Rear Admiral
Samuel Bitrus Atukum
Governor of Plateau State
In office
January 1984 – August 1985
Preceded bySolomon Lar
Succeeded byChris Alli
Personal details
Born1940
Plateau
Military service
Branch/service Nigerian Navy
RankRear Admiral

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]

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. 1 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2012. 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2012. 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2012. 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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