Alhaji Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu , also known as MD Yusufu or MD Yusuf (November 10, 1931 – April 1, 2015) was a Nigerian policeman, Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, public servant and politician. Yusufu attended Higher Education at the Institute of Administration,

Zaria Zaria is a List of Nigerian cities by population, metropolitan city in Nigeria, located at present time within four local government areas in Kaduna State. It serves as the capital of the Zazzau Emirate Council and is one of the original sev ...

in 1954 and

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

where he was trained as administrative officer. Yusufu was the great grandson of Sarkin Katsina

Muhammadu Dikko Muhammadu Dikko also known as Muhammad Dikko dan Gidado (1865 – May 1944), was the 47th Emir of Katsina from 9 November 1906 until his death in 1944. He was the ninth Fulani emir, as well as the first emir from the current ruling Sullubawa ...

(r. 1906–1944). Yusufu started work at the

Katsina Katsina State ( ; 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞥁𞤭𞤲𞤢) is a state in the northwestern geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It is bordered to the west by Zamfara State, to the east by Kano and Jigawa states, and to the south by Kaduna St ...

Native Authority serving as Assistant District Officer in Ilorin Province from 1949 to 1954. Yusufu rose to the position of Inspector General of the Nigerian Police, a post he held from 1975 to 1979 during the military rule of Generals

Murtala Mohammed Murtala Ramat Muhammed (; 8 November 1938 – 13 February 1976) was a Nigerian military officer and the fourth head of state of Nigeria. He led the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup in overthrowing the military regime of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi a ...

and

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

. He was appointed chairman of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in 1994. In 1998, he registered Movement for Democracy and Justice as a political party and in 1999 and 2003, he ran as a presidential candidate on its platform. In the December 1998 local government elections, the party came 4th and won 83 councilor seats in 21 States of the Federation and Chairmanship of

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri, Udu, Okpe and Uvwie are the commercial ...

in Delta State,

Hadejia Haɗejiya (also Haɗeja, previously Biram) is a Hausa town in eastern Jigawa State, northern Nigeria. Hadejia lies between latitude 12.4506N and longitude 10.0404E. It shares boundary with Kiri Kasama Local Government to the east, Mallam Maɗ ...

in Jigawa State and

Bama Bama or BAMA may refer to: Places * Bama, shortened form of Alabama, a state of the United States of America ** The University of Alabama, a public university serving the state, often known as simply ''Bama'' * Bama, one of the colloquial Burmes ...

in Borno. Yusufu was chairman of Nigeria LNG in 1994, when a consortium led by

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

's KBR subsidiary was bidding for a contract to construct a LNG export facility in competition with the US corporation

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...

. In a letter to Yusufu in September 1994, the oil minister Don Etiebet said that the NLNG board had "seriously tinkered with the integrity of the pending contract award". He considered that there had been breaches of commercial confidentiality, that may have benefited the consortium led by KBR. During a probe into alleged bribes by KBR, a London-based consultant, Mr Jeffrey Tesler said he had advanced money to Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu in the form of a repayable loan. The $70,000 loan was made during a visit by Yusufu to London in 1998 or 1999. Attempts were made to implicate US Vice-President

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...

in the corruption scandal, which involved over $180m of bribes on behalf of a consortium led by Halliburton. He joined

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) (later changed to the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens), was a Nigerian nationalist political party from 1944 to 1966, during the period leading up to independence and immediatel ...

(NCNC) in 1950, and

Northern Elements Progressive Union The Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) was the first political party in Northern Nigeria. Founded in Kano on 8 August 1950, it was the offshoot of a pre-existing political association called the Northern Elements Progressive Association. ...

(NEPU) in 1951 but gave up politics when he joined the Northern Regional Service. In the second republic after retirement from police he became a member of the

People's Redemption Party The People's Redemption Party is a social democratic political party in Nigeria. The Second Republic reincarnation of the Northern Elements Progressive Union and the Fourth Republican reincarnation of a similar namesake, the party was cre ...

. Yusufu indicated interest to contest the Presidential elections under the

Grassroots Democratic Movement The Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM) was a Nigerian political party that was one of the five state-sanctioned political parties allowed by the government of General Sani Abacha to participate in state assembly elections held in December 1997, ...

in Nigeria during the period of transition to democracy launched by General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (; (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his death in 1998. Abacha's seiz ...

in 1997–1998. The Party had a left-wing orientation. In 2000, he became chairman of the

Arewa Consultative Forum The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is a Nigerian quasi-political and socio-cultural association which seeks to promote the political interest of people of northern Nigeria. The term "arewa" means "northern" in Hausa, the primary language of the r ...

, a Northern cultural and political association. After the April 2003 elections, both

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023. A retired Nigerian army major general, he was the military head of state of Nigeria from 31 December 1983 to 27 Augu ...

of the ANPP and Yusufu, who had run as presidential candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), challenged the election victory of President Obasanjo. However, in June 2003, Yusufu, said that defeated contestants who were not ready to go to court should accept their defeat in good faith. In November 2003, Yusufu said the grant of asylum by President

to the deposed

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

n president, Charles Taylor could not be defended on the grounds of either justice or commonsense and was therefore impeachable. MD Yusufu died on April 1, 2015, in Abuja.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yusufu, Muhammadu Dikko 2015 deaths Candidates for President of Nigeria Grassroots Democratic Movement politicians Inspectors general 1931 births Candidates in the Nigerian general election, 2003 Nigerian Fula people Politicians from Katsina