Anytime I am lucky to interview Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s wartime leader or listen to him making a speech, I end up with a rich harvest of inspirational quotes and wisecracks on leadership.
Just listen to this “6Cs of Awo’s leadership” which I coined from a recent speech by Gowon: “Chief Awolowo as a leader displayed a heart that was consistent, contrite, courageous, convictional, committed and captivating.”
Gowon, who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Awo Foundation, was the Special Guest at a virtual lecture to mark the 30th year of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation and the posthumous birthday of the revered sage, Chief Awolowo who would have been 113 years old were he to be still living. The anniversary lecture titled VALUES FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT was delivered on Sunday March 6, 2022 by the Right Reverend Professor Adedapo Asaju. The event was chaired by His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, former President of Ghana.
Experience has taught me as a journalist that even when he is not the Guest Speaker, General Gowon should be the main focus news-wise in his capacity as Nigeria’s wartime leader, particularly at a time when the world is watching an ugly war, the Putin War or Ukraine War, a horror movie that many fear can easily escalate into World War Three, if care is not taken. At this virtual Awo gathering, the only person who addressed the issue of the Putin versus Ukraine War was the former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama who, as the chairman took us on an excursion or a panorama into events in world history. What a cerebral man of world affairs! Hear his opening remarks delivered professorially and off-the-cuff: “We had the Second World War which ended in 1945 and post-Second World War we had decolonization movements starting. Of course, we had the Pan-African movements and all that. Nation states started to fight for their independence in Africa, in Asia and in Latin America. Of course, Ghana got independence in 1957. But by the time we got independence, we had moved into another phase which was the Cold War. And we had a bipolar world with the Eastern bloc and the Western bloc. Later, the Iron Curtain fell and ushered in the era of globalization where the world became a global village and people could travel from one part of the world to the other unrestricted. After that we experienced the issues of climate change, we had the issue of pandemics and epidemics, we in West Africa had Ebola and now the world is going through the pandemic of COVID. We hope we are coming out of it but still COVID has affected global affairs in a very major way. Currently, we are trying to understand what kind of new world we are going in with the current turbulence in geopolitics in respect of re-drawing the boundaries of nations. We currently have the Ukraine and Russian War which is affecting all nations across the world. We have to begin to analyze into what shape the world is going so that we as African countries can adjust to be able to make sure that our people are not disadvantaged. But let’s talk specifically about Awo’s role in decolonization. Awo stands tall with President Nkrumah of Ghana in terms of the fight for independence and also in terms of shaping their nation states after independence. As a social democrat, I associate with him because being the President of Ghana and leader of Social Democratic Party and having governed as a social democrat, Awo is one of the leaders we identify with. It’s no coincidence that he was born 6th March, the day Ghana gained independence. So for us March 6 holds a special significance.”
Awo’s daughter and Executive Secretary of the ObafemiAwolowo Foundation, Dr. TokunboAwolowo-Dosunmu painted her legendary father as “first and foremost a thinker. He is generally acknowledged to have brought out standing erudition and critical analysis to bear on the art of governance.” She talked about the Awo Foundation setting a record in inclusiveness. According to her, “Obafemi Awolowo Foundation made history with the appointment of General Gowon as Chairman of a board of trustees whose membership included Lt. Col. Ojukwu.”
On his part, General Gowon borrowed from the greatest writer in English literature in his portrait of Chief Awolowo, saying: “Although it is often said as Mark Anthony did in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, that the evil that men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with them, the converse is the case with Chief Awolowo. The good he did as a politician, as a legal luminary, as a leader and as a statesman, looms large, not just in Nigeria but in Africa and indeed in the history of mankind. His good works stand as a standard reference in the annals of our nation.”
Among the good works, Gowon says, is the fact that he established the first TV station in Africa while he was the Premier of Western Nigeria. “He abhorred illiteracy, ignorance and disease for which reason he made free education and free healthcare the pillars of his programme as a political leader in the Western Region at the time. His programmes were carried through by his political family and have remained a benchmark of public service in Nigeria. The Federal Government adopted it for the whole country in later years during my time.
“His unparalleled contributions to the building of a strong and united Nigeria remain by far his most outstanding legacy. He was a strong believer in the unity of Nigeria. And he did the necessary to keep the country one. As Commissioner or Minister of Finance, his economic wizardry contributed in no small measure to the Federal Government’s prosecution of the 30-month war of unity without borrowing a dime or a penny from any source. History will always be kind to him in this regard, just as I will personally continue to appreciate his decision to serve his nation under me at a most inauspicious time of our history.”