TWT #213 –

On August 1st, 1966, Yakubu Gowon was declared president of Nigeria during a very peaceful time in Nigerian history that only saw one coup, one “counter-coup,” one regional secession leading to one civil war with only 3 million dead, and ending in one final coup.

Gowon started the year 1966 as just a regular ol’ lieutenant colonel, and ended it as President of Nigeria. Not a bad career advancement if you ask me!

In my very cursory glance at the Wikipedia page titled “Nigerian coup d’état” it seems like the leaders of Nigeria were living a pretty lavish lifestyle while their people were… not.

That’s just a map of Nigeria because I don’t know what other pictures to add

January of 1966 saw a bloody coup attempt by some members of the military. Several high-ranking politicians and other military leaders were killed in this first coup. After it was put down, the remaining presidential cabinet members declared an emergency and “voluntarily” handed power over to General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, making him the first military Head of State in Nigeria.

Honestly, it sounds like this coup kind of worked?

Regardless, military leaders were now in power in Nigeria.

Things were going GREAT for about 8 months before there was yet another military coup. This one spurred by the fact that many northern Nigerian soldiers and men had been killed in that first coup, and that the people responsible were not being prosecuted.

Alas in July of 1966 some other Lt. Colonel decided to launch a second counter-coup (also known as the “July Rematch” which makes it sound like a soccer game). While this coup also was not successful in totally toppling the government, they did succeed in killing General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, leaving that top position of “military Head of State” up for grabs.

And who was there to replace him?

That’s right, on August 1st, 1966, exactly 53 years ago today, our boy Yakubu Gowon stepped up to the plate and became the military Head of State in Nigeria.

Gowon was kind of a dapper lookin’ fella

So naturally after this second coup, and with Gowon firmly planted as leader of the country, Nigeria was pleased by years and years of peace and prosperity, right?

Nah.

This second coup lead directly into the bloody three year Nigerian Civil War, during which Gowon somehow actually kept power.

In May of ’67, the region of Biafra decided to secede and officially declared itself the Republic of Biafra. Obviously Gowon was not pleased by this.

Over the next three years, Gowon’s army didn’t just fight with Biafra, they expanded their power ten-fold. This period saw what was essentially the birth of Nigeria’s Air Force (which may or may not have intentionally bombed civilians and relief centers) as well as a massive expansion of their military technology. Way to go, Gowon!

One thing is for sure: Nigeria imposed a blockage of Biafra that led to wholesale starvation and the deaths of 2 MILLION civilians.

Way to go, Gowon!

Now lets focus on some positives: Over the next several years Nigeria did experience a huge economic boom, mostly in the oil sector. While the economy rose, several government officials got very very rich, as did a few well-connected oil-tycoons (it does sound slightly like bribery and corruption were rampant, but I’m trying to focus on the good here).

There really aren’t many pics I can add to this article, but here’s Gowon again

Now here’s an interesting weird little thing that happened. Apparently in 1975, Nigeria needed some cement to build stuff. So the extremely well-organized government went about making deals with 68 separate international cement suppliers.

That meant that the main Nigerian port at Lagos, which could handle 1 million tons of cargo per year, was inundated with 20 million tons of cement.

So the port was jam-packed with huge ships full of cement. Luckily, those contracts the government signed with 68 different suppliers had clauses that forced the government to pay extra $ if said supply ships were stuck waiting in port.

Also luckily, the Nigerian government didn’t really realize what was going on until the Lagos port was so full of cement ships that no other imports could get through (i.e. food and essential supplies).

Alas, the government did what it could to break all contracts and stop all imports… which led to years and years of lawsuits the world over.

Finally, Gowons failure was “cemented” (get it?). While Gowon was away at a summit in Kampala, a group of military officers walked into his office and peacefully said “this guy is out.”

And thus ended Gowon’s rule, in what was probably the easiest and least-bloody coup d’état ever.

(p.s. apparently after moving to the UK in his exile, Gowon got a PhD in political science, which should really demonstrate how easy it is to get a degree in political science.)

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