ON GOWON’S EXPOSED CORRUPT HANDS
December 1, 2020 | News
When a video of a UK member of Parliament, Tom Tugendhat, went viral recently online, as he cited Gen. Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) as one of the corrupt leaders in Nigeria that had looted half of the Central Bank of Nigeria while a Military Head of State, I was not surprised because there have been a lot of facts, events and instances that clearly painted this sad reality then.
ON GOWON’S EXPOSED CORRUPT HANDS – ANOTHER SAD TALES OF OUR SUPPOSED “HEROES PAST”
When a video of a UK member of Parliament, Tom Tugendhat, went viral recently online, as he cited Gen. Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) as one of the corrupt leaders in Nigeria that had looted half of the Central Bank of Nigeria while a Military Head of State, I was not surprised because there have been a lot of facts, events and instances that clearly painted this sad reality then.
According to the said lawmaker: “We need to call out the corruption. We need to use the powers that we have in this country to stop those who are profiting from the wealth of that great nation (Nigeria), and hiding it here. Now, some people would remember that Gen. Gowon left Nigeria with half of the Central Bank, so it was said, and moved to London. We know that today, and even now, in this great city of ours, there are, sadly, some people who have taken from the Nigeria people, and hidden their ill-gotten gains here…”
Though, he used the words: "so it was said"- meaning he may not be speaking based on facts, but hearsay. But the truth of the matter is that it is an open secret that Gen. Gowon, though may seem to be regarded as a civil war veteran and Nigeria’s hero, but he had his hands stained with high profile corruption, which was part of the reasons that led to his overthrow by another military Junta.
In fact, Gowon was overthrown on July 29, 1975, by his boys then led by Joseph Garba, who felt they had, had enough of his corrupt military regime. Yakubu Gowon was just 32 years old when he succeeded Maj. Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as Head of State. He went on to rule the country for 9 years, the longest rule ever of Nigeria’s Military Head of State. Joseph Garba, who was the commander of the then Brigade of Guards to Gowon, was one of those who persuaded Murtala Mohammed to head the new military administration then. Joe Garba, as Gowon’s right-hand man, was also the one who announced the coup on Radio Nigeria.
More details of this were noted by Joe Garba in his famous book: Diplomatic Soldiering. In the book’s prologue, one of the paragraphs hinted that: “Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed had not wanted to be Head Of State. But he had been our choice since the day in April when a few of us, distraught over the state of the country, began to conceive the idea of the coup.” Amongst the things that contributed to the overthrow of Gowon was the fact that there was plenty of wastes and massive corruption, not only in the Ministry of Defense, but also among arms purchasing teams (and dealers), sent abroad to acquire weapons and ammunitions. In 1969, Gowon got married to former Miss Victoria Zakari in a State and Society wedding in Lagos which considering the wartime situation and the ongoing suffering, appeared lavishly distasteful and imperious to many observers, including war front commanders.
Now after how many years, the British people appears to still have all the facts and figures of Gowon’s loots at that time, hence the issue is coming up in 2020. While citing a phrase of the Nigerian national anthem, a commentator noted that: “The labour of our heroes past…” Who is the hero? Is it Gowon? Obasanjo? Abacha? Babangida? Buhari? Who exactly? Let’s not deceive ourselves. There was no labour. There are no heroes. None at all. Just a cycle of hoodlums who have been looting us dry since 1960 till now. They only laboured to be heroes of their families… Taking what belongs to everyone and piling it up for their unborn generations…” Another commentator said: “Gowon once literary said Nigeria has so much money, we didn’t know what to do with it. Then he went to start paying salaries for people in another country. See ehn. Our problem started from military regime, and they made sure that they continued it by becoming civilian rulers themselves.”
Though, some responses online from pro-Gowon supporters since the blast by the UK Parliamentarian, have come out to defend the former Military leader by calling everything said by the UK member of Parliament as “lies”. And some of the things they noted included that: "General Gowon tendered an account statement with 15,000 pounds when the Inspector General of Police said he was going to probe the government for corruption." (Dr Patrick F Wilmot, General (rtd) TY Danjuma, 2007: 15); "Gowon, who ruled for nine years, did not have a house and had only 15,000 pounds in his single bank account." (Dr Patrick F Wilmot, Nigeria: The Nightmare Scenario, 2007: 91); "Gowon had run out of money and members of the [Nigerian] delegation and High Commission staff [in Addis Ababa when his overthrow was announced while attending OAU Summit] decided to contribute part of their own per diem [estacode] allowance which came to a total of about 3,000 Pounds Sterling. This they handed over to Gowon to begin a new life. It was a very touching scene and most members of the Nigerian delegation were in tears. General Gowon himself had to fight back tears from his eyes." (Prof J Isawa Eliagwu, Gowon, 2009: 372); "I can assure you that Murtala [Mohammed] regretted doing what they did to me. I was made to understand that he sent some people to find out all the money the press was saying I had; that I owned half of Belgium and in every part of the world, that I owned hotels. They sent officials to go and investigate. They did and found nothing to report. I was told he regretted his action. He said after all, what this poor man did for this country, he had nothing to show for it. And for that reason, he was setting aside half a million Naira to build a house of my choice in any part of the country. With that amount of money, I would have built palaces in each of the 12 States. That was the time you could build a good house with N5,000 or with N10,000 you could build a mansion." (Gen Yakubu Gowon, 'The Gowon Interview', Guardian, 24 October 2014: 8).
Whatever the case may be, it is without a doubt that Gowon’s administration was carefree. While we commend him for trying to sustain a United Nigeria back then, but the fact still remains that his military government then was wasteful with State resources. Even Gown noted so himself when he said that Nigeria’s problem is not money but how to spend it. The lesson here is that all of them today, who pretend as if they are Saints, will be eventually exposed at the appropriate time. Today, Gowon is aged, but the level of hardship and poverty he created by his actions still lingers on. Those of them who pretend to be Christians and rush to churches to do thanksgiving, will one day be disgraced just as Gowon is being disgraced now after many years.
Zik Gbemre.
December 1, 2020
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
When a video of a UK member of Parliament, Tom Tugendhat, went viral recently online, as he cited Gen. Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) as one of the corrupt leaders in Nigeria that had looted half of the Central Bank of Nigeria while a Military Head of State, I was not surprised because there have been a lot of facts, events and instances that clearly painted this sad reality then.
According to the said lawmaker: “We need to call out the corruption. We need to use the powers that we have in this country to stop those who are profiting from the wealth of that great nation (Nigeria), and hiding it here. Now, some people would remember that Gen. Gowon left Nigeria with half of the Central Bank, so it was said, and moved to London. We know that today, and even now, in this great city of ours, there are, sadly, some people who have taken from the Nigeria people, and hidden their ill-gotten gains here…”
Though, he used the words: "so it was said"- meaning he may not be speaking based on facts, but hearsay. But the truth of the matter is that it is an open secret that Gen. Gowon, though may seem to be regarded as a civil war veteran and Nigeria’s hero, but he had his hands stained with high profile corruption, which was part of the reasons that led to his overthrow by another military Junta.
In fact, Gowon was overthrown on July 29, 1975, by his boys then led by Joseph Garba, who felt they had, had enough of his corrupt military regime. Yakubu Gowon was just 32 years old when he succeeded Maj. Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as Head of State. He went on to rule the country for 9 years, the longest rule ever of Nigeria’s Military Head of State. Joseph Garba, who was the commander of the then Brigade of Guards to Gowon, was one of those who persuaded Murtala Mohammed to head the new military administration then. Joe Garba, as Gowon’s right-hand man, was also the one who announced the coup on Radio Nigeria.
More details of this were noted by Joe Garba in his famous book: Diplomatic Soldiering. In the book’s prologue, one of the paragraphs hinted that: “Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed had not wanted to be Head Of State. But he had been our choice since the day in April when a few of us, distraught over the state of the country, began to conceive the idea of the coup.” Amongst the things that contributed to the overthrow of Gowon was the fact that there was plenty of wastes and massive corruption, not only in the Ministry of Defense, but also among arms purchasing teams (and dealers), sent abroad to acquire weapons and ammunitions. In 1969, Gowon got married to former Miss Victoria Zakari in a State and Society wedding in Lagos which considering the wartime situation and the ongoing suffering, appeared lavishly distasteful and imperious to many observers, including war front commanders.
Now after how many years, the British people appears to still have all the facts and figures of Gowon’s loots at that time, hence the issue is coming up in 2020. While citing a phrase of the Nigerian national anthem, a commentator noted that: “The labour of our heroes past…” Who is the hero? Is it Gowon? Obasanjo? Abacha? Babangida? Buhari? Who exactly? Let’s not deceive ourselves. There was no labour. There are no heroes. None at all. Just a cycle of hoodlums who have been looting us dry since 1960 till now. They only laboured to be heroes of their families… Taking what belongs to everyone and piling it up for their unborn generations…” Another commentator said: “Gowon once literary said Nigeria has so much money, we didn’t know what to do with it. Then he went to start paying salaries for people in another country. See ehn. Our problem started from military regime, and they made sure that they continued it by becoming civilian rulers themselves.”
Though, some responses online from pro-Gowon supporters since the blast by the UK Parliamentarian, have come out to defend the former Military leader by calling everything said by the UK member of Parliament as “lies”. And some of the things they noted included that: "General Gowon tendered an account statement with 15,000 pounds when the Inspector General of Police said he was going to probe the government for corruption." (Dr Patrick F Wilmot, General (rtd) TY Danjuma, 2007: 15); "Gowon, who ruled for nine years, did not have a house and had only 15,000 pounds in his single bank account." (Dr Patrick F Wilmot, Nigeria: The Nightmare Scenario, 2007: 91); "Gowon had run out of money and members of the [Nigerian] delegation and High Commission staff [in Addis Ababa when his overthrow was announced while attending OAU Summit] decided to contribute part of their own per diem [estacode] allowance which came to a total of about 3,000 Pounds Sterling. This they handed over to Gowon to begin a new life. It was a very touching scene and most members of the Nigerian delegation were in tears. General Gowon himself had to fight back tears from his eyes." (Prof J Isawa Eliagwu, Gowon, 2009: 372); "I can assure you that Murtala [Mohammed] regretted doing what they did to me. I was made to understand that he sent some people to find out all the money the press was saying I had; that I owned half of Belgium and in every part of the world, that I owned hotels. They sent officials to go and investigate. They did and found nothing to report. I was told he regretted his action. He said after all, what this poor man did for this country, he had nothing to show for it. And for that reason, he was setting aside half a million Naira to build a house of my choice in any part of the country. With that amount of money, I would have built palaces in each of the 12 States. That was the time you could build a good house with N5,000 or with N10,000 you could build a mansion." (Gen Yakubu Gowon, 'The Gowon Interview', Guardian, 24 October 2014: 8).
Whatever the case may be, it is without a doubt that Gowon’s administration was carefree. While we commend him for trying to sustain a United Nigeria back then, but the fact still remains that his military government then was wasteful with State resources. Even Gown noted so himself when he said that Nigeria’s problem is not money but how to spend it. The lesson here is that all of them today, who pretend as if they are Saints, will be eventually exposed at the appropriate time. Today, Gowon is aged, but the level of hardship and poverty he created by his actions still lingers on. Those of them who pretend to be Christians and rush to churches to do thanksgiving, will one day be disgraced just as Gowon is being disgraced now after many years.
Zik Gbemre.
December 1, 2020
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes