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A Tribute to the Late Group Captain Usman Jibrin (1942-2011) By Aliyu A. Ammani For the past 3 years, my pen remained idle inspite of series of topical events affecting our body politic: late President Yar’adua’s final illness and the controversy that trailed it, Jonathan acting presidency, Yar’adua’s death, Jonathan’s inherited Presidency, Bombings at the 50th Independence Anniversary and its aftermath, more crises on the Plateau, the brouhaha about the PDP’s Zoning mis-arrangement, the 2011 General elections, Post-presidential election violence, Boko Haram’s Suicide terrorism et cetera. In fact some of my good friends even suggested that my pen has dried up! However, when the news of the death of Group Captain Usman Jibrin hits me “like a summer breeze on a winter’s night” on Thursday the 8th day of September 2011, I couldn’t resist the urge to commit pen to paper to mourn and celebrate the life and time of such a remarkably rare personality. Lt. Col. Usman Jibrin, as he was then known, first came into limelight when he was appointed the military governor of the defunct North Central State of Nigeria on the 30th of July 1975 alongside eleven others. Until 1976, the officer corp of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) used the same rank nomenclature as their counterparts in the Nigerian Army. He served as Military Governor until 1977 when he resigned both his commision in the NAF and his appointment as the Military Governor of old Kaduna state in protest. Group Captain Usman Jibrin was a man of principle par excellence. How does one define a ‘man of principle’? I propose a working definition. A man of principle is he that makes and endures personal sacrifices that lead to personal loss of comfort, pleasure or privilege for a cause he believes in. If this proposition is accepted, it then follows that no man can claim to be a man of principle or be adjudged so, unless he has made personal sacrifice or endured personal loss of comfort, pleasure or privilege for a cause he believes in or appeared to believe in. Making personal sacrifices for a cause that will benefit many is the quality in the late Usman Jibrin that made him stand out in the crowd. Now let’s take a look at some of the personal sacrifices made by the late Group Captain Usman Jibrin for the cause he believed in, during his exemplary life. First, in 1977, there was a move by the then Federal Military Government (FMG) aimed at limiting the coverage of Radio Nigeria Kaduna (RNK), which at that time was the mouthpiece of the then 10 Northern States. The move was probably informed by the view that for as long as the RNK remained the most trusted and reliable source of information and proganda for the North, for so long will the North remains politically monolithic despite the splitting of the North following states creation in both 1967 and 1976. At a schedule meeting of the National Council of States, Group Captain Usman Jibrin, as the host governor of the RNK, decided to spearhead the opposition, after attempt to win the understanding and support of the remaining Northern states governors to oppose the FMG’s move was unsuccessful. In an interview with the Sunday Trust of 18th October 2009, Group Captain Jibrin said: Well, Obasanjo was very clever. The late Shehu Musa Yar’adua was his second-in-command. When we came to that particular item, he said he [Obasanjo] had some visitors and he walked out and left us with Yar’adua. When I made my stance very clear and there was a big row, we had to invite him to come back to the hall. When he came in, he said “ok, now the meeting is on recess, we should now go and have a break and come back.” What happened between the time when General Obasanjo was invited back to the hall and when he (Obasanjo) said “ok, now the meeting is on recess, we should now go and have a break and come back.”? In a short speech in Hausa at an anniversary of the RNK in Kaduna some years ago the late Group Captain gave us, and posterity insight into what actually transpired at that meeting. General Obasanjo was so furious. He left his seat, came down to where Usman Jibrin was sitting, gave him a shove on the chest and dared him to do his worst. Of all the members of the Council, only Col. David Jemibewon, military governor of all Oyo State, a fellow northerner from Kwara state, stood by him and was prepared to face any consequence. Subsequently, Group Captain Usman Jibrin tendered his resignation from the armed forces in protest. The rest is now history. Group Captain Usman Jibrin sacrificed his military career as a fighter pilot in the NAF at the very point in time that he was been considered for the post of the Chief of Air Staff. He sacrificed his position and privilege as the Military Governor of one of Nigeria’s most powerful state at the very peak of Nigeria’s Oilboom: a period which Nigeria’s problem was not money, but how to spend money. In the same Sunday Trust interview Usman Jibrin recalled: I left the Government House on that day with N300 in my bank account… The day I left the Government House, the following morning I couldn’t take my children to school because the only car I had broke down when I was driving them to school at Katuru Road. I came out pushing the vehicle myself the following morning after I left the Government House… I spent 13 years before I started getting my pension (from 1977 until 1990). In fact, I had to go to Lagos, where they said somebody had been collecting my money. I said they should investigate. They investigated and said the man died. I said draw a line and let me start getting my pension. It was only N1000 something I was getting in those days. Group Captain Jibrin made both sacrifices for a cause he believed in, that is, it is for the benefit of the North in particular and Nigeria in general that the North remained united. Recent happenings proved him right. Second, at his brief sojourn at the Jos Steel Rolling Company. In the same Sunday Trust interview Usman Jibrin recollected: When I went there I discovered that some poor people had placed orders for years but they were not given the materials. Whereas some big shots used to come, place orders for one week and they would be given. That is just one. I said that shouldn’t be so and some part of the management didn’t like that so I left because I didn’t want another crisis. Third, when the then FMG under General Abacha set up the PTF to utilize the monies resulting from the increse in fuel prices under the executive chairmanship of General Buhari, Group Captain Usman Jibrin was made a member. He resigned his membership of the PTF for the following reasons (the same Sunday Trust interview): What happened was that he (Buhari) followed the wrong procedure initially. He brought in the late Ahmad Salihijo without informing us. We just saw these boys in the meeting. We asked him, who are these boys? He said that they were just helping him to take notes. We didn’t know that he engaged them as consultants without our knowledge and consent because we are all members. I told him that it was wrong. As trustees, if something went wrong, we were the people that would be prosecuted, not any other person. I asked them to change the procedure and they were not ready to change it. I said ok, bye, bye. It was good that I left because after I left they had changed so many things to conform to what I was telling them. So, I am happy that I was responsible for something that was good for the country. The PTF literally had unlimited amount of funds with no stringent requirement for accountability. It is my opinion, that if a probe is conducted into the modus operandi of the defunct PTF, the late Group Captain will be further vindicated. In the case of the PTF, the late Group Captain sacrificed a good opportunity, in the Nigeria’s chop-i-chop mentality, of having a grab at a large chunk of the so-called National Cake: a cake everybody want a slice of, and nobody want a part in its baking. I can go on citing instances of personal sacrifices made by the late Group Captain Usman Jibrin at the course of his lifetime. However, I believe the point has been made. As al-Mutanabbi will argue, things are better understood in comparison. On this premise I ask: is there any Nigerian, especially a contemporary of the late Group Captain’s, that exhibited the quality of been a man of principle than the late Group Captain? Check them out and be the judge! Sadly, Nigerians are a people whose views, assessment and understanding of events, persons and processes are strongly distorted by prejudice and sentiments: religious, regional or tribal. Consequently, many a Nigerian hero has been reduced to a villain and vice-versa. Most true Nigerian heroes remain unsung; while villains, traitors and opportunists are celebrated. If this essay succeeds only in reminding the reader that some few good men were here, it will have achieved its purpose. Group Captain Usman Jibrin lived a simple and exemplary life guided by the doctrine: if you can’t beat them, rather than join them, leave them! He was among the pioneer fighter pilots and officers of the Nigerian Air Force. He committed a good part of his eventful life to Islamic scholarship and activism. May Allah’s Mercy shower on his soul, amen!
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