Musa Usman was the brain behind SBS, Zaria, and present-day Arewa House – Adamu Fika, Wazirin Fika
Story from Jane AISO
I think it was in early 1961 or 1962 that I met Musa Usman. I was then in Zaria, and he accompanied Brigadier Abba Kyari to my house. Abba, I knew much earlier, in the 1950s, when he went to Barewa College. When Musa became the military governor, I was still the principal of the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna. But his wife was working with me at the training centre. When they got married, she was transferred to Kaduna, and the only place they could get for her was at FTC. She was still at FTC when she went to Maiduguri, and she wanted to continue working; they posted her to the Civil Service Commission.
Later on, I became Interim Secretary and later Secretary of the Interim Common Services Agency (ICSA). I was there for about two and a half years, and he said he wanted me to come to Maiduguri as commissioner. It was Gaji Galtimari who came to me in May 1972 and said the governor was intending to expand his cabinet and that he wanted ‘fresh blood.’’ When I heard it in May, I kept quiet. Galtimari came back in September and said, “Look, the governor is waiting for your answer.” And I said, “Ah, I thought you had forgotten about it!” I asked for two days to make consultations. I consulted Adamu Ciroma, who supported it. Then I consulted Liman Ciroma, who almost rebuked me and said, “In the situation we are in now, they called you to do political work, and it will be the first time that our own small area (Fika Emirate) will have a member in the state executive council.” I went in September.
Musa Usman was a very intelligent person. Even in ICSA, his interventions were always very highly regarded. There was an occasion when the military governors were discussing an issue, which was very complicated. At a point, he intervened and started to analyse the issue step by step. At the end of it, the man who was the chairman of the meeting forgot that he was the chairman and he said to Musa Usman, “Thank you Mr. Chairman!” There was another occasion when two military governors, both of them Army, were arguing on an issue. At a point, Musa Usman said, “As the senior military officer here, I order the two of you to shut up!” And they did. At that time, he was a full Colonel, and the two of them were Lieutenant Colonels.
The issue was that they wanted to set up a television station to cover Maiduguri. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the budget, so they had to make arrangements. They submitted a proposal to him through the Ministry of Information. At the beginning of the North Eastern State, the Military Governor had asked Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria (BCNN) to submit a proposal for a television station that would cover the entire state, and they did. The file I received was a new one, so I went back to that old file with my permanent secretary, Abubakar Umar (Walin Bauchi). We found out that the cost of this new one, covering only Maiduguri, was more than the cost of the old one that would cover the whole state.
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So, we made detailed comments and said we did not know what to do. When they replied, they made a one-page comment. So, when we briefed the governor, my permanent secretary and I said they did not answer any of the questions we raised, “so, please tell them to answer those questions.” That same day, they arranged a meeting in the Government House. There was a first meeting, at which there was no agreement. They later sent another reply and the governor said since they had answered the Ministry of Finance’s questions, and I said, “No sir, they haven’t, and I am not satisfied…” To cut a long story short, we said we were not satisfied but if you like it, we can prepare the contract for you to sign, since you have the power… Now when I think about it, given what is happening now, I feel that we were too hard on him.
At a point, I told the governor that I wanted to go back to my work at ICSA, but he did not allow me. After that episode with the television, I told Lagos (because I was on secondment from Lagos). This was in June 1975, so they posted me to Internal Affairs where Chief Awoniyi was the permanent secretary and he was going to another ministry. I was appointed on July 1, 1975, and I took over from Awoniyi. A week later, there was a coup. The television station issue wasn’t resolved. After I left, they organised a meeting, but the very day the meeting was to take place, the coup happened. Some of the officials advised the governor not to proceed, and he accepted.
Musa Usman was a very brilliant and intelligent person. He worked very well with his commissioners and civil servants. There was harmony. He also used to read the past files to see what the premier did, why he did it, and so on. Mahmud Tukur was telling me that there was a time he called him; he saw minutes to the Premier, and it was quite normal, saying this and this is what I recommend, “Do you approve?” He thought it was disrespectful. He was brilliant, but he was also learning from the people around. He also had foresight. At the end of the civil war, when the federal government set up a committee of soldiers to record the history of the war, Musa Usman, as a member of the ICSA, felt that a federal committee might not take care of the Northern position correctly. He proposed that ICSA should form its own committee and he proposed that Ali Akilu should chair it, with Liman Ciroma and Sunday Awoniyi as members, with myself and Gidado Idris (who was a permanent secretary in North Central State and I was Deputy Secretary of ICSA) as joint secretaries.
Brigadier Musa Usman also proposed that one way to reduce the educational gap between North and South was to ask ABU to start a special course for bright secondary school leavers, giving them one year’s training which would be equivalent to A Level. That is the School of Basic Studies (SBS). I called Prof Ishaya Audu and said the ICSA was asking whether ABU could do that kind of course. He said, “Yes, if you give us the money,” and we said, “Go and bring your estimates.” And he brought it.
Musa Usman informed his Ministry of Education that there are now five secondary schools that were offering higher education courses; he wanted the whole thing to be brought together in one place. He said instead of using any of those schools for that purpose, they should establish a new one. That was how NECAS was established, with lecture rooms, hostels, everything. It later became the University of Maiduguri. Bank of the North also opened three branches in the North East.
When Gowon created states, he made Maiduguri the headquarters of North-East. But when it came to Kaduna, they said since Musa Usman was involved in the prosecution of the war, it would be easier for him to stay in Bauchi which is nearer than Maiduguri. They agreed that the temporary headquarters should be in Bauchi. Now, Maiduguri people were hurt by this decision, and Bauchi people didn’t want it to move. There was a tug of war. First, he set up a committee chaired by Alhaji Sule Katagum and I was the secretary, and everybody wanted his village to be the state capital.
He put aside the recommendation of the committee. And when they got to Maiduguri, he set up a technical committee, made up of people who were from outside the state, to assess the facilities. They were given terms of reference, to assess the availability of facilities, etc. So when they went round, they settled on Maiduguri. But the going was not easy, especially since people from Bauchi were saying there would be war if it was not Bauchi.
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