Gen. IBB @ 79: 1st Nigeria’s Military President

Let me begin by congratulating IBB @ 79 and thank Allah (SWT) both for giving IBB the wisdom while in office, and also for sparing his life to witness his 79th birthday. One thing remains obvious about this great leader till today; and that is the quality of being wise in determining the choice of […]

Let me begin by congratulating IBB @ 79 and thank Allah (SWT) both for giving IBB the wisdom while in office, and also for sparing his life to witness his 79th birthday.

One thing remains obvious about this great leader till today; and that is the quality of being wise in determining the choice of who should do what, where, how and why without mincing words.

And, we single out the idea of movement of the Federal Capital from Lagos to Abuja (one of the cardinal principles of his regime) to serve as food for thought today.

By February, 1986, 7 months into the Babangida administration, he appointed the late AVM Hamza Abdullahi, as FCT Minister. And, clearly speaking, the appointment was a challenge because the minister was mandated to make Abuja a reality and he did.

This was the directive IBB gave to the then newly appointed FCT Minister, the late AVM Hamza Abdullahi: “Go to Abuja; you have heard the comments of many politicians; What they want to turn Abuja into, what they want to do with it; you have seen how much money has already been invested into the development of that city; you have seen or you have heard at what stage the city is. I want you to go there and take the city to a point of no return; I want you to go to that city and prepare it for my eventual movement to that city from Lagos, so that I can move the administrative capital from Lagos to Abuja.”

By the same year 1986, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the largest ministry) was first to be moved to Abuja and it could hardly accommodate its staff. But, by the close of 1989, five other ministries had come in and with some in residential accommodation.

IBB could not depend on persons who were a creation of the media. He was not easily convinced that these were the right people for a job. He took cognizance of the origin and background. He had the supervisory responsibilities and monitoring to ensure that the right thing was done.

IBB told late Hamza Abdullahi, very strongly, that he MUST sit down and make Abuja a reality; and Abuja is now a reality.

Anything that is done today is an improvement of what would have happened when IBB was military president.

As my birthday greeting to IBB, therefore, I decided to highlight his achievement in decongesting the old capital of Nigeria and finding a viable alternative which was an idea that started on August 9, 1975 during the Yakubu Gowon/Gen Murtala Muhammed regimes and, subsequently during the Shehu Shagari regime in the Second Republic.

Long live the first military president!

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

Ahmadu Is’haq wrote this piece from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria