If retired Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar had been following the precedents of President Muhammadu Buhari, he would not have invested 1,533 words – excluding the salutations – in convincing the President that he was headed in the wrong direction. The President is cocksure about his divine mission to rescue Nigeria and he would not be deterred by the likes of Col. Umar whose idea of Nigeria does not align with the President’s.
Umar started his annoyingly-written letter with a Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio quote that should upset the President of a most peaceful Nigeria. “One of the swiftest ways of destroying a Kingdom is to give preference of one particular tribe over another or show favour to one group of people rather than another. And to draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near.” What was the purpose of this quote?
The President is in his fifth year of unleashing unprecedented changes on Nigeria. Celebrations are all over the land. Drums are pelting sounds of our happiness over the great progress that our country has made in these five years. Our people have never known a better time than in the last five years. All that Umar hears are sounds of war. Was he not an armoured officer? Must he blame Buhari for what he chooses to hear?
If Umar did not set out to annoy the President, knowing he was “neither a rabid supporter nor a fanatical opponent of yours,” why did he tell the President things his rabid supporters would not tell him? He claims he is exercising his rights as a citizen of Nigeria. Is he the only citizen?
The thrust of the Umar interruption is the lopsided appointments that Buhari has justified since 2015 with the explanations that he would appoint those who voted for him. He told an international audience so in 2015. Being a man of his words, Buhari has not relented in making appointments that would ensure he kept his words.
Umar in one line calls Buhari a man of integrity. In the next line he suggests that Buhari should compromise by making appointments to reflect constitutional provisions? Is he unaware of Buhari’s aversion to the Constitution, and his complaints about the strictures they have imposed on him? Umar is concerned the about composition of the security agencies and judiciary as key examples of the President’s lopsided appointments. He had examples of Nigeria of yore:
In February 1965, the Federal Government had to appoint the first Nigerian Army General Officer Commanding, GOC. Four most senior officers were nominated – Brigadiers Aguiyi Ironsi, Ogundipe, Ademulegun and Maimalari. The first three were senior to Maimalari but he was deemed to be more qualified as he was the first Sandhurst regular trained officer in the Nigerian Army. Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu and the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, both Northerners, and Muslims like Maimalari chose Ironsi, a Christian Igbo.
On 13 February 1976, the Commander-in-Chief, General Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated in a failed coup. General Olusegun Obasanjo, his deputy, and the most senior officer at the time, was sworn in as his successor. The Chief of Army Staff, General T.Y Danjuma, a Northern Christian, was next in line to succeed Obasanjo as the Chief of Staff, SHQ and Deputy Commander in Chief. General Danjuma waived his right to a much junior officer, Lt-Col. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who got double promotion to Brigadier and was appointed Chief of Staff SHQ and Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Lt-Col. Muhammadu Buhari was appointed Minister of Petroleum.
Both the Chief of Staff, Mr. Sunday Awoniyi, and the Personal Physician Dr. Ishaya Audu to the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, a direct descendant of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, were Christians.
In 1979, nine years after the Civil War, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari picked an Igbo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, as his running mate. They enjoyed a truly brotherly relationship as President and Vice President. Shagari’s Political Adviser, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and National Assembly Liaison Assistant, Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe, were both Igbos. His Economic Adviser, Prof. Emmanuel Edozien and his Chief of Personnel Staff, Dr. Michael Prest, were of Niger Delta extraction. Remarkably, all his military service chiefs were Christians with the exception of his last Chief of Army Staff, General Inuwa Wushishi under whose tenure Shagari was removed in a military coup.
Umar expected the President to follow the same examples. His concerns are that Buhari’s appointments were not in the interest of the country. He had at a press briefing, after the President won a second term early last year, spoken of the need for Buhari to write a history of Nigeria that would favour Buhari. Umar advised that Buhari could achieve that through his actions.
With only three years to go, Umar sees only misty hopes of a better Nigeria from Buhari. He should know that presidential panjandrums would consider his advice attacks on their individual contributions to the making of the Buhari presidency. Mrs. Lauretta Onochie has said that Umar’s interjection was a product of dependence on fake news. She is paid to say such things. Media reports have appeared with statistical inferences that Buhari’s appointments favoured the South, and not the North.
Umar has made his contribution aware of his relationship with Buhari. He matters of that nature to deter him. When he resigned his commission in 1993, it was unimaginable that a serving officer would do so. He did. Thereafter he spoke out against the President Ibrahim Babangida administration, and General Sani Abacha after him.
Who will bring Umar’s letter to the President attention? Was Umar, as a Major, not among those who abridged Buhari’s military regime on Tuesday 27 August 1985? Who has forgotten that?
Moreover, the President is a slow reader. President Buhari said so during a joint briefing with South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa in Abuja on Tuesday 10 July 2018. He was explaining delays in Nigeria signing the Continental Free Trade Agreement, CFTA. “I was presented with the document; I am a very slow reader maybe because I am an ex-soldier. I did not read it fast enough before my officials saw that it was all right for signature. I kept it on my table. I will soon sign it.”
If Umar needs answers to why the President would not read his letter, he has them. In addition, there are no officials who would approve that letter for the President’s perusal. They would not join Umar in denying their contributions to the overwhelming successes of the Buhari administration.
A small advice for Umar: Next time use cartoons. Presidential spokesman Mr. Garba Shehu in a series of tweets on the night of Wednesday 25 August 2016, told Nigerians that the President’s preferred media form was cartoon.
Shehu tweeted: “The President enjoys cartoons and likes sharing them. The ones he enjoys most are the ones that caricature him. When he picks up a paper, the first page he goes to is the cartoon page. He laughs and laughs.”
Sadly, Umar does not have a message that would make the President laugh and laugh.
Ikeddy ISIGUZO
.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor national issues
