Lt. Col. Gowon cultivated a secret body of advisers who shuttled from Kaduna to Lagos and the Middle belt, consulting with traditional leaders, opinion moulders in commerce and academia. This was in March 1967. The group, known as the Kitchen Cabinet, worked quietly without public attention, mobilising support for the government, firmly manoeuvring to thwart Ojukwu's secessionist bid. Of course, Ojukwu's direction was obvious to everyone. But when it would come and how, no one was sure. The mission of the group then was that if war was unavoidable, its magnitude could still be tamed.

In May 1967, for three weeks, the Kitchen Cabinet which comprised ten young men, mostly in their early thirties, met informally at No. 17 Lugard Avenue, Ikoyi to sift through the various submissions they had received on how to keep the nation together. The meeting-place was the residence of Alhaji Shehu Musa, who was a junior aide in the Ministry of Finance. The relative obscurity of his official position must have informed the choice of his house as a strategic cover from intrusive attention. Musa's residence, situated in the charming* exclusivity of Lugard Avenue with its luxuriant palm trees and scented orchards, was a one-storey colonial structure with sloping conical roof, low iron fence and with generous spacious garden where the young men met daily, conscious of the weight of the national burden, unrushed, sobered enough to seek a conciliatory middle-ground of arresting the dark portents.

It was Alhaji Shehu Bakari, a taciturn geographer who steered the discussion of the group. Bakari who hailed from North Eastern State (now Adamawa State) was then a Director at the Ministry of Education. He was a man of unobtrusive intelligence. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, he had a grave and dignifying demeanour. He was well-respected both in the civil service and in the larger political arena. With able guidance, he nurtured the consensus of the Kitchen Cabinet, skillfully articulated the discernible national yearnings.
The result of this was the recommendation to the Supreme Military Council to create twelve states from the four regions. It was on the rectangular ebony hue table in the high dome dining room at the Lugard Avenue residence that the first sketch of the new states was drawn.

On May 27 when Lt. Colonel Gowon officially announced the creation of the twelve states, Lagos State finally emerged as a full, independent entity, beholding to no one, save its indigenes. For long treated as an orphan, its resources appropriated by foreign sovereigns, its people tossed about since 1861 cession like infants needing protective guidance, Lagos was now finally liberated from the clutches of its alien shepherds, eager to fashion its own destiny, enthusiastic about grappling with the challenges of its own developments, its own growth, raring to prove the world wrong!
- From Johnson To Marwa: 30 Years Of Governance in Lagos State (By Prince Uthman Ademilade Shodipe)

Source: bit. ly/1JkgIUR (remove space)

cc: lalasticlala, obinoscopy. Let's take this page to the promiseland.