Former Minister,Umaru Dikko Dies at 78

By Lawal A. Dogara,Kaduna
(Updated)Frontline politician Dr. Umaru Dikko is dead.Aged he 78, died early on Tuesday in a London hospital.
Confirming his death, his son, Dr. Bello Dikko, said “my father had been sick for quite some time”.
Dr. Dikko was a member of the National Party of Nigeria,NPN which was the ruling party then and was known as one of the most powerful ministers under the Shehu Shagari’s regime in the early eighties.
When the military ousted the regime via a coup d’etat in 1983, Dr. Dikko escaped to the UK on exile.
Dr.Dikko was born in Wamba (Nasarawa State). 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.
In 1979, he was made Shagari’s campaign director for the 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.
Until his death, he was a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP.