AMAC 2026: It is so much about Christopher Zaka, the drummer boy, by Ayuba Ahmad
In about three weeks, the electorates in the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, will be going to the polls to elect their council chairmen and the councilors. From the tempo of the campaigning, it is obvious that the political parties and their flagbearers are taking the elections very seriously.
The contest for the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, however, stands distinct from the four others: Kwali, Kuje, Bwari, Gwagwalada and Abaji. For one, the council area has the significance of being the host to most of the vital institutions and agencies that make up the government of the federation. Very aptly, AMAC has been variously referred to as the seat, the citadel or the pivot from where power radiates to the rest of the country.
Within the Council Area are the presidency, the presidential Villa or “Aso Rock” as it is commonly known; the National Assembly, the Federal Government Secretariat; the headquarters of the Armed Forces and other Security agencies; Embassies of countries represented in Nigeria and many more similar institutions and agencies.
For these reasons, like the FCT Minister who is a primus interperes among the federal cabinet members, the AMAC chairman is, as such, considered higher in the comity of council chairmen in the FCT. This primarily explains the usual keen interest by divergent communities, political parties and interest groups in the office. Similarly, the federal government of the day usually shows more than a passing interest on who becomes AMAC chairman.
Abuja’s cosmopolitan nature is also a factor in the area’s intense political contests. Even as the Gbagi and the Gwandara ethnic groups still constitute the larger population blocs in the area, the two groups have since been contending with the increasing number of other Nigerians in the contest for political power.
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Christopher Zaka Maikalangu had won the 2022 Council election after a bruising campaign and legal battles. However, the indigenes who contested in the 2023 elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate alarmingly, lost to non indigenes.
That shock experience appears to have triggered the imperative for a positive review of the age-old political bickerings between the Gbagi, the Gwandara and other indigenous ethnic groups in the area. Christopher Maikalangu particularly worked hard to forge a renewed consciousness for dialogue and amity among the divergent communities.
Under his political mantra of “Greater Together”, he embarked on a policy of building bridges across all forms of divides. This he did, through his administration’s policy of equity and fair play in the citing of projects, award of contacts, employment opportunities and scholarship to students.
Pertinently, his was all-inclusive in his liberal disposition and peace building efforts. It extended to other communities of Nigerian residents of the area. His pan-Nigerian disposition has also manifested in the selection of his deputy through to the choice of his Chief of Staff, and several of his other high-profile appointees.
As a sitting chairman seeking re-election, Christopher Zaka Maikalangu has a number of advantages going for him. These include a galaxy of landmark achievements that showcase his vision, focus, dedication and competence.
The last three years of Maikalangu on the saddle at AMAC ushered in an unprecedented large numbers of construction and rehabilitation of rural link roads; building of new primary schools, and rehabilitation of dilapidated ones; construction of several primary healthcare centres in almost all the wards; provision of solar powered street lights and boreholes, distribution of fertilisers and other farm inputs to farmers.
The Council under his leadership, also vigorously pursued a programme of awarding scholarships to students to pursue studies in various disciplines in Nigerian and foreign educational institutions. He was also made it a focal point of securing employment for qualified youths in the federal civil service and in the private sector. The AMAC under Christopher Zaka Maikalangu is the first local government council in the country to establish a functional commercial Radio and Television service.
In practical terms, the 2026 election in the Abuja Municipal Area Council is somewhat, all about Maikalangu, “the drummer boy.” This is because, while some of those aspiring for the office appear driven by mundane, selfish motives. They do not have the clear passion of Maikalangu for selfless service.
There are those who seem to have jumped into the fray simply because of the prestige and the huge material benefits derivable from the office. Just as, there are some that have taken up the gauntlet but are ill-equiped for the challenge. An electoral contest against a grassroot politician of the muscles and tentacles of Christopher Maikalangu is not a walk in the park. Do not be deceived by his humility and his self-effacing carriage.
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It is noteworthy that the APC was yet beaten by the opposition PDP in the race for the chairman of AMAC in 2022 despite the fact that it was the ruling party with a flag bearer who was also the sitting chairman. Christopher Maikalangu was the flag bearer of the PDP who performed that phenomenal political feat.
To avoid a repeat of its 2022 electoral fiasco in the nation’s seat of power, the APC, smartly, set out and succeeded in wooing Maikalangu to its fold. He, on the other hand, accepted to jump boat because it was clear to him that the PDP had become a wobbling rudderless ship inevitably, heading to the rock.
In a nutshell, all indices of victory in an election point in the direction of Christopher Zaka Maikalangu. Come what may therefore, the drumbeat continues for him at AMAC for another four-year term.
Ayuba Ahmad is a Kaduna-based veteran journalist.
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