As Nigerians mourns the killing of Col Bako, Airforce Chief marries Minister Sadiya

…Why CAS Sadique and Sadiya Farouk should resign

By DESERT HERALD

While the immediate family, friends and well wishers of late Col D.C. Bako who was killed in a Boko Haram ambush on Sunday are mourning his painful demise, a top commander in the Boko Haram war who is also Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouk also a supposed critical stakeholder whose job is to provide humanitarian intervention to thousands of victims that were ravaged by the war are celebrating their wedding.

Until last week obviously because of the negative message their relationship may send across a country that has been consumed by insecurity and poverty, Sadique’s relationship with Sadiya was kept secret between them.

Only about a year ago, media houses have reported alleged secret romance between President Muhammadu Buhari and Sadiya Umar Farouk and even circulated fake wedding invitations that suggested the President will marry her.

As the surprise news of the CAS Sadique’s wedding to Sadiya was broken, many citizens have took to their Twitter handle and other social media accounts to condemn the timing of the wedding, mostly describing it as insensitive and untimely.

They said Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff who is a critical stakeholder in the ongoing fight against the Boko Haram terrorists, armed bandits, kidnappers etc and his newly wedded wife who was also given similar responsibilities shouldn’t have gotten the pleasure of getting married at a time they are failing to even secure the lives of their own men at the battle field.

They said the primary focus of both Sadique and Sadiya should have been exercising their crucial responsibilities with practical and desired results and not to engage in a pleasure of getting married; an event they argued can wait to a more convenient and reasonable time.

The online commentators further lamented that CAS Sadique’s wedding was done barely two months after the death of Nigeria’s first ever female combat helicopter pilot, Totulope Arotile. Also within the last three months Nigeria has lost many gallant soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram the recent of which is the killing of Col Bako.

They lamented that while the families of the death soldiers and the injured ones are in their most trying moments, their top Commander and Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff and a Minister that shares similar responsibilities are celebrating an untimely wedding. They said ordinarily there is nothing wrong for the two to get married and should have been a time for celebration in their lives but considering their (Sadique and Sadiya) critical responsibilities, their failure to defeat insurgency in particular, the high rate of casualties the military suffered recently and the failure to improve the life of squalor the IDPs were subjected to, the timing of the wedding of the high profile government officials is rather an embarrassment to the Buhari administration.

DESERT HERALD reports that to avoid distractions in their official duties and for choosing such a time to marry, Nigerians have called on both appointees to honourably resign so as to dedicated their time for the new marriage and allow those that are in pain to mourn their loved ones.