GOWON, YAKUBU

born Oct. 19, 1934, Nigeria statesman and soldier who seized control of Nigeria in 1966 and led his forces to victory in the bitter Nigerian Civil War (1967-70) and held power until 1975. A career army officer from a small Northern Region tribe, the Angas, Gowon was trained in England (Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst) and in Ghana and twice saw service in the Congo region. After the coup of January 1966, as the senior surviving Northern officer, he was appointed chief of staff. He took a minor role in the Northern military countercoup of July 1966 and emerged as the compromise head of the new government. Gowon promised, but was unable to deliver an early return to civilian rule. Meanwhile, the Ibos of the Eastern Region were becoming increasingly disaffected because of massacres of Ibos in the Northern Region and because of Gowon's refusal to give their leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu, army command in the East. On May 27, 1967, Gowon declared a state of emergency and divided Nigeria into 12 states, carving up the four regions and cutting the Ibos off from their port. Three days later the East declared itself the independent state of Biafra. Gowon did not try to take personal responsibility for the army, whose three divisions fought the Civil War essentially independently of one another. 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 he was emerging as a leader of the entire continent of Africa. On July 29, 1975, however, while Gowon was on a diplomatic mission in Uganda, the army removed him from office. Unable to return to his country, he took refuge in Great Britain.