Yakubu Gowon

The war lasted thirty months and ended in January 1970. In accepting Biafra's unconditional cease-fire, Gowon declared that there would be no victor and no vanquished. In this spirit, the years afterward were declared to be a period of rehabilitation, reconstruction, and reconciliation. The oil-price boom, which began as a result of the high price of crude oil (the country's major revenue earner) in the world market in 1973, increased the federal government's ability to undertake these tasks.[14]

There arose tension between the

In a move to check the influence of Ojukwu's government in the East, Gowon announced on 5 May 1967 the division of the three Nigerian regions into 12 states: North-Western State, North-Eastern state,

Towards the end of July 1967, Nigerian federal troops and marines captured Bonny Island in the Niger Delta, thereby taking control of vital Shell-BP facilities. Operations began again in May 1968, when Nigeria captured Port Harcourt. Its facilities had been damaged and needed repair. Oil production and export continued, but at a lower level. The completion in 1969 of a new terminal at Forçados brought production up from 142,000 barrels/day in 1958 to 540,000 barrels/day in 1969. In 1970, this figure doubled to 1.08 million barrels/day.

Minority ethnicities of the Eastern Region were rather not sanguine about the prospect of secession,^[29] as it would mean living in what they felt would be an Igbo-dominated nation. Some non-Igbos living in the Eastern Region either refrained from offering active support to the Biafran struggle, or actively aided the federal side by enlisting in the Nigerian army and feeding it intelligence about Biafran military activities. However, some did play active roles in the Biafran government, with N.U. Akpan serving as Secretary to the Government, Lt. Col (later Major-General) Philip Effiong, serving as Biafra's Chief of Defence Staff and others like Chiefs Bassey and Graham-Douglas serving in other significant roles.^[30]

On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's announcement by declaring the formal

The end of the war came about on 13 January 1970, with Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo's acceptance of the surrender of Biafran forces.^[35] The next day Obasanjo announced the situation on the former rebel radio station Radio Biafra Enugu. Gowon subsequently declared his famous "no victor, no vanquished" speech, and followed it up with an amnesty for the majority of those who had participated in the Biafran uprising, as well as a program of "Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation",^{[citation needed]} to repair the extensive damage done to the economy and infrastructure of the Eastern Region during the years of war.^[36] Some of these efforts never left the drawing board. In addition to this, Gen. Gowon's administration's policy of giving 20 pounds to Biafrans who had a bank account in Nigeria before the war, regardless of how much money had been in their account, was criticised by foreign and local aid workers, as this led to an unprecedented scale of begging, looting and robbery in the former Biafran areas after the war.^[37]

Another decision made by Gowon at the height of the oil boom was to have what some considered negative repercussions for the Nigerian economy in later years, although its immediate effects were scarcely noticeable – his

The post-civil-war years saw Nigeria enjoying a meteoric, oil-fuelled, economic upturn in the course of which the scope of activity of the Nigerian federal government grew to an unprecedented degree, with increased earnings from oil revenues. However, this period also saw a rapid increase in corruption, mostly bribery, of and by federal government officials; and although the head of State himself, Gen. Gowon, was never found complicit in the corrupt practices, he was often accused of turning a blind eye to the activities of his staff and cronies.[41]

On 1 October 1974, in flagrant contradiction to his earlier promises, Gowon declared that Nigeria would not be ready for civilian rule by 1976, and he announced that the handover date would be postponed indefinitely.^[42] Furthermore, because of the growth in bureaucracy, there were allegations of rise in corruption. Increased wealth in the country resulted in fake import licenses being issued. There were stories of tons of stones and sand being imported into the country, and of General Gowon himself saying to a foreign reporter that "the only problem Nigeria has is how to spend the money she has."^[43]

The cement armada affair

The corruption in Gowon's administration culminated in the notorious "cement armada"

These scandals provoked serious discontent within the army. On 29 July 1975, while Gowon was attending an

Years in exile

Gowon subsequently went into exile in the United Kingdom, where he acquired a Ph.D. in political science as a student at the University of Warwick. His main British residence is on the border of north London and Hertfordshire, where he has very much become part of the English community in his area. He served a term as Churchwarden in his parish church, St Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley.^[28]

Murtala's assassination

In February 1976,

After earning his doctorate at the University of Warwick, Gowon became a professor of political science at the University of Jos in the mid-1980s.^[3] Gowon founded his own organization in 1992 called the Yakubu Gowon Centre. The organization is said to work on issues in Nigeria such as good governance as well as infectious disease control including HIV/AIDS, guinea worm, and malaria. Furthermore, Gen. Gowon is also involved in the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme as well as the HIV Programme with Global Fund of Geneva.^[51]

In November 2020, MP Tom Tugendhat, while speaking against the Nigerian government's repression of the 2020 #EndSARS mass protests, accused Gowon of looting "half of the Central Bank of Nigeria" after his overthrow in the coup d'etat of 1975.^[52] The statement, the first-ever attempt to link Gowon with corruption, was faced with considerable backlash within Nigeria,^[53] with Bishop Matthew Kukah writing in the national major Daily Trust describing the seemingly ridiculous comment as "It is difficult to understand how a Member of the revered British Parliament worth his salt, could have left himself open to ridicule by leveling the unfounded, irrational and bizarre allegations of corruption against General Yakubu Gowon, our former Head of State and to the hilt, the nation’s poster face of probity in public life." Following an official demand for an apology by the Nigerian government, the Foreign Office later disassociated itself from the comment stating that, “the said comment of the MP does not reflect the views of Her Majesty’s Government and the British Government has no mechanism for controlling the actions and speeches of members of the Parliament.^[54]

In February 2024, Gowon, who is the last surviving founder of the

• Nigerian Civil War
• Nigerian military juntas of 1966–79 and 1983–99

References