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Saturday,June 23, 2001

Gowon Traces Nigeria’s Woes To First Coup

By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Bolaji Tunji, Wale Fatade and Clifford Ndujihe

FORMER head of state Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.) yesterday described the January 1966 coup d’etat in Nigeria as the genesis of the nation’s woes just as he called on Christians to be more active in politics.

Speaking in Lagos at the yearly Rev. Samuel Olusegun Odunaike memorial lecture organised by Foursquare Gospel Church, Gen. Gowon recalled the hopes of Nigerians at independence.

According to him “The zeal and enthusiasm was legendary. The excitement and hopes knew no bounds.” Nigeria, he noted, held so much promise that “it was looked up to by other African countries and other black races or people of the world to lead the way”.

But “these hopes, these aspirations were rudely cut short by the military intervention of January 1966.”

Also at the same forum, the president Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Dr. Sunday Mbang advised former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to stop his political ambition to rule the country again.

Continuing on the impact of the coup, Gowon said, “that singular act drastically changed the course of Nigeria’s history from emerging civil democratic rule to military rule with all the attendant problems that followed thereafter”.

The former military leader who presided over the 30-month civil war recalled his role in bringing the war to an end and his efforts at re-building the nation.

He said: “Some of us who were involved in quelling the uprising were later on called upon to take up the leadership of the country and tried to build on the foundation laid by our founding fathers and even tried in some cases, to surpass what had been earlier achieved”.

However, the dream could not be achieved because, “at the early stage of military rule, political disagreements and in some cases personal ambition, between the various parts of the country and the leadership, pushed the nation into having to fight to keep the nation one and united.

“However, through the prayers of the saints, and the good people of Nigeria, the country was able to end the civil war without recourse to external intervention and with a reconciliation second to none in world history”.

Speaking on the topic “Nigeria: Restoring the Glory,” Gowon said that for the country to regain its lost glory “we should turn back to God”.

To Gen. Gowon, “our deliverance is near, it lies in our hands” He stressed that no single group can bring back the glory but through collective efforts “as a people and a nation to turn back to God in repentance”.

He then urged more Christians to be actively involved in participatory politics to restore the lost glory of Nigeria. He said: “The scripture says when the righteous is in authority, the people rejoice. I therefore call on Christians in this country not to shy away from elective positions at all levels for us to restore the former glory of this country”.

In his welcome address, General Oversear of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria Rev. Wilson Badejo, blamed the current hardship in Nigeria on the prolonged military rule. The present democratic structure he said, could be used to solve all these problems. He called on the Federal Government to “intensify concrete actions to foster strength in the whole economy. Our economy should have strength that is not sapped by the virus of inflation.”

The late Rev. Samuel Olusegun Odunaike was the General overseer of the church and former presidential aspirant under the defunct Social Democratic Party.

The late Clergyman was popular for his advocacy that Christians should be more active in politics. He believed that politics becomes a dirty game when honest people fold their arms and allow dirty people to play the game.

Dr. Mbang urged Gowon to personally convey his message to Babangida at their next Council of State meeting. “I know you hold the Council of State meeting together, so tell him that he should stay in his house, Nigerians have had enough of him. All Christians will rise up against him if he tries to come back for the second time,” the prelate said.

The clergyman observed that Nigerians resort to sentiment in the choice of their leaders, an action he said was the country’s bane at political development.

He also derided public office holders seeking re-election when they have not successfully finished their first term.

Reacting to a statement credited to Gen. Mohammadu Bahari where the former head of state allegedly asked Moslems to vote for adherents of Islam in elections, Mbang said “If he made that statement, then “I also reject him as president of Nigeria.”

The CAN president while decrying the current school system noted that students now stay more at home than in the classrooms as a result of strikes by teachers.

Still on Babangida’s alleged comeback bid, Rev. Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, former Anglican Bishop of Ondo Diocese said a more powerful weapon to confront him lies in prayers. He should not come back at all,” he warned.

Gbonigi stressed that politics was not a dirty game. “It is the people playing it that are dirty. If clean people go into it, it would be a clean game,” the cleric said.

Nigeria, he observed has not been privileged to have a Christian leader. “Things have been so bad from the local government level to the federal level. But through all these, God has demonstrated his unique love for this country.

“We have encountered many problems in the country but through God’s power and grace he has spared us,” he added.

Gbonigi described the late Rev. Odunaike as a God fearing person who believed in encouraging good people to go into politics, “so that bad people would not spoil it.”

As an Arewa chieftain and a christian(in active politics), and a member of the council of state shouldn't Yakubu Gowon be doing something about this:

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Friday,June 22, 2001
Youths torch churches in Jigawa
From Ibrahim Yahuza, Dutse and Mike Ugoh, Kano
DUTSE, the sleepy capital of Jigawa State yesterday had its own taste of religious upheaval as irate moslem youths took over the streets, torching four churches.
A planned launch of a book titled "Who is a Christian?, The Guardian learnt, fuelled the violence in the city that has, however, been taken over by heavily armed policemen.
The burnt churches are St. Peters, Deeper Life Bible Church Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) and Apostolic Church.
A witness claimed that prior to the violence, the youths launched a man-hunt for the author of the book who they accused of blaspheming the Islamic religion.
Despite the heavy presence of armed policemen on the streets, some Christians were said to be fleeing the city.
An Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in-charge of Zone 1, Tafa Balogun confirmed the incident. He said the police had, however, put the situation under control.
In Kano State, Christians have sent a Save-Our-Soul message to the Federal government over demolition of their churches by task force.
In a strongly worded letter by the state branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN to President Olusegun Obasanjo, they also alleged that the state government had written threat letters to people whose homes are used as churches.
According to the association, despite Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso's promise not to destroy church buildings, so many have been destroyed during his regime than any previous one.
Churches so far destroyed, they claimed, are Baptist Church in Muji, and ECWA in Dawakin Tofa, Tudun Wada, Akwai and Jarkaya Bagwai.
GuARDIAN SERVER:5FRIDAY:Text:Churches P.1 (22/06/2001) AOM
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Or even this:

Did you forget that your North did not want any independence from Britain and actually fought against it. Undeterred, Zik forged ahead and won Nigeria its independence. Once its won, your lazy and double-minded sultans and oligarchs hijacked Nigeria for greedy power, even as they delight in orchestrating their almajiris in their orgy of Igbo blood-letting.

You never believed in one Nigeria, never practised one Nigeria, yet you wanted control of one Nigeria for the gains of Biafra resources. With the help of Britain and jelly-spined Yoruba, you fared thus far.
Now that its clear as day to even a blind person that Biafra is leaving Nigeria, suddenly shame-filled and haunted Gowon is clutching at straws and desperately failing at loquacity.

If he can't understand english as a youth and wasted the live of innocent civilian Brifrans, what then is he talking? I watch him with dismay in the 'pray Nigeria" program. He must have been a smart man. I wnat him to go back and read his Bible well. The Bible talks a lot on forgiveness, he does not receive that from the soul of the harmless children he commanded to be killed during the BriafraNigeria war, let him throw away his Bible.

The blood are still crying. What has they turned people's head in god' name?

There are two basic things he has to do:

1. To restitute all the stolen money during his regin
2. Settled with the affected families, especially Asaba people.