By admin
General Yakubu Jack Gowon, was born on the 19th of October 1934 in Lur, Kanke LGA, in today’s Plateau State, and is of the Angas ethnic group in Northern Nigeria. His dad being a CMS adherent and missionary, left their ancestral homestead and migrated to Zaria, in Kaduna state, where Jack Gowon recieved his education.
Zaria as most should know, is very synonymous with the Nigerian Military as it has its Depot in Zaria, and as the British and the northern elite were actively recruiting northern youths for the army, it’s quite very likely that Jack Gowon, was enticed to join and he so he did in 1954.
He then attended Regular Officer Special Training (ROST), in Teshie, Ghana. also in attendance with him were: Alex madiebo, Arthur Unegbe, Patrick Anwunah and Mike Okwechime. After ROST, he then with the aforementioned moved to England to attend the world famous Sandhurst Military school and came out as a Second Lieutenant, he further attended officer’s trainings in 1962 and was a Lt Col by 1966.
On 14th of january 1966, most top officers and the diplomatic corps and military attache’s attended a party at Brig Zak Maimalari’s house in Ikoyi, he was the Commander of the 2nd Brigade, in charge of southern Nigeria. Gowon was in attendance with his Igbo fiance, Edith Ike, he was also billied to take over command of the 2nd Battalion in Ikeja from Lt Col Hilary Njoku – this handover was stalled by Zak Maimalari (despite errornious claims that Njoku refused to handover in some sort of Igbo plot).
Shortly after midnight a bloody coup commenced led by Majors Ademoyega, Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu, it claimed the lives of the Northern and Western Action Group – factional leaders, it also claimed the lives of top northern and western military officers. Col Gowon though having no command accompanied Major Hans Anagho who actually was instrumental in crushing the coup in Lagos, under the orders of Gen Ironsi and Lt Col Njoku, the Battalion Commander. In order to restore balance in the army, Gen Ironsi appointed Lt Col Yakubu Gowon as his Chief of army staff, a role he held for 6 months before toppling Gen Ironsi and became the 3rd Nigerian Head of state.
On July 29th 1966, Gen Ironsi was abducted and killed whilst on a state visit to Ibadan, and a subsequently a lot of Igbo military officers and men, fell with him too, then hell of genocidal pogroms were visited on the the Eastern and mainly Igbo civilian populace in the northern part of the country. Gowon later addressed the nation on the 1st of August and subsequently emerged as the leader of Nigeria.
Col ojukwu the governor of the East, citing certain anomalities rejected Gowon as the leader and this led to a huge crises between the Nigerian federal government and the Eastern region. There were efforts to resolve these differences but with a further pogrom and mass killing unleashed on the Igbos and other easterners and Gowon’s failure to secure the lives of these hapless civilians, all efforts to find a resolution finally collapsed.
With Both sides now entrenched and intrasingent, Gowon was now heavily reliant on the British and American ambassadors and a host of Permanent secretaries, who advsed him on how to deal with the East and Ojukwu, which included blockades etc. Col Ojukwu on the other hand relied heavily on the Igbo and Eastern minority intellengencia, and the stand-off continued, until one last roll of the dice was tried and that was the Aburi conference, in Ghana, early in January 1967.
At Aburi, certain resolutions were arrived at and both sides became hopefull again, but all hope was finally shattered when they returned to Nigeria and each side gave a different interpretation to the Aburi accord. The secretary to the federal government Prince Akenzua, wrote a letter to Gowon rejecting much of what was agreed in Aburi Ghana, a stance Gowon now adopted.
In the end the crises of 1966 unresolved, snowballed in an all out devestating war that commenced in July 1967. But after almost 3 years, Gowon emerged victorious over Ojukwu and Biafra. He was quite magnanimous in victory and gave out no medals and declared “No victor, No Vanquished” to the chagrin of some of his officers and cabinent members.
After the war, he annouced a return to civilian rule for 1974, but turned around and changed his mind and extended it. He started his National developement Programme which was okay in some areas but fell well short in terms of industrialisation of the country and improvement of the human indices, a lot of money and capital was wasted.
He was toppled on the 29th of July 1975, exactly 9 years to the day he toppled Gen Ironsi, while he was away on a conference in Uganda. He subsequently enrolled to study at University of Warick but was seriously implicated in another coup in 1976, that claimed the life of the Nigerian Head of state, Gen Muritala mohammed. He was dismissed from the army post retirement and lost all his benefits and accolades.
Gen Gowon was pardoned by the governement of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and his entitlement restored by Gen Ibrahim Babangida, He runs a Prayer group called Nigeria Prays and is still alive and kicking at the ripe age of 90.
