Col. Ahmed Usman: Speaking Truth of the Dead

Gbenro Adegbola/

Never speak evil of the dead, but it doesn’t say never say the truth about the dead.

The late Col. Ahmed Usman; lest we forget.

The death has been announced of Colonel Ahmed Usman, 1951-2021, aged 70. He died on Wednesday 14th April, 2021 in Jos.

He was one of the Sanni Abacha military boys who’re believed to have manipulated public agitation against their principal for their own ends, while hoping to also curry his favour.

They were ready to do whatever they thought would please him but didn’t mind exploiting him also.

Usman was first appointed Governor of Ondo State in August 1994 and served there till August 1996.

While there he recorded no tangible achievement that can be remembered. He left behind a trail of intimidation and talking down on the people in the manner of a Roman Governor.

He even publicly tried to bully members of the judiciary to do his bidding by threatening them with summary dismissal if they wouldn’t do what he wanted. As discontent and ant-military sentiment in general, and Abacha antipathy in particular, grew, especially in the SW, the junta needed someone to go with an iron fist to be at the helm of affairs in Oyo State, the political capital of the SW. It was believed that if the capital city of Ibadan, sneezed, the whole of the SW would erupt.

Therefore, it was important to them to have a man who could ‘do the job’ in Ibadan. They found in Col. Ahmed Usman, that man. He was thus redeployed to Ibadan as Military Governor of Oyo State in August 1996.

His task essentially was to go and put down, at any cost, all the agitation that was brewing quietly all over the land.

He was indeed prepared to do anything to achieve this. But his time in Oyo state, rather than decrease tension, seemed to increase tension dramatically.

The hitherto relatively peaceful atmosphere in Ibadan suddenly became even more charged from when he arrived in August 1996. A bomb blast went off in a military truck somewhere in Ibadan in May of 1997, killing two soldiers and one policeman.

Whispers started to go round, that suggested it was organised by elements in his government, to get money out of Abuja, ostensibly for beefing up security. Usman talked tough and described the perpetrators of the bombing as cowards. But the people were disbelieving. They mostly felt it was a game. The rumours only intensified.

The game apparently was to create artificial tension and request for huge funds to keep things under control. However by the following year, things began to really heat up, as Abacha seemed more determined than ever to transmogrify into a civilian strongman president.

In April 1998, a pro Abacha rally was organised by Adedibu. It was addressed by Usman himself, at Lekan Salami Stadium.

Outside the stadium an anti Abacha group known as United Action for Democracy (UAD) had congregated to show the world that what was going on inside was not popular position.

A clash ensued, two UAD guys were killed and 20 wounded when police and military opened gunfire on them. On May Day, May 1, there was another rally, this time to really counter the earlier one. It was jointly organised by prodemocracy organisations in Ibadan.

Abacha seemed determined to have his way and the people were even more determined to show non support in protests. The rally was violently disrupted when government security personnel and private security guards said to belong to Alahji Arisekola Alao, another Abacha surrogate, opened fire on unarmed protesters.

At least seven protesters were killed and many vehicles were razed in the melee.

A few days later, several prominent citizens of the state, not all of who had anything to do with the disturbance, were picked up from their homes and charged with subversion.

They were however all of anti-military persuasion.

Usman had to be seen to be doing his job, you see! He lied that all of them were arrested at the scene of the disturbance and proceeded to declare them “prisoners of war”.

By that, he wasn’t signalling they would be protected according to Geneva Convention, but rather making ominous boast, that any fate could befall them. Those arrested included, Chief Bola Ige, Alhaji Lam Adesina, Prof. Ola Oni, Mr. Moshood Erubami, and many others.

Usman was to blame “foreign enemies” for sponsoring the protest, thereby loading the subversion accusation stakes against the accused without evidence.

He boasted that any further protests in Ibadan or anywhere in the state, will be met with maximum violence and that security forces had been placed on red alert to prevent any such occurrence.

The following month of June 1998, Gen. Sani Abacha suddenly dropped dead.

Col. Usman was relieved of his governorship position by the new head of state in August.

SW Nigeria was finally rid of the plague that he constituted for the four ‘years of the locust’ that he spent here.

President Buhari has said in a tribute that as a military officer, the late Colonel Usman served the nation with courage and dedication, adding that he made contributions to peace and unity.

This might possibly be true in other respects. It’s noted that he served on a UN peace keeping mission to Lebanon, for example.

But some of us respectfully and firmly assert that the president’s high praise for him certainly doesn’t apply to the years he spent in Ondo and Oyo states.

May almighty God in his tender mercy forgive his shortcomings and admit his soul to his rest.

A heavy sigh for him.

*Adegbola is CEO First Veritas Educational Content Delivery Ltd

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