Re: Failed biography of Hassan Usman Katsina

The telephone, to him, was a continuation of face-to-face conversation; he saw no problem in pressing into service anybody at hand – peasant or president – as his telephone operator of the moment. Mahmud was not the first to receive a new name from him; General Hassan was notorious for not readily remembering names – […]

The telephone, to him, was a continuation of face-to-face conversation; he saw no problem in pressing into service anybody at hand – peasant or president – as his telephone operator of the moment. Mahmud was not the first to receive a new name from him; General Hassan was notorious for not readily remembering names – or (mis)pronouncing them! The delightful quirks he pointed out demonstrated the general’s essential humanity.
He was also spot-on in his observation of General Hassan’s unalloyed loyalty to General Gowon.  The story, as told by those close to him at the time, of his reaction to the July 1975 coup d’état that overthrew General Gowon’s government, illustrated this. Wakilin Gowon, as Mamman Shata described him, was in Kano attending the polo tournament when it took place. The plotters sent a delegation to brief him, as well as bring him back to Lagos for a crucial meeting.  First he chided them for staging the coup, asserting that it had caused a breach in the unity of Northern officers. Then he declared that if they thought he would accept to replace Gowon they were flat wrong; he would have no truck with such thinking.
Incredibly, General Hassan took the same Nigeria Airways flight to Lagos with then Brigadier Murtala Muhammed, who was returning from London. At the meeting of the coupists, which Murtala was presiding over, General Hassan and his colleagues, former top brass, were kept waiting for what seemed, to him, eternity. So he stood up, went to the door of the meeting room and opened it, brushing aside the soldier on guard. Entering the room, he said in Hausa, words to the effect “Muhammadu (addressing Murtala) please do not humiliate us. If we are no longer needed, please let us know so we can go. But please do not humiliate us.” Murtala quickly assured General Hassan they would be attended to soon.
Gideon Orkar’s coup and the pronouncements in the coup speech caused General Hassan to rush out of his house, shoeless and on foot, his driver not being close by. He did manage to get to his destination; though not on foot or shoeless. Listeners of radio broadcasts on FRCN Kaduna that day could hear General Hassan urging on the representative of 1 Division as he denounced and repudiated the coup and the purported excision of six Northern states from the rest of Nigeria. His involvement helped strengthen the resolve of a significant section of the army to resist the coup.
General Hassan lived his life guided by the notion of noblesse oblige. He was a Ciroma to the end, a rallying point for the Northern elite, irrespective of politics, when civility was still in vogue. Bature Sarkin Magana characterised him thus: “Jikan Dikko kai da arziki tare kuke.” He quite liked it.
 May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Mohammed Tukur Usman, Kaduna<[email protected]>