The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gowon

  • Biafra: Buhari hails Gowon for restraining troops

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari yesterday hailed former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon for restraining the Federal forces from going all out against Biafra forces during the civil war.

    He spoke in Abuja after he was decorated as the Grand Patron of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) by the society’s National President, Bolaji Anani at the Presidential Villa.

    Buhari said: “Earlier in my profession, during the civil war, I know how much sacrifice members of the Nigerian Red Cross and their international counterparts did both in the real front of operations and at the rear, on both sides. I think it is a lot of sacrifices because anything can happen to you in the operational areas.

    “The risks they faced were real and I admire their courage and commitment to helping people who were in distress and were virtually in millions. Those photographs of people from the Biafra enclave spoke a lot.

    “I remember with nostalgia the performance of the Commander-in-Chief, General Gowon. Every commander was given a copy of the Commander-in-Chief’s instructions that we were not fighting enemies but that we were fighting our brothers. And thus, people were constrained to show a lot of restraint.

    “The international observer teams were allowed to go as far as possible within and outside the front and I think this was generous and very considerate of Gen. Gowon. He is a highly committed Nigerian.”

    On the investiture, Buhari said: “I appreciate this honour bestowed on me.”

    The President thanked the society for its supports in the Northeast and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.

    He assured the society that the Federal Government would look at its challenges, including assisting the organisation to secure permanent office accommodation in Abuja.

    He expressed appreciation to the Nigerian Red Cross Society for its philanthropic support to Nigeria and its people during the civil war, other emergency situations.

    “I have taken note of your logistics, especially your request for office here.

    “I assure you that the government will do its best when you decide to build such facilities in terms of securing an area here within the Federal Capital Territory and we hope you will not do the Nigerian ways of doing things.

    “To use the words of famous Nigerian Minister ‘I hope you will not build an elephantine headquarters’, which is going to be functional because we have seen your activities throughout the country.

    “I have taken note of your logistics especially your office here since we returned to Abuja from Lagos. I assure you that the government will do its best when you decide to build such facilities in terms of securing an area,” he said.

    Anani said the society, which was registered as an independent national society in 1961, had over 800,000 trained volunteers based in communities across the 774 local government areas of the federation.

    He said the society’s interventions included responses to cases of disasters, disease outbreaks, displacements and providing succor and psycho-social support to victims of dehumanisation.

  • Gowon, Obasanjo, Madiba, Soyinka: extraordinary encounters…

    Just for the records. There are meetings, and there are meetings. Some stand out, others are easily forgotten, never to be remembered, or recorded.  Even those that stand out may eventually get obliterated, blurred by the burden of time. Or else get remembered, only by Proustian involuntary memory. An event takes places, an experience occurs, it is lost, swept into the so-called oblivion. And then, all of a sudden, something happens! It could be a sensation, a sight, a taste… It then triggers a recall, the reminder. Out of the blues the past is brought back, a scene, a setting, a slice of life, a whole period of existence, and, voilà, time lost becomes time regained. For Marcel Proust, no amount of attempt to resort to, or rely on what he calls from intellectual memory can achieve such a feat.

    Thanks to involuntary memory, some of the not so common encounters of a distant past come calling, almost as if they happened only yesterday. Events, experiences stand out in the mind, and sharing them today, no matter how old, how late, appears imperative, for record purposes, but especially for the lessons to be learnt.

    Mandela and the cleaner

    Our first instance of involuntary remembrance of things past centres on the Tanzanian conference town of Arusha. It involved Madiba, the world-renowned South African apartheid prisoner and later president, Nelson Mandela. The Burundi (essentially Hutu/Tutsi) peace negotiations, based on an initiative of former Tanzanian president, Walimu Julius Nyerere, had just come to an end in August, 2000. Among the dignitaries and  witnesses present  at the closing  ceremony and signing of the agreement to  mark the conclusion of the UN- supported process, along with Madiba, were the then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the former American president, Bill Clinton, some   South African  and Tanzanian generals and top UN  officials.

    At the end of the closing ceremony on that historic August day, the dignitaries walked down from the high table towards the exit at the back of the hall. Yours truly, one of the Translation Revisors recruited by the UN for the process, was at the back row of the hall, in the very edifice that also served as the Rwanda International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) premises. As they got  close to the back of the hall, a worker, most probably Tanzanian, continued with his cleaning chore, his back turned on the group, apparently unimpressed, not intimidated,  by  the presence  of these ‘big men’. At that point iconic  statesman Mandela , who had seen it all and had dealt with all manner and categories of human beings  in his long sojourn on mother earth, noticed the nonchalant, somewhat discourteous man, moved closer to him and said  ‘Good day, my friend. You don’t want to greet us?’ stretching out his hand in a gesture of friendliness. The man was thoroughly embarrassed. As for me, I was happy to have a warm handshake with the icon, an honour which the paparazzi did not fail to capture.

    Soyinka’s English

    The next instance of things past remembered, not necessarily in chronological order thanks to involuntary memory, took place here at home. It was in the days leading to the hosting of the 2nd World Black  and African Festival of Arts and Culture, first  tagged FESTAC 76, and later FESTAC 77 owing to its  postponement. That festival, hosted by Nigeria in the days of the so-called oil boom, at a time  when we told the  world that our  problem was actually not finding the money, qua foreign currency, but indeed knowing how  to spend it…

    On 1st October, 1976, that year’s Independence Day was celebrated, with the benefit hindsight and involuntary memory aiding, in pomp and pageantry. A well-attended cocktail party took place that evening on the gardens of the State House Marina and we were honoured to be present. There we were, in the company of a few international officials including the then head of the Cocoa Producers, a Senegalese, a few fellow translator/interpreters.

    In the course of the party the host of the event, the then military Head of State, decided to be courteous and move round to greet some of the guests he could reach. As he descended the steps of that part of the premises with his spouse, he was followed by some officials, aides and of course security operatives. The group got to us, to my back, and I turned round to greet. On seeing me, the soldier number one citizen thought he had seen that face before. He had indeed seen it some months earlier. In the months leading to the opening of FESTAC 77, its Secretary General, Mr Alioune Diop of Senegal, had requested and obtained an appointment to meet the Nigerian Head of State. He had a message from his President, Leopold Sedar Senghor, the famous poet and apostle of Negritude. Diop, then the FESTAC number two in command – Navy Captain Promise Fingesi was then the minister and head of FESTAC – was accompanied by Wole Soyinka, then a Consultant to FESTAC and through whose goodwill and close friendship with our number one citizen the appointment was secured. I went with the duo to Dodan Barracks, the equivalent of today’s Aso Villa, as interpreter, since Alioune Diop was French-speaking.

    At that October 1, 1976, Independence Day cocktail, the Head of State, on taking a second look at me, asked: ‘What do you do for a living?’ I replied that I was a Lecturer at the University of Lagos but was then on secondment in charge of Translation and Documentation at the International Secretariat of FESTAC. On hearing that, the future chief host of FESTAC 77 asked: ‘How is the situation at FESTAC? Any problems?’ And I seized the opportunity to tell him that although all was well we were looking for Francophone translators to translate documents into French, since Nigerians and Anglophones should normally only translate into English. On hearing that he retorted that Nigerians could handle that, after all: ‘Soyinka knows English more than the English’! And who can fault that? Of course the general who was at that time a very good friend of the future Nobel laureate, knew the value of his friend as far as the English language was concerned.

    The reward of idobale

    Another extraordinary encounter may be said to be cultural, ethical. It happened in far-away Warsaw, in communist Poland, in the heydays of Lek Valesa’s trade union, Solidarity.

    Some ten years before Valesa’s political transformation and ascension we were in Warsaw, precisely in 1981, for the world congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT). Alongside that congress were breakout sessions, including statutory meetings of its 14-member council. I was a member of that council, its first ever and only African member.

    On one of those council meeting days, we were at a luxury restaurant in the heart of Warsaw for lunch. The council, for the records, had membership from every continent on the planet. As we moved from one culinary course to the other, the unusual happened, for that part of the world.

    Dr Lawrence Fabunmi, the then Nigerian Ambassador to Poland, appeared at our restaurant in the company of some people, foreigners and Nigerians. The seasoned diplomat, the very first Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), at the time when that body was situated at Awolowo Road, South-West Ikoyi, in one of those colonial wooden buildings, painted black. His Excellency had been my mentor in the days when as a young man one needed referees and recommendations for one application or the other.

    On sighting my mentor, I sprang up from the table and before you could say Jack Robinson I was fully prostrated, in the well-known idobale posture, an age-worn Yoruba standard practice. Of course the Nigerian Ambassador promptly called me up to my feet, very much impressed, nay elated. As for my FIT council colleagues, they all stood up, out of respect for the Nigerian envoy in his flowing agbada, and in utter disbelief of the spectacle that had just unfolded before their very eyes. Their African colleague, in a navy blue blazer with an Yves Saint-Laurent silk tie, a Pierre Cardin pair of grey trousers and a Dior belt, was proving to be very much from the so-called jungle of Africa after all! But, for the representative of the Nigerian Head of State on European territory, I was in a way only being a veritable cultural ambassador for our country out there, in far-way Eastern Europe. And what was the reward for this cultural coup de matre, master stroke, this instance of cultural dynamism, this unsolicited offer of cultural service to our dear nation? The bill for the whole of the FIT council members’ consumption that afternoon was settled by the Nigerian envoy. We all became the Ambassador’s guests.

    A translator’s clout

    One other encounter occurred during the early days of the Nigerian civil war. I had just graduated from UI and after a very short stint at teaching I was employed as Administrative Officer in the Federal Ministry of Information, with the great statesman Anthony Enahoro as my Minister and the seasoned top civil servant Alhaji Ahmed Joda as my Permanent Secretary.

    From time, to time I would be whisked away to the Ministry of  External Affairs, and from there to Dodan Barracks – the then seat of power, located in Obalende, Ikoyi, Lagos. On a few occasions I was chanced to interpret for the then occupant of the place, the young military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon. But the most memorable occasion was a day I was taken to that citadel of power and was left almost alone in a room for long hours. Eventually, just before dusk I was called out and found myself in the presence of the high and mighty of those days, the so-called ‘Super Perm. Secs’: Allison Ayida, Phillip Asiodu and of course my own Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ahmed Joda. There was a document to be translated into French. It was urgent. And I was being asked to start translating it there and then. I took a rapid look, it was about six pages, and then told my superiors coldly, matter-of-factly, without hesitation, that I would need to go to my office, at the Ministry of Information to carry my dictionaries, and go and work at home.

    What for me was a matter of course, a routine assignment, was an absolute bombshell! The sense of amazement, apprehension and to some extent irritation was palpable on the faces and in the air that evening. The document in question, and which these men of power had spent hours drafting, finalizing and fine-tuning was no other than the one to be presented by the head of the Nigerian delegation at the peace talks with Ojukwu’s Biafra somewhere not too far  from the shores of Nigeria.

    And here was this budding civil servant, an unknown quantity, barely a few months old in the precincts of power, talking of taking custody of this all-important document, top secret, taking it to his unknown home, all in the name of translation! My principal,  Alhaji Joda, saved the day: ‘I think he is responsible enough’, he opined.  And then the marching orders: ‘My driver will take you to the office, you will carry your dictionaries. He will take you home, and tomorrow, precisely at 12 noon he will come for you and bring you to my house in Ikoyi with the document thoroughly translated’. The next day was a Saturday. I complied. Translators are not traitors, to counter Dante’s assertion.

     

    • Simpson is retired Professor of French and former Commissioner for Education, Lagos State.

  • Gowon, ouster and corruption

    Open confession: I doubt if I can ever be critical of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former military Head of State (1966-1975).

    As a pupil of St. David’s Anglican School, a public primary school in Okesuna-Lafiaji, on  Lagos Island, Gen. Gowon, with his Lagos Governor, then Lt. Col. Mobolaji Johnson, did what Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, now does for Osun’s most vulnerable families — school feeding.

    True, the Gowon-Johnson mid-day meal programme, for Lagos public schools, was not entirely free.

    But for a termly token, the government blessed the pupils with delicious and nutritious food, some of which — like Semo: vita and lina, barley cooked like jollof rice, stuffed with corned beef, spice and dried fish, and other staples, superbly cooked — most of us first sampled, and thoroughly enjoyed, in school.   Why, generous fruits and chilled fan milk came with the treat!

    That proved superb bonding, with impressionable minds, by a caring state!

    So, when by October 1974, the inimitable Dr. Tai Solarin started writing his “Beginning of the end” letter (because Gen. Gowon reneged on a 1976 promised return to civil rule); and other heavyweight moulders of opinion then were calling Gowon the worst to have happened to the Nigerian humanity, a bit of my child’s mind balked — what the hell are these adults talking about?

    Though almost a secondary school graduate at Gowon’s 1975 overthrow, and replacement by Brig. Murtala Muhammed, my teenage mind felt something close to personal grief.

    Fond recall of the Gowon regime, seeping with child-like innocence and naivety!  Even then, Gen. Gowon’s May 15 Abuja recollection of that ouster evoked that same deep pathos, echoing a long lost age, of child-like military innocence!

    At his ouster in 1975, he told the 8th AGM and Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa in Abuja, that he had no dime, save his salary savings.

    It was a Monday morning, away at Kampala, Uganda, heading the Nigerian delegation to the summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU, now rechristened African Union, AU).

    Even worse: his tearful delegates had to contribute part of their estacodes to fly him to London, UK, his new home in exile.  Otherwise, he would have been stranded in Uganda.  Yet, he had been military Head of State for nine years, superintending Nigeria’s first Oil Boom!

    Gen. Gowon’s conclusion?  That big-scale corruption came after his regime, since his military successors were scared stiff of ending up kobo-less like him.

    With all due respect to Gen. Gowon, that conclusion cannot be right.

    For starters poverty, real or feared, cannot be basis for stealing.  If stats shows Nigeria’s rich elite are more vicious thieves than the vulnerable poor, it logically follows that those who steal are driven by base instincts, just as those who don’t are driven by high principles.

    Besides, there was that “You-Tarka-me-I-Daboh-you” scandal, broken by the old Daily Times.  Godwin Daboh (now dead) accused the late Joseph Tarka (Benue co-native and Federal commissioner — minister — under Gowon) of corruption.  The crusading media back then accused Gen. Gowon of alleged cover-up.

    And, after Gowon’s overthrow, the Murtala regime indicted 10 of Gowon’s 12 state governors for corruption (Lagos’ Mobolaji Johnson and Western State’s Oluwole Rotimi were the two exceptions); and ordered seizure of their assets.

    So, for Gen. Gowon to claim corruption came after him would sound rather rich.  Yet, there is a sense that hyperbole could make some sense, when you compare the modest Gowon-era military office holders, with the Murtala-Olusegun Obasanjo set of successors.

    The mercurial Murtala boomed and roared and kicked against “indiscipline and corruption”.  In fairness to his memory, he walked his talk for the six months he ruled (29 July 1975-13 February 1976).

    But that cannot be said of his successors, despite projecting empty exceptionalism.   The ex-general as a super-rich citizen, bristling with an offensive sense of entitlement, dawned after the Obasanjo handover to civil rule in 1979.

    Gowon’s “corrupt” governors included names like Bendel’s iconic Sam Ogbemudia (God bless his soul!), Kano’s Audu Bako, Rivers’ Alfred Diette-Spiff (now a king) and even Kwara’s David Bamigboye.

    Though tarred by Gowon ouster probes, their achievements and regime conduct still loom large in their respective states, so much so that the late Ogbemudia, aside from rallying back as elected Bendel (now Edo and Delta states) governor (1 October-31 December 1983), died a hero among his people.

    In contrast: former army generals, morphing into emergency, much sought-after boardroom czars, just to pimp illicit influence to corner public sector contracts, was basically a post-Obasanjo affair.

    While Gowon, as ex-Head of State, exited as a golden pauper, Obasanjo exited the same position, even after a shorter duration, as a big-time farmer.

    Obasanjo’s deputy, the late Maj-Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, that regime’s Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, exited as big-time investor with niche interests in banking, shipping, publishing — the so-called commanding heights of the economy.

    Contrast that to Gowon’s No. 2, Vice Admiral Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey (1918-1991), and you’d probably figure out Gowon’s claim that corruption came after him.

    Besides, though not many noticed it back then, a more noxious strain of systemic corruption, tailoring public policy to private ends, if not entirely novel, would appear to have luxuriated.

    Take Obasanjo’s laudable Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) campaign, of household food gardening and mass farming.  That birthed the Land Use Decree (now Land Use Act).  But that access to land on the cheap — courtesy that law — created many ex-army general farmers, including Obasanjo himself.

    This clever ploy of self-settlement, hiding behind the veneer of productivity, would decay into the subversive generosity, aka ”settlement” and sweeping sleaze of the Babangida regime; and hit the nadir of brazen heist, of the Sani Abacha era.

    Why, even Obsasanjo’s second coming, as elected president (1999-2007), boasts its own holy acquisition: when a “blind trust” saw clearly enough to suborn the flower of Economic Nigeria, to “donate” to a sitting president’s exit library!  The result today is the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), first in Africa!

    Not even the vilest of the Gowon era boasts such audacity!  Yet these military regimes, starting with the Muhammadu Buhari junta (January 1984-August 1985), were proud “off-shoots” of the Murtala-Obasanjo regime!

    But the spartan Buhari, now sitting president, would appear the only refreshing difference, from that post-Gowon era of holy venality.   That clearly explains his missionary zeal to risk all to kill corruption.

    But Prof. Wole Soyinka, our own WS, has nailed the anti-corruption argument: until EFCC brings thieving past leaders to justice, there would be little dent on that nation-slaying monster.

  • Gowon: impeaching Buhari not in Nigeria’s interest

    Former military Head of State General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) has warned that impeaching President Muhammadu Buhari would not be in the interest of Nigeria.

    Gowon, who addressed the Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly in Abuja yesterday, said it’s too early for Nigeria to start impeaching democratically-elected presidents.

    The former Head of State’s warning is coming at a time that some federal lawmakers are canvassing the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari over the purchase of $496 million Tucano aircraft from the United States.

    Urging unity among the diverse ethnic, religious and socio-economic groups, particularly in the North, Gowon said impeaching any president at this point in the nation’s history would not serve any useful purpose.

    Gowon said, “It will be too early in the day to start impeaching presidents in Nigeria, otherwise, there will be no president that will not get impeached because of these interest groups.

    “We need to come together as a people – Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Forum and this forum. The three must come together or else, we will end up dividing our interests thereby polarising the North.

    “So it is a question of unity of the people in the North which is very important. The interest of the North is the interest of the nation”.

    Chairman of the Northern Leaders and Stakeholders Assembly, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said his group had constituted sub committees on North’s unity, elections, security and restructuring.

    Yakasai added that his group painstakingly study the reports of its various sub committees, with the view to taking the necessary actions that would engender peace and unity among the various political stakeholders in the region.

    According to him, the main objective of the group was to bring together Northerners of good standing for the purpose of arresting drifts in the region.

    He also spoke on the urgent need for the various stakeholders to strive to rebuild confidence among the people of the North, irrespective of differences in ethnic and religious backgrounds.

    A former Minister of Defence, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, assured that the group would do all that is required to ensure unity of purpose among the diverse groups in the region.

    Others at the meeting were a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Abba Gana; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Umar Ghali Na’Aba; two former senators -Joseph Waku and Paul Wampana

    Others are a former Deputy President of the Senste, Ibrahim Mantu; two former Women Affairs Minister, Maryam Ciroma and Zainab Maina.

  • Prayers against insecurity won’t be in vain, says Gowon

    Former Head of State Gen Yakubu Gowon yesterday spoke on the efficacy of prayers to solving Nigeria’s insecurity challenges.

    Gen. Gowon, leader of Nigeria Prays, said “prayers can solve Nigeria problems faster and better than physical weapons of war”.

    The Former Head of State spoke during  the prayer summit of Nigeria Prays Southeast zone at the First Baptist Church Wethedral Road, Owerri,.

    He said: “God would honour the collective prayers and intercessions of Nigerians for the nation and heal the nation’s wounds.

    ”Church Leaders should stand in the gap and fervently pray for peace, prosperity and security in the nation. Again, we must have to be honest with our leaders in our fellowership, and do less with unnecessary criticisms of our leaders.

    ”When it finally dawned on me that I was going to lead this great country of ours, Nigeria, the first thing I did was to go to God on my knees and asked him to help me so that I could always do the right thing. I thank God for the opportunity that he gave me in the course of service to this nation. But in the first instance, I never nursed any ambition to be a Head of State or rule this country in any form.

    “Yes we had a Civil War which was not so intended and I asked God for the will power to keep these people together. My joy today is that several years after the Civil War, Nigerians have remained bonded together as one nation despite our ethnic and individual differences.

    ”My humble appeal is that we must work together as a nation and cultivate the habit of praying for our leaders whom God has given to us instead of thinking along narrow ethnic and religious differences. It is future that will tell what great state Nigeria will become”.

    The Former Head of State also noted that “one of the things we did immediately after the war was to restore education to this part of the country where the war caused a deficit for two and half years. Let me assure you that what I had done is what  Governor Okorocha is doing. Ensure that whatever you do, you place it in the hands of God for its success”.

    Governor Okorocha said, Christianity does not preach revenge and then urged church leaders not to preach revenge concerning what is happening in Benue State and other parts of the country, adding that all the leaders in the country should take responsibility of whatever that is happening in the country.

    According to him “Christ never retaliated all the humiliations he suffered. And Christianity does not preach revenge. So our church leaders and Christians in general should not carry arms in revenge since Christianity does not allow revenge, stating that Church Leaders calling for revenge should withdraw or stop such calls”.

    The governor said:  ”at a very tender age General Gowon has commanded the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I want to specially salute him because of his tenacity of purpose and what he represents and I know that during the Nigeria Civil War, he led the Nigerian side, and your brother led the Biafran side.”

     

  • My heart bleeds over killings, says Gowon

    Killings by suspected herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents have left former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon a sad man.

    He said his heart bleeds, describing the killing of innocent Nigerians as “man’s inhumanity to man”.

    Gowon spoke yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on Governor Rochas Okorocha at the Government House Owerri.

    He said: “Nigeria needs peace so that all the people can live and work together in the interest of one another.

    “With prayers, God could touch the hearts of all those involved in all these killings like he touched the Biblical Saul and he changed them to become instrument of transformation instead of destruction.

    “God can touch one’s heart and change the person into becoming a vessel of Peace. My prayer for every Nigerian man is to live in harmony.

    “We would wish, every man and woman, and religious leaders to rally round and assist in any way possible. Every one of us has a role to play not only the leaders. That is why we seek for God’s intervention”.

    Okorocha advised Nigerians to see the activities of groups like Boko Haram and others as national problem that require all hands to be on deck for solution and should not be politicised.

     

  • Gowon: Silence is no longer golden

    When a nation is adrift and the future seems shaky with attendant national disaster, it behoves on men of conscience and past leaders of such a nation to speak out and point out ways of avoiding the danger confronting such a nation. I will like to make a brief incursion into history to buttress my point. When the ominous dark cloud of war was gathering in Europe in the late 30s, Sir Winston Churchill in Britain spoke out against the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Chamberlain towards Hitler whose army was rampaging across Europe. In France, Charles De Gaulle also later spoke and acted against the Vichy regime of Petain who collaborated with Nazi programmes of oppression and genocides. Over here in Africa, the legendary Nelson Mandela of South Africa condemned his successor Thabo Mbeki when he was becoming aloof and impervious to the yearnings of the Black South Africans. It is also on record that Archbishop Bishop Desmond Tutu condemned strongly the anti-democratic policies of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

    It is no exaggeration to say that since independence our dear country, Nigeria had faced many dire situations that threatened its corporate existence. The latest of these is the gory activities of the fiendish Fulani herdsmen in many parts of the country especially in the middle belt region of Plateau, Benue, Kaduna and Taraba states. These Fulani herdsmen go about with sophisticated weapons like AK47 to kill and maim innocent people. They burn houses, and take over people’s land by force.  In fact some of their apologists have told the whole world that the Fulanis own the land of the proud Tiv people by conquest. These Fulani herdsmen had brought sorrow and misery to the people. These marauding herdsmen are bad news to the people of Nigeria as they have brought untimely death of up to 2000 people and we are still counting.

    The heinous activities of these herdsmen who have been referred to as Fulani militias by some people had attracted the attention of the United Nations that had classified them as terrorist organization on a scale above the dreaded Boko Haram. Back home, two of our past leaders, Generals Obasanjo and Babaginda had condemned the activities of these malevolent herdsmen. These leaders had no doubt failed the nation in the past but with regard to their condemnation of these herdsmen, people are ready to ignore the messengers and concentrate on the message. These leaders have now been joined by the taciturn General Theophilus Danjuma whose Taraba home state, has been ravaged mercilessly by these rampaging Fulani herdsmen.  Danjuma is not known to be frivolous and for this reason he commands a lot of respect in the country and that is why his intervention on the atrocities of the herdsmen is causing a lot of concern in the government circles especially for his call on the people to defend themselves because the statutory organ empowered to protect the people have failed as they were colluding with the evil killers.

    Whatever may be the past shortcomings of these leaders, I think Nigerians owe a debt of gratitude to Obasanjo, Danjuma and Babangida for speaking out against the latest threat to the corporate existence of the country. Unfortunately there is an important voice missing in the condemnation of the quagmire imposed on the country by these Fulani herdsmen. That missing voice is that of General Yakubu ‘Jack’ Dan-Yumma Gowon, the man who was the shining face of Nigerian unity at the darkest moment in our history when the country was at the brink of breaking up. I believe but I concede that I may be wrong to say that we may not have a country called Nigeria today if General Gowon had not been the Head of State during the political crisis in 1966 and during the ensuing civil war that ravaged our country between 1967 and 1970. His calm posture and moderate ways with which he handled delicate national issues thrown up in the political crisis and the war won the hearts of many people for the cause of Nigerian unity which he championed. His policy of ’no victor, no vanquished’ calmed the nerves of protagonists of succession and won him international acclaim.

    Despite his lofty and unforgettable achievement as the man who prevented the disintegration of Nigeria, General Gowon has disappointed many people including his numerous ardent admirers for his tepid approach and attitude to issues that could destroy the corporate existence of the country which he championed in a godly fashion between 1967 and 1970. This unfortunate disposition of the General had been observed by this writer with concern as one of his admirers as far back as 1994. In that year out of frustration, I wrote him an open letter which was published in The Punch of August 30, 1994. In the letter, I implored the General with all the respect I could muster, to call the late malevolent Sani Abacha to order before he destroyed Nigeria by his draconian actions. Nothing was heard from General Gowon on many atrocities committed by Abacha before he expired in 1998.

    It is pertinent here to catalogue briefly, instances where General Gowon let the people down with his deafening silence on vital national crises. In the first coming of President Buhari in 1984, we were inundated with oppressive retroactive decrees which sent some people to their untimely death. We also had under his military administration, emasculation of press freedom with the infamous Decree 4 which led to the imprisonment of two leading journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor. Nothing was heard from General Gowon on this vicious erosion of people’s freedom. This attitude continued under the succeeding Babaginda military regime that annulled the freest election ever held in this country – the June 12, 1993 election. General Gowon up till today had never condemned the annulment. Also the debilitating economic policy of Babaginda dubbed by some people as Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) without human face which was roundly condemned by Obasanjo and leading economists in the land did not get any attention from this architect of one Nigeria. None of the Obasanjo’s dictatorial tendencies during his second coming also caught the attention of General Gowon as he kept quiet during this period. We also did not hear any voice of condemnation from Gowon on the unbridled corruption and waste that characterised the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Now to the present regime of President Buhari which every body knows is riddled with nepotism, sectional arrogance and other failings. All these shortcomings of the administration pale into insignificance when compared with present gory action of the rampaging fiendish Fulani herdsmen which Buhari administration has made very tepid attempt to curb. Plateau State where General Gowon comes from is one of the states in the eyes of the storm with regard to the killing and maiming of people by the herdsmen, despite the pretence of the governor, Simon who prefers the praise of President Buhari to the safety of his people. General Gowon is yet to make any statement on the misfortune of his people and other people who are being killed by the herdsmen all over the country. Many people still look up to Gowon to say something on this unacceptable situation in our country. When he led Nigerians in the war against the disintegration of the country, I am sure he was not bringing us together to be slaughtered systematically by the Fulani herdsmen some years later. General Gowon owes it a duty to the memories of the people who fought gallantly to keep Nigeria one, to speak loud and in an unambiguous way against the carnage being perpetrated by the Fulani herdsmen in different parts of our country. The earlier he does this, the better for his image.

    I know that General Gowon runs an outfit called ‘Nigeria Prays’ in which he mobilizes people in different parts of the country to pray for Nigeria.  This is commendable but it is my humble opinion that prayers do not preclude loud and clear condemnation of evil in whatever form or guise it may appear. In ending this piece, I will like to draw attention of General Gowon to an Anglican hymn which among others says that the person who is on the side of the Lord is somebody who is “Noble, True and Bold”

     

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.
  • 43 years after, Obasanjo ‘exposes’ Ahmadu Ali on seizure of U.S building

    43 years after, Obasanjo ‘exposes’ Ahmadu Ali on seizure of U.S building

    It was banters and reminisces all the way as former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), former President Olusegun Obasanjo and a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ahmadu Ali relived old times at certain points in their military careers.

    The occasion was the launch of Ali’s biography – “Many Colours Of A Rainbow,” at the Shehu Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday.

    Obasanjo was the chairman of the occasion while Gowon was father of the day.

    As chairman of the occasion, Obasanjo was listed to deliver the welcome address.

    Typical of him, he did not come with a prepared speech. He mounted the podium and cleared his throat in his characteristic manner.

    Expectedly, journalists that came to cover the event immediately adjusted their sitting positions. Some were ready with their tape recorders while others had their writing materials in the ready.

    Their ears stood erect like a rabbit’s as they waited for the usual “bombshell” from the ex- President. The news hounds were very sure that Obasanjo was going to “vibrate.”

    Protocols over. The reporters had already set their tape recorders rolling. Chmm…chmm…chmm. The old man cleared his throat once again.

    “When we were discussing earlier, Ahmadu (Ali) said Gen. Gowon is older than him but that he (Ali) claimed to be older than me. Then I asked Gen. Gowon if his date of birth was recorded and he said his late father wrote it down and kept it in his bible.

    “I asked Ahmadu if his own date of birth was recorded and he also said his father kept the record. And I told them that’s why they could talk like that. My own date of birth was recorded in my mother’s memory.”

    And the entire hall went toothy for a while. Then Obasanjo cleared his throat once more and continued: “When I was in primary school, my teacher sent me home from school to get my date of birth. On getting home, I asked my mother for my date of birth and she shouted at me that I was being stupid.”

    Recalling his mother’s response at the time, Obasanjo quoted his mother as saying, “I gave birth to you on Ifo Market Day. I had prepared to go to the market with other women on that day but I fell into labour at dawn. So I could not go the market. The other women went to the market and came back only to find that I had given birth to you. So go and tell your teacher that you were born on Ifo Market Day.” The hall erupted in another bout of prolonged laughter.

    He then went down memory lane to capture his relationship with Ali who was then a fellow army officer.

    According to the ex- President, it was way back in 1975 when Ali approached him for assistance.

    Ali, then a Federal Commissioner for Education, wanted a particular building located close to Race Course, Lagos, for use as office accommodation.

    Incidentally, the said building was being occupied by an agency of the United States as operational office.

    “So a few days after, I conspired with Ahmadu and mobilised troops to surround the building as early as 4:00 a.m. When the officials of the agency came to report for work in the morning, soldiers prevented them from entering the building. That was how I seized the building for Ahmadu and his staff,” Obasanjo recalled.

    Then hell was let loose. The U.S government had protested the action, which sparked a bitter diplomatic row between the U.S and the then Federal Military Government, headed by Gen. Gowon. Consequently, Obasanjo was summoned to Dodan Barracks where he said he was tongue-lashed by Gowon and other superior officers at the time.

    “I was scolded and dressed down by Gen. Gowon and other superior officers for my actions. I was seriously washed down.”

     

  • Fed Govt votes N280m as car allowances for Obasanjo, Gowon, IBB, Jonathan, others

    Fed Govt votes N280m as car allowances for Obasanjo, Gowon, IBB, Jonathan, others

    Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Goodluck Jonathan, Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar Abdulsalam and Chief Ernest Shonekan have been paid N40 million as monetisation. The money is part of a proposed N280 million for vehicle procurement, documents from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation have shown.

    The allocation, which was meant for the 2017 fiscal year, was in the documents showing procurements totaling N2.492 billion in the 2017 capital expenditure and earmarked for seven former Presidents and Heads of State.

    For this year, N2.492 billion capital expenditure is proposed, according to the report submitted  by the SGF during the 2017/2018 budget defence session held by the Hon. Husseini Suleiman Kanagiwa-headed House Committee on Governmental Affairs.

    The N240 million balance for the procurement of vehicles remains outstanding and is meant to be cash-backed before the budget year runs out in March. An additional  N96 million is proposed for procurement of vehicles in the 2018 budget estimates.

    About N120 million was proposed for purchase of vehicles for former Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo and the late Alex Ekwueme and had been released in 2017.

    Mustapha also told the lawmakers that N65 million was earmarked for building a website in the 2018 estimates.

    The committee members were not happy with some aspects of the presentation, especially the proposed N18.360 million for purchase of 27 laptop computer (Mac Book) in 2018; N,995,190,118 for purchase of security equipment.

    Also, the N64 million for purchase of monitoring trucks also got a knock, as well as the N316 million for purchase of motor vehicles; N124 million for four of 18-seater buses and two 30-seater buses.

    Estimates in the document show that N130 million was also proposed for procurement of two Land Cruiser Prado Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs); N65.551 million for ambulance and clinic equipment while N170 million was proposed for Independence/Democracy Day celebrations same as in 2017.

    The SGF told the lawmakers that the Mac Book computers were meant for Council Chamber because of the high volume of work they do.

    Other proposed expenditures for 2018 include: N1.734 billion for political officers and standing committee; N760.277 million honorarium and sitting allowance; N133.421 million for welfare packages.

    Similarly, N88.65 million is for the purchase of office furniture and fittings; N18.36 million for purchase of computers and N456.64 million for computer software acquisition while N106.834 is for cleaning & fumigation services for the SGF headquarters.

    N116.64 million is meant for support/maintenance of e-Council document management; N60 million for upgrade and turn around maintenance of Council Chambers Conference system; N30 million radio frequency identification device system (RFIC); N35 million for expansion of local area network/OSGF website upgrade and N40 million for socio-economic impact studies challenges/solutions.

    However, the 2017 budget document showed that out of the total sum of N20.800 million proposed for the 52No of Mac Book procured in 2017, the sum of N20.790 million (99.52%) has been released while from the total sum of N170 million proposed for Independence/Democracy Day celebration, the sum of N138 million was released.

    From the sum of N35 million proposed for 1 Xerox D125 Heavy Duty Photocopy Machine to enhance timely production of Council memoranda, the sum of N34,938,750 was released (99.83%) leaving a balance of N61,250 only.

    Also, out of the total sum of N55 million proposed for upgrading and turn around maintenance of Council Chambers System, the sum of N54,400,500 has been released leaving the balance of N599,500 only (98.91%).

  • Osinbajo, Gowon, Adeboye hold Christmas concert in Aso Rock

    Osinbajo, Gowon, Adeboye hold Christmas concert in Aso Rock

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday evening led other Christians in the country to observe the 2017 Christmas Praise Concert in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The concert holding at the old Banquet Hall was attended by the former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd) and former Head of Interim National Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan.

    Also at the concert are the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, state governors, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF),  Boss Mustapha and other cabinet members.

    The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor E. A. Adeboye, will deliver the Christmas message at the concert.

    The concert was still in progress at the time of filing this report.