By Sam Omatseye
Not many young persons know the story of Yakubu Gowon, or his role in the Nigerian crisis. But he is in the middle of a controversy today that reminds many of the civil war. The Governor-elect of Abia State, the former banker Alex Otti, is inviting the former head of state to party in Umuahia on his investiture as the chief executive of the state. There is no promise of aromas for the palate in the eastern kitchen. The isi-ewus and ohas are not steaming in the pot just yet.
In the age of IPOB and Labour Party angst, some in the east say Otti has made a wrong move. Gowon who presided over the civil war, they contend, is the last person they want on their soil.
Otti probably thought Gowon will epitomise a healing balm on a febrile hour. Otti is coming as a man of peace. Gowon also is coming as a reconciler. But IPOB and its adherents as well as closet Biafrans never believed him when he said, “no victor, no vanquished” when the war ended. They didn’t believe him when he went to Asaba with a mea culpa over the butchery of innocents in what historians call the Asaba Massacre.
Gowon has not written a book on his days as head of state, and he has not granted much of an interview. Maybe, if he said enough he would earn a hug and share a plate of isi-ewu. How many words and what syntax will suffice as penance? But would a book or a hundred interviews have moved a heart or stirred a handshake? It also reflects the dilemma and struggles of liberal Igbo elites like Otti.
It only shows how hard it will take to suture the wound festering since the 1960’s. While my heart goes out to Otti the dove, my question is what will a Gowon do to visit the east without rancour?
NB: Sam Omatseye is a respected columnist with the Nation Newspaper.
