Chief Obafemi Awolowo

Released from Calabar Prison in August 1966, Chief Obafemi Awolowo accepted Gowon's appointment as Commissioner for Finance and Vice-Chairman of the Federal Executive Council in June 1967, ten days before the formal outbreak of the civil war.

His tenure produced the wartime budget of 1968, the introduction of the Naira (announced 1971, in circulation 1 January 1973), and the controversial twenty-pound currency-swap policy that wiped out most pre-war Biafran savings.

He resigned in 1971 in disagreement with the post-war direction of the Gowon administration. He later founded the Unity Party of Nigeria and contested the 1979 and 1983 presidential elections.