General Yakubu Dan-Yumma Gowon (born 19 October 1934) was the head of state from 1966 to 1975. During his rule, the Nigerian government successfully prevented Biafran secession during the 1966-1970 Nigerian Civil War. Yakubu is an Ngas (Angas) from Lur, a small village in the present Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang, left for Wusasa, Zaria as Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in the early days of Yakubu's life.

Gowon joined the army in 1954, receiving a commission as a Second Lieutenant on 19 October 1955, his 21st birthday. Up until that year Gowon remained strictly a career soldier with no involvement whatsoever in politics, until the tumultuous events of the year suddenly thrust him into a leadership role, when his unusual background as a Northerner who was neither of Hausa or Fulani ancestry nor of the Islamic faith made him a particularly safe choice to lead at a time of serious ethnic tension.

In July 1966, he became Nigeria's youngest head of state at the age of 32, because a military Coup that saw the death of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was the head of state following the January 1966 coup). The July Counter-Coup led to unleashing of terror against the Igbos throughout the Northern Region. Hundreds of Igbo officers were murdered during the revolt. Soon Northern civilians joined in. Tens of thousands of Igbos were killed throughout the North. The persecution precipitated the flight of more than a million Igbo's towards their ancestral homelands in eastern Nigeria. Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military governor of the Eastern region argued that if Igbo lives could not be preserved by the Nigerian state, then the Igbos reserved the right to establish a state of their own in which their rights would indeed be respected.

Gowon announced on 5 May 1967 the division of the 3 Nigerian regions into 12 states. This resulted in the division of Ojukwu's Eastern Region into 3 states (Rivers State, South-Eastern State, and East-Central State). The non-Igbo South-Eastern and Rivers states which had the oil reserves and access to the sea, were carved out to isolate the igbo areas as East-Central state. This was seen as an attempt to weaken the igbos grip on oil reserves.

On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's announcement by declaring the formal secession of the Eastern Region, which was to be known as the Republic of Biafra. This was to trigger a war that would last some 30 months, and see the deaths of more than 100,000 soldiers and over a million civilians, most of the latter died of starvation. The end of the war came about on 13 January 1970, with Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo's acceptance of the surrender of Biafran forces.

The postwar years saw Nigeria enjoying a meteoric, oil-fueled, economic upturn in the course of which the scope of activity of the Nigerian federal government grew to an unprecedented degree, with increased earnings from oil revenues. Lagos the then capital was developed into an international city. Unfortunately, however, this period also saw a rapid increase in corruption, mostly bribery, of and by federal government officials; and although the head of State himself, Gen. Gowon, was never found complicit in the corrupt practices, he was often accused of turning a blind eye to the activities of his staff and cronies.

On 1 October 1974, in flagrant contradiction to his earlier promises, Gowon declared that Nigeria would not be ready for civilian rule by 1976, and he announced that the handover date would be postponed indefinitely. Furthermore, because of the growth in bureaucracy, there were allegations of rise in corruption. These provoked serious discontent within the army, and on 25 July 1975, while Gowon was attending an OAU summit in Kampala, a group of officers led by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed announced his overthrow.

Gowon subsequently went into exile in the United Kingdom. In February 1976, Gowon was implicated in the coup led by Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka, which resulted in the death of the now Gen Murtala Mohammed. According to Dimka's 'confession', he met with Gowon in London, and obtained support from him for the coup. In addition, Dimka mentioned before his execution that the purpose of the coup was to re-install Gowon as Head of State. As a result of the coup tribunal findings, Gowon was declared wanted by the Nigerian government, stripped of his rank in absentia and had his pension cut off. Gen Gowon was finally pardoned (along with the ex-Biafran President, Emeka Ojukwu) by President Shehu Shagari.

Still based in the UK, General Gowon today serves an 'elder statesman' role in African politics, operating (for example) as an official observer at the Ghanaian presidential elections 2008. He is also involved in the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme as well as the HIV Programme with Global Fund of Geneva.