Kogi 2019: Usman Jibrin To Rescue The State From Shackles Of Poverty

Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin (Rtd) 

Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.

Vice Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin (Rtd) was born on 16 September 1959 in Okura Olafia, a town in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. He attended the Nigerian Defence Academy as a member of the 24th Regular Combatant Course where he graduated as the Best Naval Cadet Officer and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant of the Nigerian Navy on 1 January 1982.

He began his Naval career as a wWatch Keeping Officer on Board NNS Damisa and NNS Aradu immediately after he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant. He served in this capacity for 2 years (January 1982 – January 1984). He later served as Base Intelligence Officer, NNS UMALOKUN for approximately 3 years (July 1984 – 1987) He also served as a Flag Lieutenant to the Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency and to the Command Officer of the Nigerian Navy Intelligence School, Apapa, Lagos State, Nigeria, before he became an Instructor at Navigation and Direction School, Nigerian Navy Ship Quorra.

He served in that capacity for 2 years (1989–1991). In 1994, he was appointed as a Directing Staff at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College Jaji, a tenure that elapsed in 1996 and after his tenure in 1996, he was appointed as the executive officer, NNS Enyimiri.

Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin (Rtd). In 1997, he became the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship Ofiom, and in 1998 he commanded the ship NNS Ambe in Operation Liberty (ECOMOG), where he obtained the Command at Sea Badge. In 2001, he became the Deputy Director Attaché Management, Defence Intelligence Agency and the Naval Provost Marshal, Naval Headquarters.

In 2002, he was appointed as the Defence Adviser to the Nigerian Embassy Cameroun. He served in this capacity for 4 years until the end of his tenure in 2006. In December 2006, he was appointed as Chief Staff Officer at the Sea Training Command, and later became the Commanding Officer of the Defence Intelligence School (DIS) Abuja on June 2007. Thereafter, he was appointed as Nigerian Navy secretary and while serving in this capacity, he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In 2010 he became the Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Naval Command, coordinating a joint operation involving the 3 services around the Gulf of Guinea, NEMO.

He also, coordinated a combined Exercise, called OBANGAME EXPRESS 2012, involving 11 countries including Germany and United Kingdom. In January 2014, he took over from Vice Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba as the Chief of Naval Staff, and on 5 February 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the former President of Nigeria.

Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin (rtd) is a man with many accomplishments and achievements. There really comes a time in a man’s life when his achievements are written in the stars and that time is now. Usman Jibrin is a man of prospects, whose leadership qualities in our country’s defence sector are acclaimed globally. The former Chief of Naval Staff, whose leadership qualities have translated in the Nigerian Navy being accorded the accolade as one of the best naval forces in the Africa and the world in general. Usman Jibrin has always come across as a professional who gave his all to achieve his vision for the country’s Navy.

Usman Jibrin’s leadership acumen and achievements are pointers that in a world where the status quo has seemingly immovable inertia, change could happen and in a world that often times seems to be spinning out of control, he has the courage to embrace the audacity of hope. He is an ardent believer in the change mantra and the possibilities that it presents for our state of Kogi and its people. The message of possibility and personal empowerment from the stories of his achievements in life moved so many people and caused an unstoppable groundswell of support for his call and eventual entrance into the political space of Kogi state. His political beliefs tally with the wishes and aspirations of the Kogi masses, that, today he is regarded as the best among the gladiators ready to contest for the seat of the Governor of Kogi State in the November 16, 2019 Gubernatorial election in the State. This simple same message of change and the change that the people can see has propelled the people to laud him over and over again.

Today, it is a fact that the problem with our state is that of leadership. Consequently, our people are clamouring for a leader that deals in hope; and the hope they see is retired Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin. Our people, having swallowed the bitter pills in the past to make our state great without results, this time around want to show that they have matured democratically. Our people now know good a leader when they see one and the saying that a golden fish has no hiding place is true. They have seen that the leadership qualities of Usman Jibrin are translucent and the leader they want for our dear state is Usman Jibrin.

The greatest leadership quality of Usman Jibrin is his inspiring charisma. His life and words inspired people of previously uninvolved interest to enter into our development space and stand for what they believe in: the happiness of all Kogites. To complement his inspiring charisma is his ability to inform and transform. He has been known to often give the people the tools and information they need to focus and develop.

Some of the leadership traits inherent in Usman Jibrin that make him the candidate to beat any day and bring the needed change we can see for developments are: conviction and perseverance; change; we-not-I-attitude; Taking risk; the art of communication; turning endings to a new beginnings.

Throughout his time as Chief of Naval Staff of the country, he has shown positive traits. For example, he re-made the image and operations of the Nigeria Navy – an attribute that he is positively coming into politics with. Jibrin has the attribute of remaking the image of his party and in the process attracting the average voters and the middle class to the party.

Usman Jibrin’s style is classified as dedicated to making progress, optimism and confidence. He has always declared that Kogi can only make progress when people have a chance of living their dream and he is committed to just that. He is proving that he shall make Kogi State the best and greatest it has the potential to be. He has a lot of personal organisation, personal charm and self-criticism, qualities that are absent in many leaders today. I assure you Kogites that Usman Jibrin shall affect positively Kogi State in ways that no leader has ever done.

To him, leadership means bringing people together in pursuits of a common goal, developing a plan to achieve it, and staying with it until the goal is achieved. He has a vision and plan of the goals he wants to achieve for Kogi State and has developed a realistic blueprint of how he wants to get there, attract talented committed Kogites with a wide variety of knowledge, perspective and skills to get the work done. He believes in the new Kogi State he seeks to build, lasting positive results are achievable if leaders practice inclusion and co-operation rather than unilateral authoritarianism. He shall belong to all Kogites, irrespective of class, gender, tribe or religion.

If Kogi State needs a leader with the attributes of steadfastness in pursuit of goals, flexibility in determining how best to achieve it, the courage to make a hard decision and the confidence to stay with it and explain it; the common sense to listen to others and involve them; then it is Usman Jibrin. A leader that will admit when a mistake is made and when a given policy is not working, a leader that will trust others, trust his instincts as well as his intellect. A leader that if the objective is to get things done on a matter that is important as well as controversial, he will be able to compromise and knows the line he can’t cross. That leader is Usman Jibrin.

Jibrin learnt when he was very young to respect the human dignity of everyone he met, to observe them closely and listen to them carefully. From the adults in his family he learnt that everyone has a story but not everyone can tell it. Most of our problems are self-inflicted and leaders must solve them; Usman Jibrin shall solve them.