A video featuring Yakubu Gowon, the former military Head of State, has been circulating on the internet, revealing an unexpected linguistic twist.
Gowon was asked to address the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War in Hausa, a request he viewed as a coup against him.
The incident occurred after Gowon’s visit to President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday, where he was expected to speak to journalists. However, the request for him to speak in Hausa took him by surprise.
Gowon, who has primarily communicated in English for nearly eight decades, expressed his discomfort with the sudden language switch. He insisted on the need for an interpreter to translate his English remarks.
In the viral video, Gowon is heard saying, “Wait a minute, who told you I am going to do it in Hausa? Oh, my goodness, look, for almost 80 years, I have been always speaking mostly in English… This is an ambush. This is a coup. No, No…. My Hausa is not good enough to say it in Hausa.”
