CELEBRATING YAKUBU GOWON, THE QUINTESSENTIAL ELDER-STATESMAN AT 80

General Yakubu Gowon

Although I have had opportunities to see former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, (who will be 80 on Sunday) at close quarters, I have never had any personal interactions with him. Yet he remains one man for whom I have great admiration and tremendous respect. Even from a distance, Gowon radiates three attributes that are in scarce supply among his peers in Nigeria: Humility, simplicity and contentment.
However, because Gowon led our country at a most difficult period in the course of which we fought a three-year civil war, it stands to reason that he would definitely represent several things to several people. I am also aware of the charge against Gowon, especially with regard to some of the choices he made as a leader the repercussions of which we are still grappling with today. While those are legitimate issues that deserve interrogation, they are not the essence of this intervention which is about the person of Yakubu Gowon.
For a man who ruled this country for as long as nine years and has been around in Nigeria for more than three decades after he returned from exile abroad, it is amazing that there has never been any scandal (financial, political or moral) around Gowon or members of his family. In the particular case of his wife, you hardly see her in any event except those attended by her husband and we are talking of a woman, if we believe all that are in the history books, who once commanded the attention of our nation by her beauty and grace.
In a milieu where the ethos of the leadership elite is that enough is never enough, the Gowons are in a class by themselves. In all the stories of fuel subsidy payment scams, there has not been a Gowon involved and you will not find that name among the private jet owners. In none of the public enterprises that have been privatized has the name of Gowon (or his children) ever been mentioned as one of the buyers or promoters of the bidding companies. I am also not aware of any big edifice anywhere in Nigeria to which someone would point and say “Gowon owns it”.
As a former leader, Gowon carries himself with so much dignity that you cannot but admire him while he lives an almost-perfect family life that you wonder why he chose the military rather than follow his parents into the Christian missionary field. Whatever may be anybody’s misgivings about the stewardship of Gowon as Head of State, what is not in doubt is that he commands respect by the exemplary manner in which he has lived his life outside public office. Therefore, all factors considered, he deserves a big celebration as he clocks 80 on Sunday. I wish him happy birthday in advance as we Go On With One Nigeria 



By Olusegun Adeniyi