Tag: Yakubu Gowon

Ndume seeks Gowon, AbdulSalam, others intervention in Niger Republic crisis

Aminu Imam

Senate Majority Chief Whip, Senator Muhammadu Ndume, has called for the urgent intervention of the four living former military Nigerian heads of state of northern extraction in the resolution of the persisting Niger Republic crisis following the military coup there five months ago. At a media parley in Maiduguri, Borno State on Saturday, Ndume wrote-off the ECOWAS-imposed sanctions on the neighbouring francophone country as miscalculated and ineffective. “We have four former military heads of state that are alive – Buhari, the most-recent, Abdulsalami, Babangida and Gowon, who can intervene. I…

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2023 Presidential Election Results: “Allow tribunals decide your fate” – Gowon asks Atiku, Obi, others

Aminu Imam

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), has called on the presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP), as well as other aggrieved politicians to allow the election tribunals to decide their fate and to abide by such decisions. Gowon made the call yesterday in Abuja, at the 15th edition of the PUNUKA Annual Lecture 2023 and symposium in honour of the Late Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Chike Idigbe. The ex-military Head of State, who emphasised…

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2023: “Only God, not desperation, can confer power”, Gowon tells Osinbajo group

Aminu Imam

Former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, says God is the ultimate decider of who will lead Nigeria in the forthcoming 2023 general elections. He stated this in Abuja on Friday, when officials of the Progressive Consolidation Group, (PCG), a group rooting for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, paid him a visit at his Asokoro, Abuja residence. Gowon emphasised that while he had no partisan involvement with politics, he believed that leaders and citizens at all levels had a duty to sustain peace, progress and national unity of the country. He…

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FG demands apology from UK over false claim about Gowon

Aminu Imam

An apology has been demanded by the federal government from the British government over the “unsubstantiated” claim by a member of its parliament that Nigeria’s former head of state, Gowon, looted public treasury. This was contained in a statement released by the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs, Ferdinand Nwonye on Friday. Nwonye said Nigeria has also demanded that the statement be retracted. Recall that chairman of the UK parliament foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat had, speaking at the parliament’s recent debate on the #EndSARS crisis, accused Gowon of looting…

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I felt scared when I emerged Head of State at age 31 – Gowon

Ishaku Yohanna

A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retired), on Friday said he was petrified when he emerged Nigeria’s Head of State at age 31. The retired army general became the third Nigerian president and the youngest ever, on Aug. 1, 1966, before his 32nd birthday on Oct.19, 1966. At a virtual reality history competition organised by the ANISZA Foundation and Gallery, Gowon said: “I felt petrified when I took over as Head of State.” The event which had the theme: ‘Sustaining Peace Together’’ was organised to commemorate the second…

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