Former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon yesterday pleaded with Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari time to fix the country’s problems.
Gowon, who noted that governance was never an easy affair, said: “Nigeria is not an easy place to govern.”
He stressed the need to give any new government in power time to “put things in order”.
The ex-head of state and leader of Nigeria Prays spoke to reporters at the Ikenne home of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, after leading a delegation of the Awolowo Foundation to the family to condole with it on the death of its matriarch, Chief Hannah Idowu Dideolu (HID) Awolowo.
He noted that when he came to power after the death of Maj.-Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, he thought that within three months or six months, his government would be able to sort out all that was wrong with the country at the time, but it soon dawned on him that things could not be done overnight.
Gowon said: “Let me tell you this; it was not easy. When I became Head of State, I hoped that three months, six months the most; we would be done. But when you have problems in a nation, it is not easy to do them overnight. So, you’ve always got to give time and you’ve got to be patient for leaders to be able to get things in order.
“Whenever any government comes in, give them time to be able to put things right. Nigeria is not an easy place to govern.
“I can assure that there are as many problems as there are Nigerians in the world and everybody wants to do things in a particular way, in his own way and probably for his own interest.
“And you think of that; how are you going to get all that put together and put things right? I think we’ve got to be patient and then we got to cooperate with the government to do the right thing.
“Always never be tired in telling the government what needed to be done in order to improve things.”
He noted that his military government would not have been able to achieve much more at a critical period of the nation’s history without the expertise and commitment of the late Chief Awolowo, who was his Finance minister then.
Gowon, who is the chairman, Board of Trustees of the Awolowo Foundation, added that he could not have succeeded in persuading Awolowo to serve in his government, if HID had not influenced her husband into taking the appointment when it was presented.
He said it was a thing of joy to him that God used him to release Awolowo from prison in Calabar, Cross River State, to re-unite with HID and his family, stressing that this might have informed why the late matriarch developed a longstanding family friendship with the Gowons.
