LAGOS MAY 21ST (NEWSRANGERS)-Former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd), said the officer he personally appointed to protect his life, Joseph Garba, Commander of the Federal Guards Unit, was among those who orchestrated his overthrow in the July 1975 coup.
He said Garba had sworn before him, days before the putsch, that he had no knowledge of any plot against his government.
The account, contained in Gowon’s 859-page autobiography ‘My Life of Duty and Allegiance’ obtained by our correspondent at the book’s launch in Abuja on Tuesday, detailed the former Head of State’s personal account of the 1975 coup.
Gowon described the event as the deepest personal betrayal of his public life because it was executed by men he had elevated on the basis of trust and, in Garba’s case, family ties.
The book was launched at a ceremony attended by President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, former President Goodluck Jonathan, senior government officials, military veterans and public figures, among others.
Gowon narrated how his Chief Security Officer and head of the Special Branch, M.D. Yusuf warned him that some officers were planning a coup ahead of the OAU summit in Kampala, Uganda, identifying two key figures, Garba, then Commander of the Federal Guards Unit, and Anthony Ochefu, then Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Military Police.
The former Head of State noted that the warning had placed him in an acute dilemma.
He had appointed Garba to the most sensitive position in his security architecture, the elite unit whose singular mandate was the physical protection of the Head of State.
He also noted that Garba’s appointment as head of the Brigade of Guards was partly influenced by family ties and the confidence he had in him.
“As commander of the Federal Guards, which is the elite entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the person of the Head of State, Garba was supposed to have unquestionable loyalty.
“Not only did I intimately know both men, but I had also grown to like and trust them over the years.
“Coincidentally, both were Christians and from my original home state, Benue Plateau,” he recounted.
Rather than act on Yusuf’s intelligence immediately, Gowon chose to confront Garba directly, a decision that, in retrospect, he said, gave the conspirators the time they needed.
Gowon recalled, “In quick succession, he vehemently denied awareness of any plan to topple me and swore by heaven and earth to deny the existence and his membership of any group that may have been formed for that purpose.
“But, I made him realise that if, at the end of the day, there was any truth in the rumour of his involvement in any plan against me, he would be answerable to God and his conscience.”
According to him, his suspicions grew due to the behaviour of Ochefu, the second officer Yusuf had named.
He said Ochefu’s refusal to return to Lagos heightened his suspicion that the coup plot might indeed be real, though he decided to revisit the issue after returning from Kampala, unaware he would never return as head of state.
“His uncharacteristic, yet deliberate act of gross disloyalty made me sense the plot might be true.
“I made a note to revisit the issue on my return from Kampala,” Gowon wrote.
Despite the warning, he proceeded to the 12th Summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Kampala as he had already committed to attend.
Travelling aboard a Nigerian Airways Boeing 737 on July 27, 1975, Gowon said he remained uneasy throughout the journey.
As a precaution, he instructed his Aide-de-Camp, Mr Walbe, to return to Lagos to monitor developments and report back.
However, Walbe, he said, could not make it back on time as the co-pilot had reportedly fallen sick.
Gowon said he was seated at the conference on July 29, 1975, when the then Ugandan leader, Idi Amin, approached him with a Reuters dispatch announcing that his government had been toppled.
He said the dispatch was his way of learning that he was no longer in power.
According to him, “I did not recognise the garbled name on the Reuters dispatch. Early media reports mentioned a certain ‘Colonel Darwa’ as the officer who made the dawn broadcast of the coup.
“‘Darwa’ certainly sounded and read like a mispronounced or misspelt ‘Garba’. Still, I was not inclined to believe that he, of all people, would betray me.”
Gowon said he suspected that Garba may have been either coerced or deceived into joining the coup plot.
“My concern for Garba was based on fears that the planners of the coup may have co-opted him into their scheme against his better judgment.
“I felt they might have convinced or threatened him into believing he did not gain anything from his long association with me and, as such, was better off being in their camp, failing which he could be shot if need be,” he explained.
The 859-page autobiography contains 36 chapters, covering Gowon’s life from his Angas origins in Plateau State, through Sandhurst, the January and July 1966 coups, his ascension to the headship of state at 31, the prosecution of the civil war, the post-war reconstruction and ECOWAS founding, to his years in exile, his academic sojourn in Britain and his eventual return to Nigeria.
Gowon governed Nigeria from July 1966 to July 1975.
‘How Williams tutored Victoria’
Gowon also revealed that Mrs Efuntiloye Williams, the wife of the doyen of Nigeria’s accounting profession, Mr Akintola Williams, took it upon herself to personally tutor his new wife, Victoria, on etiquette, British customs, home management and international protocol, to prepare her for the demands of the office of First Lady.
Gowon also disclosed that before the tutoring, his personal aides had, without the knowledge of Victoria’s father, secretly concluded arrangements to enrol her in a Finishing School in London.
He said the discovery led to an angry confrontation with his future father-in-law and Principal Secretary, Hamza Ahmadu, who accused the Head of State of disrespecting him.
The revelations are contained in Chapter 17 of the 859-page autobiography, titled ‘War’s Raging; Gowon’s Marrying,’ obtained by our correspondent at the book’s launch in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the book, once Gowon’s personal aides correctly gauged that he had settled for Victoria, they moved decisively and independently to prepare her for the role ahead.
They enrolled her in a Finishing School abroad and concluded all travel arrangements without first seeking Hamza’s blessing.
When Hamza was informed, his reaction was volcanic.
“How dare he do this without seeking my blessing and permission?” Gowon quoted Hamza as thundering, describing the confrontation as a trying episode in their courtship.
Gowon wrote that Hamza’s wife eventually prevailed on him to relent, arguing that all arrangements had already been concluded and it would be wrong to cancel outright.
Hamza only changed his stance after her sustained entreaties, and the travel arrangements were allowed to proceed.
Victoria received a further layer of preparation on her return from London.
Gowon wrote that Mrs Oye Williams, wife of Mr Akintola Williams, widely regarded as the doyen of the accounting profession in Nigeria, was a lively and highly respected lady who quickly offered to share with Victoria practical tips drawn from her vast experience.
He recounted, “Mrs Oye Williams, late wife of the doyen of the accounting profession in Nigeria, Mr Akintola Williams, and a lively lady that I highly respected, quickly offered to share with Victoria practical tips drawn from her vast experience of etiquette and British customs and traditions.
“Her principal concerns were to ensure that the ‘First Lady’ appeared most presentable, did Nigeria and womanhood proud and avoided potentially embarrassing missteps. She soaked in the older woman’s lessons and thanked her profusely.
“When, however, they came round to discussing the issue of her wardrobe, she quietly informed Mrs Williams that she had made her choices.
“‘Aunty, I have already done a selection of what I need to wear, and I hope and am sure I will not embarrass you or Nigeria.’”
He added that the older women who came around did so not merely out of courtesy but with a genuine desire to make Victoria’s transition as smooth as possible.
He wrote that Victoria instinctively knew she had to make a smooth transition from being a bachelorette to being a married Head of State’s wife, and that she worked at it quietly.
The former Head of State described Victoria’s overall demeanour throughout this period as unobtrusive and purposeful.
He described her as a woman who absorbed what she needed, processed it quietly, and never sought to run a parallel office to his own.
The wedding itself, held on Saturday, April 19, 1969, at the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, drew widespread controversy, Gowon said.
He noted that many people felt that the timing of the wedding was wrong, given the raging Civil War.
According to him, the media gave the event its share of headlines, such as “The war is raging; Gowon is marrying.”
He wrote, “Several individuals felt that the timing of my wedding was wrong, not minding that I had kept thoughts of getting married on hold for the most part of the Nigerian Civil War because I was focused on the country’s challenges.
“The event attracted its share of controversy that provided hot news for the media, which merrily feasted on the story with screaming headlines that literally said: The war is raging; Gowon is marrying.”
Gowon said he rode the storm in large part because Victoria, though young, was not a frivolous person, and that rather than nurse any grand ambition of running a parallel office as First Lady, she was content with being the supportive wife of the Head of State.
He recounted that the service was conducted by Bishop Seth Irunsewe Kale and Provost Bishop Festus Oluwole Segun of Lagos.
Hamza, whose fury had nearly derailed the union, walked Victoria down the aisle, he said.
Gowon also revealed that he first encountered his wife, then Victoria Zakari, in 1964, when she accompanied Dr Ishaya and Mrs Victoria Audu to his residence in Ikoyi, where he was then Chief of Staff.
She was at the time undergoing nursing training at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, a career path that she wrote was not of her own choosing, but the result of following her father Hamza’s wishes.
He wrote that his attraction to her initially expressed itself as something he could not immediately place, whether it was her beauty, her personality, or the sense that something significant had happened at that contact.
He said he was cautious from the outset, given his position.
“If I were cautious about not making myself vulnerable to any possible charge of leveraging my high office to disrupt any possible relationship Victoria might have had, she, on the other hand, was emphatic about not starting any relationship with me if I had one ongoing with anyone else. She did not want any wahala,” he wrote.
Gowon said the connection to Victoria had come through his police ADC, Mr Sani Yaroson, who had told him about Victoria’s elder sister, Comfort.
Gowon wrote that through some coincidence, friends later steered him back toward Victoria herself.
He also disclosed that he received what he described as a “scathing letter” from Victoria that was “dripping with poison,” in which she told him in clear terms that she had no further interest in him.
“Her letter gave me further insight,” he wrote, adding that Victoria’s memory was “razor sharp” and that the greatest injustice anyone could do to her was to put out a false front in the belief they could cheat or trick her.
According to him, Victoria had asked him to pen down his commitment to her on paper.
“She wanted a relationship on a clean slate, and very well documented, not just by me saying so verbally.
“Her request that I put this in writing initially sounded like a joke to me. When, however, I further reflected on the matter, I realised that I needed to treat it with all seriousness, not just out of my deep love and respect for her and her noble parents, but especially in view of the complications brought on by my previous relationship with Edith Ike and the birth of a son she named Musa Jack Gowon.
“As any mutual relationship between Edith and me had long been over, my conscience was clear as I wrote to Victoria to affirm that I had no existing relationship with any lady. This, of course, was the truth, and it settled the matter,” he wrote.
The chapter also contains Gowon’s account of the family’s years in exile in the United Kingdom following his ouster by Murtala Muhammed in 1975, and their eventual return to Nigeria in 1983 after Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the Shagari civilian government.
Victoria’s biggest regret, he wrote, was that their years in exile robbed their children of a proper Nigerian and African upbringing.
He wrote that she blamed herself more for not allowing the children to come home more frequently, and that the circumstances of their removal from Nigeria in 1983 had bordered on treasonable felony — circumstances his successors in office had wanted to use against him but could not, given the political dynamics of the time.
The book, running to 859 pages across 36 chapters, covers Gowon’s full life from his Angas origins in Plateau State through his military career, the Civil War, his ouster in 1975 and his years of exile and academic study abroad.
Punch
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