AVM Hamza Abdullahi was Governor, Kano State (1983-85), Minister, Works & Housing (1985-86), Minister, MFCT (1986-1989) and Minister, Special Duties (1989-1990)
BY ALACHE ODE
In 1985, at age 25 years, I became the youngest ever and first female Press Secretary to the late Air Vice Marshall Hamza Abdullahi, who became Minister, MFCT. Then we did not use the title honourable because all Military officers were presumed to be gentlemen unless proven otherwise). My boss and I came to Abuja from Lagos after the execution of General Mamman Vatsa, who had been implicated in a coup attempt.
Abuja was then a very small place consisting of Garki, Wuse and a bit of Maitama and Asokoro (only the Ecowas Secretariat). There were only two hotels – Agura Hotel and Sunny Guest Inn (the son of the owner of Sunny Guest Inn, Architect Ifeanyi now owns Sharon Hotel, Garki). During the Shehu Shagari era, hundreds of government houses had been built so most people, including those from the private sector, were accommodated in government houses. The Temporary Ministerial Quarters in Wuse was a guest house where newly transferred senior Civil Servants from Lagos were kept. I used to live in Area 8. In those days everyone knew each other by their first name and car number – Charlie 747 was an Estate Surveyor with FCDA, later a member of the House of Representatives. He had a Peugeot 505 and the number was 747
There was a single lane road leading to Nyanya from Abuja City with a very narrow bridge just after where the Sani Abacha Barracks is today (parts of the road and the bridge are still visible from the express road). Cars from opposite sides of the road would stop for the other side to cross the bridge so there was usually a lot of traffic jam lasting hours on that road as it was the gateway to Nassarawa state and other parts of Nigeria). Nyanya was a very run-down slum and some of Julius Berger’s African staff were kept in shanties along the Nyanya road while the white staff members lived in Life Camp in plushy houses, near the Minister’s Residence and close to where all the Directors lived. I guess it made it easier for them to have some business tete a tete away from the prying eyes of civil servants. All the Directors rode around in Broncho’s given to them by Julius Berger.
The Abuja Aboreteum (where the Zoo is today) was the best in Africa boasting hundreds and hundreds of folia and fauna. It was run by Spanish people (Manolo, Miguel, etc) from a company called Jardin. With them, we would climb up to the top of Aso rock as part of our weekend bush treks and meet the Gbagyis who lived high up in the caves in the rocks.
Wuse market was the climax of shopping, a totally unadulterated, natural barter scene, where you could get anything from imported products to secondhand items to burukutu and well roasted peppered pork.
The two secretariats in areas one and eleven were the main stay of government business. The MFCT Minister was in Area 1, till AVM Hamza moved the office to Area 11, Garki.
Geographically, Garki village was the mechanic village; the only private school was the Catholic Handmaid International in Area 3. The present National Stadium was called Kukwaaba that was known for fresh fish pepper soup and pounded yam while Suleja was the hub for spare parts, fabrics and accommodation for business people. Rubochi was so far out and high on the mountains, it was unreachable with only a small kiosk owned by an Ibo man. Kwali, Kubwa, Abaji and Gwagwalada were far and remote.
Two media events stand out during our time in Abuja. Abuja was synonymous with contracts and politics. Those in Lagos persistently refused to relocate to Abuja. The Lagos media was Abuja’s greatest challenge telling stories of river blindness and the blind people of Abuja, planes crashing into Zuma Rock on take-off or landing at the Abuja Airport and a federal territory bush with no infrastructure at all. Their reports cast Abuja as someplace to experience the hinterland expeditions of Mungo Park and Hugh Clapperton. Nothing about Abuja was impressive even though Abuja houses had been constructed with all of its modern facilities such as the sewage system, telephone lines, electricity, everything underground. Everyone had a 9-digit phone line unlike in Lagos where thousands of naira had to be paid before one could have a telephone line, there were phone booths in every street corner in Garki where one could make coin calls and the streets were well lit at night. So, in order to get the seat of government to fully relocate to Abuja, we became determined to do something to counter the Lagos Media. General Babangida was President of Nigeria/Chairman, ECOWAS and the meeting of Heads of State was to take place. AVM Hamza Abdullahi somehow convinced him to hold the meeting in Abuja which he agreed to, but with the condition that the city must show its readiness to host the ECOWAS meeting. It took AVM Abdullahi and his committee seven months to upgrade the then Abuja Airport (now Presidential wing), complete/furnish the Hilton Hotel (now Transcorp Hilton) up to the 7th floor, and also build the Sheraton Hotel. Though difficult, the outcome was very successful. The hotel furnishings were sourced from a factory in Kaduna. Businessmen like the late Saleh Jambo and a few others offered their private jets to convey visitors from Lagos to Abuja before the meeting took place. The police under the Commissioner of Police (later AIG) Sani Ahmed Daura and the army were on target with security. On our part as the media, we (Office of the Minister, the Press Secretary, the FCDA media office, NTA Abuja (Late Charles Ayade, Amos Dunia, Ndamadu Sule, etc) and the few journalists in Abuja, such as Martins Oloja, Olu Akerele, Eunice Onyegiri, and so many others worked tirelessly to show the world how safe and beautiful Abuja was.
The Lagos federal civil servants and their media waited with bated breath, hoping a plane carrying one of the Heads of Government would crash or at least have a near-miss disaster so they could say “we told you so.” But Abuja had the last laugh and indeed a long laugh that highlighted the seriousness of government to relocate its operations to Abuja..
On the political side, General Babangida was re-appointed for another year as Chairman ECOWAS due to a deadlock between the more radical Thomas Sankara group and the more conservative group led by the then President of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
Socially, Abuja was agog, never had an event of such magnitude occurred in the FCT. As heads of governments arrived, the women of Abuja swooned over Thomas Sankara (A northern paper would later report that the Minister’s Press Secretary was caught in a compromising situation with Thomas Sankara which is another story altogether). That was when it struck us as women, that Abuja was blazing the trail of gender equality. Nigeria was then not yet ready for female press secretaries, especially young ones. Most press secretaries were fuddy, duddy old men in plaid suits and moth-eaten caps and I was different.
Economically, local businesses boomed, Lagosians (civil servants and media) drafted to Abuja to help organise the ECOWAS meeting became converts of the beautiful Abuja story. Food was cheap and life trudged on at a leisurely pace. Lagosians bought so much yams, it was unbelievable. Hotels thrived, food vendors and drinking joints sprouted all over the city.
A second media challenge we handled was quelling the numerous rumours in the Lagos media that General Banagida had been shot by one of his generals and his whereabouts unknown. But unknown to them, General Babangida was in Abuja, where he was being driven around by the Minister of Abuja around the city as part of a progress assessment tour. On the eve of Nigeria’s Independence day, I was summoned by the Minister to get the Abuja media ready for a big story. The media were all gathered at the military training ground as the soldiers queued for their food when Broncho driven by the Minister of Abuja came to a halt, and out came General Babangida. Thunderous shouts and loud “hip, hip, hip, hurrays” erupted in a tumultuous welcome for President Babangida. The story was captured by the media and needed to be on the NTA national news at 9pm. Once again, I took a private plane to Lagos and made it in time for the Newscaster’s opening cue. The rumours ended after that and the nation knew that the President was very much alive and in control.
Both events greatly helped to institute Abuja as the seat of government and gradually led to the relocation from Lagos. Stories like these abound and give a better perspective of how the battle to get Abuja to be recognised as the capital of Nigeria was fought and won. The decree being the originator.
Abuja then was idyllic. No one cared about religion, ethnicity or gender, we were all members of the “no man’s land” experiment. Most of those who administered the territory during that time have all passed on to eternity – General Mamman Vatsa., his ADC Major Sam Omakwu, AVM Hamza Abdullahi, his ADC, Air Commodore Mailafiya, Directors like Engineer Buhari Dikko, Dr Attah, Engineer Maigari? or Mairiga, Dr Nomwhange, Charles Ayade (NTA), Mr Daniel Adem, Mr Odeka and so many others, too numerous to mention. May their souls rest in perfect peace. Everyone knew Mr. Aliu, who is still alive and was the Chief of Protocol, a quiet, unassuming dedicated, catholic man, who had the ear of the Minister.
Today, Abuja has grown into a city so big and so amorphous, it is losing its inner spirit. The spirit that propelled its creation, the ideals of unity, of oneness, of no man’s land and of peaceful coexistence. In our stories, in our written and oral narratives, do we hope for Abuja to regain its once beautiful and untainted SOUL?
…Alache Ode, OBE Press Secretary to AVM Hamza Abdullahi, Minister, MFCT 1986-89
