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SOON after the Nigerian civil war in 1970, General Yakubu Gowon, as Nigerian Head of State, commenced a nation-wide visit of the then 12 states of the Nigerian federation. As a 10-year- old, primary five kid in Ilorin, I was very active in the scouting movement.
So it was that I was chosen along with several other children of my generation, to help arrange the Banquet Hall at the Ilorin Government House, during his visit to Kwara State.
Gowon had a very direct impact on our lives as children growing into consciousness in the context of the crisis of the 1960s: The coup and counter-coup and the events which led to the commencement of the hostilities of the tragic Nigerian civil war. The slogans of those times have remained etched on my memory: “GO ON WITH ONE NIGERIA” (coined from the name GOWON); “TO KEEP NIGERIA ONE IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE”!
The handsome and apparently humane officer looked very much the part as Nigerian leader in my very young but ever-searching mind. And there was a sense in which those years defined the professional choice I made later in life as a broadcaster and journalist.
I was farmed out to live with my great uncle at eight and every night, he listened to the Hausa Service of the BBC, which gave what he always described as the most accurate reports from the Nigerian warfront.
The drama of each evening was that a group of old men huddled together around Baba and his old GRUNDIG radio. They did not understand Hausa, so at the end of the news bulletin, he would translate into Yoruba the major items of what had been read in Hausa. I mischievously listened for the omissions and then interjected to point out mistakes in his account.
At the beginning I got a sharp disagreeing glance which over weeks and months mellowed as I was allowed to add to the translations. I think it was from that experience that my love of broadcasting grew.
An encounter: But I have diverted slightly from the Yakubu Gowon narrative. All Nigerians are privy to the sequence of events that led to his ouster from power in July 1975 and the subsequent years of exile, study to a doctorate level in Political Science and his return to a country he had given so much to, in the years of its tragic crises!
I was to eventually encounter the man for the first time in 2005. The American National Democratic Institute had organised an African statesmen initiative which brought ex-heads of state from all over the continent to Bamako, Mali. Yakubu Gowon was the only ex-Nigerian leader invited to the forum.
He helped to persuade the former Sudanese Prime Minister, Sadig El-Mahdi to give me a comprehensive interview, which was one of the first opportunities a Nigerian journalist had, to examine the details of the crisis in Darfur. It was also the preparatory platform we used to report from the region of Darfur, the following year, in 2006.
Back from Abidjan: On our way back to Nigeria, I met General Yakubu Gowon again at the Abidjan airport. He asked me about Yakubu Abdulazeez, the former Editor of the NIGERIAN HERALD newspaper, in Ilorin.
When I told him Abdulazeez had died a few years back, he expressed regrets and asked me to extend condolences to his family. He, however, added that he would never be able to reprimand “Sai Baba”, as he was known. Gowon told me that Abdulazeez was part of the delegation which followed him to the 1975 Kampala Summit of the Organization of African Unity, OAU, during which he was overthrown in Nigeria.
Abdulazeez, according to him, had started to cry on being told of Gowon’s ouster, and Gowon consoled him. He was therefore surprised to read his account of the event, where Gowon was described as the person who cried on being overthrown! The last time I met General Yakubu Gowon was in June 2010 in Conakry, Guinea. He was leading the Carter Centre’s election observer team and I was covering the elections for DAILY TRUST. He was the same unassuming and decent individual, who was concerned about all of who came to cover the elections.
Yakubu Gowon was thrust into leadership of Nigeria at the age of 32, in circumstances that could have broken an older and more experienced person. But he stood firmly, after initial political wobbles, for the unity of our country. He found the ability to rally some of the most distinguished Nigerian political leaders: Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Dr. Okoi Arikpo, Alhaji Aminu Kano, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief J.S. Tarka and many others, to work with him for the preservation of Nigerian unity.
There was also the inheritance of a formidable civil service structure which helped the political elite to stay the course. The war was a very painful experience with incredible suffering amongst millions of our compatriots and the loss of about two million lives. Yet, when the Biafran surrender was finally accepted, Yakubu Gowon initiated a ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ process, which underlined his deep humanism. It was the basis for the re-integration of the Igbo people back into our national life.
The Gowon years: The Yakubu Gowon period has elicited varying interpretations in our history, but on balance, I think the positives outweigh the negatives. The fact that Nigerian unity was preserved was a major achievement, which in the light of efforts by segments of the political elite and their intellectual supporters, to de-legitimize our country today, must continuously be underscored. The Second National Development Plan 1975-1980, dates back to the period with its ambitious effort to use the state to lead a process of national modernisation.
It did not work out and many of the difficulties we face today date back to the inability of the Gowon regime to decisively make the investments necessary to kick-start our national development. Towards the end of his regime, it was obvious that he had been completely drained by the herculean effort to persecute the war of national unity.
His ministers and governors were accused of corruption and insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians. On the basis of his shifting the goal post of commitment to handover to a civilian administration as promised, in 1976, he was thrown out of power.
But the corruption complained about then was like an amateur’s handiwork, compared to the brazen ‘privatization’ of the Nigerian state today, as prebends of looting by governors, ministers and other high officials of state. The state still possessed a large measure of legitimacy which it has lost today.
In a most far-reaching sense, the Gowon years were the golden years of our national life, and I think the man made his own mistakes; but he was a decent officer and a genuine patriot, whose place in Nigerian history is very much assured. Congratulations to General Yakubu Gowon at 77!
Reno Omokri and Northern Nigerian ‘parasitism’
‘NORTHERN Nigerians are par asites”. Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on ‘New Media’ allege that Northern Nigerians are parasites, in a twitter message on October 21, 2011, using the twitter handle @renoomokri. Reno stated: “If they need emergency action then let them produce wealth.
The North, particularly the core North, are parasites”. Facing angry reactions from Nigerians on twitter, Mr. Omokri was forced to delete the seemingly offensive post”- Kayode Ogundamisi’s Facebook wall posting on Saturday, October 22, 2011.
Reno Omokri, serves as Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on ‘New Media’.
This past week, his twitter posting that I have quoted at the top of this piece has been a major topic of discussion on the internet. Many people, especially around the North, have sent his posting as text messages to express their anger, that an individual serving the Nigerian government will profile a whole section of Nigeria, as he has done to “the North, particularly the core north…”, in his words.
When I checked the internet about him, an author’s bio, described Reno as “currently Vice President, Africa, at the U.S. Political Consultancy firm Joe Trippi and Associates, and part of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign in the 2011 Nigeria elections”. His position as Special Assistant was obviously in reward for his “part” in the campaign.
Prejudiced assumptions
Individuals like Reno Omokri should not play a role in the Nigerian public space, because of the deep-seated, indubitably racist and prejudiced assumptions they bandy about other segments of Nigeria, especially their constant bête noire, Northern Nigeria. It should not surprise that such persons got recruited into leadership by President Jonathan who is not free of such ideas himself.
For example, he told Christiane Amanpour in an interview that “settlers’ were responsible for the crisis on the Plateau and while recently receiving Dr. Alex Ekwueme and a delegation from Anambra State, he also said it was Igbo people that voted for him in the North.
If anybody thinks these are just ‘innocent’ mistakes, then check out the delegation Jonathan took to the last General Assembly of the United Nations: the Petroleum Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister, the UN Ambassador and his spin doctor, Reuben Abati.
Not a single person from Northern Nigeria was on that delegation, not even the Jerry Ganas or Solomon Lars who were so gung-ho for his presidency.
The Reno Omokri mindset of profiling and denigrating the North is the ruling mindset in Nigeria today and he was just not coordinated or bold or both, to have spewed out his garbage. But the proper thing is to always insist that such a mindset is unacceptable in our public space.
