Thirty-eight years after the civil the principal secretary to the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has made a startling revelation about what transpired.

In his memoirs, Apostle Samuel John King, who in the privileged position, had an insight into the General Gowon’s secret in the prosecution of the civil war, said he influenced the creation of 12 states.

King, who died recently at the age of 80, revealed in his unpublished memoirs written 10 years ago: “In my 70 years on earth, I have encountered trials, temptations, persecutions, hatred and envy. I have come face to face with death. But in all the cases, the good Lord is always by me…

During the civil war, I played a vital role as a result of my privileged position as the principal private secretary to the then Head of State, General Yoruba Goon. I influenced the creation of the 12 states structure.

For security reasons, I stop at that. The noble role of the civil servant is to be felt and not be heard.”
In the memoirs, details of which was corroborated by his son, Epidemic King, an Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) and Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service, the late King wrote: “People didn’t understand Gowon while he was Head of State; people looked at him as a very quiet person, that he wouldn’t hurt a fly; that he was not fully in charge of affairs. In my association with Gowon, I realized they had a wrong impression about him. Though a gentleman, he also acted the military part of his life.”

Besides being the first principal secretary to Gowon, the late King, whose remains would be buried on November 22, in his country home at Ekpene Ukpa, Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, had a rosy career as he was saddled with several national and international assignments, including the establishment of the first state liaison office of the South Eastern State in Lagos, in 1968, a task he described in his memoirs as a “hostile venture.”

His words: “The first liaison office in the federation was opened by me in Lagos; it was a child of circumstance, being the outcome of the civil war. For the new state to survive, the South Eastern state, it was imperative that an office be opened in the federal capital of Lagos to oversee events that would promote the growth of the new state. Based on my performance, when I served in Lagos and contacts with all facets of government, the diplomatic corps and the business community, it fell on my lot to take up the assignment. The then military governor, late Brigadier U.J Essuene and the Secretary to the State Military Government, the late Michael Ani, picked me to open a liaison office in Lagos. The South Eastern State liaison office was a hostile venture.

“The people of the state and federal officials saw it with jaundiced eyes and nicknamed it an embassy within the country. But by dint of hard work and dedication to duty, the success of the South Eastern State liaison office became a reality worthy of emulation. The 12 states acknowledged the need for a liaison office in Lagos and the Federal Government embraced the venture and allocated land in Lagos for the 12 states to build their liaison offices.”
The other details in the memoirs are:

Life as Gowon’s principal secretary
I was recommended to Gowon to work as his principal private secretary from the Ministry of External Affairs, where I served at that time. I had a lot of friends in the Foreign Service, who recommended me. These include people like Olisa Emeka and Ambassador Hamzad Ahmadu. When I was in the State House, I lived at Ikoyi in Lagos, which was then the federal capital. As principal secretary to the head of state, I knew that Gowon was a very firm person, a trait a lot of people didn’t know. If you did something wrong, Gowon would tell you straight to your face, and he won’t be nice about it. So most times, we had to watch his mood before telling him anything. What Gowon liked at that time was working with intelligent people, people who would contribute to governance. So if you were older than him, as I was, but you gave him good advice, you were his friend. But if you were full of mistakes, he won’t condone it, and he wouldn’t mind shouting at you no matter your age.

I had to watch his mood before saying anything because apart from being a gentleman, he was a military person and he acted the military part too. When the civil war was on, I was deeply worried over the safety of my own father. The masterstroke that ended the civil war was the creation of 12 state structure.

Son’s testimony
Speaking about his late father, ACP King revealed the last moments:
“We had always celebrated his birthday, especially as from when he turned 60. And so, on July 2008 when he clocked 80 years, I called my brothers and sisters in preparation for the celebration of his birthday. We made all necessary arrangements and arrived home in Akwa Ibom State for the celebration, for which he also invited most of his friends who he had not seen for many years, and they all came. For the first time, we had all the traditional council members in the village attending the celebration; it was a big party and my dad was so happy.

“Then, I remember that after he had cut the birthday cake, I hugged him and said ‘daddy, next year (2009), we all want to be here again to celebrate your birthday.’ He smiled. But the way he smiled told me he was laughing at us. And immediately after the birthday party, on the same day, he took ill. I initially felt maybe, it was as a result of the excitement and attendant fatigue. However, because we really didn’t joke with such things, we quickly called my cousin who is a medical doctor and he immediately came in his own car to pick my dad and took him to his private clinic. My dad was there with him for two weeks until his condition became stable. He was okay. But then, after one week in the hospital, whenever I called on phone to speak with him, my dad would say he wanted to go home.

“My cousin, the medical doctor, asked him if he was not comfortable with him, and my father said he wanted to go home because he has completed everything he came to do on earth. He was eventually discharged because his condition was okay, and he went home. When he got home, the following day being a Thursday, he called one of my brothers to read the whole of John chapter 19 in the Bible for him, and it was read to him.

Thereafter, he kept quiet. The next day was the first Friday of the month of August, and we usually fast and pray every first Friday of the month. So on that Friday morning of August 1, 2008, my brother was there; my aunties and other church members were there with him, they were praying together when he passed on.

“Though it is painful to lose a loved one, I am so happy for him because when I look at myself, my sisters and brothers, there is something he taught us before he died. He told us how to live with our wives, husbands and neighbours as well as how we should relate to our bosses in the office. He told us it that he was loyal to the system, to his bosses.

He said in our places of work, according to the scriptures, we should not do things just because we are seeing our bosses, just to impress them; he admonished us that rather, we should do our work as if we are working for God who we cannot see. If there is anything that gave my dad joy so much until he died, it was having his children around him. When he retired from the civil service as a permanent secretary in 1976, apart from his first daughter who was in the university, the other six children were not. They got admission into the university when he had retired, and he single-handed saw all of us through the university as a pensioner.”