In this interview, Dan Agbese, a veteran journalist, who reported on the activities of the former head of state, extensively, spoke on how General Yakubu Gowon saved the country, how he received the news that he had been overthrown, among other issues.
How would you describe General Yakubu Gowon?
General Yakubu Gowon is the most wonderful leader we have ever had. He did for this country what General George Washington did for the United States of America. Like Washington, Gowon saved Nigeria through the civil war and united the country.
But while Washington is celebrated in his country, Gowon is not. I find that very painful because if not for his cool-headedness, the country would have disintegrated. He faced it and united the country and insisted that there was no victor, no vanquished. He did not punish the people who took arms against their country, rather reabsorbed them into the armed forces. I do not think there would be anybody else like him.
Did you have any kind of relationship with him while he was head of state?
I didn’t have a relationship with him, but I reported on him extensively for the New Nigerian Newspapers. I was too junior at the time to have any kind of relationship with him. I think I reported on all his state visits.
He was away when he was overthrown; what was the experience like?
I was really amazed at his reaction; he took it very calmly as if it was the time he was destined to go. Before we left the country on a Sunday morning, we travelled in the same aircraft with him. And some of my colleagues were whispering to me: “Do you know that there is a plot to overthrow the head of state?” I said I hadn’t heard of it and they said he was aware of it.
He called Joe Garba, who was in charge of the military unit in northern barracks and said, “I know what you guys are planning, but just make sure you don’t spill blood.”
I later found out that this was what happened. He didn’t do anything. He considered almost everything Odumegwu Ojukwu demanded at Aburi, so that the country could remain together because he didn’t want a civil war. That was why, when the war broke out, the first shots were fired at Gakem on July 6, 1967. Gakem is a border town between what was known then as the Northern Region and Eastern Region.
He called it police action, saying they were misguided people and he would treat them like the police would treat rioters and quell them. They didn’t know how prepared Ojukwu was at the time. But when it became clear to him that Ojukwu was unrepentant and had the support of people within and outside the country, he made a statement: “If my country calls, I would do my duties.”
People thought he was weak and underestimated him, but he did what he had to do to save his country.
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You said he virtually acceded to all Ojukwu’s requests, but we are still having cries of marginalisation in the country, so it seems that chapter has not been totally closed…
Well, part of the reason is not his fault. I think the main reason is that the Igbo had a sense of entitlement. They had more officers in the army than other tribes, and they believed they were more educated than other tribes; therefore, they believed they were entitled to certain things above what other Nigerians were entitled to, principally, the leadership of the country. When they staged the coup, for whatever reason, whether it went awry or right and killed leading politicians but didn’t even arrest a single Igbo politician, they felt justified. And you know an action will always invite a reaction.
Secondly, when the war ended, they nursed the belief that the rest of the country had injured them and they owed them an apology. In other words, they refused to accept any blame for whatever they did.
I have, in the past few years, through my column in the newspapers, advocated what I call a national conversation because I believe that we need to talk to one another and air our grievances as tribes. Remember that this country is still a country of tribes. We didn’t do that but just assumed that because the war ended, we had been reunited and that was the end of it.
In other words, the seething grievances that were not attended to are what we are seeing now. I believe that if we had convened a national conversation that would last a year or two, from which we would now gather information to at least address some of these things in a new constitution after the civil war, it would have been of tremendous help.
But we had one during the administration of former President Good luck Jonathan, why didn’t that help?
Before that, we had the Reform Conference by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but it failed because it was discovered that it was aimed at third term. The one by Jonathan didn’t do anything about it. They made some recommendations I agreed with, but that was not enough. For instance, they discussed fiscal federalism and state police; they called it second tier policing system, but nobody did anything about it. And because Jonathan didn’t do anything about it, former president Muhammadu Buhari didn’t feel obligated to take it up; he left it.
If you have problems, whether they are open or not, if you refuse to address them, of course they will begin to take a life of their own. That’s the way I look at it.
I remember that when General Gowon was overthrown, it was at a conference hall during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) meeting. It was a hall that Field Marshal Idi Amin built in Kampala, Uganda. It was a plenary session and the second day when he was given a note informing him of what had happened at home.
General Gowon read it, picked up his things and left the hall. Later that evening, all of us from Nigeria, including the Embassy and High Commission met him in his presidential suite. Everybody was weeping except him. He was comforting us and pledged his loyalty to the new government, saying he would do whatever he could to move the country forward.
Three days later, we gathered at the residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda, where he addressed us, bade us goodbye and left. There was no bitterness, no anger. I didn’t know that human beings could be like that until Nelson Mandela of South Africa was released from prison. I read his book and he expressed no anger and spoke no ill of anybody, just like General Gowon. He is a unique person. His character is worth emulating.
One of the things he did during his time was the creation of 12 states out of the four regions we had; now, we have 36 states and people are still agitating for the creation of more. Do you think we should have retained the regions?
You can’t tell them to stop agitating for more states. We have destroyed the system of government and way of doing things. Everything we can think of has been bastardised. Obasanjo tried to repair it but we haven’t followed it up.
How best do you think we can celebrate General Gowon?
Nigeria should declare his birthday a public holiday, just like they did for General Washington. There has to be something for younger people to remember the kind of role he played in keeping our country together; and he didn’t channel one kobo into his personal use. That role is not there.
When he left office, he didn’t have a home. People helped him to return to school in the United Kingdom and paid his fees and living expenses. He had nothing. So a man like that ought not to be treated with ignominy. Part of our problem in this country is that we don’t treat our history the way it should be treated.
Our history is not taught in Nigerian schools. You learn more about British history than ours. You don’t know who had contributed anything. And that’s not good because history is not merely a story, it is an instruction.
What lesson do you think the current leaders can learn from him?
Our society has undergone a serious change, such that what used to be right is no longer right. When I was growing up, theft was considered a very serious matter; it was not only the thief that was stigmatised, it was his family. So a man had to protect himself and his family. But today, thieves are celebrated all over the country and families are not bothered about what their children are doing.
For 58 years we have been fighting corruption, but how do you assess the success of the war? Corrupt people are in charge and the rest of us can do nothing. That’s the way things have changed and nobody is paying any penalty. It is defined as smartness, not crime. These days, if you are poor, it means that you are not smart.
This country has 80 per cent arable land, such that you can grow food anywhere, yet we are hungry. How do you explain that?
