Nigeria Is A Better Country With Ndigbo – Gowon

Former head of state, Gen Yakubu Gowon, has declared that Nigerians are better off with the Igbos. He made the assertion in his tribute to late Chief (Mrs) Chinyere Asika, wife of the former sole administrator of the East-central State.

Also speaking at the occasion at the All Saints Anglican Cathedral, Onitsha, Anambra State at the weekend, the state governor, Willie Obiano, described the late former first lady as a woman who exemplified the virtue of patience, charity and humility.

General Gowon’s declaration was borne out of a deep appreciation of the commitment and sacrifice of late Ajie Ukpabi Asika and his wife to the survival of Nigeria as one entity. The former head of state recalled that when he proposed the post of sole administrator of East-central State, Asika told me, “I prefer to do this for the good of Igbo people.” According to Gowon, “I was struggling to get an administrator for the newly created East-central State when the name of the late Ukpabi Asika came up.

 He was then a lecturer at Ibadan. When we met, I do not know which one of us was younger. But he exuded strength of character and understanding and wanted to start work immediately, though I cautioned him to think about it. I told him, ‘you must consult your brothers, and your wife, who was there to know if you would accept,’ I came away convinced that this is the man I needed,” Gowon stated.

“I did not know how to place his wife Chinyere, but when she arrived from Kenya, she plunged head-on to the idea. She was a courageous woman, caring and humble. I remember her efforts in ‘Otu Olu Obodo’- a public service initiative which she used as a tool of empowerment for her Igbo kinsmen and women.”