The news started to filter in, in whispers towards Sunday evening. Once it was confirmed, it was as if everyone had been waiting to offload their thoughts on the departed. Platforms lit up with expletives that cannot be printed here.
Since the end of the First Republic on January 15th 1966, Nigerians have had a love/hate relationship with their leaders. After the lopsidedly executed coup d’ état of January 15th, 1966 failed, General Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. He did not punish the coup plotters. He treated them with kid gloves to the chagrin of the North. They believed the coup was lopsided and would not be persuaded otherwise. Add to that, the Unification Decree number 34 of 1966 which aimed to abolish the Federal system and establish a Unitary system of government, Aguiyi-Ironsi had built his own coffin. It did not take long before he was murdered in cold blood in a revenge coup on July 29th, 1966.
Enters, General Yakubu Gowon. We loved Gowon. He was young, he was handsome. We liked him. On his watch and mismanagement of the crisis raging in the nation amidst the killings of Igbos across the country and the threatened secession of the Eastern Region, he dropped the ball. A Civil War began, brother against brother, until 3 million people lay dead in the battlefield. He presided over an Oil boom but did not have a clue as to how to manage the new-found wealth. In his obvious deficiency, he declared, “Money is not our problem, but how to spend it.”