Ahmed Yahaya-Joe
“Honour to those who in the line they lead
Define and guard what is entrusted to them
Never betraying what is right
Consistent and just in all they do
But showing pity and compassion also….
Self-denial and sacrifice
That way; leaders, not rulers, are acclaimed
And their leadership, written in gold.”
– p.17 A Silent Voice in the Land (2010) by Brig. General Hassan Mamman Lai Rtd.
The exemplary integrity, uncommon candour, and rarefied humility of General Yakubu Gowon need no further elaboration here. Nicknamed “Jack” at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, this colossus of an officer and gentleman can best be carefully understudied through Prof. Isawa Elaigwu’s definitive book entitled Gowon: The Biography of a Soldier-statesman (1986 and 2009 update) and Dr. Nowa Omoigui’s must-read Military Rebellion of July 29, 1975: The Coup Against Gowon, Parts I-IX including Epilogue.
Few leaders in Nigeria have ever had the singular honour and rare privilege of being celebrated during their lifetime as Gowon.
Yet, there are missing links that only his good self can explain chiefly among is the trajectory of his bosom friendship, political disagreements, and incipient rivalry with Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu (1933-2011), eventually their reconciliation as summarized by younger brother of sorts, Paul Nwabuikwu; “Why this Biafran boy doesn’t hate Yakubu Gowon” posted on October 24, 2023.
Meanwhile, on the flip side of Mr. Nwabuikwu is Remi Oyeyemi in “Aburi: Emeka Ojukwu’s Unfulfilled Promise and the Lies of Yakubu Gowon” posted on February 8, 2020.
Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on his 21st birthday on October 19, 1955, and by 31 he became Army chief then soon after Commander in Chief making general at 32, out of office at 41 with 4 stars he earned a doctorate in difficult exile circumstances.
He neither controlled the extenuating circumstances that led to his rise to power nor dictated the exigencies that largely culminated afterward to the extent of arriving in Aburi, Ghana in January 1967 without aides and advisers for a handshake agreement. Such was his cavalier attitude to power that he never feared losing it, thereby validating the axiom;
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.” – Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Prime Minister of Myanmar 2016-2021
In fact, when it was fait accompli, he willingly gave power up without any entrenched last-stand fight nor seeking validation to hang on.
Rather, he waxed Shakespearean in his valedictory speech at Kampala with, “This world is a stage,” concluding magnificently, “This is my exit. Ladies and gentlemen give support to the new government for the sake of Nigeria.”
If leadership as they say is indeed about “the ability to define issues without aggravating problems” then Gowon monumentally epitomized such as even Sheikh Abubakar Gumi (1924-1992) succinctly testified to;
“After General Ironsi came to Gowon, who is much more diplomatic. Often, he would sit with me, talking for a very long time. General Gowon is polished and quite sensitive about other people’s feelings. He would not fight you even if he did not agree with you.” – p. 203 Where I Stand by Sheikh Abubakar Gumi with Ismaila Tsiga
Historical revisionism begets irredentism – is putting it mildly on how the opposition element Peter Obi’s birthday congratulatory to “Jack” and its predictable acerbic lambasting of not only the 2023 presidential candidate but also the nonagenarian has played out.
Arguably, the main reason concerning Mr. Obi’s characteristically verbose and vituperative segment of his main political support base is understandably that;
“General Gowon’s rule of Nigeria ended on July 29, 1975, nine months short of 50 years ago.
At least 70% of Nigerians living today were not born at that time. At least another 10% who were born that time were too young to know what was happening.”
This writer nonetheless presumes that the Nigerian Civil War was not only inevitable to happen but also that its major actors, Dim Ojukwu and Dr. Gowon were actually pawned on a political chessboard that even predated their being Nigerian Army officers in the very first place.
This is because according to the military historian Dr. Nowa Omoigui;
“In May 1952, there was a serious mutiny by clerks of southern Nigerian origin at the Command Ordnance Depot, Yaba over living conditions.
Two European officers were wounded, and the mutiny was only crushed when riflemen from northern Nigeria were brought in to support the Military Police. Such tensions between southern Nigerian soldiers in the colonial army and European officers reflected tensions between southern civilian nationalists and the British colonial administration.
The resolution of this mutiny by the British High Command exploited a deliberate cleavage in the regional origins of men in the rank and file who were typically northern versus those in the trades who were typically southern.”
(See details in History of Civil-Military Relations in Nigeria)
It was, therefore, against a deeply embedded divide-and-rule background that Gowon was commissioned as a Regular Combatant officer in October 1955, as earlier mentioned. Meanwhile, Ojukwu was not commissioned until March 1958 as a Second Lieutenant, albeit as a Short Service officer, but his seniority backdated on account of earned postgraduate education to March 1955.
The rugby aficionado, therefore, attained the rank of Lt. Colonel in January 1963 ahead of Gowon the hockey cognoscenti who did six months later in June.
They were, however, concurrently appointed Quartermaster-General and Adjutant-General, respectively;
“Buddies, who as young officers, they wined, dined, and did so many other things together.”
Little wonder, Dr. Timothy Adeyemi Akanbi’s seminar paper “A Pragma-Semantic Study of Language of Conflict: Gowon and Ojukwu Pre-Civil War Speeches in Focus” has at the time of writing this special tribute attracted to the website of Open Journal of Modern Languages 781 downloads and 2,725 views since 2019.
Did Gowon as a youngster show any early bird signs of future leadership?
If so, how, when, and under what circumstances?
These and more were some of the direct questions I once threw at the indomitable former Head of State’s middle school classmate Prof. Adamu Baikie CON (their other surviving mate being Mrs. Margaret Olowu nee Kitchener)
This was soon after I had opined “Why Gowon Must Write His Memoirs” published on p.57 of the Daily Trust newspaper edition on Friday, 18th March 2016:
Whereas a certain Abdulrahman Mohammed Alfa joined issues with me subsequently in the 30th March edition, Baba Adamu’s elaborate replies to me including other insights I have painstakingly gathered over time on Wusasa, its unique character, peculiar existence, inherent nature, and many of its off-shoot and diverse personalities from its foundational roots within the ancient city of Zazzau (Zaria) as the first wholly Christian community in an emirate within the remnants of the Sokoto Caliphate at the turn of the 20th century British colonial conquest to date, are all part of an ongoing compendium being compiled by yours truly including a documentary film project researched by Shamsudeen Ibrahim Danladi and directed by Usaku Robinson Wammanda, a doctorate candidate at School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.
Like all men, “Jack” is not without many unassailable strengths as much as a myriad of his leadership weaknesses from August 1, 1966, to July 29, 1975, when Nigeria was under his watch.
But unlike all men, he was never corrupted by power and its enticing trappings.
That is the legacy moral of “Jack” to Nigeria. A man for all seasons.
In conclusion, there are two takeaways as Jack turns nonagenarian for all Nigerians.
First is actually to the celebrant nonagenarian himself;
“Never appear too perfect. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.” – p.400 48 Laws of Power
The second is for the benefit of the rest of us in the overall context;
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of good deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President 1901-1909 after leaving office on April 23, 1910
Belated birthday greetings and felicitations, Your Excellency.
