Nigeria's wartime leader Gen. Yakubu Gowon has delivered a scathing indictment of Ghana as being behind Nigeria's first ever coup d'etat of January 1966 which led to the killing of Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Finance Minister Okotie Eboh, northern premier Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, the western premier Chief S.L. Akintola and some top army officers.

In a hot biographical interview with Nigeria's celebrated biographers Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, Gen. Gowon revealed for the first time how Ghana's iconic President Kwame Nkrumah aided and abetted Nigeria's coup, through his actions and utterances.

According to Gowon, prior to the coup, Nkrumah had betrayed obvious contempt towards Nigeria and its Prime Minister Balewa.

“Did you remember what Nkrumah said about the coup that took place in Nigeria and what he said about the prime minister?” Gowon asked. “Did he not say that Tafawa Balewa does not know or that he did not understand the situation in Nigeria and was not capable? He was virtually saying that he welcomed the coup.

“And when the coup took place in Nigeria, a lot of the young people who did the coup in the end fled to Ghana where they were given protection by the Ghanaian government.”

It is from these pointers that Gowon drew his conclusion that Ghana must have had a hand in Nigeria's first coup. But as the saying goes, he who rides on the back of a tiger ends in the mouth of the tiger; Nkrumah himself became a victim of a CIA-supported coup that led to his overthrow on February 24, 1966 during a state visit to Hanoi.

“After Nigeria's coup, there was Ghana's first coup that saw the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,” Gowon said, adding that when it comes to the history of coups, “Ghana copied from Nigeria, even though Ghana had a hand in Nigeria's coup.”

The Gowon interview was conducted against the background of the 25th anniversary of Chief Awolowo's death—a man who served under Gowon as finance minister after his release from Calabar prison where he was jailed for treasonable felony.

Gowon paid tribute to Awolowo as wise old man who managed the economy of Nigeria so well that the country did not need to borrow to fight the Nigerian Civil War.

“When I appointed him as commissioner for finance, it was because of his experience in economics,” Gowon said.

“That was what he studied before he studied law. So he was a very good man for the job. I remember some of the things he had done in the West, all the industries, the various things that he had done. Is it education? Is it finance in the West? Certainly, his experience I thought would be useful.”

On a humorous note, Gowon explained why he chose Awolowo as his finance minister. He also paid him this tribute:

“And let me say this: Because he is an Ijebu man, I know how frugal he is with money. I say that with regret because it got to the time when the vote for looking after me in the State House got exhausted and this was all for some of the entertainment I do to members of (ruling) council when they come to meeting and to have breakfast or launch, refreshment and so on, a lot of it went there.

Not only for my own feeding, which would have been sufficient, but this we did not take into consideration in asking for the votes. And when the money finished and we requested for more money, the old man said 'No, there is no vote. You expended your votes and you should not have done that.' I told him: 'It is because of the feeding I am feeding you.' And of course, he would not have anything. He would
only have his bottle of water and may not take anything at all.

“So we had to beg him for me to be able to survive as head of state. When it comes to that, I can assure you he was very frugal and very, very careful with finances. And we had to live within our means. Every kobo was accounted for. And he really kept a meticulous attention to details as far as finances were concerned. And he would not brook any break from the correct procedure as far as our finance was concerned. And as a result of that, we were able to carry out little developments that we could carry out at that time.

“Particularly we were able to prosecute the Nigeria's Civil War without borrowing a kobo from anywhere. He left Nigeria in very good financial health. He ensured that we didn't live the next generation with unnecessary debt.

He made sure that sufficient money was provided for all sections of the government activities, for the various ministries. We discussed our budget usually within the council, with every member of the council, both military and civilian, as well as the permanent secretaries that were there.

“And we argued those issues in a way that you would never believe. You would come and you would think it was a debating society.

You do not know who is the leader and who is the led, because everybody that is in that council had the right to be able to express honest and sincere views on the issue being discussed. And I can assure you we listened just to the best advice. We listened to all the debates and in the end I sifted all the advice and suggestions given.

I was given that right to decide which of the various options provided that I should recommended for the acceptance of the government. And by the time one had done that and you had the good old man's full support of that particular financial decision, then of course it is carried out. And as a result of that, we were able to ensure that we continued to live within our means during all the period that he was part of my government until he decided to return to politics after I had announced that we are going to return to politics in 1974 or 76.

So he wanted to go and have a bit of a rest and start organizing for his future political activity. But he was really a man of great experience and great wisdom. And he gave us certainly his total loyalty and support and advice in order to get it right in many areas. And for which I would remain ever grateful.”

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