Gowon: If not for HID, Awolowo wouldn’t have joined my government

“God used me to bring him (Chief Obafemi Awolowo) back from prison. What people may not know is that it was through Mama (HID Awolowo) that I was able to get the services of Papa Awolowo to join the government at that time and to be the Vice Chairman of our Executive Council and the Minister for Finance and you all knew what he did to ensure that we were able to survive as a nation during those two and half years of crisis in Nigeria”.
With the above words, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, revealed in Ikenne, Ogun State, on Thursday, the role the late matriarch of the Awolowo family, Yeye Oodua Hannah Idowu Dideolu (HID) Awolowo, played to convince her husband and former Premier of the defunct Western Region, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to serve in his government.
Awolowo was jailed in 1963 during the administration of the late Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa.
He was in Calabar prison when he was released by Gowon on August 2, 1966.
He later joined Gowon’s military regime as Vice Chairman. He was also in charge of the finance portfolio of the then Federal Executive Council.
Gowon made the revelation when he led members of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation to commiserate with the Awolowo family on HID Awolowo’s death.
With Gowon were Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN), Prof Oladipo Akinkugbe‎, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Richard Okafor, and others.
Gowon said further: “Mama’s contributions really have been tremendous and I will always thank her for that because if we had not approached her to prevail on Papa Awolowo to join the government, probably he may not have but he then accepted and he did exceptionally well and may God bless him and may God bless his soul.”
On what prompted him to release Awolowo from prison, Gowon said: “What we did was alright. There was also the need to get Papa involved and that would probably seal what we wanted to achieve, especially in the West, which was at the time pretty dicey. You remember ‘Operation Wetie’ and the coup.
“So, we had to seek Mama’s support to see if we could get Papa to join the government to help and, of course, our hope was that when that happened, we would be able to finish as quickly as possible so that we could return to democracy. Yes, we really pleaded with Mama. She was the one who encouraged Papa to accept that invitation and so, for that, we ever remain grateful to her for what she did. How I had wished she could have lived up to 100 years so that we can dance centenary owambe. But, we thank God for her life”.
To receive Gowon and the entourage were Revd (Mrs) Omotola Oyediran and Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu.
They thanked Gowon and members of the foundation for standing by the family.