When I clock 90, if I had a choice in the matter, I’ll like to be like General Yakubu Dan-Yumma “Jack” Gowon — in good health, full of cheer and with my better half whispering sweet nothings into my ear as she relishes the distinguished audience consisting of Their Excellences, Highnesses, Lords, Eminences and other movers and shakers of society, temporal and spiritual.
It is not given to many people to be able to cast a happy glance at an illustrious life lived over nine decades and still bask in the adulation of a grateful society. At 90, General Gowon seems to still be in the middle of the Nigerian story despite his best efforts to be anonymous. A man of destiny, he found himself positioned at crucial junctions in Nigeria’s national life. Weighty responsibilities were cast on his shoulders at the age of 33 when his colleagues entrusted the leadership of the country onto him.
Many of us remember General Gowon fondly as that youthful military officer with a…