Iconic General Yakubu Gowon Clocks 92 Years Old Today (His Story And Love Child With An Igbo Woman)
Nigerian Military and Civil War-time Head of State, the iconic General Yakubu Gowon, is 92 years old today.
Also known as “Jack,” Gowon, he was born October 19, 1934 in Pankshin, in what is now Plateau state, in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.
His father was an early convert to Christianity.
Gowon was educated in Zaria (now in Kaduna state) and later became a career army officer.
He was trained in Ghana and in England at Sandhurst and twice served in the Congo region as part of Nigeria’s peacekeeping force there in the early 1960s.
In Nigeria, after the coup of January 1966, he was appointed Chief of Staff to Major Genearl Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the country’s new leader.
Northern officers staged a countercoup in July 1966, and Gowon emerged as the compromise head of the new government.
Gowon tried to resolve the ethnic tensions that threatened to fatally divide Nigeria.
Although he was eventually successful in ending attacks against Igbo in the North, he was unable to effect a more lasting peace.
In a final attempt to resolve the conflict, on May 27, 1967, Gowon declared a state of emergency and divided Nigeria’s four regions into 12 states.
Three days later the Eastern Region declared itself the independent state of Biafra, with Odumegwu Ojukwu as its leader, and armed conflict between Biafra and the Nigerian government began in July.
Gowon directed government forces to remember that they were essentially fighting Nigerians, who were to be encouraged to rejoin the country. He also allowed a team of international observers to monitor the conduct of his troops.
After the government victory in January 1970, a remarkable reconciliation took place between victors and vanquished, largely attributable to Gowon’s personal influence.
By the mid-1970s Gowon was emerging as an international leader and was involved in the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
On July 29, 1975, however, while Gowon was in Uganda for an Organisation of African Unity summit meeting, the Army removed him from office and Brigadier General Murtala Muhammed became Head of State.
Gowon was exiled to Great Britain.
In addition, he was stripped of his rank for allegedly participating in the assassination of his successor, Brig. Gen. Murtala Mohammed, in 1976.
However, he was pardoned by President Shehu Shagari in 1981, and his rank was restored by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1987.
Having earned a Ph.D. at Warwick University in 1983, Gowon had become a Professor of political science at the University of Jos in the mid-1980s and attained the status of an Elder Statesman in Nigerian politics./ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM BRITANNICA
FAMILY LIFE
His parents were Nde Yohanna Gowon and Matwok Kurnyang (Church Missionary Society missionaries from the Ngas ethnic group in Lur, Plateau State).
Yakubu was the fifth of 11 children.
On April 19, 1969, at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos, he formally wedded Victoria Hansatu Zakari, a trained nurse.
The marriage gave birth to Ibrahim Bala Gowon (son), Saratu Kankemwa Tani Gowon (daughter) and Rahila (daughter).
Prior to his marriage to Victoria, Gowon had a love-child in 1968 through Edith Ike-Okongwu, named Musa Jack Ngonadi Gowon, whose paternity was legally confirmed via a DNA test in 2016.
MUSA JACK NGONADI: GOWON’S LOVE CHILD WITH AN IGBO WOMAN –
On August 1, 1966, 31-year-old Yakubu Gowon was appointed Nigeria’s youngest military head of state.
In his capacity as the nation’s leader, he oversaw the 1966–1970 Nigerian Civil War. During that period, a particular Edith Ike was romantically linked with the vivacious Lieutenant Colonel Gowon in a marriage-preparation relationship. However, because of Gowon’s prosecution during the Civil War, it was believed that Edith Ike ended the passionate romance. According to reports, she objected to the way Nigerian troops, led by a man she was seeing, slaughtered and crippled her fellow Igbos during the civil war. Her parents had resided in the north for more than thirty years before that, despite being from Aro-Ndikelionwu in the Orumba North Local Government of Anambra State. After the 1966 pogrom’s initial wave, they moved to the East.
During this time, Edith Ike gave birth to a boy for Gowon. Its name was Musa Jack Ngodadi Gowon. After Gowon rejected her plans to relocate to the United States or the United Kingdom, Edith Ike traveled to West Germany on June 30, 1967. Later on, she left Germany and immigrated to the US. Toward the end of 1968, Edith Ike and Gowon’s affair came to an end. This followed the July 14, 1968, NAF napalm bombing of Aba General Hospital by Federal Troops, which resulted in the deaths of almost 500 patients. Musa was born in 1968, although Gen. Yakubu Gowon denied that he was his father. On April 19, 1969, Gowon wed his present wife, nurse Victoria Zakari, during the height of the Civil War.
After living in the United States for decades, Edith Ike eventually left her son Musa behind and returned to Nigeria. She became well-known in Nigeria as a public relations specialist, working with Guinness PLC and other businesses. She remarried twice: to Nze Mark Odu and later to Dr. Okongwu. The argument about Musa’s paternity dragged on. Later, it became the focus of a case that made it all the way to Nigeria’s Supreme Court, where Edith Ike prevailed. Gowon, however, would not claim the child as his own. The young Musa, meantime, was reported to have lived a lavish lifestyle in the United States after joining a Colombian drug cartel.
He was found in possession of hard drugs in 1992 while traveling from Germany to the United States. He insisted that he had been set up and strongly denied any involvement in the crime. On November 18, 1992, Musa was sentenced to 40 years in jail in the United States at the age of 23 and lost his mother to cancer in December 2003 while in U.S. custody. Musa completed a graduate course while incarcerated and earned a law degree. Musa Gowon was given a presidential pardon by the Barrack Obama administration in 2015, following 22 years in prison. Due to his good behavior while incarcerated, he was released. His 40-year prison term was essentially halved as a result.
US officials deported him to Nigeria on January 1, 2016. Yakubu Gowon eventually admitted Musa’s fatherhood later that year. This came when Musa was identified as his biological son via a comprehensive DNA test. The 48-year-old paternity controversy over Musa Gowon was essentially resolved by this. After a trying time, Gen. Gowon acknowledged Musa as his son and asked for solitude in a statement. “A DNA test was recently conducted to ascertain the paternity of Musa Gowon, who recently returned to the country, after years of doubts and speculation,” he stated.His paternity was confirmed by the test results, which were definitive. After a very trying time in his life, we, the family, are trying to help him get back on his feet.
\In addition to Musa, Ibrahim Bala was the son of General Gowon and his wife, Victoria. Musa Gowon and former Vivienne Agbonkhese are blissfully wed. On Saturday, June 11, 2021, they were married in Benin City.
Since then, Musa Gowon has become a well-known fashion designer from Nigeria. His name is Musa Jack Gowon, and he owns MJG Fashions. The apparel firm creates custom-cut and embroidered African attire. The company has stores all over Nigeria, including Abuja, and factories in Enugu and Lagos. For those who appreciate fine clothing and needlework, Musa designs what many consider to be well-designed garments, and MJG styles have become increasingly popular in the fashion industry over time./ARON HELPS
