54 Facts About Yusuf Gowon

Originally a farmer, Gowon quickly rose through the ranks of the military due to a combination of happenstance and his political skills.

Unlike many of his former comrades, Yusuf Gowon did not join any insurgent group during his exile.

In 2001, Yusuf Gowon was arrested and tried for the suspected involvement in the murder of Eliphaz Laki during Amin's rule.

Yusuf Gowon denied involvement in Laki's murder, and was acquitted due to lack of evidence in 2003.

Yusuf Gowon's father Ibrahim was born a Catholic Christian and an ethnic Kakwa, but converted to Islam and adopted a Nubian identity; as a result, Gowon's cheeks were cut with three marks after his birth, signalling him belonging to the Nubians.

Yusuf Gowon wanted to go to school and convinced his father to pay a few years of tuition.

Arua served as center for the British colonial troops, the King's African Rifles, and many of Yusuf Gowon's classmates adored the military.

Yusuf Gowon was an exception in this regard, and showed no interest in military matters at all.

Yusuf Gowon's classmates regarded him as sociable prankster who would entertain others with jokes and songs.

Yusuf Gowon was known for dressing fashionably, thereby earning the nickname "Goan".

Yusuf Gowon enjoyed the work, and a British overseer taught him to repair the farm's machinery.

Yusuf Gowon later described this time as the happiest of his life.

Yusuf Gowon left the prisons service in 1968, and enlisted in the military.

At first, Yusuf Gowon was sent to a boot camp north of Kampala, Uganda's capital, where Amin was training a new elite unit.

Yusuf Gowon returned to Uganda after the coup's conclusion, and was promoted to major and appointed second-in-command of the Simba Battalion, stationed at Mbarara.

Yusuf Gowon's reputation improved due to his role in defeating Obote's invasion, and he consequently rose in the ranks.

Yusuf Gowon proved extremely adapt at politics, and gradually gained a reputation as "ruthless infighter" in the Uganda Army who would manipulate others to get his way.

Nevertheless, Yusuf Gowon almost fell from power after the Arube uprising, a coup attempt against Amin in 1974.

An unidentified person told the President that Yusuf Gowon was secretly a Christian which was enough to warrant suspicions about him being a supporter of the coup attempt.

Yusuf Gowon was placed under house arrest, but Army Chief of Staff Mustafa Adrisi intervened on his behalf, allowing Gowon to be flown to Libya for medical treatment of a stomach ailment.

Around 1976, Yusuf Gowon was again accused of treason as result of political conspiracies among Amin's inner circles.

Yusuf Gowon was arrested by the State Research Bureau, and, alongside his protector Adrisi, brought into the President's bureau.

Yusuf Gowon then got everyone a cup of tea and told Gowon that he was spared.

Yusuf Gowon was even derogatorily nicknamed "the tractor driver" by soldiers due to his past as a farmer.

Yusuf Gowon was made acting Army Chief of Staff, and promoted to major general on 8 May 1978.

Yusuf Gowon's appointment was mostly owed to the fact that he was regarded as loyal to Amin, and lacked a power base in the military to threaten the President.

Yusuf Gowon disempowered the heads of two intelligence services, and moved against his long-time rival General Moses Ali.

Yusuf Gowon was made a member of the body, though subsequent events prevented it from performing any work.

Yusuf Gowon was put in charge of about 3,000 soldiers to carry out the operation which initially went well.

Yusuf Gowon joined the looting, and reportedly demoted an Ugandan captain when the latter refused to hand over a stolen tractor to him.

Yusuf Gowon put off this issue until another Ugandan general urged him to finally do something about it.

Yusuf Gowon asked Amin to buy artillery abroad, but the man who was entrusted this task simply pocketed the money.

The Ugandan troops nonetheless felt that Maliyamungu and Yusuf Gowon were harbingers of misfortune and nicknamed them bisirani, or "bad omen".

The Libyan then mounted a tank and addressed the Ugandan soldiers present, telling them that Yusuf Gowon had betrayed them to the Tanzanians.

The soldiers were enraged, and wanted to murder their former Chief of Staff, but Yusuf Gowon claimed that he intended to muster reinforcements.

When Yusuf Gowon arrived in Arua, West Nile, he initially laid low and planned his possible exile.

Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko allowed the Ugandan exiles, including Yusuf Gowon, to stay in his country.

Yusuf Gowon was actually pleased about this, as he had no interest in resuming fighting.

Yusuf Gowon was involved in smuggling, and eventually made enough money to buy a house in Bunia where he was joined by two of his wives.

Yusuf Gowon returned to Uganda with 25 other ex-officers, hundreds of dependants, and over ten thousand civilian refugees.

Grateful for this treatment, Yusuf Gowon subsequently supported Museveni, and made speeches in his favor during the 1996 Ugandan presidential election.

Yusuf Gowon was evicted from his Ntinda residence, and had to relocate to live in a bicycle shop run by one of his sons.

At some point, Yusuf Gowon became the leader of a Uganda Army veterans association.

Yusuf Gowon lived in retirement until 2001, when he was arrested by the Ugandan police for the murder of county chief Eliphaz Laki.

Yusuf Gowon faced the death sentence if convicted of the murder.

Yusuf Gowon's trial generated much publicity in Uganda, as most crimes during Amin's regime remained unresolved due to lack of evidence and lack of interest in prosecuting them on the side of the Ugandan government which wants to maintain communal peace.

Yusuf Gowon believed that his old rival, Moses Ali, was behind his trial.

At some point, the minister allegedly visited Luzira Prison just to enjoy seeing Yusuf Gowon imprisoned; Ali denied all of this, once stating that he "did not even know [that Yusuf Gowon] was arrested" until reading of it in the newspapers.

Yusuf Gowon argued that the house in question was rightfully hers.

Yusuf Gowon's release was celebrated by his family and sympathizers, mostly from West Nile, while Laki's family and sympathizers, mostly from southern Uganda, decried it as injustice.

Yusuf Gowon died of heart failure at a hospital in Arua on 2 February 2024, at the age of 85.

Yusuf Gowon was buried the following day in the Arua Muslim Cemetery.

Yusuf Gowon had 28 children by four different wives, and 22 grandchildren.

Yusuf Gowon was fluent in Swahili, and he understood a little English.