President Bola Tinubu has awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) to retired Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, a prominent advocate for democracy.
Gatekeepers News reports that the president made the announcement during the inauguration of a 300-bed hospital and vocational training institute in Kaduna on Thursday.
Tinubu described Umar as a “soldier of democracy” and recognized his courage and steadfastness in the struggle for democracy. Notably, Umar’s name was inadvertently left out of the list of June 12 honourees announced on Democracy Day, sparking criticism from civil society actors and democracy advocates.
Umar, a former military officer and outspoken critic of successive governments, was described by the president as a “soldier of democracy”.
“Let me use this opportunity to correct an omission. Some of those people that I missed out during the June 12 broadcast at the National Assembly is Colonel Dangiwa,” the President said.
“Today, let me correct that by honouring him with national recognition of CFR.”
Umar, who served as military governor of Kaduna and later became a vocal advocate for democratic reforms, was a key figure in the campaign against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
