TODAY IN HISTORY

|Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon Is Named Nigerian Head Of State|

On this day in 1966, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon was named the new Nigerian Head of State. Gowon’s appointment came a few days after the assassination of General Aguiyi-Ironsi (read here) and resulted from the pressure the military was receiving from the Nigerian elites and intellectuals concerned about the whereabouts of the country’s leader and state of the nation.

Gowon lead Nigeria from August 1966 to July 1975, ensuring that the country remained united after the declaration of the Republic of Biafra by Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in May 1967. Ojukwu had decided to lead the Igbo people to secede from the rest of Nigeria under the belief that the people were under threat of being wiped out by the Northern dominated government of Nigeria. The threat of genocide was not a mere assumption. Throughout Northern Nigeria, the Igbos were being massacred in large numbers.