Gowon - God Took Abacha, Abiola Away To Save Nigeria

A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu
Gowon (retd) in this interview with
SUCCESS NWOGU says if those that took
over from his government had continued
with his programme, Nigeria would have
been more developed than China, among
other issues
Is national conference/dialogue
desirable now?
Yes! What is wrong with Nigerians trying to
talk about the nation? But I hope it is not
being engineered by those who have a set
of ideas, who will be doing all the talking
and trying to dictate the tempo of the
conference? If the national conference or
dialogue is done for the good of the
country, everyone goes in there to say, ‘yes
it is our country and we want our country
to be greater and more successful than it is
at the moment.’ If there is total love and
commitment to the country, let us try to
talk and bring in things we think should be
able to help the country to be even better
than what it is now and the sort of way we
hope it will be in the future. If that is the
approach, God will bless. To the young
generation, who are calling for that, I will
say they are the ones to do the building.
It is advisable that the outcome of the
national dialogue be subjected to a
referendum or that it should be submitted
to the National Assembly for ratification as
President Goodluck Jonathan has said.
Some people are calling for the
disintegration of Nigeria, how would you
react to this, given the fact that you
fought actively for the unity of the
country?
That is their view. Democracy says people
should have their views. Let them have their
views and I respect their views. But it may
appear that they are misguided. Of course,
the disintegration or break-up of Nigeria is
not the wish and desire of the majority of
Nigerians. Most Nigerians love this country
and would want the country to remain
united. A lot of things and sacrifices have
been made to keep Nigeria united. The civil
war was fought to keep Nigerians as one.
God has made this country a very beautiful
one and has graciously blessed us with
incredible and tremendous potentials ,
both human and material resources. We
would be better off as a united, indivisible
and happy country than breaking up the
country. There is no need for that.
Whatever genuine misgivings or agitations
of some people can be addressed
peacefully, equitably and justly, there is no
need for the country to disintegrate. We
should remain one indivisible great country
and contribute our own quota to nation-
building and make Nigeria realise her lofty
dreams and aspirations of greatness and
happiness for the residents.
I was reading an article by a columnist in
one of the daily national newspapers. The
columnist said he was against ‘this morbid
desire of the unity of the country.’ So I
responded, ‘what a morbid idea from a
morbid fellow to say he does not like
Nigeria. He is probably one of those who
wanted to break away but those who love
Nigeria as Nigerians made sure that it did
not happen. And he is now hoping that he
can now get it through such writing.’ It is
unfortunate. However, that is his point of
view and he probably has reasons. He may
be one of those, who want either a state of
his own or a country of his own and not
Nigeria.
Probably he does not like Nigeria because
he has not got what he wants out of
Nigeria but if he is able to get what he
wants in Nigeria, he would not call for its
disintegration.
Just like I believe that if Ojukwu had the
opportunity of being the Head of State
instead of me, I can assure you that he
would have done everything humanly
possible to ensure that Nigeria does not
break up so that he could control and
enjoy from the great endowment that God
has given to Nigeria, both human and
natural resources, which if we are able to
harness, as we tried to do during the
programme of my administration with
reference to the National Development Plan
(1975-1980), Nigeria will be a great nation
and the residents well taken care of.
Does it mean that if the National
Development Plan of your
administration had been successfully
and completely executed, there would
have been tremendous development and
transformation of the country?
If that programme was successfully carried
through, it would have made a total
difference in Nigeria. All the problems of
infrastructure that we are having today, is
it power, petroleum, fuel, road, and
economic development; all these were
planned and provided for, for we had a
plan which I had already told my Minister
for Economic Development at the time:
‘Now that we have completed our third
National Development Plan and put on
ground how to execute them to the letter, I
want you to start thinking and planning for
the next development plan.’ I wanted him
to ensure that the new national plan should
be 100 per cent greater that the very big
plan that we were launching. It was
accepted world over as one of the most
ambitious developmental projections or
plan. If it had been carried through, it
would have been a different story for
Nigeria.
Yes, Malaysia, Indonesia, India are
advancing now, probably it is only China
that has achieved the sort of growth that
Nigeria was being expected to have at that
time, the growth of between 12 and 15 per
cent for the foreseeable future in 1975. The
Asian Tigers only achieved between eight
and 10 per cent in 1975.
You mean if that plan had been carried
out, we would have been greater than
the Asian Tigers?
That was what it meant. But unfortunately,
there was a coup d’état; a change of guard.
There was a coup and unfortunately the
government that took over from me did not
carry through the plan, which if they were
able to carry through, they would have
been inaugurating one project after the
other; employment would not have been
any problem for Nigeria. But they
abandoned the whole thing and were only
adopting one programme here and there,
which really did not help Nigeria to grow
the way it would have grown.
We wanted the economy to grow in a
correct fashion and I can assure that our
plan really was aimed at doing that. And all
the problems we had would not have been
if they had executed our plan. If they had
said, ‘He had done a huge and successful
programme, let us show him that we have
greater idea and sense than he had’ and
probably, they would have done something
bigger than what we planned. But
remember I had already said we would
start another plan which I wanted to be
100 per cent bigger. The only thing is,
‘would we have been able to have a 100 per
cent’ but whatever it is, reality of the time
would have made us to get it to a level that
was acceptable and practicable and
achievable at that time.
What was it that you couldn’t fix as the
Head of State that you are striving to fix
through your programme, Nigeria Prays?
Nigeria Prays came about in the mid-1990s
during the time that Nigeria was having
very bad media reports worldwide. The 419
syndrome; you had the CBS 60 minutes
programmes that said that Nigerians were
corrupt and criminals, and that Nigerians
were financial crooks. Nigeria had it bad
politically. Of course, that was the period of
National Democratic Coalition versus
Abacha. There was the problem of security
at that time. So it was during that time I
got an invitation to attend the American
prayer breakfast.
During the visit, we met a lot of Nigerians,
who were also invited; Nigerians who were
in America and were invited to the prayer
breakfast. They were delighted seeing us
and, of course, they asked questions about
the Nigeria they heard about from the
foreign press, terrible things that they had
heard about Nigeria, giving the impression
that Nigeria might not even survive the
weekend.
So it made some of us to ask the question:
What are these Nigerians talking about?
Has something happened in Nigeria within
72 hours that we left Nigeria? The story of
Nigeria was as bad as that, it made
Nigerians in the United States feel so bad
and worried about their country but we
gave them the assurance that the nation
was intact and that there was no threat to
it.
They asked the question: ‘what can we do
to help?’ We discussed the idea of Nigeria
Prays; that if we can get Nigerians to pray
and to pray fervently, God may hear our
prayers as he promised to hear the prayers
of his people when he told King Solomon
in 2nd Chronicle 7:14; that ‘if my people,
which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; then will I
hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sins, and will heal their land.’
So if you pray fervently, God may hear your
prayers, heal you and heal your land. That
was the decision that we took. It was a
decision taken by all of us who discussed
that issue in the United States and they
later-on made me to be the chairman of
the Nigeria Prays. Although, it is called my
vision, I will say it is Nigerian vision. If
Nigerians cooperate at anytime, you can be
assured that they can achieve the greatness
that they want or desire.
How can Nigerians tackle the challenges
before the nation?
If we can get Nigerians to pray, and as we
pray act correctly, we will get the
intervention we need from God.
When I came back to Nigeria and got
people to talk about the Nigeria Prays
project, it was accepted that it would be
good and we started it on October 1 after
telling the Head of State (General Sani
Abacha) that we were going to have this
movement and he endorsed it and blessed
and even challenged us to also get the
Muslims to join in the prayer.
We agreed then that if we could not have
joint prayers like we do in the military,
Muslims and Christians should decide to do
it the best way that; the Muslims praying on
Fridays during Jumat prayer and then
Christians praying during any day of the
week. Now it seems that we have adopted
Sunday as our day of prayer. But the
Muslims will tell you, especially the Emirs
will tell you, that it is not only on Fridays
that they pray for Nigeria, they say they
pray five days, seven days a week, so many
weeks in the month and so many months
in the year.
The Christians have the injunction to pray
without ceasing. So, it seems that the two
religions are really up and about to pray.
Certainly, ours is a very religious country
but for the aberration of the Boko Haram
sect members, which is claiming to be
Muslims but certainly they are not the sort
of Muslims that we know. This is a new
group that is even against formal
education, which is certainly very sad. This
is because with education, you are able to
broaden your mind and understand and be
able to achieve understanding of one
another and resolving your problem not
through religious sentiments but through
rational discourse with your colleagues.

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