Umaru Dikko

Umaru Dikko
Minister for Transportation
In office
1979–1983
PresidentShehu Shagari
Personal details
Born31 December 1936
Wamba, Kaduna, British Nigeria
Died1 July 2014(2014-07-01) (aged 77)
London, England
Political partySolidarity Group of Nigeria (SGN)
United Democratic Party
EducationUniversity of London

Umaru Abdulrahman Dikko (31 December 1936 – 1 July 2014) was a Nigerian politician. He was an advisor to President Shehu Shagari and served as minister for transportation from 1979 to 1983.[1]

Early life

Dikko was born in Wamba,[2] a small village near Zaria in Kaduna state of northern Nigeria. He spent his early school years in Zaria before receiving his Bachelor of Science from University of London. Before entering Nigeria's politics he worked for BBC's Hausa service and gradually became one of the prominent voices in the north.[3]

Political career

He started playing a role in the nation's governance in 1967, when he was appointed as a commissioner in the then North Central State of Nigeria (now Kaduna State). He was also secretary of a committee set up by General Hassan Katsina to unite the Northerners after a coup in 1966.[4] In 1979, he was made Shagari's campaign manager for the successful presidential campaign of the National Party of Nigeria. During the nation's Second Republic, he played prominent roles as transport minister and head of the presidential task force on rice.[citation needed]

A military coup on 31 December 1983 overthrew the government of Shagari. Dikko fled into exile in London along with a few other ministers and party officials of the National Party of Nigeria. The new military regime accused him of large-scale corruption while in office, in particular of embezzling millions of dollars from the nation's oil revenues.[5]

On 5 July 1984, he played the central role in the Dikko affair as he was found drugged in a crate at Stansted Airport that was being claimed[6] as diplomatic baggage, an apparent victim of a government–sanctioned kidnapping.[7][full citation needed] Police were permitted to search the crate as the Nigerians had neglected to mark it as diplomatic baggage or complete the necessary paperwork. The crate's destination was Lagos.[8][9]

He was the leader of Solidarity Group of Nigeria (SGN) that merged with the United Nigeria Congress Party during the Sani Abacha regime. In the Fourth Republic he formed the United Democratic Party (UDP), he was appointed to head the National Disciplinary Committee of the PDP in 2013.[10]

He died in London in 2014, aged 77.[11][9]

Notes

  1. ^ Daily, Peoples (1 July 2014). "Second Republic Minister, Umaru Dikko dies at London home". Peoples Daily Newspaper. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  2. ^ Jessup, John E. (3 August 1998). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313281129. Retrieved 3 August 2017 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Soldiers of Fortune, Nigeria Politics from Buhari to Babangida (1983-1993). Cassava Republic Press. ISBN 9789785023824. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  4. ^ Shehu Shagari, Beckoned to Serve
  5. ^ "From the 'Dikko affair' to the Dikko committee". The Nation. 4 August 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  6. ^ Alex Last, "The foiled Nigerian kidnap plot", BBC World Service, 12 November 2012
  7. ^ "The World's Greatest Spy Capers – The Dikko Affair (1984)"
  8. ^ "Why Dikko was seized; Kidnap in London", Financial Times, 7 July 1984
  9. ^ a b Weber, Bruce (8 July 2014). "Umaru Dikko, Ex-Nigerian Official Who Was Almost Kidnapped, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  10. ^ "PDP inaugurates Umaru Dikko-led Disciplinary Committee". Premium Times Nigeria. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Former Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko Dies". 1 July 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2017.

References