NIGERIA AND THE BIAFRAN STATE

2nd Military Dictator of Nigeria
In office
1 August 1966 – 29 July 1975
Preceded by Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi
Succeeded by Murtala Mohammed
Born
19 October 1934
(age 75)
Kanke, Plateau State,
Nigeria
Religion Christian
General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-
Yumma Gowon (born 19
October 1934) was the head of
state (Head of the Federal Military
Government) of Nigeria from
1966 to 1975. He took power
after one military coup d'etat and
was overthrown in another.
During his rule, the Nigerian
government successfully
prevented Biafran secession
during the 1966–1970 Nigerian
Civil War.
Early life
Yakubu is an Ngas (Angas) from
Lur, a small village in the present
Kanke Local Government Area of
Plateau State. His parents, Nde
Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang,
left for Wusasa, Zaria as Church
Missionary Society (CMS)
missionaries in the early days of
Yakubu's life. His father took
pride in the fact that he married
the same day as the Late Queen
Mother Elizabeth married King
George VI. Yakubu was the fifth
of eleven children. He grew up in
Zaria and had his early life and
education there. At school
Yakubu proved to be a very good
athlete, he was the school
football goalkeeper, Pole vaulter,
and long distance runner. He
broke the school mile record in
his first year. He was also the
boxing captain[1].
Early career and political ascent
Yakubu Gowon joined the
Nigerian army in 1954, receiving
a commission as a Second
Lieutenant on 19 October 1955,
his 21st birthday.
He also attended both the Royal
Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK
(1955-56),Staff
College,Camberley,UK(1962) as
well as the Joint Staff College,
Latimer, 1965. He saw action in
the Congo (Zaire) as part of the
United Nations PeaceKeeping
Force, both in 1960-61 and in
1963. He advanced to battalion
commander rank by 1966, at
which time he was still a
Lieutenant Colonel.
Up until that year Gowon
remained strictly a career soldier
with no involvement whatsoever
in politics, until the tumultuous
events of the year suddenly
thrust him into a leadership role,
when his unusual background as
a Northerner who was neither of
Hausa or Fulani ancestry nor of
the Islamic faith made him a
particularly safe choice to lead a
nation whose population were
seething with ethnic tension.
In January 1966, he became
Nigeria's youngest head of state
at the age of 32, because a
military Coup d'état by a group of
mostly Igbo junior officers under
Major Chukwuma Kaduna
Nzeogwu led to the overthrow of
Nigeria's civilian government[2].
In the course of this coup, mostly
northern and western leaders
were killed, including Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
Nigeria's Prime Minister; Sir
Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of
Sokoto and Premier of the
Northern Region; and Samuel
Akintola, Premier of the Western
Region, as well as several high
ranking Northern army officers.
The then Lieutenant Colonel.
Gowon returned back from his
course at the Joint Staff College,
Latimer UK two day before the
coup- a late arrival that possible
exmepted him from the coupist
Hit list[3]. In contrast, only a
single Igbo officer lost his life.
This gave the coup an
ethnocentric cast that aroused
the suspicions of Northerners[4],
and the subsequent failure by
Major General Johnson Aguiyi-
Ironsi (who was the head of
state following the January 1966
coup-with Gowon his Chief of
Staff) to meet Northern demands
for the prosecution of the coup
plotters further inflamed
Northern anger. It should be
noted that there was significant
support for the coup plotters
from both the Eastern Region as
well as the mostly left-wing
"Lagos-Ibadan" press.
Then came Ironsi's Decree
Number 34, which proposed the
abolition of the federal system of
government in favor of a unitary
state, a position which had long
been championed by the
Southern parties - the NCNC and
the AG. This was perhaps
wrongly interpreted by
Northerners as a Southern
(Eastern, Midwestern and
Western Regions) attempt at a
takeover of all levers of power in
the country. The North lagged
badly behind the Western and
Eastern regions in terms of
education due to their religious
related unacceptance of western
education early, while the mostly-
Igbo Easterners were already
present in the federal civil
service. On 29 July 1966, while
Ironsi was staying at
Government House in Ibadan,
northern troops led by Major
Theophilus Danjuma and Captain
Martin Adamu stormed the
building, seized Ironsi and his
host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle
Fajuyi, and subsequently had the
two men stripped naked, flogged
and beaten, and finally shot.
Other northern troops, led by
Lieutenant Colonel Murtala
Mohammed, the real leader of the
counter-coup and who later
succeeded Yakubu Gowon as
head of state , then seized the
Ikeja airport in Lagos. Several
Igbo and Eastern minority
officers were killed during the
counter-coup.
The original intention of Murtala
Mohammed and his fellow coup-
plotters seems to have been to
engineer the secession of the
Northern region from Nigeria as
a whole, but they were
subsequently dissuaded of their
plans by several advisors,
amongst which included a
number of high ranking civil
servants and judges, and
importantly emissaries of the
British and American
governments who had interests
in the Nigerian polity. The young
officers then decided to name
Lieutenant Colonel Gowon, who
apparently had not been actively
involved in events until that
point, as Nigerian Head of State.
On ascent to power Gowon
reversed Ironsi's abrogation of
the federal principle[5].
The buildup to the Biafran War
In the meantime, the July
Counter-Coup had unleashed
pogroms against the Igbo
throughout the Northern Region.
Hundreds of Igbo officers were
murdered during the revolt, and
in the North, as commanding
officers either lost their control
of their troops or actively egged
them on to violence against Igbo
civilians, it did not take long for
Northerners from all walks of life
to participate. Tens of thousands
of Igbos were killed throughout
the North. The persecution
precipitated the flight of more
than a million Igbo towards their
ancestral homelands in eastern
Nigeria. Lieutenant Colonel
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu
Ojukwu , the military governor of
the Eastern region who did not
allow attempts by Northern
soldiers stationed in his region
to replicate the massacres of
Igbo officers, argued that if Igbo
lives could not be preserved by
the Nigerian state, then the Igbo
reserved the right to establish a
state of their own in which their
rights would indeed be
respected.
There arose tension between the
Eastern region and the northern
controlled federal government
lead by Gowon. On 4-5 January
1967, in line with Ojukwu's
demand to on meet for talks only
on neutral soil, a summit
attended by Gowon, Ojukwu and
other members of the Supreme
Military Council was held at Aburi
in Ghana, the stated purpose of
which was to resolve all
outstanding conflicts and
establish Nigeria as a
confederation of regions. The
outcome of this summit was the
Aburi Accord.
The Aburi Accord did not see the
light of the day, as the Gowon led
government had huge
consideration for the possible
revenues, especially oil revenues
which were expected to increase
given that reserves having been
discovered in the area in the
mid-1960s. It has been said
without confirmation that both
Gowon and Ojukwu had
knowledge of the huge oil
reserves in the Niger Delta area,
which today has grown to be the
mainstay of the Nigerian
economy.
In a move to check the influence
of Ojukwu's government in the
East, Gowon announced on 5
May 1967 the division of the 3
Nigerian regions into 12 states -
North-Western State, North-
Eastern state, Kano State, North-
Central State, Benue-Plateau State,
Western State, Lagos State, Mid-
Western State, and, from
Ojukwu's Eastern Region, a
Rivers State, a South-Eastern
State, and an East-Central State.
The non-Igbo South-Eastern and
Rivers states which had the oil
reserves and access to the sea,
were carved out to isolate the
igbo areas as East-Central state
[6].
One controversial aspect of this
move was Gowon's annexing of
Port Harcourt, a largely Igbo city
sitting on some of Nigeria's
largest reserves, into the new
Rivers State, emasculating the
Igbo population there. The flight
of many of them to the 'Igbo
heartland' where they felt safer
would later prove to be a
contradiction for Gowon's "no
victor, no vanquished" policy,
when at the end of the war, the
properties they left behind were
illegally occupied by some
minority elements in Rivers State.
Minority ethnicities of the Eastern
Region were rather not sanguine
about the prospect of secession
[7], as it would mean living in
what they felt would be an Igbo-
dominated nation. Some non-
Igbos living in the Eastern Region
either refrained from offering
active support to the Biafran
struggle, or actively aided the
federal side by enlisting in the
Nigerian army and feeding it
intelligence about Biafran military
activities
However, some did play active
roles in the Biafran government,
with N.U. Akpan serving as
Secretary to the Government, Lt.
Col (later Major-General) Philip
Effiong, serving as Biafra's Chief
of Defence Staff and others like
Chiefs Bassey and Graham-
Douglas serving in other
significant roles.
Gowon as war leader
On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu
responded to Gowon's
announcement by declaring the
formal secession of the Eastern
Region, which was now to be
known as the Republic of Biafra.
This was to trigger a war that
would last some 30 months, and
see the deaths of more than
100,000 soldiers and over a
million civilians, most of the latter
of which would perish of
starvation under a Nigeria-
imposed blockade. The war saw
a massive expansion of the
Nigerian army in size and a steep
increase in its doctrinal and
technical sophistication, while
the Nigerian Air Force was
essentially born in the course of
the conflict. However, significant
controversy has surrounded the
air operations of the Nigerian
Forces, as several residents of
Biafra, including Red Cross
workers, foreign missionaries
and journalists, accused the
Nigerian Air Force of specifically
targeting civilian populations,
relief centers and marketplaces.
Gowon has steadfastly denied
those claims, along with claims
that his army committed
atrocities such as rape, wholesale
executions of civilian populations
and extensive looting in
occupied areas; however, one of
his wartime commanders,
Benjamin Adekunle seems to give
some credence to these claims in
his book, while excusing them as
unfortunate by-products of war.
The end of the war came about
on 13 January 1970, with Colonel
Olusegun Obasanjo's acceptance
of the surrender of Biafran
forces.[8] The next day Obasanjo
announced the situation on the
former rebel radio station Radio
Biafra Enugu. Gowon
subsequently declared his
famous "no victor, no
vanquished" speech, and
followed it up with an amnesty
for the majority of those who
had participated in the Biafran
uprising, as well as a program of
"Reconciliation, Reconstruction,
and Rehabilitation", to repair the
extensive damage done to the
economy and infrastructure of
the Eastern Region during the
years of war[9]. Unfortunately,
some of these efforts never left
the drawing board. In addition
to this, Gen Gowons
administration's policy of giving
20 pounds to everyone who had
a bank account in Nigeria before
the war, regardless of how much
money had been in their account,
was criticised by foreign and
local aid workers, as this led to
an unprecedented scale of
begging, looting and robbery in
the former Biafran areas after
the war.
Gowon's career after the
Biafran War
The postwar years saw Nigeria
enjoying a meteoric, oil-fueled,
economic upturn in the course of
which the scope of activity of the
Nigerian federal government
grew to an unprecedented
degree, with increased earnings
from oil revenues. Unfortunately,
however, this period also saw a
rapid increase in corruption,
mostly bribery, of and by federal
government officials; and
although the head of State
himself, Gen. Gowon, was never
found complicit in the corrupt
practices, he was often accused
of turning a blind eye to the
activities of his staff and cronies
[10].
Indigenization Decree
Another fateful decision made by
Gowon at the height of the oil
boom was to have severely
negative repercussions for the
Nigerian economy in later years,
although its immediate effects
were scarcely noticeable - his
indigenization decree of 1972,
which declared many sectors of
the Nigerian economy off-limits
to all foreign investment, while
ruling out more than minority
participation by foreigners in
several other areas. This decree
provided windfall gains to
several well-connected Nigerians,
not the least important of whom
was MKO Abiola (who Fela
Anikulapo Kuti was later to
lampoon as "International Thief-
Thief" for his role as an inactive,
nominal majority shareholder in
a joint venture with ITT), but
proved highly detrimental to
non-oil investment in the
Nigerian economy.
Hallmarks of General Gowon's
reign
Apart from winning the civil war
and keeping the country
together, general Gowon's time
also saw
Development of the Country's
capital- Lagos, into an
international city.
Creation of Twelve states
Introduction of odd and even
days to manage Lagos traffic.
Expansion of Government
bureaucracy
Overthrow
On 1 October 1974, in flagrant
contradiction to his earlier
promises, Gowon declared that
Nigeria would not be ready for
civilian rule by 1976, and he
announced that the handover
date would be postponed
indefinitely. Furthermore,
because of the growth in
bureaucracy, there were
allegations of rise in corruption.
Increased wealth in the country
resulted in fake import licenses
being issued. There were stories
of tons of stones and sand being
imported into the country, and of
General Gowon himself saying to
a foreign reporter that "the only
problem Nigeria has is how to
spend the money she has." These
provoked serious discontent
within the army, and on 25 July
1975, while Gowon was
attending an OAU summit in
Kampala, a group of officers led
by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed
announced his overthrow.
Later life
Gowon subsequently went into
exile in the United Kingdom,
where he acquired a Ph.D. in
political science as a student at
the University of Warwick. He
lived in north London /
Hertfordshire border, and very
much became part the English
community in his area, where he
served a term as Churchwarden
in the local church.
In February 1976, Gowon was
implicated in the Coup d'état led
by Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka, which
resulted in the death of the now
Gen Murtala Mohammed.
According to Dimka's
"confession", he met with Gowon
in London, and obtained support
from him for the coup. In
addition, Dimka mentioned
before his execution that the
purpose of the Coup d'état was
to re-install Gowon as Head of
State. As a result of the coup
tribunal findings, Gowon was
declared wanted by the Nigerian
government, stripped of his rank
in absentia and had his pension
cut off. Gen Gowon was finally
pardoned (along with the ex-
Biafran President, Emeka
Ojukwu) during the Second
Republic under President Shehu
Shagari.
He returned to Nigeria in the
1980s, and in the 1990s he
formed a non-denominational
religious group, Nigeria Prays.
Still based in the UK, General
Gowon today serves an 'elder
statesman' role in African politics,
operating (for example) as an
official observer at the Ghanaian
presidential elections 2008[11]
[12].
Furthermore,Gen Gowon is also
involved in the Guinea Worm
Eradication Programme as well
as the HIV Programme with
Global Fund of Geneva.

The life history of OLADIMEJI SABUR BANKOLE

Speaker of the House of
Representatives of Nigeria
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 1, 2007
Deputy Usman Bayero
Nafada
Preceded by Patricia Etteh
Born
November 14, 1969
Abeokuta, Ogun
State
Nationality Nigerian
Political party People's
Democratic Party
(PDP)
Spouse(s) Olaitan Bankole
Profession Businessman and
economist
Religion Islam.
Oladimeji Sabur Bankole
(born November 14, 1969) is a
Nigerian politician and Speaker
of the House of Representatives.
The son of Abeokuta chief Alani
Rufus Bankole, he was a
businessman before being
elected to the House. Elected at
age 37, Bankole is the
youngest Speaker in the history
of the House.[3]
Early life, education, and sports
A Muslim[4] Egba,[5] Bankole was
born in Abeokuta in what is now
Ogun State on November 14,
1969. His parents are Alani
Bankole, a businessman, former
National Vice Chairman of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)[5],
Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland
and his wife Atinuke Bankole,
Ekerin Iyalode of Egbaland.[4]
Newspaper Thisday identifies
Bankole's education as such:
Baptist Boys High School,
Abeokuta starting 1979; Albany
College, London, England starting
1985; University of Reading,
Reading, England starting 1989;
University of Oxford's Officer
Training College, Oxford, England
in 1991; and Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, US in
2005.[4].
All Africa.com reports that he
holds a professional certificate in
Public Finance from Harvard
University, USA. [6].
Bankole states he never went to
Sandhurst military academy but
only took courses for military
officers at Oxford University
where he was in the Artillery
Corps.[7].
Bankole is a polo player, and is a
member of the Lagos Polo Club,
where his position is defense.[4]
He also enjoys football.[8]
Business career
Bankole was the Director of
Freight Agencies Nigeria Limited
from 1995 until 1998, Executive
Director of Operations of West
African Aluminium Products
Limited from 1998 until 2003,
and Director of ASAP Limited
from 2000 until 2003.[4] He is
also an economist.[9]
Political career
In 2003, Bankole was elected to
the House of Representatives on
the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) ticket to represent the
Abeokuta South Federal
Constituency of Ogun State. He
was Deputy Chairman of the
House Committee on Finance
while Aminu Bello Masari was
Speaker,[10] (Farouk Lawan was
Chairman of the committee)[9]
and was also previously
Chairman of the House
Committee on Land Transport.
[10] Other committees he has sat
on are the panels on Defence,
Internal Affairs and Banking, and
Currency.[8]
Bankole was re-elected in April
2007.[4] He considers his
legislative interests to be those
related to defence and finance.
[11]
House of Representatives
Speakership
In September 2007, a committee
questioned Speaker Patricia Etteh
about her spending of ₦628
million ($4.8m) on home
renovation and automobiles. She
denied wrongdoing, but many
representatives were unhappy
with her attempts to defend
herself, blows were traded on
the floor of the House, and Etteh
had to be escorted from the
chamber.[12] Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and many
top PDP members continued to
back her,[13] but a large
segment of the party, led by
Lawan and including Bankole,
called for her resignation.[10] It
was reported that Bankole,
among multiple other
contenders, hoped to succeed
her as early as October 5, 2007.
[14]
After Etteh's resignation from the
post on October 30 (along with
her deputy, who was also caught
up in the scandal),[15] Integrity
Group (anti-Etteh) member
Terngu Tsegba became interim
speaker.[8] Samson Osagie of
Edo State nominated Bankole for
the post of Speaker, and Lynda
Ikpeazu of Anambra State
seconded the proposal. On
November 1, he was elected to
succeed Etteh.[10] His challenger
was Osun State Representative
George Jolaoye, whom he beat by
304 votes to 20 (and 4
abstentions). Etteh was among
those who voted against
Bankole.[2] The new deputy
speaker is Usman Bayero Nafada.
[10]
On his election, Bankole said "I
am taking over the mantle of
leadership at a very difficult time.
But these are hard times, we
need to build confidence again
and assure the populace that we
are still their representatives. I
want an independent house that
Nigerians will be proud of, this is
my first task."[8]
One week after his election,
political opponents claimed that
Bankole had not completed his
National Youth Service Corps
(N.Y.S.C) service, which is
mandatory for all Nigerian
university graduates under thirty
years of age when they graduate,
and called for his resignation
over the issue.[16] Bankole
provided his N.Y.S.C discharge
certificate, ending the rumor.[17]
Emma Skipper Foundation
Bankole established a charity, the
Emma Skipper Foundation.
Among the tasks the
organization has undertaken are
giving microcredit loans and
awarding scholarships.[4]
2009 Excessive Travel Expenses
Scandal
In 2009, he was accused of
spending over N52b as Travel
Expenses. An act many members
of the House of Representative
described as 'Selfish and
Fraudulent', considering the
current level of poverty among
greater percentage of Nigerians.
[18]