ABUJA—Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd), has said there was nothing wrong with restructuring the country, provided it was done within the context of one Nigeria.
Gowon said this, yesterday, when Shehu Sani, Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja. He recalled that Nigeria was restructured under his leadership as the head of state with the creation of states in 1967. He said: “We can restructure within one Nigeria context.
I did it in 1967; we created states to stop eastern Nigeria from seceding. We had to do something to ensure the fear of their seceding did not exist; a serious issue of a part of the country wanting to breakaway when we already lost a part to Cameroon.
“If we had allowed the eastern region to go away, the map of Nigeria would have looked funny; it would have been tilted one way. So, we decided overnight to break the fear through the creation of states. If we had to save the country, that was the only way to do it.
We also ensured that no state was too big or too small to threaten the unity of the country.” On his time as the number one citizen in the country, Gowon said: “Accident of history made it possible for him to become head of state. What happened was the accident of history.
When you have lost your leadership and there was crisis and you don’t know what to do and it happened that those within your constituency chose you, what would you do? “I was lucky enough within the military at that time and all the officers knew me by reputation. I had no intention to become head of state but it is the opportunity, if opportunity presents itself and people ask you to do it then do it. “What I have achieved is (because of) God.
I had never thought of becoming head of state but there was a coup and all my senior colleagues were killed and I was the only one that survived.
“My plan was to rise in my profession and hopefully become a head in my profession but that did not happen. I didn’t know what happened but I had the duty and responsibility to ensure the coup in Lagos did not succeed.”
He advised younger Nigerians to prepare themselves academically and morally to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves.
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“If we had allowed the eastern region to go away, the map of Nigeria would have looked funny; it would have been tilted one way. So, we decided overnight to break the fear through the creation of states. If we had to save the country, that was the only way to do it.”
That is statement that caught my attention. How can he say that they stopped the secession of Biafra and went into war because the map would have looked funny. To my opinion that is a very bad statement and reason to give. This is a war in which millions of people lost their lives, homes and loved ones to. That was very reckless and careless of him. I pray he retracts that and comes out to tell Nigerians the real reason why the federal government led by him declared war on Biafra.
To the matter of restructuring there was nothing wrong in keeping the regions and provinces and maintaining a parliamentary system of government as we had before the coup of the 5 majors. Ironsi’s decision to form a Unitary government was his signature on his death warrant. Gowon still failed to right Ironsi’s wrong, but returning to the parliamentary system, and instead created states which has gradually resulted to the problem we have today.
By my opinion if Gowon wanted to stop secession, he could have just taken absolute control of the army, moved northern soldiers to the south and southern soldiers to the north, had the central government put in controls and policies to ensure that non of the region’s can raise an army or ever seceed. I beleive there are ways to go about such things constitutionally and legally.
So I fail to believe what Gowon and his surviving peers say. I hope before they all leave this life, they do come out and tell us the truth. I beleive my generation has a lot to learn and alot to know.