Yakubu Gowon Clocks 88 Today

Yakubu Gowon (born 19 October 1934), affectionately called Jack Gowon, is a retired Nigerian Army preferred and army leader. As Head of State of Nigeria, Gowon presided over a arguable Nigerian Civil War and added the famous “no victor, no vanquished” speech on the conflict’s stop for you to sell recovery and reconciliation.
The Nigerian Civil War is indexed as one of the deadliest in contemporary-day history, with a few accusing Gowon of crimes in opposition to humanity and genocide. Gowon continues that he dedicated no wrongdoing for the duration of the strugglefare and that his management stored the country.

An Anglican Christian from a minority Ngas own circle of relatives of Northern Nigeria, Gowon is a Nigerian nationalist, and a believer withinside the solidarity and oneness of Nigeria. Gowon’s upward push to strength following the July 1966 counter-coup cemented navy rule in Nigeria. Consequently, Gowon is the longest serving head of nation of Nigeria, ruling for nearly 9 years till his overthrow withinside the coup d’état of 1975 with the aid of using Brigadier Murtala Mohammed.

Early life

Gowon is a Ngas (Angas) from Lur, a small village withinside the gift Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang left for Wusasa, Zaria as Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries withinside the early days of Gowon’s life. His father took delight withinside the truth that he married the identical day because the destiny Queen Mother Elizabeth married the destiny King George VI. Gowon became the 5th of 11 children. He grew up in Zaria and had his formative years and schooling there. At faculty, Gowon proved to be a excellent athlete: he turned into the college soccer goalkeeper, pole vaulter, and long-distance runner. He broke the faculty mile document in his first yr. He changed into additionally the boxing captain.

Early profession

Gowon joined the Nigerian Army in 1954, and acquired his fee as a 2nd lieutenant on 19 October 1955, his twenty first birthday. He turned into educated withinside the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK (1955–56), Staff College, Camberley, UK (1962) in addition to the Joint Staff College, Latimer, 1965. He noticed motion withinside the Congo as a part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, each in 1960–sixty one and in 1963. He superior to battalion commander rank with the aid of using 1966, at which era he become nevertheless a lieutenant colonel.

Head of kingdom

In 1966, Gowon turned into selected to end up head of nation. Up till then, Gowon remained strictly a profession soldier without a involvement in any respect in politics, till the tumultuous occasions of the 12 months all at once thrust him right into a management role, while his uncommon heritage as a Northerner who turned into neither of Hausa nor Fulani ancestry nor of the Islamic religion made him a mainly secure desire to steer a state whose populace turned into seething with ethnic tension.

Gowon promoted himself two times as Nigerian Head of State. Gowon changed into a Lt. Colonel upon his ascendancy to the pinnacle of the brand new Federal army authorities of Nigeria on August 1, 1966 but different senior navy officials which includes Commodore Joseph Wey, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, and Colonel Robert Adebayo had been part of the authorities and their army seniority to Gowon turned into awkward. To stabilize his role as Head of State, Gowon promoted himself to Major-General simply earlier than the begin of the civil battle hostilities in 1967 and to complete General on the stop of the civil strugglefare in 1970.

Overthrow

On 29 July 1975, even as Gowon changed into attending an OAU summit in Kampala, a collection of officials led with the aid of using Colonel Joe Nanven Garba introduced his overthrow. The coup plotters appointed Brigadier Murtala Muhammed as head of the brand new authorities, and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy.

Years in exile

Gowon eventually went into exile withinside the United Kingdom, wherein he received a Ph.D. in political technology as a scholar on the University of Warwick. His principal British house is at the border of north London and Hertfordshire, wherein he has very a whole lot turn out to be a part of the English network in his area. He served a time period as Churchwarden in his parish church, St Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley.

Personal life

Gowon married Miss Victoria Zakari, a educated nurse in 1969 at a rite officiated through Seth Irunsewe Kale on the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.