A prominent northern politician and Minister of Transportation during the Second Republic, Umaru Dikko, is dead, his son, Dr. Bello Dikko and another family member, have confirmed.
Mr. Dikko, 78, died early Tuesday in a London hospital, the younger Mr. Dikko and another family member told NE.
He has been sick for “quite some time” and suffered three strokes in a row, a family member said.
Umaru Dikko was born in 1936, Wamba, Nothern Nigeria, and he was a Nigerian politician and also a trusted adviser to President Shehu Shagari. He was also the Nigerian minister for Transportation from 1979-1983.
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 secretar yof a committee set up by General Hassan Katsina to unite the Northerners after a coup in 1966.
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.
A military coup on December 31, 1983 overthrew the government of Shagari. Dikko fled into exile in London as well as 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.
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Death comes to us all. Politicians should note this.
ReplyDeleteMark
Now his body can be 'cargoed' to Nigeria - Umaru cargo. All the wealth, ill-gotten and genuinely remain behind.
ReplyDeleteIf only the living coould see were most of this people are heading after death.......as Bible has nade it ckear tgat no sinner shall go unpurnished.
ReplyDelete