YAKUBU GOWON, an exemplary leader in Nigeria.

General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon was born in 19 October 1934, the former head of state (Head of the Federal Military Government) of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He ruled during the deadly Nigerian Civil War, which caused the death of almost 3 million people, most which were civilians. He took power after one military coup d'état and was overthrown in another. During his rule, the Nigerian government was able to prevent the Biafran secession during the Civil War, (1967-70).

PERSONAL LIFE

Gowon married Miss Victoria Zakari, a trained nurse in 1969 at a ceremony officiated by Seth Irunsewe Kale at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.

MILITARY CAREER

Yakubu Gowon joined the Nigerian army in 1954, receiving a commission as a second lieutenant on 19 October 1955, his 21st birthday.

He also attended both the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK (1955–56), Staff College, Camberley, UK (1962) as well as the Joint Staff College, Latimer, 1965. He saw action in the Congo (Zaire) as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, both in 1960–61 and in 1963. He advanced to battalion commander rank by 1966, at which time he was still a lieutenant colonel.

Up until that year Gowon remained strictly a career soldier with no involvement whatsoever in politics, until the tumultuous events of the year suddenly thrust him into a leadership role, when his unusual background as a Northerner who was neither of Hausa nor Fulani ancestry nor of the Islamic faith made him a particularly safe choice to lead a nation whose population were seething with ethnic tension.

From Plateau state in the middle belt of Nigeria, Gowon’s father was an early convert to Christianity. Gowon was educated in Zaria and later became a career army officer. He was trained in Ghana and in England at Sandhurst and twice served in the Congo region as part of Nigeria’s peacekeeping force there in the early 1960s. After the coup of January 1966, he was appointed chief of staff by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the new leader. Northern officers staged a countercoup in July 1966, and Gowon emerged as the compromise head of the new government.

Gowon tried to resolve the ethnic tensions that threatened to fatally divide Nigeria. Although he was eventually successful in ending attacks against Igbo in the north, he was unable to affect a more lasting peace. In a final attempt to resolve the conflict, on May 27, 1967, Gowon declared a state of emergency and divided Nigeria’s four regions into 12 states. Three days later the Eastern region declared itself the independent state of Biafra with Odumegwu Ojukwu as its leader; armed conflict began in July.

Gowon directed government forces to remember that they were essentially fighting Nigerians, who were to be encouraged to rejoin the country. He also allowed a team of international observers to monitor the conduct of his troops. After the government victory in January 1970, a remarkable reconciliation took place between victors and vanquished, largely attributable to Gowon’s personal influence. By the mid-1970s Gowon was emerging as an international leader and was involved in the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On July 29, 1975, however, while Gowon was in Uganda for an Organization of African Unity summit meeting, the army removed him from office.

Gowon was exiled to Great Britain. He was stripped of his rank for allegedly participating in the assassination of his successor, Murtala Mohammed, in 1976. He was pardoned by Shehu Shagari in 1981, and his rank was restored by Ibrahim Babangida in 1987. Having earned a Ph.D. at Warwick University in 1983, he became a professor of political science at the University of Jos in the mid-1980s and attained the status of an elder statesman of Nigerian politics.

Up till date, Gen. Yakubu Gowon is the most respected Nigeria's past leader and was considered as one of the most prolific leader in Nigeria. 

Reference:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/army

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakubu_Gowon

Written by: M.O AKANDE

Edited by: A.A OLAYINKA

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