Dear Sir: A letter to Alhaji Umaru Dikko

You called me on the telephone late in May. You said to expect another call. It was with a happy expectation that I did. But alas, now you are gone forever. But remember, we shall forever remember you for your fights on our behalf, we of a generation born in the decade of an emergent […]

You called me on the telephone late in May. You said to expect another call. It was with a happy expectation that I did. But alas, now you are gone forever. But remember, we shall forever remember you for your fights on our behalf, we of a generation born in the decade of an emergent Northern Region of Nigeria in the 1950s.
With the brutal deaths of Sardauna our Premier, and Tafawa Balewa our Golden Voice of Africa, and Maimalari the Great, and a host of others so dear to us, your mind descended into a ferment. Call to duty became your dedication and stand up did you to save our souls. Our gratitude goes to you and may God Bless your soul for a call to duty answered with courage for a heritage of honour.
President Shagari, whom you have left here with us, must be a sad man. Turaki reposed his confidence in you. Why will he not? It was because you had earned it through your tenacity of purpose for us, children of Northern Nigeria.
Our soldier men in December 31, 1983 in their mischief, decided to make you their scapegoat. Every sin of 1979 to 1983 was put on your head. Lies and chicanery, but I know they knew that it was contrived to gain them cheap popularity. We know it was not justified and God shall bear witness for you on the Day of Reckoning.
To those who chose to play to the gallery of a devious Lagos-Ibadan axis press for cheap political points, shame on them. It is time for recompense by them. Now it is their turn, like it has been so for long a time since January, 1984. Inheritors of a warped jingoism peddled by Tribune and Daily Sketch and Concord, did not take a long time to make the same soldier men victims of the same venom you were so very unfairly subjected to. Good enough you lived long enough to read it all. Time will always tell, like Jimmy Cliff stated in a song of his.
Billions you were falsely accused of stealing and your heart ached much for an unkind cut as it was. Your reputation was tarnished beyond repair and your family put in eternal distress. But I do hereby, before God, give testimony to belie that unkind cut. You did not steal billions as they accused you of. I visited you often when you were in exile. I know you lived a Spartan life, as was the way you and all the other warriors of the Sardauna were brought up, trained to, live. The injustice done to you followed you to your grave.
So I write this letter to you with grief in my heart. Firstly, because I did not get to spend time with you in your last days, for which I’m sorry. Secondly, because you died a man saddened by the destruction of the heritage of honour which you lived to be a part of. I know how sad you were, as I am, too. Certainly, mine is miles apart from yours and for you, it has been death a long time before you actually died. For the unkind cut, Allah is your witness. May He grant you His mercy and may He be kind to your spirit, Amin.
Abubakar wrote in from Washington DC, U.S.A.