Letter to Major-General Hassan Usman Katsina

Your Excellency,

Let me first begin by praying to Allah (SWT) to forgive your shortcomings and continue to rest your soul in Jannatul-Firdaus.

I know that this letter may not reach you, because in Islam, once a person dies and is committed to mother earth, all communications are cut off except between the deceased and the interrogating Angels and the kind prayers (du’a) offered to him by his loved ones.

Why then, am I writing this letter to Your Excellency? I am forced to do so out of frustration, because since you left us almost 31 years ago, the North, that beautiful region you once administered as its last governor before the creation of states in May 1967, and also guided well in retirement, is now in chaos, distress, divided and with no solution in sight.

There are problems at every nook and corner of this once model territory which you once told me was the pride of the nation.

Your Excellency may recall I visited with you sometime in November 1978 at your residence in Unguwan Sarki, Kaduna.

I was attending a course at the Federal Radio Training School, operated on the premises of the Radio Television Kaduna (RTK), though both the Radio and the television stations were administratively separated two years earlier and became FRCN and NTA. The school was headed by Mallam Khalifa Baba-Ahmed.

Your Excellency honoured my request to interview you for my practical assignment, and I got lucky to have been introduced to you by Group Captain Mustafa Amin, the former military governor of Borno state, whom I was acquainted with through one of his cousins.

Before the interview, you asked me why I chose to become a broadcaster, and offered to get me admitted in to the NDA which at the time did not raise the entry qualification for cadets from WASC/Grade 2 to a minimum of first degree or its equivalent.

I was only 22 years old at the time and had just six months earlier left my primary school teaching job with the Adamawa Local Education Authority as Grade 2 teacher and joined the Gongola State Ministry of Information and Culture, as Information Assistant.

I always had interest in journalism and was thrilled to realise my dream. It was the ministry that sent me to the FRCN Training School for a three-month certificate course in basic news reporting together with two colleagues, Tani David and Joseph Vandi. My good friend and course mate, Muhammed Yelwa Garvey accompanied me to see you.

I appreciated Your Excellency’s gesture but told you I wanted to have career in journalism. May be if I had joined the army, by now I would have retired at the least, on the rank of one-star or possibly even two-star general.

I wouldn’t want Your Excellency to be turning in your grave; but sadly, I only have bad news to tell you about the North. It has degenerated to the level of dysfunction caused by lack of leadership.

The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “if people are travelling together, even if they are two, one of them must assume leadership.” After Sardauna, you held the North together. The people were united and listened to you because of the quality of your leadership.

Since your departure, state of affairs in the region has been going from bad to worse. Even though you left service in July 1975 after the Murtala/Obasanjo led coup against the administration of General Gowon in which you first served as the Chief of Army Staff throughout the civil war period and later, Deputy Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, there has not been a single soul that could fill the void you left behind.

We have had several northerners that became civilian democratic leaders, as well as military heads of state, some of them you guided very well, but became something else after we lost you.

They failed to measure up to the standard you set. In other words, they lacked that sound leadership quality you possessed – principally integrity, selflessness and patriotism. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari attempted to emulate you, but those he entrusted with running the affairs of government failed him.

Other northern big names who rose to high positions in government service had also failed woefully. After your demise, the total estate that you left behind was less than N10 million despite the high offices you held, in addition to being a royalty. But today, the sum of N10 million is chicken feed to even their children who could dole out twice that amount and dash it to praise singers.

When you were the Governor of the Northern region (now 19 states+ FCT), the annual budget of government was less than £5 million (around N9 billion 2026 exchange). today, the budget for all the states combined that made up the defunct northern region is in trillions. Yet, nothing tangible that commensurate with the spending could be seen in most states.

The governors are busy competing for fame on the pages of newspapers and in the social media. Merit awards are literally bought from vendors that pose as NGOs and advocacy groups that book 5-star hotels for the ceremonies where hundreds of millions are spent at the expense of poor taxpayers.

Boko Haram, tribal militia and lately, banditry and kidnappings have become the order. It has become an industry where the criminal beneficiaries smile home with millions with no consequences despite the availability of modern technology that could be used to track, monitor and even easily apprehend them.

Selective assassination of prominent northern citizens is part of the insecurity that has been bedeviling our communities. Your junior, Maj-Gen.(rtd) Muhammadu Shuwa, one of the region’s finest, was killed inside his home in Maiduguri in 2012 by gunmen, that were dressed in white Jallabiya and thought to be members of Boko Haram.

However, that mode of dressing gave away the assassins disguise. The Boko Haram members do not dress that way. Which means he was most likely killed by a group with special interest that had him on their radar and seized the opportunity of the Boko Haram intense insurgency to strike, thereby achieving their set goal?

Another North’s finest retired military officer, Maj. Gen. Idris Alkali, was in 2018 killed by tribal militia in Plateau state. His killers then hid his body inside his car and submerged it in an abandoned mining pond.

Just last week, suspected terrorists within the communities of Katsina state, your beloved domain as Chiroma, abducted and killed Maj-Gen. Abubakar Rabe, while his wife sustained gunshot wounds while being rescued by the military.

In 2014, a first class emir in Borno state, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, Emir of Gwoza was killed.

In 2013, the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, narrowly escaped assassination on the streets of Kano city.

Your Excellency, the North is now completely in disarray with no one to lead it. There is no single individual that commands respect of the people or merits to be a rallying point.

Most of those with the potential to lead were former public office holders that are afraid to stand up for the region, probably because they have skeletons in their cupboards and are, therefore, easy targets for blackmail.

Others that qualify and would have no reason to be afraid are too eager to sell the interest of the North for political appointments and are treated with suspect by the people.

Even the attempt to copy your initiative of forming the Committee of Concerned Citizens that later metamorphosed to the NPN political party, failed.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was formed at the turn of the millennium, but it has since been dogged by problems, and so, achieved very little. In fact, as I write this letter, the leadership of the group is said to be at loggerheads for an embarrassing reason that I would rather reserve further comments.

Your Excellency, as near hopeless as the situation is, we will keep trying to get it right. We will also continue to pray for peace in the land and for our leadership to realise their mistakes and start doing the right thing.

I will keep Your Excellency abreast with any new development, as the North struggles to find a pathway to its former glory.

Iyawa is a public affairs analyst and he sent in this article from Yola, Adamawa State

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