On July 29, 1975, a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba proclaimed Gowon’s overthrow when he was in Kampala for an OAU session. Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo was named deputy to Brigadier Murtala Muhammed by the coup plotters, who also named him as the leader of the new administration.
After that, Gowon fled into exile in the UK and enrolled at the University of Warwick to earn a Ph.D. in political science.
At a summit, Uganda’s Idi Amin was with Yakubu Gowon when Gowon was overthrown, Amin told him to accept the circumstances and maintain his strength. Interestingly, two months prior to Gowon’s coup, Idi Amin was also spotted in Uganda with Murtala Muhammed and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo.
Image Credit: Getty Image. Image captures exiled General Yakubu Gowon with his children, Ibrahim and Saratu, on the street of London on 25th October 1975.
