Billionaire TY Danjuma donates $2.2 million at former President Yakubu Gowon's autobiography launch

Retired General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma donated N3 billion, approximately $2.17 million, at the public presentation of former head of state Yakubu Gowon's autobiography in Abuja on Tuesday, in what amounted to a very public tribute from one of Nigeria's wealthiest men to a man he has known for more than 70 years.

The donation was announced at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, where the 20-chapter memoir, titled My Life of Duty and Allegiance, was unveiled before a crowd that included Vice President Kashim Shettima, representing President Bola Tinubu, former heads of state Abdulsalami Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan, senior military officers and diplomats.

Danjuma, 87, served as chief presenter but did not attend in person. Retired General Martin Luther Agwai, a former Chief of Defence Staff, read his tribute. The N3 billion was used to purchase 12 copies of the book for the library of each of the 20 universities that have conferred honorary doctorate degrees on Gowon over the years.

In his remarks, Danjuma described Gowon as Nigeria's foremost living statesman and said their friendship dated back to childhood in the Wusasa area of Zaria. "His well-recorded slogan of 'no victor, no vanquished' after the civil war set the tone for an effective post-war policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation," he said. He called the memoir a treasure trove of history and a gift to the world.

Aliko Dangote contributed N500 million, about $362,000, through his representative and senior adviser Mansur Ahmed, who also purchased 25 copies of the book on his behalf. Ahmed told the audience that Dangote had been a 10-year-old primary school pupil when Gowon was steering Nigeria through its most turbulent years, and that Gowon's determination to keep the country united created the environment that eventually allowed Dangote to build his pan-African business empire. AbdulSamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group, purchased copies of the memoir worth N25 million, approximately $18,100. Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto reviewed the book at the ceremony.

Danjuma built his fortune in two stages. The first was a military career that took him to the position of Chief of Army Staff from 1975 to 1978. The second was business. After retiring from the army, he founded Nigeria American Line, one of the country's earliest indigenous shipping companies, before establishing South Atlantic Petroleum, known as SAPETRO, in 1995. SAPETRO was awarded rights to deep offshore oil blocks at a time when multinationals controlled nearly everything of value in Nigeria's upstream sector. In 2006, the company sold almost half its contractor rights in an offshore section to China National Offshore Oil Corporation for $1.8 billion, one of the largest indigenous oil transactions in Nigerian history. Danjuma's net worth today stands at approximately $1.1 billion.

He served as Nigeria's Minister of Defence from 1999 to 2003 under President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2008, he endowed the TY Danjuma Foundation with $100 million, directing its work toward health, education and economic development in underserved Nigerian communities.

Gowon, now 88, was Nigeria's military head of state from 1966 to 1975, a period that encompassed the civil war and the reconstruction that followed. His "no victor, no vanquished" declaration at the war's end, cited by Danjuma on Tuesday, became one of the most quoted phrases in Nigerian political history.