Ex-President Son Arrives Nigeria After 22 Years In Prison

A lot must have changed and gone down while Musa was in confinement in the US, Nigeria must have looked so foreign. The forty-seven-years-old son of Yakubu Gowon allegedly arrived Nigeria on January 1, 2016. Last year, he was released on state pardon granted him by President Obama after spending 22 years in jail.

Recall that Musa was living in the United States with his mum, late Edith Ike Okongwu, when he was arrested in November 18, 1992 at age 23. 

Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Customs Service arrested him for conspiring to import in excess of one kilogram of heroin. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the allegedly smuggling heroin from source countries. Although Jack Musa protested vehemently through his legal team that he was innocent and was framed up, this did not stop him from being sentenced.

However, Musa decided being in prison is not the end of life. He enrolled in one of the universities around and successfully graduated with a degree in Law as a prison inmate. He was also a role model and a legal adviser to all the inmates. He carried himself well and was a source of inspiration to co- inmates who have given up on life. He was rewarded for all his good conducts severally by the prison authorities.

His family however did not relent in efforts at getting him out of the prison. Moves for his release began to grow louder and President Obama hearkened to one of the moves and acted by granting him a parole. Musa walked out of Taft Correctional Facility Bakersfield California as a free man on November 2, 2015.

Just recently, General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former head of state said his experience after governing the country showed that Nigeria is not an easy country to lead.