Omoniyi Salaudeen
It’s been a while since Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd) made any controversial remark on public matters. To be sure, the former military administrator is not known for frivolity. He very rarely speaks except when it matters. He is one of the few courageous Nigerians who would stand up for justice any time any day. But for reasons best known to him, he has been somehow lying low in his Kaduna home state until recently when he took President Muhammadu Buhari to task on the perceived lopsidedness of his appointments.
In an open letter to the president dated May 30, 2020, Umar warned of the dire consequences of favouring one section of the country over another.
His words: “At this time and in the light of all that have happened since you took office, any conversation with you Mr. President cannot gloss over the chaos that has overtaken appointments into government offices in your administration. All those who wish you and the country well must mince no words in warning you that Nigeria has become dangerously polarized and risk sliding into crisis on account of your administration’s lopsided appointments which continues to give undue preference to some sections of the country over others.”
He is not alone in this position. Rightly or wrongly, allegation of lopsided appointment has remained one of the major snags of this present administration. And it has attracted comments and criticisms from well-meaning Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had earlier accused Buhari of nepotism and clannishness. Of particular concern to all of them is the security architecture of the country, which has been perceived to be deliberately skewed in favour of one section of the country at the expense of the others.
About this same time last year, Obasanjo went full blare over the perceived distrust arising from the worrisome development, saying: “I am very much worried and afraid that we are on the precipice and dangerously reaching a tipping point where it may no longer be possible to hold danger at bay. Without being immodest, as a Nigerian who still bears the scar of the Nigerian civil war on my body and with a son who bears the scar of fighting Boko Haram on his body, you can understand, I hope, why I am so concerned.”
However, many of his critics ignored the real essence of the message and dismissed him as an alarmist. Umar, not minding similar name calling, also used the auspicious occasion of this year’s Inauguration Day to remind the president that the country is dangerously drifting towards the precipice.
Coincidentally, these are members of the same constituency, who should ordinarily play up sentiment about esprit de corps, but chose to place national interest above narrow self exclusivity. For the convenience of it, Umar could as well maintain siddon look attitude and watch the roof collapsing. But men of conscience don’t look at their personal gains, but the good and happiness of the majority.
That, indeed, was the same spirit that spurred his opposition to the annulment of the June, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by the late MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). At the risk of his life, he raised his lone voice against the unpopular decision and started looking for support within the army to install the presumed winner of the election.
Eventually, he lost his commission in the Nigerian Army to the adventure on the suspicion of conspiracy. For that courageous act, his place is settled among the pantheon of heroes.
Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, one time military administrator of Kaduna State was born on September 21, 1949 in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State. His father, a school teacher and administrator with the traditional title of Wazirin Gwandu, became a member of the House of Representatives in Lagos (1954 – 1964) and Commissioner for Works in the North-Western State (1968 – 1975).
As a vocal critic of the General Sani Abacha regime, he joined the G-18 group of politicians with a commitment to oust the unpopular regime. After his retirement from the army in 1993, he became a social critic and the founder of Movement for Unity and Progress.
At the height of political intrigues that culminated in the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan following the invocation of the doctrine of necessity by the National Assembly, he called on the ailing President Umar Yar’Adua to resign to restore peace back to the country.