The son of a Christian evangelist, Gowon was born in Lur, Nigeria, on Oct. 19, 1934.
From 1953 to 1957 he attended military training schools in Ghana and Great Britain, including the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, returning to Nigeria as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1963 and became chief of staff under General Aguiyi-Ironsi following the military coup of January 1966.
When Ironsi and other officers were killed by rebellious Northern Region soldiers in an ethnic conflict in July 1966, Gowon was chosen to assume command, in part because his ethnic background resembled that of most of the rank and file of the army, although he himself had not participated in the mutiny.
Education
St. Bartholomew’s School, Wusasa, Zaria, Government College (Barewa), Zaria, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Staff College, Camberley and Jt. Services Staff College, Latimer, England.
Career
At the age of 32 Gowon thus became Africa's youngest head of state, with responsibility for the continent's most populous country at a moment of impending national crisis. Whatever possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute between the federal government and the disaffected Ibos of the Eastern Region may have existed when Gowon assumed command evaporated later in the year with the massacre of thousands of Ibos in the North. Faced with an Ibo-led secession movement in the East, Gowon moved to abolish Nigeria's four existing regions, dividing the country instead into 12 states and thus securing the loyalty of minority ethnic groups in the East while supplying a new national vision for those who still rallied to the federal cause. Nonetheless, in 1967 a bitterly divisive 30-month war with the Eastern ("Biafran") secessionists broke out. At the end of the war in 1970 Gowon showed genuine magnanimity toward the defeated Biafrans and successfully promoted a spirit of national reconciliation, but his failure to achieve a prompt restoration of civilian rule or to establish effective management for Nigeria under his own military regime led to his overthrow in a bloodless coup in July 1975.
Achievements
Works
Other Work
Faith in ITnity.
Interests
Squash, tennis, photography, pen-drawings. Publication: Faith in ITnity.