General Yakubu Gowon Clocks 85
Today marks another journey of 365days in the life of a one-time Military head of state, Nationalist, Elder statesman and Patriotic symbol.
General Yakubu Gowon was born on October 19 1964 into a christainity home. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang was a CMS member who had once traveled to Russia, Zaria as a Church missionary society. Gowon was the fifth of eleven children. He grew up in Zaria and had his early life and education there. At school, Gowon proved to be a very good athlete: he was the school football goalkeeper, pole vaulter, and long-distance runner. He broke the school mile record in his first year. He was also the boxing captain.
He joined the Nigerian army in 1954 where he first received a commission as a second lieutenant in 1955. 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.
In January 1966, the military coup which was staged by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu failed thereby arousing Gowon as the first and youngest military chief of staff at the age of 31. In the course of this coup, mostly northern and western leaders were killed, including Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria's Prime Minister; Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region; and Samuel Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, Lt Col Arthur Unegbe and so many more. The then Lieutenant Colonel Gowon returned from his course at the Joint Staff College, Latimer UK two days before the coup – a late arrival that possibly exempted him from the coupe hit list. Success in twentieth-century world affairs since 1919 and the subsequent failure by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was the head of state following the January 1966 coup-with Gowon his Chief of Staff) to meet Northern demands for the prosecution of the coup plotters further inflamed Northern anger. There was significant support for the coup plotters from both the Eastern Region as well as the most left-wing "Lagos-Ibadan" press.
Gowon did a very brilliant work in shunning the Biafran agitation for secession. He did this by creating 12 states from the already 4 regions that we have.
Part of his achievement is his indigenization decree of 1972, which declared many sectors of the Nigerian economy off-limits to all foreign investment, while ruling out more than minority participation by foreigners in several other areas. This decree provided windfall gains to several well-connected Nigerians, but proved highly detrimental to non-oil investment in the Nigerian economy.
Tragic enough, On 29 July 1975, while Gowon was attending an OAU summit in Kampala, a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba announced his overthrow. The coup plotters appointed Brigadier Murtala Muhammad as head of the new government, and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy.
Being a legitimate leader, both past and present leaders who have once steered the affairs of this state felicitate with the past military head of state.
Today marks another journey of 365days in the life of a one-time Military head of state, Nationalist, Elder statesman and Patriotic symbol.
General Yakubu Gowon was born on October 19 1964 into a christainity home. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang was a CMS member who had once traveled to Russia, Zaria as a Church missionary society. Gowon was the fifth of eleven children. He grew up in Zaria and had his early life and education there. At school, Gowon proved to be a very good athlete: he was the school football goalkeeper, pole vaulter, and long-distance runner. He broke the school mile record in his first year. He was also the boxing captain.
He joined the Nigerian army in 1954 where he first received a commission as a second lieutenant in 1955. 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.
In January 1966, the military coup which was staged by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu failed thereby arousing Gowon as the first and youngest military chief of staff at the age of 31. In the course of this coup, mostly northern and western leaders were killed, including Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria's Prime Minister; Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region; and Samuel Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, Lt Col Arthur Unegbe and so many more. The then Lieutenant Colonel Gowon returned from his course at the Joint Staff College, Latimer UK two days before the coup – a late arrival that possibly exempted him from the coupe hit list. Success in twentieth-century world affairs since 1919 and the subsequent failure by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was the head of state following the January 1966 coup-with Gowon his Chief of Staff) to meet Northern demands for the prosecution of the coup plotters further inflamed Northern anger. There was significant support for the coup plotters from both the Eastern Region as well as the most left-wing "Lagos-Ibadan" press.
Gowon did a very brilliant work in shunning the Biafran agitation for secession. He did this by creating 12 states from the already 4 regions that we have.
Part of his achievement is his indigenization decree of 1972, which declared many sectors of the Nigerian economy off-limits to all foreign investment, while ruling out more than minority participation by foreigners in several other areas. This decree provided windfall gains to several well-connected Nigerians, but proved highly detrimental to non-oil investment in the Nigerian economy.
Tragic enough, On 29 July 1975, while Gowon was attending an OAU summit in Kampala, a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba announced his overthrow. The coup plotters appointed Brigadier Murtala Muhammad as head of the new government, and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy.
Being a legitimate leader, both past and present leaders who have once steered the affairs of this state felicitate with the past military head of state.
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