Col Abubakar Umar Writes Open Letter To President Tinubu, Asks Him To Fix Security Challenges
Appreciation for Your Recognition of Services Rendered to Democracy by Officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces During the June 12 Struggle
An Open Letter To The President
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
Dear Mr President,
Appreciation for Your Recognition of Services Rendered to Democracy by Officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces During the June 12 Struggle
I wish to offer my profound appreciation for your public recognition of the services rendered by some officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces whose names were read out during your Democracy Day Address on 12th June 2026.
This subject matter formed part of the issues contained in my public statement on a similar occasion last year. It is indeed fit and proper that citizens who put their lives on the line in the struggle to redress the injustice of the annulment of the presidential election of 12th June 1993 are publicly recognized.
I must also thank you for honoring the other non-military heroes mentioned in your address, who made various sacrifices to overturn the ill-advised annulment of that election.
It is hard to overstate this fact, Mr. President: June 12th is a watershed moment in our march to democracy, and its annual celebration is richly deserved. Still, because this is an annual event, I am sure other people, military, civilian, living or deceased, who deserve similar recognition but have not yet received it will be duly identified and honored in due time.
In the course of your address, Mr. President, you acknowledged that the democracy we have today is still a work in progress, particularly as it relates to providing security for our citizens. Many people do not know what to make of this statement: were you displaying humility or despairing of the task?
What those officers envisaged when they put their lives on the line back in 1993 was, for want of a better word, ambitious. In fact, they took the security of our citizens as given, a raison d’être, a minimum condition for the existence of any government, democracy or not. If national security is missing, that would be the end of the discussion; nothing else matters. Nothing!
And, while we are at it, Mr. President, allow me to remind you of what else motivated the officers back then. They craved a democracy that included its most basic features:
Separation of powers
An independent and impartial judiciary that dispenses justice untainted by partisan or primitive considerations
A truly independent electoral umpire that guarantees free and fair elections
Economic policies that safeguard citizens’ welfare as well as productivity
They also pinned their hopes on a robust war against poverty, especially among the hapless masses at the bottom of the social pyramid.
Mr. President, as a long-standing advocate of equity, equality, transparency, and inclusion, many of us saw no reason to doubt your commitment towards a better future and a renewed hope for all Nigerians, as enshrined in Chapter Two of our Constitution.
So, in order that the sacrifices those officers and other Nigerians made towards the achievement of the June 12th struggle do not go in vain, I advocate that those ideals become once again the cornerstone of your national policies.
We thank you, Mr. President.
Please accept the assurances of our deepest regards.
Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, rtd.
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