Mansur Dan-Ali : A Quintessential General @ 65
By Haruna Yusuf
As far as we understand leader, there are many great leaders this country has seen, but here is a person whom we consider extremely impressive and professional.
Dan-Ali might be another year older on every 25th of August, but he still remains that phenomenal leader who Nigerians, especially the northeast/west have ocean of respect and admiration for, may you forever keep chalking longer than life accomplishments.
This really demonstrated early in the life of President Buhari’s administration in the inception of 2015, immediately he assumes office as the minister of defense, he moved like a hurricane to prove that security architecture isn’t meant for the laid-back.
We are not talking about his decisions, his persona, or diplomatic relations or such big words, there are many intellectuals on this political atmosphere to discuss these things, I think there are many other traits of a good leader, so, here is a person I’m talking about.
Brigadier General Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali (retired)
There are many names worth mentioning and i can’t argue that many of them may have better policies and decisions than Dan-Ali, because he is not perfect but just humane, but the reason that i mentioned him, is that he is a servant worth emulating, with whom a common person can relate easily.
Like a household name, Dan-Ali has remained a formidable factor in the military and political equation of zamfara state and Nigeria at large. Thus, his towering and unparalleled status has elevated and precedes him.
Dan-Ali’s foray into partisan politics after retiring from the military was informed by his service delivery mandate to the nation and some of his philanthropic antecedents which have thrown him up for recognition and that underscores his grassroot and wide network connections.
Our present society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how to identify a good one? What would most people say makes a good leader? Like any craft, leadership request that you learn from your mistakes and continuously work at strengthening your weakness.
We always need a good leader to help guide us and make the essential large scale decisions that keeps the security and peace of the nation moving. We also believed that leaders are not born, but made, and are molded through experience, consistency and continued study and adaptation.
Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali, a Brigadier General, who retired from Nigeria Army in 2013, and joined partisan politics to become Nigeria’s minister of defense upon his appointment by president Muhammadu Buhari on November 11, 2015 at a time when parts of the country was ravaged by Bandits from northwest, Niger Delta from the west, kidnapping from the south and Boko Haram from the northeast.
The northeast was the deadliest when it was under the siege of ideologist extremist who picked up arms with the ruthless delusion of creating a caliphate within the Nigerian state and were indeed, already controlling a number of local government areas in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
General Dan-Ali is known to be an outstanding military officer/commander with no mean repute, who contributed immensely to the fight against insurgents, crimes and criminality among others as minister of defense.
He fought and brought back security to the regions and Nigeria at large. The retired but not tired General also organized “operation Awatse” when he was ministering the defense of Nigeria, it was a joint operation between the Nigeria Army and the Nigeria police and other security agencies to flush out all manners of criminals, including, militants and economic saboteurs who specialized in pipeline vandalization to steal the nation’s oil wealth in the creek and other riverine areas.
Dan-Ali established 6 and 8 Divisions at portharcourt and Maiduguri respectively that handles various securities challenges in northeast and Niger Delta region of Nigeria, explaining that it has suffered a lot of criminal activities like sabotage of oil facilities, illegal bunkering, kidnapping and other violent crimes against humanity and declared that the newly established 6 and 8 divisions would perform it duties with the highest sense of professionalism and respect for human values.
In November 2017 he was at a meeting of Islamic military counter terrorism coalition in Ryad, Saudi Arabia, where he appealed for humanitarian assistant programme for north eastern Nigeria and other areas affected by the activities of the insurgents.
The Saudi Government promptly responded to his call and offered food items worth Ten Million Dollars in aid of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northeast.
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In Ankara, Turkey in 2017, Gen. Dan-Ali called for speedy ratification of the military training corporation agreement and the defense industry corporation agreement between Nigeria and Turkey by the parliament of the two countries to enable the Nigeria military benefit from training at Turkish institutions and joint military exercise with the Turkish Army.
General Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali was Born August 25h 1959, at Birnin-Magaji in zamfara state, Nigeria. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1984 and rose through the ranks and held various commanding positions, including Battalion Commander at the united nations hybrid mission in Sudan (UNAMD) pioneer Commander, 32 artillery Brigade Akure, Nigeria, Commander 32 artillery Brigade Garrison, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Commander 301 artillery general support regiment, Gombe, Nigeria among others during his career in the military, with several honors to his credit, including the prestigious harmony and united nations medals, silver golden jubilee medals, passed staff course Daggar, distinguished service star, meritorious service star, forces service star and a distinguished member of the national defense college of Bangladesh.
He is a military General and also a philanthropist par excellence and a card carrying member of Nigeria’s ruling political party, the All progressive congress ( APC) he was a delegate to the 2014 national conference, where the nation’s wise men and women were assembled to proffer solutions to the country’s political problems.
Dan-Ali holds double masters degrees in security studies, Bangladesh university of professional, 2009, and public policy and administration, university of Abuja, Nigeria, 2004/2005, respectively.
He also holds a higher national diploma in photogrammetric and survey engineering, Kaduna polytechnic, Nigeria, 1977/1982 and has presented several papers both locally and internationally, including a paper titled ” REGIONAL SECURITY ASPECTs” perspective from Nigeria’s fight against insurgency” at 8th Moscow conference on international security April 29th 2019.
The retired General is an astute manager of people and All-inclusive leader who respects rules of law and follows due process in dealings, loyalty is one of the greatest weapon in his arsenal.
His service as the minister of defense serves as a benchmark to measure the success of his chaired ministry. The voice and likes of the people is still deafening, the yearning is like a rushing of mighty water, his exemplary leadership and outstanding performance displayed as minister of defense when Nigeria was in dear solution to the ravaging and posed threat by Boko Haram insurgents and still remains overwhelming.
As a philanthropist, the military general has a flair for education and cultivated passion for the less privileged and vulnerable children in the society, for who he built a school and named EL-EMAN Nursery/Primary school which he donated to his community and facilitated the establishment of eight (8) command secondary schools at different locations to create more access to education by the less privileged and vulnerable children.
He holds the traditional titles of YARIMAN BIRNIN-MAGAJI & SARKIN YAKIN ZAMFARA. You’re a wonderful leader of the world of yesterday, today and the future, we thank God for making you the type of person you’re today, a selfless level-headed and all-inclusive leader, all the great leaders are born in August and have had one characteristic in common, it was the willingness to comfort unequivocally the major anxiety of their people at all times.
The day you were born was the day you became a hero. You’ve taken your life and used it to save others lives. Today is a celebration of one of the nation’s finest heroes.
Sir, your life was created with a purpose to save lives. You stood strong and proud, putting your life on the line, now that is a birthday. I may not be a superhero, but my super power is making you feel special on your birthday.
Generally, leaders born in August are highly motivated and enthusiastic people who never fail in their targets and goals and they love to lead because they are born leaders.
They have leadership skills and qualities, and always use to lead in-front because the main reason, is that they’re confident and well organized to the core.
Sir, you came to this world with courage and might 65 years ago, so on your birthday, we celebrate these traits that made you our hero. You’ve rescued so many valuable lives, today we rescue you with birthday wishes meant to transport you to the safety of our hearts.
Birthday Blessings sir. It is time Nigerians stop giving into religious fight, it is time to stop following misleading religious leaders, it is time to look at each other through the common thread of humanity disregarding all religious differences, let us cultivate a culture that encourages peaceful mental relationship. These are words on Marble.
Haruna yusuf is an editor, commentator & political analyst, writes from Abuja [email protected]
