I attended two major functions in honour of my “father” and mentor – General Dr. Yakubu Gowon, GCFR during his 80th Birthday celebrations October in Abuja. I also noticed the many congratulatory messages in Nigerian Newspapers before, during and even after the celebrations placed by many prominent Nigerians in and out of government, corporate bodies, political parties and Non-Governmental Organisations among many others. I was particularly happy for the General to have attained those years and still in active service to God, humanity and the nation – 80 years are not 80 days, weeks or months.
But I felt since I don’t have the financial muscle to place such congratulatory messages for my mentor, the best way I could possibly celebrate the General’s birthday – 19th October 2014 – is to share with your esteemed readers the glorious moments I have had with him long after he had left power. This period was unique in the sense that it was neither the period of the January or July 1966 coups d’etat nor the period of his political leadership 1966 – 1975 or even the aftermath of July 1975 and February 1976 coups d’etat. These moments, 1998 to 2001, were no doubt quite eventful to me and they actually shaped a lot of my perceptions about General Gowon.
I first met General Gowon sometime early in 1999 when, as a youth corps member serving with Yakubu Gowon Centre, I went to see him in his Hotel room in Abuja for an assignment. The General struck me as a humble, simple and accessible statesman, father, leader and military officer full of British’s tradition of discipline and service. I couldn’t hide my feelings and told him of the numerous coincidences my first meeting with him had provided me with. Such coincidences include the fact that General Gowon got married at about the same time with my late father, that I was born in 1970 when General Gowon was Head of State, that I was at the time of meeting him a youth corps member, a scheme established by the General, that I was serving at the Yakubu Gowon Centre (YGC) a Non Governmental Organization established again by him to promote National Unity and International Cooperation and that here was I face to face with General Gowon himself. I pointed out to him how destiny had crossed our paths long before now even though we never met.
My first positive impression of General Gowon came when the then Desk Officer of Guinea Worm Eradication programme of Yakubu Gowon Centre told me to look for an experienced Hausa translator for the General. As part of his grassroots campaign towards achieving 100% Guinea Worm eradication in Nigeria, the General, where possible, would always want to talk to the rural folks in a language they would understand. I, therefore, told the Desk Officer that I was neither a Hausaman nor an experienced Hausa translator, but requested that I be given the challenge to prove myself. The General was happy with the enthusiastic response of the rural folks where my translated draft was used, and commended me for that. He asked jokingly whether I was of the Hausa bakwai or Banza bakwai origin being a Nupeman.
Having “discovered” me, so to speak, the General kept assigning me to numerous responsibilities some of which I personally acknowledged to be sensitive including representing him at some important engagements. I personally noted General Gowon’s meticulous nature and knack for details so that he would not be misinterpreted by the Nigerian public. Sometimes he would cancel an entire draft that he gave us a framework to work on if it fell short of his expectation. At his age, I do feel guilty of my inability to be like him in terms of setting high standards for himself and maintaining them, even though I am more like his son in age. I wonder if General Gowon ever cared to have enough rest some 39 years after his overthrow, this is because we would work together most often into early hours of the next day and he would be up again by 5.00 am for his early morning devotion. This was more of a routine of his life then and I am sure up till now.
During the Oputa Panel sittings, I remember somebody who filed a petition against General Gowon that the General killed his father during the Nigerian civil war and the man was asking for some colossal amount of money as compensation. I immediately drew General Gowon’s attention to the Newspaper report. His reaction was simple and sympathetic. He told me that he accepted responsibility of the entire civil war as the Commander-in-Chief and that he felt bad and sympathised with the families of anybody that might have lost his/her life during the war-both combatants and non-combatants. But he took exception to the way the man presented his case as if he (General Gowon) had personally singled out the man’s father for murder or extra-judicial killing. I couldn’t confirm whether General Gowon was able to establish contact with the man, because I believe he would want to do that considering his humane disposition and that was in spite of his reservation about the way the man presented his case.
General Gowon was once invited to Kano to attend the late General Murtala Muhammed’s Memorial lecture. Unfortunately, he was in London at that material point in time and my Chief Executive felt, rightly, that we should write to the organisers extending our apologies for General Gowon’s inability to attend. But I felt otherwise, and suggested that at least he could be represented. My Chief Executive then directed me to contact General Gowon in London, which I did. The General in turn directed me to convey a letter to the organisers and to represent him at the Kano event.
When he returned to Nigeria two weeks later and I took my report to him, General Gowon looked into my eyes and expressed gratitude to me for what he called my “matured disposition” in spite of my young age. He explained to me that the greatest stigma of his life was General Murtala’s assassination and pointed out on the need to meet people face to face on the issue. He consoled himself with the fact that the post-Murtala regime just wanted a “big catch” or a “Scapegoat” and at that point in time capitalised on the sober mood of the nation by pointing accusing fingers at him. He recalled how he nearly got Dimka dismissed from the army for an undisclosed offence, but for the intervention of some senior military officers, when he was in power. As he was explaining this “stigma” factor, I looked into his eyes and I could not help but pitied the old man, I saw him as an innocent victim of the entire situation.
Anybody with the type of opportunity I had working with and for General Gowon would attest to his humility. For example, anytime I went to see him, I would remove my shoes before sitting down with him. The General did not like this a bit and he said so. He once told me, teasingly, that ‘thank God, NICON Hilton Hotel doesn’t keep dogs’, if not he would have asked the dogs to take away my pair of shoe. I explained to him that as a Nupeman, the highest respect one could accord the elders apart from bowing down in greetings which is fast fading due to cultural reorientation, was to remove ones foot wears before passing by. And we would all laugh over it.
I was fond of referring to all the security personnel attached to General Gowon as “Oga”. There was this particular one who took working with a former Head of State into his head and the General knew it. One day, I called the Security Officer “Oga” in the presence of the General and he called the two of us. He warned that as a young hardworking graduate the security personnel couldn’t have been my Oga and that the form of extreme humility I was showing would breed undue arrogance in the heads of people working with him. That thenceforth, I should be calling those security personnel by their names. A typical case of a Hausaman saying “ya kwato mun ‘yanci na” ie he had liberated me.
General Gowon’s commitment to the Guinea Worm eradication programme was, and still remains, total. He once told me that but for the Guinea Worm eradication programme, he would have missed the rare opportunity or privilege of coming closer to the rural dwellers. The enthusiasm expressed by the rural folks, especially the old ones among them, in seeing their former Head of State physically was more than enough reward for the General. Some of them would even narrate the opportunities that were availed them in the golden years of General Gowon’s reign, such as how much it would cheaply cost somebody to buy a bicycle, motorcycle or perform pilgrimage to Mecca. The people’s appreciation of the General’s concern for their communities and the people infected with the disease was quite visible from their faces. He told me of the nostalgic feelings he had developed any time we were travelling to some of the remotest part of this country on Guinea Worm advocacy and sensitization visits, an opportunity he said he never had when he was in power. He, therefore, usually devoted a lot of time for the programme.
One day the General returned from such programmes arriving Abuja well after 6.00 pm by road and said that he was proceeding to Jos. I told him that it was not safe for him to travel to Jos by road from Abuja at that time of the day due to incessant armed robbery cases along Abuja – Jos road at about that period. He insisted that he must be in Jos because either his family would be expecting him or he would be having a very important engagement the following day or something like that. But I stood my ground that a former Nigeria’s Military Head of State must not travel that day and that I would phone his family in Jos to explain the situation to them. He argued that he owed nobody and I reasoned that victims of armed robberies never owed anybody before they were attacked. The following morning when I went to collect his luggage for his trip to Jos, he was beaming with smile and I remember him saying something like, “Alfa, congratulations for having your way. You are now a commander of a former Commander-In-Chief!”.
I recall General Gowon’s consideration for those young men and women working with him at the Yakubu Gowon Centre. I also remember how he detested this concept and practice of favouritism and God-fatherism. Some of us working with him have had cause to request the General to sign or endorse letters requesting for employment of our brothers, sisters, relatives or friends; but he would simply not oblige. He would explain that those who do not have the privilege of knowing him would unjustifiably be denied equal opportunity. I also observed that, perhaps, General Gowon might not want a situation whereby those in position of authority would see him as distracting or interfering in their official responsibilities. In one or two instances that I know the General issued a letter requesting for such favours on our behalf, his cautious choice of non-committal and non-interfering words were enough for the receiving Chief Executives not to honour or care about such requests, and they indeed refused to oblige.
There was a fire disaster in my family house in Kaduna in January 2001. The fire destroyed virtually the whole of the local mud house. General Gowon’s personal concern as expressed by his moral and financial assistance remains evergreen in my mind. He sympathised with me and stood by me in those moments of dire needs as the eldest son of the family. So also was the case during my wedding in 2001, the value of which could hardly be quantified. How I wish every boss would be the same to all subordinates.
I was working on the General’s outlines for a draft remarks to be presented at “A Night with king” – a Christian programme. In the outlines he sent to me there was a mix-up in quoting Ecclesiates (Chapter 3 verses 1-8) which I thought was either deliberate or due to haste. While working on it, I corrected the verses by quoting them verbatim. General Gowon was not only surprised but happy that in spite of my Islamic scholarship and background I was broad minded enough to read other religious scriptures including the Holy Bible. He observed that Nigeria needed broad minded future leaders especially in the areas of religion, ethnicity and regional tendencies – some of the strongest Nigeria’s centrifugal, divisive and sensitive forces. He pointed out that unless that was achieved, they (our past leaders) might have laboured in vain to keep Nigeria one. God forbid!
General Gowon did not say all these simply because he is a Christian and I am a Muslim. He actually put them into practice. Because one Friday, he phoned from London at about 1.30 pm Nigerian time and requested the telephone operator of our office to ask me to call him when I return from Juma’at Mosque. The telephone operator confirmed to him that I was still in office at that point in time and he requested that I be linked up with him. Even from his voice, I noticed his anger with me perhaps for the first time. He asked what was I still doing in the office at 1.30 pm Nigerian time and what had happened to my Juma’at service. I then explained to him that I usually pray at the then Sani Abacha Barracks and that it would require some 10 – 15 minutes only to be there from our office and that I usually leave office by 1.45 pm for the 2 pm prayer. He then insisted that I leave immediately for the Juma’at service and that the assignment he called me on should wait until I return later. For Allah’s sake, what type of role model do I need more than this?
When the Federal Government increased the minimum wage of its employees at the inception of the current democratic dispensation in 1999, the modest staff of Yakubu Gowon Centre had hoped for the same increase, forgetting that the Centre was not a Federal Government Agency but a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). One day as I was about leaving him in his hotel room, he called me back. He first of all apologised for what we perceived as a “meagre” pay due to non-increment of our salaries as was the case with the new minimum wage. He then promised that he would do something about it, a promise I understand he had since fulfilled.
The composition of the YGC Governing Council and Board of Trustees showed the General’s thoughts in and strong belief about Nigeria. A Council under General Gowon’s chairmanship with Mrs Aguiyi Ironsi, Late Lateef Adegbite of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, late Amb. Mathew Mbu, Amb. Clark etc was a mini-Nigerian Council.
I must salute the courage and motherly concern of the General’s wife, Mrs Victoria Gowon (whom we fondly refer to as Madam) for equally standing by the workers during the Centre’s numerous Council meetings. She once argued during one of the meetings whether the markets from which we buy our things were different from those of the civil servants. No wonder it is said that behind every successful man there is equally a successful woman, the General’s case is a clear vindication of this popular adage. With the increment in the Centre’s staff salary after I had left, I envy some of my colleagues still working there for what I jokingly called their “jumbo Udoji pay”. General Gowon also acknowledged what he described as my “loyalty, dedication to duty and honesty” and assured me that I would be adequately rewarded with a course slated for the following year at the Carter Centre in Atlanta Georgia USA. Unfortunately, I left YGC few months later before the course’s date.
There was something we always do for and on behalf of the General that I didn’t like at all: requesting for a CVU vehicle and Hotel accommodation from the Presidency anytime he was in Abuja on official assignment. I told him this one day and even pointed out that other former Heads of State would always be in Abuja without anybody knowing, because they have houses and cars of their own in Abuja. He took time to explain to me that those Heads of State I referred to were “lucky” to have a house(s) and car(s) of their own in Abuja and that he was not that lucky. With his numerous official engagements in Abuja, he wanted to know how and what I want him to do. I learnt very much later that even his house in Jos, his supposed home state capital, was built for him by the Jos community. Even a plot of land allocated to him in Abuja by a former Military Head of State, was revoked by FCDA due to non-development. It took another Minister of the FCT to re-allocate to the General! Yet, he was Nigeria’s Head of State in some of the most prosperous nine years of the Country’s history!
I learnt one important lesson of life from the General – appreciating and giving credit to all his subordinates, sometimes on issues he could have easily claimed credit for. His positive and favourable comments on virtually all the people he had worked with such as late Admiral Akinwale wey, Late Abubakar Gummi, late Chief Ukpabi Asika, Late Hassan Katsina, Mobolaji – Johnson, Chief Akpata, Late Mallam Aminu Kano, Prof. Adebayo Adedeji, Former President Shehu Shagari, Oba Eredinwa of Benin, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, the late Etsu Nupe Alh. Umaru Sanda Ndayako, Chief Asemota etc are very good examples. This attitude of General Gowon had, and is still, inspiring confidence in me. I would have lost the simple confidence of talking to him if he had exhibited those tendencies of “I am the boss and always right and you are the subordinate and therefore always wrong” to me. He never did.
I also learnt from the General that seeking for knowledge is timeless.After his ouster in 1975, General Gowon attended University of Warwick UK for his degrees up to PhD level! I am already following his foot-steps gradually in that regard, even though in Nigeria. General Gowon’s capacity to listen to his subordinates, especially if you have a contrary opinion, to my mind, has been unequalled. The over three years I worked with him gave me this impression. For instance, somebody wrote a book on the late Mallam Aminu Kano and requested the General to write a forward to the book. As he usually does, he read the book cover to cover and on each page wrote his observations, comments and in some cases disagreements to the issue raised on each page. He minuted it to me for what he called “second opinion” and I read it too, did my comments and we later sat together to compare notes before sending it back to the author. When the author later fixed a date for the launching after he might have noted General Gowon’s observations, it happened that the date was not convenient due to some of the General’s earlier commitments elsewhere. But I pointed out to him that considering his relationship with Late Mallam Aminu Kano’s family and his respect for the man, we could ask for a change of date to a more convenient future date. He agreed. I remember taking the author to the Abuja Airport to meet the General for a change of date and he eventually attended the launching personally. Examples like this abound in my working relationship with the General.
General Gowon cherished and greatly valued his name and integrity. At a point in time due to what some of us felt was high level of insecurity in the country, some people suggested that some 2-3 armed soldiers be attached to him as a former C – in – C and he seemed not to be keen about that. He reasoned that such arrangement would have to increase the number of cars he was using from one to two which to him would amount to wastefulness. But those who suggested that, had their way (he had since reverted to his one-car convoy the last time I met him in Kaduna). One day, after a whole day’s journey to Abuja from the South eastern States, the soldiers attached to the General were terribly tired, hungry and indeed angry with the security officer attached to the General who was supposed to be responsible for their upkeep. One of the soldiers was visibly angry and was even raining abuses on the security officer at the entrance lobby of the hotel to the hearing of anybody that cares to listen.
I arrived the hotel with the Desk Officer, Guinea Worm programme while the verbal war raged on between them. To save the situation, I took all the soldiers to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner and gave them some money to take care of the following day’s breakfast. When the General saw the Desk officer without me, he asked her of my whereabouts and she explained that I was attending to the soldiers’ grievances. General Gowon was not happy about that incident and I saw it in his reaction later.
When I met him later, I explained to him what had happened. He immediately sent for his security officer and asked him whether he had eaten and he (the security officer) said yes. The General asked him whether he felt it was morally and humanly alright for him to have eaten without caring for the soldiers. He described the security officer’s action as “extreme selfishness and highly irresponsible” and consequently requested for the redeployment of the security officer. I understand that the following day the General called on the soldiers and expressed his disapproval of what had happened to them. He even gave them the licence to meet him personally anytime something like that happened again.
How forgiving and understanding is General Gowon? I have a lot of examples to buttress how forgiving and understanding my General has been, but one instance would suffice here. Lamba was one of the personal aides of the General and a very good friend of mine. A day to Lamba’s wedding the General gave me an urgent assignment which I hurriedly carried out in order to join my colleagues in the office for the trip to Lamba’s home village-Amper Kalashi, Plateau State. I deliberately refused to go back to the General, fearing that he might not allow me to attend the wedding. He waited for me throughout that day and when he later confirmed that I travelled for Lamba’s wedding, he just smiled. I became really afraid of meeting the General when I returned and even avoided him until he returned to Lagos. Few days later he phoned to assign me some work and I seized the opportunity to extend my apologies to him. He laughed over my feeble excuses and told me that an old man like him who had had his time would not want to stop young men’s social interaction and that more so it was not in my character to have done that deliberately. That was the end of the whole problem to me. No reprimand or any form of scolding.
On the lighter mood, I once asked the General, after listening to Muhammadu Gao Felenge of Niger Republic’s Hausa song in which he was extolling General Gowon and Nigeria’s leadership role in the West African sub-region, if he listens to Hausa music especially those dedicated to him when he was in power or not. His answer was in affirmative and he explained that it was always in passing. He particularly singled out the late Mamman Shata’s song as perhaps his best, among all those dedicated to him. The (lyrics) of that particular song reads:
Bawan Allah Yakubu Gowon
Mutumin kirki dan dattijo
The General said he appreciated the Hausaman’s value attached to the concepts of ‘bawan Allah (a humble servant of God), mutumin kirki (a gentleman) and dan dattijo (son of a responsible old man)’ and that for the late Shata to have ascribed these values to him showed the high esteem in which he was held. I, thereafter, seized the opportunity to mention some of the leading Hausa musicians’ songs dedicated to him most of which he admittedly told me that he had never heard of.
The day I received my letter of employment into a Federal Educational parastatal in Kaduna, I became confused. Confused in the sense that I did not know how to confront the General who has been treating me as his son and confidant with the fact that I was leaving him. Would he see me as an ingrate or what? I now approached our Desk Officer Guinea Worm who in the first place introduced me to the General and explained to her why I wanted to leave. I reasoned that my new pay package was better than the Centre’s and that the agency that offered me job was based in Kaduna which would afford me the opportunities of staying at home to look after my aged mother and younger ones. Another very important reason was what I thought to be a golden opportunity the new job would offer me due to Kaduna’s proximity to Zaria and my desire to pursue a post graduate degree in ABU Zaria.
When she eventually met the General and told him, he too received the news with mixed feelings of some sort and sent for me. His words that day remain indelible in my mind today, something to the effect that “he received the news with mixed-feelings, that he would miss me a lot but he would not stop me from going if I feel the new job would be more fulfilling to me”. In my letter of withdrawal of service from Yakubu Gowon Centre, I particularly singled out for appreciation General Gowon and my Chief Executive, Ambassador Maurice Ekpang, for their fatherly concerns and the confidence they reposed in my person. This is because if a boss fails to have confidence in his subordinates, there is certainly no way they can be confident of themselves.
Four months after I left the Centre, I wrote another letter to General Gowon. In the letter I told him how guilty I felt leaving the Centre after all he had done for me. I expressed appreciation for his encouragement, humility, Service to God and humanity, in spite of his most respected former office. I also assured him that while I have left the centre, I would forever be with him as he remains a father and a mentor to me. He invited me few months later after receiving my letter and assured me of his support. Since then, anytime he visits Kaduna, he would often phone my house to find out about my family and I. Sometimes I would in turn ask my family to accompany me to see him.
It was during one of such visits that he took my son – Mohammed, away playing with him telling us (my wife and I) that he has got a better and most reliable friend. He later called me to say that he wanted more grand children as he observed that four years after (my son was four years old at the time), his friend (my son – Mohammed) has no play mates.
When former President Shehu Shagari wrote and launched his autobiography – “Beckoned to serve”, I suggested to General Gowon to do the same and he seemed quite disinterested up till now. He observed that so many people had written his biography and he felt they were okay. But I pointed out that autobiography is a first-hand information from an active participant. That it would afford Nigerians the rare privilege of knowing his inner mind and workings, especially when he was Head of State. I still hope my General will do this for me one day.
I once asked General Gowon whether what was attributed to him by a section of Nigerian media that he once said ‘Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it’ was a correct reflection of his statement and intent. He confirmed to me (around 2002) that that statement was even more obvious now than when he allegedly said so. He lamented that it was rather regrettable that most often that statement was twisted or quoted out of context to fit into some people’s misrepresentation of his person.
I personally sympathised with General Gowon on how his pivotal role in creating a centrally located new Federal Capital Territory-Abuja, has been downplayed completely by successive regimes in Nigeria. Although I never had the opportunity to ask him about it and he never expresses such disappointment to me, I still feel that the history of Abuja will never be completed without the mention of General Gowon’s pivotal role. I came to this conclusion when I stumbled upon a document that narrated how General Gowon took a reconnaissance flight in trying to locate a supposedly central area where to locate the new Federal Capital. From that record, I read how he traversed the present Nassarawa, Niger, Kogi and Kaduna states. I also noted how he enthusiastically shared his hope and aspiration on the issue with some key officials of his government. What I failed to fathom was why he kept quiet in the face of successive regimes ‘plagiarising’ his original idea. He seemed to be content with the fact that it was his colleagues in government such as Generals Murtala and Obasanjo and President Shehu Shagari all of whom were his Federal Commissioners (i.e. Ministers) who eventually turned his dream into reality. What a selfless leader.
I would have loved to be around the General when the ill-mannered Femi Fani-Kayode opened his mouth too wide to abuse General Gowon simply because he advised the then Obasanjo civilian administration not to elongate its constitutionally stipulated two terms of four years each. I would have (found)out what the General’s feelings were when a Presidential aide would openly castigate an elder statesman of his standing the way Mr Kayode did. In abusing the General, Fani-Kayode did not or refused to acknowledge the fact that General Gowon humbly and in a self-Indicting manner cited his case, that of Babangida and Abacha as very good lessons for Obasanjo. I am not sure if he ever replied Mr Fani-Kayode, at least I didn’t read his response to that effect. I want to thank General Gowon for denying Mr Kayode the relevance his (General’s) response might have accorded his (Fani-Kayode’s) irrational noise at that point in time. But for me, the fact that a so-called ‘third term’ was ever contemplated under a supposedly democratic regime remained quite unfortunate.
General Gowon’s advice in 2007 to all former Heads of State to leave the 2007 Presidential contest for the younger elements was quite instructive. Some of them did contest in 2007, 2011 and are preparing to contest even in 2015! I would have loved to share with His Excellency the wisdom in such an advice anytime I have the opportunity of meeting him next. This is because I remember vividly that General Gowon had himself contested during Babangida’s transition programme.
I deliberately wanted to share out what I perceived as my glorious moments with General Dr Yakubu Gowon to the general public not only to mark the General’s birthday – 19th October, but also to celebrate General Gowon according to Alfa. While it is true that Nigerian political history would never be completed without a mention of the nine golden, but trying, years of General Gowon’s leadership (1966 – 1975), I thought I should look elsewhere – 1998 to 2001. With the above, I believe I have opened a vista to your numerous readers on the type of leadership we have been missing all these years. I hope nobody would accuse me of any political agenda by this write-up; afterall General Gowon himself had admonished all former Nigerian leaders to steer clear of any political contest as far back as 2007.
I have learnt from General Gowon’s personal conduct some of the greatest virtues that have been seeing me through life in the last 13 years. Chiefly among these virtues are loyalty, dedication to duty, patience and honesty.The fruits of such virtues are today bountiful in my life.
As I wish my dear General happy birthday, I pray that Almighty God in His infinite mercy will grant him a longer and healthier life for greater and continuous service to God, humanity and the Nation at large. We definitely need more of General Gowon’s type at all levels of leadership in Nigeria, now and more than ever before.
Thank you.
Abdulrahman M. Alfa
No.6 Gidan Nupawa
Mukum Close, Badarawa – Kaduna
