February 20, 2010
“It was not how long one lives but how well one lives,” wrote a mourner on the condolence register. Abubakar Abba Umar had his life gruesomely terminated at the age of 42. Not only was the way he died unique but his entire life had taken a unique pattern. He was murdered on 11th November 2009 at Utako District in Abuja. His killers were not content with fracturing his skull with a bullet, they also used a special incendiary material to burn him inside his car. What remained were barely ashes and pieces of crumbling bones.Abba, as he was called by friends and family members, was an example of an exceptionally gifted, honest and hard-working individual. Although he was the first law student to graduate with a first class in the faculty at the University of Maiduguri in 1992, he never attended primary or secondary school. He missed both but was able to educate himself at home.
His father who was an eminent Islamic scholar wanted Abba to become another Islamic scholar. He selected him for that purpose for the latter’s intellect. Even at tender age Abba has memorized a lot of Arabic texts. When Abba was a teenager he decided on his own that he needed to have Western education. Family members remembered observing him buying elementary English and mathematics textbooks. He taught himself how to read and write in the Roman script. Later on he enrolled at the Arabic Teachers College in Gombe and Later in Maiduguri from where he proceeded to College of Legal Studies Yola where he emerged with a distinction. Eventually he made it to the University of Maiduguri where he got a first class and won many prizes in 1992.
Abba’s sojourn took him to Lagos for his National Youth Service Corp with the National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in 1994. He did so well as a corps member that he was retained. His former boss Ahmed Almustapha remembered as someone who will not close from work until his boss did so.
He was so impressed with Abba’s performance that when he was appointed Registrar-General at the then obscure and poorly-organized Corporate Affairs Commission he took Abba along with him to be his Special Assistant in 2001. Not that Almustapha was related to Abba in any way. They were not even from the same state. He picked Abba from among many candidates solely out of merit. All his life Abba never had to lobby for anything. He deserved every single appointment he got.
He was also a board member of Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, Onne, Port Harcourt representing the CAC. Before his death, he was also a member, Harmonization and Coordination Sub-Committee of the Financial Services Regulating Coordination Committee (FSRCC) as well Member, Sub-Committee of the Joint Legal & Enforcement and Harmonization and Coordination Sub-Committees of the FSRCC. In the course of carrying out his work, he attended professional courses in many countries across the world including Canada, USA, Egypt, South Africa, UAE, UK, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Ghana, New Zealand and India.
Abba and his boss Almustapha spear-headed the well-accomplished task of transforming the CAC from a corrupt enclave inhabited by touts, truant workers, forgery lawyers to a world-class organization in terms of efficiency and organization. He never collected bribe or succumb to pressure to bend the rules. Indeed he never tolerated anyone who engages in such. He had actually become an anti-corruption icon within and outside his organization. That actually turned out to be Abba’s undoing. When former president Obasanjo muted the idea of setting up the EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu took Abba on board to draft what later became the EFCC law. He also became one of the board members of the EFCC. With his new role at the EFCC, life has become more miserable for lawyers who forge CAC certificates. He handed each that came his way to The EFCC for prosecution.
After the recent disclosure of bank debtors by the current CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, some of the big debtors who were equally rich and influential wanted the CAC to illegally amend the share value of their companies. They faced a stumbling block: as long as Abba remained in his position as Special Assistant to the Registrar General, that will be impossible. All he did was to forward the details of such companies to the EFCC for prosecution.
A friend did an assessment of his personal security and advised him to leave the CAC along with his former boss last June. The argument was that he will become an easy target of the opponents of his former boss. Moreover, if the new leadership turned out to be weak or corrupt, he will automatically become a target of elimination. His response then was that the new Registrar-General who he then described as a friend needed him to be part of the team that will stabilize the transition.
Few months after the take-over, things started become sour for him. He realized both his new boss and some of his fellow workers could no longer tolerate his presence. Indeed the relationship between him and the new Registrar General went so that at the time he was killed they were not on talking terms. Few weeks before he was murdered in a well-orchestrated plot, similar to those used by highly organized crime syndicates, he confided to a family that all eyes were on him. He could actually sense that an intricate web was being formed that will see to his elimination. It was a powerful mob that he could not confront.
His plan was simply to beat a retreat by going to Harvard for a higher degree. He had the plan of applying for a study leave, which if not granted, he would have gladly resigned his appointment. But his killers believed he knew too much. It would be a mistake to let him go and join the likes of Ribadu and El Rufa’I in exposing the rot in the system. So they also hurried up and caught up with him on the night of 11/11/09. Even after shooting him, they were still so scared that he could somehow miraculously survive the bullets. They had to burn him in order to be sure that he was silenced forever.
They thought they had the last laugh. But at the moment Abba is still laughing at them. After he was killed, some of his friends and family members had a dream where they met him. They asked him, “You were supposed to be dead, why are you still around smiling?” His response was, “I am not dead. They did not kill me. They only burnt my right hand.” They were all puzzled with his response.
When one of them asked an eminent scholar on the interpretation of dreams what Abba meant, the scholar also laughed and said, “Do you know that in Islam we believed that the dead never tell a lie?” He replied, “Of course I know.” He then replied, “Read the Quran chapter 2:155, “And say not of those who are killed in the cause of God that they are dead; nay, they are living; only you perceived not.” It is true they only burnt his hand because the hand was no longer there to fight against corruption and strive for transparency and justice in society. Or even to help the poor and the weak he has been assisting.
In Islam the murderer automatically picks up all the sins of their victim. Those who killed Abba have taken away all his sins. In addition, the prophet of Islam said that anyone who was burnt to death automatically attains the status of a martyr. Abba was also lucky to get that additional bonus. The irony was that if he had died on his bed, he would not have merited such. Just like he was exceptionally lucky in his lifetime, so was he lucky at the time of his death. Philosophically speaking his murderers have inadvertently done him a favor. With or without killing him, we all knew that when his time was up, death would have been inevitable anyway.
What many people do not know was that Abba was a devout Muslim who never missed his prayers. He fasted every Monday and Thursday of the week.
According to his neighbors, he was always on his way to the mosque at dawn when others are still enjoying their sleep. A Christian neighbor who wept at the news of his death remarked that, “He was a devout family man who likes playing with his daughter and greeting his neighbors. The day he was killed I met him at the car park in the morning and we had a chat with his usual beautiful smile.”
Abba has completed constructing a beautiful mosque in Gembu powered by solar panels, the like of which has never been built in his native Taraba state. The inside was all first-grade marble. As if he had a premonition that he was about to leave this world, he hurried the project and expended a large chunk of his saving on it. His aim was to be built a house for God. The Prophet of Islam was also reported saying that whoever built a house (mosque) for God in this world, God will build a befitting one for him in the hereafter. Actually Abba only succeeded in building a house for himself in the hereafter, just few months before he was killed!
Those who will feel the pain of Abba’s departure include the many widows and orphans he has been assisting financially. Too many poor souls relied on his constant support. Many people described him as generous to a fault. He was always denying himself the life of luxury in an attempt to help others. He not only fed hundreds among the poor and the weak but he has also sheltered and educated many others. His family, particularly his two daughters - 4 years and six months old – will forever feel the void created but thousands who were not related to him wept bitterly over what befell this gentle soul.
Less than a year before he was killed, he also expended a good part of his saving on paying for a poor 14-year old to have a cochlear implant. The poor boy reacted to some antibiotic after a severe illness and lost his hearing as a result. He had to drop out of school for over five years. He was taken to the school for the deaf but he was not making much progress. Abba, whose heart was always over-flowing with kindness managed to save sufficient amount to pay for the surgery. Today, the boy could hold a conversation on the phone! The boy used to tell people that when he grew up he would build a house for Abba. On hearing that Abba told him he would not need one. The boy replied to his amazement, “I will build a mosque then as a sign of gratitude. Abba could not help but smile.
Another old man was robbed of all his retirement savings by some hoodlums. The man nearly developed mental problems as a result. When Abba heard of the story, he sent the man a gift of an amount greater what the old man lost. Another elderly man had his debtors harassing him. When the story reached Abba’s ears he paid the loan on behalf of the man. They were many similar stories about Abba that only came to light when the mourners converged after his death. He had always insisted to the beneficiaries of his benevolence that they should not broadcast such, out of modesty. He was quite an exemplary character. May Allah have mercy on his soul and grant him eternal rest. May He also expose his killers before the entire world. What many people were yet to know was that contrary to the propaganda being broadcast by his murderers, Abba left very little material wealth that could barely take care of his family.
Nigeria has lost some of its best in this young man. Nonetheless, the Nigerian government has a responsibility in fishing out his killers from their den. Otherwise, it will send the lesson to other honest, hardworking Nigerians that the wages of honesty, patriotism and hard work in Nigeria is simply death. It is 100 days since this brilliant young man was killed but his killers are still at large.
Barrister Farouk Ibrahim writes from Asokoro, Abuja.
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