WANTED: A MEMOIR FROM GOWON

PAUL A. OBI argues that a memoir from Yakubu Gowon will make a difference

“Put it before them briefly so that they will read, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”

Joseph Pulitzer

This is a season of memoir writing in Nigeria, from former Governor of Ekiti State Dr Kayode Fayemi to the Maradona himself, former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda (rtd). The country is awash with tell-tales of good intentions and moonlight tales, and how the writers and pseudo-historians wanted to rescue Nigeria from degradation…. But something else then happened. Sometimes, a memoir is not a biography or autobiography; but a scintillating personal account of knowledge, experiences, events or incidents for purposes of archival documentation and historical appropriation. While this week has been dedicated to IBB’s long-awaited memoir, A Journey in Service – where he chronicled his experiences about the episodic June 12 crisis, his role and colossal failures as well, many pundits are still pontificating about the facts as expressed by the gap-toothed general.

For IBB, as a teenager then, I only recalled two incidents: one, when our teachers in St Patrick’s Primary School, Kakwagom, Boki marched us out during assembly to sing, “holy, holy, holy; holy, holy, holy; Major General Babaginda is another savior;” and two, when he visited Ogoja, few kilometers from my village in Cross River State. Then, Nigeria was straddled as full-blown military autocracy. But his annulment of the June 12 presidential election where Chief M. K. O. Abiola overwhelmingly won the election affected the whole nation, including my household then. Considering that our house then was a Mecca of sorts for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) members as my late brother – Patrick Odu Obi (Paddy Joy – God bless his soul) was an SDP juggernaut, the colossal damage was therefore earth-shattering. Thus, IBB’s self-destructive role in the June 12 debacle remains a personal injury to all Nigerians. But whether those injuries would be succinctly and incisively reflected in his memoir is another story.

Conspicuously, a memoir provides a guide and light to society for lessons and knowledge to be learnt. Yet, one Nigerian, whose role and actions shaped Nigeria far more than even IBB is Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) who ruled Nigeria between 1966 and 1975. Far beyond the conundrum of January and July 1966, Gowon was a civil war leader. It was during his regime that the country took shape – from politics, economy, moral deprivation, oil boom and the moniker then – ‘money is not Nigeria’s problem, but how to spend it.’ But with IBB launching his memoir, there appears to be a public outcry for Gen. Gowon to also write his own memoir. The growing calls for Gowon did not start today. Consequently, a memoir from Gowon will definitely retool and redefined most of the narratives that have dominated public discourse and debates about the reconfiguration of Nigeria, the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War, the Aburi Accord, the Bakassi Peninsula, the 1975 coup and truncation of his government while in faraway Kampala, Uganda, attending the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit.

The public clamour for a memoir from a personality like Gowon or any public official for that matter is not far-fetched. As R. G. Collingwood rightly postulated, “history is for human self-knowledge… the only clue to what man can do is what has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” Flowing from that embryonic thought, across Nigeria, many great and iconic leaders have passed away to the great beyond without a single piece of documentation. Consequently, young generations are unable to tap knowledge and wealth of experience from such leaders and acquaint themselves with the most testable pathways to navigate this complex world and country called Nigeria. Imagine if young Nigerians could gloss over the print copies of memoirs from Mrs Margaret Ekpo, Chief Michael Okpara, Chief Adegoke Adelabu (Penkelemesi), Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Chief F. R. A. Williams, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Dr Joseph Wayas, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Dr Alex Ekwueme, Dr Olusola Abubakar Saraki, Dr Joseph S. Tarka, Chief Solomon Lar, Prince Solomon Akenzua…

Critically, a memoir from Gowon will go a long way to explicate several cobwebs still hovering around the Nigerian society that need to be unraveled with all forms of sincerity and equanimity. Considering how God Almighty has blessed him with longevity and age, such a memoir may also pose as a classical rite of passage of sort, or more or less, a closure in his public life. And for those who may want to discourage the long-awaited Gowon’s memoir on the basis of letting sleeping dogs lie – perish the thought. Memoirs perform several roles in society, including humanizing history itself, and it can also act as a historical artifacts, granting us access to ordinarily inexplicable actions and events. Granted, some memoirs may pan out as half-truth, fall short of critical self-introspection, and may engage in what journalism studies called filtering and selection. Yet, a memoir is a gateway for society to grasp experiences of personality, statesmen, public officials and even private citizens about their actions and inactions at a particular point in time.

For instance, as a student of literature, I have come across several war literature focusing on the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War, including those of the key players during that conflict, such as Because I am Involved – Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; My Command – Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Reluctant Rebel – Fola Oyewole; The Caged Bird Sang No More: My Biafra Odyssey – 1966 – 1970 – Col Philip Effiong, among many others. Giving the collection of several accounts from that crisis, it will therefore amount to a complete disservice to history and the nation, if no self-account is provided in a written document from the chief protagonist and central character of the most critical and impactful incident in Nigeria’s history. Additionally, as a media, communication and propaganda studies scholar, I had once come across a letter from Gowon’s Supreme Military Council to Harold Smith, then, Prime Minister of Great Britain against the British press reportage of the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War. Such information can only be espoused more in a memoir.

Further, today, when most young Nigerians hear of Aburi Accord, they have no slightest knowledge about the essence of such an accord, where Aburi is located and who are the key players in such an accord. In far flung places in coastal Cross River State, Nigerian citizens are still wondering why their ancestral land of Bakassi Peninsula was given to Cameroon in perpetuity. These are salient puzzles that many are still pondering over more than 60 years after.

A memoir should expeditiously be Gowon’s next and most serious preoccupation.

Obi is a lecturer, journalist and researcher based in Abuja