Usman Faruk

Commissioner of Police (retired) Alhaji Usman Faruk (born 1932) was the first Military Governor of North-Western State in Nigeria from 1967 to 1975 after it was split off from the old Northern Region during the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon.[1] He was dismissed from office by General Murtala Mohammed, who took power in a coup on 29 July 1975, and who then launched a probe that found him guilty of illegally enriching himself while in office.[2] He was later reinstated by the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida regime after being cleared of all charges, and was given his full benefits and retirement rank. Shortly after he left office the state was split into Niger State and Sokoto State.[1]

He published a pamphlet in 1988 that attacked the national population control program that the Nigerian military government was advocating. In it he said that "No good Muslim will ever accept any human directive which contravenes the laws of Allah." He said that widespread promotion of anti-pregnancy drugs and devices would lead to "an earthquake of moral laxity."[3] This view, common in the North, may have contributed to the spread of AIDS and polio.[4]

He supported establishing a commodity marketing board to fix or control the prices of produce and animals such as cows, goats and sheep. The board would also preserve produce for times of need, and would set up processing companies for perishable produce such as tomatoes and other vegetables.[5]

In a 2006 press interview he said that the poor pay and equipment of the police could not be justified, and was the cause of the state of insecurity in the country.[6] Usman Faruk was awarded Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in September 2006. In July 2009, his third son, Police Superintendent Abdulaziz Faruk, was killed during violence in Maiduguri triggered by the Boko Haram extreme Islamist sect.[7]