Joseph Gomwalk House’s weary wait for renovation

The Joseph Gomwalk House is situated strategically at the heart of the old Jos native town, where what was formerly Clerk Quarters, currently surrounded mainly by a number of government institutions, including Plateau State Police Command and quarters, the Jos Prison and School of Mines.The Joseph Gwomwalk House is situated along a major expressway called […]

The Joseph Gomwalk House is situated strategically at the heart of the old Jos native town, where what was formerly Clerk Quarters, currently surrounded mainly by a number of government institutions, including Plateau State Police Command and quarters, the Jos Prison and School of Mines.
The Joseph Gwomwalk House is situated along a major expressway called JD Gomwalk Way, similarly named after the famous former administrator of the state, the late Joseph Dashi Gomwalk simply called JD Gomwalk.
 The Joseph Gomwalk House was designed to be used as offices for both government and private institutions; and was constructed with modern building materials and fittings to stand the test of time if managed well. The house still stands tall with two types of staircases: a spiral case by the side, and the more commonly known dog-leg internal multi-landing stairway that comes with most multi-storey residential and office buildings found in towns and villages.
The building was also fitted with electric lift system designed to take people from the ground to the last floor. While the staircases are still used, the lift has not been functional in at least 10 years, mainly due to erratic power from public supply system as well as poor maintenance, according to some of the tenants.
The building of the house was said to have been meant to establish a status symbol not only for the Benue Plateau-State, as it was then, now roughly Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, and part of Kogi States, but for the Middle Belt. This was in addition to serving as headquarters of the Nigerian Standard newspaper, and the printing press that came with it, which sought to be the voice of the Middle Belt and was circulated well beyond this self-determined constituency.
Conceived and commissioned in 1972 by Gomwalk himself when he was the Military Administrator of Benue-Plateau State, the Nigerian Standard was managed for the state government, as it still is, by the Plateau Publishing Company.
Gomwalk, an Ngas from Ampang village in the present Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State, put up the structure in Jos at a time when many of the Benue-Plateau people were complaining that he was concentrating development projects in the state capital, Jos, and thousands of petitions were written in protest, alleging neglect of many parts of the state.
Gomwalk who became governor of the state in 1966 and remained in office up to 1975, when the military head of state, incidentally his fellow Benue-Plateau man, Yakubu Gowon, was toppled in a coup d’état, stood his ground and built the edifice which must have been a marvel at the time and which remains a worthy heritage despite having suffered much dilapidation.
The house which was used initially as offices of government agencies was later made available to members of the public requiring office spaces, and it became a source of revenue for the government.
Although Plateau Publishing Company still publishes the Nigerian Standard newspaper, its activities have long fallen below what the founders planned.
From the beginning, the newspaper was produced in large quantities and circulated widely, but the publishing house faced many setbacks and the Nigerian Standard which was once published daily has for years now been appearing twice weekly, on Sunday and Wednesday.
A source at the newspaper house said the publishing house was experiencing difficulties due mainly to use of outdated machines and inadequate qualified personnel. The source added that though the company has reporters in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Bauchi and Taraba States as well as all the 17 local government areas of the state, a major challenge is lack of funds which is affecting both the newspaper and the printing press.
The source said, “As a staff of the company, I think the best way to rectify the problem of the house is to bring and install modern equipment and facilities, employ qualified personnel, pay good remuneration, discipline the staff to do their work and monitor the management of the company. If that is done, the vision and mission of the house can be restored.”
Not long ago, Plateau State Governor Jonah David Jang, set up a committee to revamp the fortunes of the house. The committee has, among its mandate, the fixing of the printing section of the company, rehabilitation of the building, and recommendation to the government any other action that would redeem the lost glory of the publishing outfit, but work has been slow.
A tenant in the house said a major problem of the house is maintenance. The tenant, a lawyer, said, “The building has been neglected, leaving us in difficult conditions. My chambers is in the building but a major challenge I face is that most of my clients don’t want to climb the staircase to my office. I mostly come down to meet them under the tree and discuss with them because the lift is not working. It is my staff, my colleagues and I that are using it, because people don’t want the stress of climbing the staircase.”
The tenant complained about electricity supply, saying, “Another problem is that of electricity. The power setting of the house is very bad. Two years ago the ninth floor was gutted by fire and since then the problem of electricity has worsened. The major problem of this house is maintenance.”
Apparently, the building is currently in a dilapidated state. To climb the internal staircase is a struggle as you have to grope your way through since the stairway is in perpetual darkness.  
Over the head, some of the ceiling boards are either hanging loose or have come off completely, while the fire setting which should be a system that provides 24-hour water service is not functioning, and a good number of toilets are not being used as they are not fit. The walls have lost what used to be colourful painting. All this has been because no government from when it was built attempted to renovate the legacy building, until the Jang government came and began to show some interest.
Except for slow pace, the government of Jang appears resolved to give the house the necessary facelift. Company and government officials have at various times spoken glowingly about fixing the newspaper house and the building itself.
 Much has been done towards reviving the newspaper. Auto-vehicles, printing machines and materials, power plant and other necessities have been acquired and some staff have received fresh training, all aimed at planned daily edition production, increased volumes and wider circulation.
For the Joseph Gomwalk House, tenants have received quit order and many have left, the idea being for renovation of the building to start as early in 2014 as this could be done. The Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Abraham Yiljap, responding to a telephone text enquiry on this, replied briefly in these words: “We are processing papers for approval that we will take to the state executive council.”