By Osa Director
Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retired) shot into national reckoning and public limelight in 1984.
That was shortly after Major-General Muhammadu Buhari and Major-General Tunde Idiagbon’s coup, which toppled the civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983.
He was appointed the Chief Executive of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Umar, then with the rank of a Major, was a dashing-looking young man filled with effusive display of public intellectualism and altruistic intentions.
He immediately caught the fancy of the probing media that was suspicious of military intervention in our polity and national life.
But with his captivating swagger, radical pronouncements and dress sense reminiscent of revolutionary Che Guevara, the Bolivian revolutionary, save for the goatee beard, he instantly became the object of media scrutiny and public attention.
He promised to revolutionize the housing sector and his outspokenness was a breath of fresh air in the autocratic regime of Buhari/Idiagbon, which cultivated taciturnity as an art of governance.
Before Nigerians could critically x-ray him and his housing policies, the palace coup of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) took place on August 27, 1985. His reign as FHA boss came to an abrupt end.
For those who thought that was the end of the unusual military officer imbued with radical ideology, they had more than they bargained for.
It soon emerged that Col. Umar was one of the three musketeers, middle ranking officers, who were the foot soldiers and masterminds of the IBB coup, the other members being Colonel Lawan Gwadabe and Colonel Abdulmuminu Aminu.
As an officer in the Armoured Corps, Umar was very essential to the success of IBB’s coup.
He was appointed as military governor of old Kaduna State (comprising todays Kaduna and Katsina states). He was only 36 years old and on the rank of a Major.
For credible reasons, not a few Nigerians were worried by Umar’s duty post, especially for his youthful age and rank in the Army, considering the fact that Kaduna State was home to many top retired Generals, and also serving top military officers, as many military formations were located in the state.
Kaduna State was also home to the powerful and all-controlling amorphous group called the Kaduna Mafia.
Hence, his appointment was like throwing a small fish in shark-infested waters. But Umar was not only equal to the task, he distinguished himself with vibrant policies and pronouncements, fearing or favouring no one, only with a heart for the downtrodden masses.
His messages and policy direction resonated with the people. Although a royal blue blood, as a scion of the famous Sokoto Caliphate, since he was that son of one of the kingmakers, the Waziri of Gwandu, he was more in the company of the ordinary people. He carried himself with the elan of a liberator from feudalist tendencies.
He was credited with statements challenging the all-powerful traditional institutions in the North to reform or face extinction.
His leftist proclivities and socialist pronouncements were not really surprising to those who knew him well.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and was one of the famous radical students on campus referred to as BUBU (Bala Usman Brought Up).
The late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman was an uncompromising and unrepentant socialist ideologue and lecturer in ABU. Umar was one of his ardent supporters and students.
Therefore, while in government, Umar was only practicing and experimenting all that he learned under the tutelage of Dr. Usman.
Another remarkable achievement of Umar’s as military governor of Kaduna State was how he brilliantly, without insolence, managed and tamed the retired military henchmen who preponderated Kaduna State polity, business and social life.
He was fair but firm in dealing with all to ensure sustainable peace, growth and development of the state under his watch.
Then Kaduna State used to be a hotbed of religious crises and tension, especially between the Muslims in the northern part of Kaduna and the Christians in the southern part.
When one of such religious conflagrations occurred in 1987, those who expected him to take sides with his fellow Muslims were shocked. In his usual cerebral dissection of issues, he was on the side of sociological reality and truth.
He emphasized the futility of religious wars, as he noted, “If you win a religious war, you cannot win a religious peace…since the killing started, how many Christians have been converted to Islam? How many Muslims have been converted to Christianity? It is an exercise in futility.”
In essence, religion being an opium of the people (apologies to Karl Marx) is usually a facade to brew social and political bloodbath.
For Umar, most times, when people fight under the guise of religion, it is mostly occasioned by hunger, poverty, deprivation and ignorance largely due to poor leadership that lacks accountability and transparency.
Some critics often point to Umar as an IBB boy and clothe him with the inadequacies of that era. Not many knew that Umar in his characteristic bluntness was by a mile the biggest insider critic of the Babangida era.
From the beginning of Babangida’s regime, Umar stamped his authority and voice of reason. A knowledgeable source and colleague of Umar once told this writer that, immediately after the success of the IBB coup, it was time to choose the second in command, the Chief of General Staff (CGS).
The late General Sani Abacha and some hawks within harped on the need for a northern officer to occupy the position and proposed General Domkat Bali.
It was almost sailing through when Umar, even though a junior officer, raised an observation.
He, therefore, nominated Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe. His choice shocked and angered Abacha because he felt Umar should be on his side as he was the one who nominated Umar for the position of Chief Executive of FHA under Major General Buhari.
It was the FHA job that thrust Umar into national reckoning and limelight. However, Umar has a mind of his own and chooses to be on the side of history, supporting ethnic balance. Even Bali reportedly aligned with Umars proposition. That was how Ukiwe got the job of CGS. Abacha never forgave Umar for it.
My investigations as a journalist revealed that Umar wrote the highest number of internal memos and petitions against Babangida’s policies and programmes.
When General IBB said there was no alternative to the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, Umar just like Chief Gani Fawehinmi disagreed. They noted that everything including life has an alternative, which is death!
One of the most salutary characteristics of Umar is that he is not materially driven. When IBB introduced the culture of settlement into our polity, where corruption became a norm anyone who had access to him became instantaneously wealthy.
Check for Part (2)
Abubakar Umar: Soldier of Democracy (2)