Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), the former Military Governor of Kaduna state, without a doubt, seriously lacks the democratic credentials that he tries to parade based on the resignation of his military commission, purportedly over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by the late Chief M. K. O. Abiola. Informed military analysts believe that Abubakar Dangiwa Umar was forced to retire having lost out in the cloak and dagger military politics. Another dent on his democratic credentials is his active participation in the violent ousting of the democratically elected government of President Shehu Aliyu Shagari over flimsy reasons which defied the military administration that he faithfully served, and the subsequent ones.
Dangiwa Umar’s active participation in the 1983 military coup remains an indelible stain on his pro-democracy stance, which cannot be wished away by his unwarranted attack on the Sokoto state government and the other northern governors that he savaged in his recent BBC interview. Umar’s anti-democratic credentials can never be cured by his later day pretensions of being a pro- democracy activist and a stout defender of free speech. Wonders, they say, will never end.
Whether Umar likes it or not, he remains guilty of participating in truncating a democratically elected government and he needs to apologise to Nigerians for his role in that sad event, before dabbling in the Hamdiyya Sidi matter where he sadly displayed his appalling lack of knowledge about the matter.
Another point worth making, before delving into Dangiwa Umar’s jaundiced interview of November 23, 2024, with the Hausa Service of the BBC, is that retired Umar, a prince of Kebbi state which, like Sokoto state, is suffering from terrorists attacks, has not been known to take any interest in the security situation in the North-west, nor has the retired officer of the Armoured Corp availed the Kebbi and Sokoto state governments his military experience in tackling the security challenges posed to the region by a bunch of blood-thirsty terrorists which led to the problem that he sought to profit from.
By unnecessarily attacking the Sokoto state government, Dangiwa Umar opened himself up to accusations of trying to use the Hamdiyya Sidi issue to seek cheap publicity which he acknowledged missing for over 10 years. The Hamdiyya Sidi issue was just a convenient platform for him to launch himself back to relevance and limelight that he missed.
Unfortunately, by latching on to the Hamdiyya Sidi misdemeanor to relaunch himself into public consciousness as a pro-democracy activist, Umar goofed big time with his uninformed and scathing statements because he was more interested in the media headlines than in any meaningful contribution that would throw light on the matter or suggestions that would help crush the insurgents.
Umar, as a former military governor of Kaduna state, ought to have been more circumspect in his interview on the Hamdiyya Sidi matter, not just because the lady in question had rightfully tendered an unreserved apology to the Sokoto state government and Governor Ahmed Aliyu over her actions, which could have precipitated a breakdown of law and order in Sabon Birnin Daji village, Wurno local government area of Sokoto state, but for the prompt and decisive intervention of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
Referring to the incident, in a simplistic misjudgement, Umar said: ”What I observed is that some of the leaders don’t seem to care about what is happening. I am saying this because recently I saw a video in which a certain young lady was seen lamenting about the insecurity facing Sokoto state. By the grace of Allah, we got someone like her that could voice out about what the people are facing, and the next thing we heard is that the Sokoto state government arrested her. She was beaten up and people were sent to blackmail her and make frivolous accusations of causing trouble in Sokoto state”. This narrative of the Hamdiyya Sidi offence is not only false, but cannot in any way be referring to the Sokoto state government which has demonstrated its commitment to protecting its citizens by words and deeds.
It is doubtful whether Umar, the “pro-democracy activist”, ever bothered to take note of the statement by the police on the circumstance of Hamdiyya Sidi’s arrest. For the record and the benefit of Umar, the police’s statement, signed by ASP Ahmad Rufai, its public relations officer, on the Hamdiyya Sidi matter is hereby reproduced.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Nigeria Police Force, Sokoto Command, has been drawn to the ongoing falsehood and misinformation circulated by gistcore media and other social media handles on the purported story that the Nigeria police Sokoto command secretly arrested and arraigned a woman who lamented on the recent rise in killings in Sokoto for embarrassing Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto. This is false and misleading.
The statement continued “We wish to make the record straight: On the 3rd of November 2024 at 1700hrs one Marafa Yakubu ‘m’ the village head of Sabon Birnin Daji village in Wurno local government area reported to the police that a woman later identified as one Hamdiyya Sidi ‘f’ of Munki village in Wurno local government area came to the village and deceived him that she is a member of that community representing a charitable organization meant to assist women and youth, that she wanted to address woman and distribute relief items to the less privileged in the society”.
Only the mischievous Umar would close his eyes to the explicit statement by the police, because it did not suit his agenda of demonising Governor Aliyu, or because he has to convince his foreign paymasters that he has not sold out. This is the only explanation for the retired officer’s weighty and reckless statements, spiced with the empty threat to drag the Sokoto state government to the International Criminal Court of Justice over the attack on Hamdiyya Sidi that has no link whatsoever to the government. It’s baffling how the former governor came to the conclusion that the government sponsored the attack on Hamdiyya Sidi.
The police has a duty to investigate the alleged attack on Hamdiyya Sidi and her subsequent appearance on a popular radio station based in Abuja,in what is becoming a pattern by the opposition to embarrass the government. First, they make false allegations against the governor and his family on the social media, they get arrested and on release they are beaten up by their collaborators and off to the radio station in Abuja where they would be given generous airtime to call the governor unprintable names and portray him as an enemy of free speech.
Are rights absolute? An eloquent no!
Is Umar’s refusal to believe the account of the police, a body that is constitutionally charged with ensuring law and order and relying on rumours, not a continuation of the disdain for the police by the military?
The Nigeria police’s statement is very emphatic that Hamdiyya Sidi incited the people against the government. And that it was the village head that reported her in the lawful exercise of his responsibility. But the retired officer, like it has become fashionable for fame seeking activists and political opportunists, chose to drag the governor’s name into the crisis for self serving publicity. It’s important to stress that there is no where in the entire matter where the governor featured as a complaint.
About Umar praising Hamdiyya Sidi for calling the attention of the governor to the security situation, this is very laughable because Governor Aliyu is alive to his responsibility and did not need the rude and uncouth Hamdiyya Sidi to remind him of his responsibilities which he has been discharging diligently, to the admiration of the people.
Umar, like the group of Northern Women operating under the name of Voices for Inclusion and Equity (VIEW) and Amnesty International (AI), continues to consciously fall for the antics of Hamdiyya Sidi, a political operative with alleged close ties to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because it advances their profile. Or is it a case of them using themselves?
As a retired military officer, Umar certainly knows that it is the responsibility of the federal government to secure the sovereignty of the country. Many sub-national entities, like Sokoto state, have been forced to perform the role that is exclusively that of the central government because it is their people that are being raped, killed,and subjected to other forms of inhuman treatment by mindless bandits.
Umar was uncharitable to Governor Aliyu who has given the security situation in Sokoto state his every attention despite being a glorified chief security officer, in agreeing with Hamdiyya Sidi’s false assertion that the governor is indifferent to the security situation of the state.
For the attention of Dangiwa Umar, the Aliyu administration has not only placed combating insecurity on top of its agenda, but has vowed to spend its last kobo in ensuring the security of its people. The governor established the Sokoto State Community Corps to help gather reliable intelligence needed to combat insecurity for the military. The governor, in enlightened self interest, has also gone ahead to construct a military base at Ilella for the armoured corps (Umar was of the corp), provided them with buffalo vehicles and other logistics support, including tarring roads to help security agencies respond more promptly to attacks. These efforts were necessary because the victims of terror attacks are the same citizens that elected the government. But being only a sub-national government, Sokoto and other states lack the coercive power to really go after the terrorists. Umar, though retired, knows this for a fact.
The question for Umar, being a military strategist, is, does he think there other other initiatives that Governor Aliyu should take, which he has not taken, in the efforts to help the military take the war to the terrorists operating in his state, within his constitutional authority?
But how on earth would Umar refer to Hamdiyya Sidi as a freedom fighter or threaten the state government over what it has no hand in, and over a matter that the police have investigated and found sufficient grounds to prosecute her? Umar went on to say: ‘I swear to Allah, if anything happens to this lady, we shall sue the Sokoto state government at the ICC”.
It is important to remind the retired officer that, thankfully, the ICC is not like the military government that wasted innocent lives over attempted coups. They would listen to both sides, unlike Umar who without giving the Sokoto state government a fair hearing, rushed to wrong conclusions.
Umar, again like the VIEW group, conveniently refused to address Hamdiyya Sidi’s reckless use of the social media to incite violence against the Sokoto government in an area that is grappling with terrorists attacks. Under a military dictatorship, Hamdiyya Sidi would have been arraigned before the Special Military Tribunal for attempted coup or being accessory to a coup.
One is equally surprised that Umar has no problem with what Hamdiyya Sidi posted about the governor and his family which would never have been published by any mainstream media, never. There is no absolute freedom.
So, why did Hamdiyya Sidi falsely accuse Governor Aliyu who has been up and doing; is it not because she was allegedly paid by the opposition to “cause trouble”?
Postscript: Hamdiyya Sidi has since apologised to the people of Sokoto state and recanted her post.