The death of Alhaji Abubakar Saleh Michika, the first civilian governor of Adamawa state ( from 2 January 1992 to 17 November 1993) recalled the political era of political parties with seem political ideologies to run the affairs of the nation.
Saleh Michika died yesterday at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, sorrounded by family members. He had been in coma for three days before the sad event. Reports from family members say there was a plan to fly him abroad for treatment.
Saleh was described as an unpopular candidate of the then National Republican Convention (NRC) party in the 1991 governorship elections. He sprung a suprise victory in the election defeating the present Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha who was then the gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state.
Saleh Michika was born in 1941 in Michika, now Michika local government area of Adamawa state. He had his primary school in Michika and then moved to Yola Middle School for his Secondary School (now known as the General Murtala Mohammed College Yola) and University at the School for Arabic studies.
He worked with the British Bank of West Africa in 1966, then John Holt company before joining politics.
Saleh Michika created a stir when he said in 1992 that he would be willing to relocate to the neighboring Cameroun if there were a military coup in Nigeria.
Fourteen years later, he made a controversial statement that the solution to the problems of corruption and misrule in the country would be a diarchy, a mixture of military and civilian personalities, with a military head of state.
A pragmatist, before the 1993 elections he refused to meet Bashir Tofa, the presidential candidate of his NRC party, but he was helpful when M.K.O. Abiola, candidate of the rival Social Democratic Party (SDP) came to his state.
However, in July 1993, after the Ibrahim Babangida administration had annulled Abiola’s presidential election, he said “Much as I personally admired Moshood Abiola as an individual, the idea of a southern president was unrealistic”.
In January 2002, Michika described the National Assembly members as corrupt officials for whom he had no respect, and warned of the danger of another military coup.[6] In October 2002, Saleh Michika was a strong contender to become the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) candidate for the Adamawa governorship.
In 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as the chairman governing council of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi
In May 2006 a police corporal was killed by suspected armed bandits at his residence. However, the state commissioner of police, Alhaji Muhammad Sambo, said the attack was not an assassination attempt. The bandits just wanted to snatch the corporal’s gun.
He has sinced been buried today at his hometown Michika. He is survived by four wives, 38 children, 17 boys and 21 girls, 99 grand children,and 3 great grand children.
Prominent among his children is Jalal-Eddeen Abubakar Saleh, PhD, an Associate Professor of Public Health, a Consultant Public Health Physician, a board-certified Epidemiologist of the American College Of Epidemiologist, a board-certified member of the American College Of Physicians, and alumnus of the famous Imperial College London, the London School Of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Walden University U.S.A.
