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By Sunday Ani
Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, has said the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo believed in the unity of Nigeria and did everything within his powers to keep it one during his lifetime.
He said the late sage, as a Federal Commissioner for Finance, contributed immensely to the prosecution of the 30 months civil war which was fought solely to keep Nigeria one.
He stated this during the 30th annual Obafemi Awolowo Foundation lecture held virtually, yesterday.
Gowon, who was special guest of honour, said in its 30, the Foundation has continued to make an impact as a think tank in Nigeria’s search for transformational leadership.
He said the foundation has not only created room for quality engagement of good governance, but also established a leadership prize to encourage excellence and distinction in service to society.
“These are some of the values Awolowo embodied in his lifetime service to Nigeria. As a leader, he displayed a heart that was consistent with courage and commitment.
“It is said that evil that men do lives after them while their good deeds are often interred with them.
But the reverse is the case with Chief Awolowo. As a politician, lawyer and statesman, he loomed large, not just in Nigeria, but also in Africa and the world at large. His good works became the standard of excellence in the annals of our nation,” he said.
He commended him for making free education and health the core of his programmes; the programmes that the Federal Government under him (Gowon) adopted for the whole country between 1974/75.
“History will be kind to him,” he added.
Gowon also described Awolowo as a visionary and transformative leader, who pursued and demonstrated that leadership was not a rocket science.
He also commended the chairman on the occasion and former president of Ghana, John Mahama, for accepting to grace the occasion without an argument.
“It only shows the strength of the cultural and political ties between Nigeria and Ghana,” he said.
In his remarks, Mahama said as a journalist, lawyer, politicians and statesman, Chief Awolowo was humble, modest, resilient and has unquestionable love for Nigeria.
He lamented that those values that Awolowo embodied were conspicuously lacking not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole.
“His unquestionable love for Nigeria is among the values that are lacking in Africa today. What we are going through today was what the western world that we admire today went through in the past but their value of love for one another and selflessness are what differentiate them from the Africans,” he said.
He urged Africa to analyse the phase that the world is going into having gone through the era of global village, climate change, epidemic and currently, COVID-19 pandemic, so that Africa can fit into the new world.
