the civil war.

For Gowon and his fellow travellers, the fact that the civil war has ended translates into the people of the southeast being “reintegrated as Nigerians.” It’s interesting to note that among the outstanding evidence of this reintegration are that the southeast has the least number of States and Local Government Areas awarded by past military dictatorships, and accordingly receives the lowest share from the Federation Account every year. The southeast remains excluded from hosting any of the key military – industrial complexes handsomely concentrated in two geo – political zones. It’s also a standard fare of this equitable policy, especially in the last 10 years, that in the distribution of federal appointments, the southeast deserve only one fifth of what the President’s ethnic group gets.

And while Gowon is busy spouting the theory that uniformity equates unity, he needs to be reminded that progressives from his own Middle Belt Region are active in the struggle for a neo – Aburi framework, now popularly referred to as restructuring. The very resurgence of the Aburi format 56 years after as panacea to Nigeria’s instability ought to make Gowon and his army of unitarists remorseful. Of course, it’s a free world, a democracy too where everyone votes for their political preferences. But prioritising 

  the baton of one Nigeria above human values and indeed as a fix – all, sounds like gong beat of gwo – gwo – gwo – ngwo.

Afuba is Director, Public Administration Circle, Awka