Samuel Atukum

Rear Admiral (retired) Samuel Bitrus Atukum was the military governor of Plateau State, Nigeria from January 1984 to August 1985 during the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari.[1]

Samuel Bitrus Atukum
Governor of Plateau State
In office
January 1984 – August 1985
Preceded bySolomon Lar
Succeeded byChris Alli
Personal details
Born1940
Plateau

Plateau State Governor

As governor, Navy Captain Atukum had to handle many challenges with a severely limited budget. He reintroduced community and cattle tax.[2] In July 1984, while launching a statewide tree-planting program, he noted that 70,000 hectares of valuable farmland had been lost to mining activities, and called for Federal assistance in conservation and reclamation of eroded land.[3] He sold off all Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot 505 official cars, replacing them with less pretentious Peugeot 504s, and also banned after-hours use of government cars.[4] In August 1985 he proposed that the unions should accept a 20% cut in the salary of state civil servants in view of the state's financial difficulties.[5]

Atukum said politics "has adversely affected the lives of the citizens instead of being an instrument for institutional development".[2] He expressed concern over use of the terms "non-indigenes" and "indigenes", which he felt would cause disharmony among people in the state.[6] In 1985 he declared that anybody who harboured illegal immigrants after the 10 May departure deadline would be treated as a saboteur.[7] In December 1984 he launched a program to vaccinate all children against killer diseases, urging parents to take advantage.[8] He merged Plateau Television (PTV) and Plateau Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) into the Plateau Radio Television Corporation.[9]

Later career

After retirement, Atukum was appointed the chief executive of the Nigerian Unity Line (NUL), a new state-owned company established after the liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line in 1995. The company was privatised in 2001.[10] In February 2002 the company's only vessel, MV Abuja, was stuck in Sri Lanka needing repairs, while the shipyard was insisting on a down payment for the work and the crew's salaries were unpaid.[11] The ship was finally released in February 2003 after a bank guarantee of US$500,000 had been provided.[12] A few weeks later, NUL put the 10,000 deadweight container ship up for sale and plans to float the company on the stock market were dropped.[13]

References
  1. "Nigerian States". WorldStatesmen. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  2. West Africa. West Africa Pub. Co., ltd. 1984. p. 1986.
  3. Andrew Orolua (13 July 1984). "70,000 Hectares of Land Lost ro Mining in Plateau" (PDF). Kaduna New Nigerian. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  4. William D. Graf (1988). The Nigerian state: political economy, state class and political system in the post-colonial era. Currey. p. 150. ISBN 0-85255-314-5.
  5. Andrew Orolua (15 August 1985). "Plateau to Cut Wages by 20 percent" (PDF). Kaduna New Nigerian. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  6. Andrew Orolus (18 January 1985). "Use of Word Indigene Causes Disharmony". Kaduna New Nigerian.
  7. British Broadcasting Corporation. Monitoring Service (1985). Summary of world broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa, Issues 7939–7990.
  8. Sehinde Dagunduro (14 December 1984). "Plateau State Immunization" (PDF). Kaduna New Nigerian. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  9. "History". Plateau Radio Television Corporation. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  10. TOKUNBO OLOKE (6 May 2004). "Govt ought to subsidise shipping – Admiral Atukum, NUL boss". Daily Sub. Archived from the original on 23 August 2004. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  11. Francis Ugwoke. "NUL MD Spends 68 Days Abroad to Recover Ship: Fears sabotage by crew members". ThisDay. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  12. Francis Ugwoke And Chinedu Okwu (18 February 2003). "Detained MV Abuja Released". This Day. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  13. Yakubu Olaleye. "Move to Sell MV Abuja Terminates NUL Quotation". C.W. Kellock & Co. Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
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