Tribute to Brigadier Musa Usman, First Governor of North-Eastern State, by Usman Sarki

”And it will be in a happy position of judging from the high standpoint of accomplished fact”, John Buchan

A landmark event will take place in Abuja on 14th September, 2026 at the NAF Conference Centre, Ahmadu Bello Way, Kado. It is the launching of a book in commemoration of Brigadier Musa Usman, first Governor of the North-Eastern State. He may have been immortalized by Hajiya Pompo Nyawala of Adamawa and Alhaji Gilashi Azare of Bauchi in their songs, but Brigadier Musa Usman is more tangibly remembered in Maiduguri by the State Secretariat that bears his name today.

The complex, initiated and completed during his administration, still stands with uncommon dignity and remains, in my estimation, one of the finest and most aesthetically outstanding administrative complexes anywhere in Nigeria. More than half a century after it was conceived and built, it has lost none of its presence, elegance, solidity, proportions and air of permanence that continue to convey something of the confidence, seriousness and administrative imagination of the age in which it was created. 

The Musa Usman Secretariat is therefore more than an assemblage of government offices. It is a monument in concrete and brick to the creativity and foresight of the man whose name it carries. Musa Usman became Governor of the North-Eastern State in 1967 when I was only seven years old and still a pupil at Mafoni Primary School in Maiduguri. I was far too young to understand the intricacies of administration or the enormous responsibilities placed upon the shoulders of a young military officer, but childhood has its own way of recording history.

What the mind of a child cannot analyse, the eye sometimes remembers with extraordinary clarity. I remember the ceremonies, processions, uniforms, flags and music that accompanied the great state occasions. I remember the installations of two illustrious Shehus of Borno over which he presided, the numerous gatherings that brought people from distant parts of the state and the country into Maiduguri, and the atmosphere of importance that seemed to surround public life.

Above all, I can still see him clearly in my mind’s eye moving slowly through the streets of Maiduguri in an open white Rolls-Royce, resplendent in his magnificent uniform, his medals and ribbons gleaming in the sunlight, with his spouse, Madam Jummai Usman, seated gracefully beside him. Motorcycle outriders led the procession, followed by the Mounted Troops of the Nigeria Police Force on beautiful steeds, their lances bearing the Nigerian flag. The Governor’s vehicle moved slowly enough to allow the crowds to see him properly.

There was none of the frantic haste and confusion that so often characterises official convoys today. The procession appeared designed not to separate the Governor from the people but to impress them. It was meant to allow them to see their Governor up close and participate in the pageantry of government. On arriving at the venue, he would descend from the car and proceed with measured dignity to the rostrum, where the National Anthem would be rendered and the appropriate salute taken, before greeting dignitaries and taking his place. Everything was conducted with solemnity, precision and style.

Perhaps distance lends enchantment to memory, and no age should be idealised beyond recognition, but those of us who were young during that period cannot easily forget the atmosphere that surrounded public life. Government seemed visible and purposeful, authority was expressed with dignity, citizenship was exercised with responsibility and discretion, and major occasions possessed an orderliness that impressed itself upon the imagination.

It was also during Musa Usman’s tenure that Maiduguri received one of the memorable foreign visitors of that era. In August 1973, during General Yakubu Gowon’s government, President Jaafar Muhammad Nimeiri of Sudan paid a state visit to Nigeria and was brought to Maiduguri as part of his itinerary. The choice of the North-Eastern State capital was significant because of the longstanding historical, cultural and human affinities between Borno and the Sudan, developed through centuries of commerce, scholarship, pilgrimage, migration and interaction across the central Sahel.

For those of us growing up in Maiduguri, such a visit reinforced the impression that our city was no ordinary provincial capital. A street in Maiduguri still bears Jaafar Nimeiri’s name, preserving in the geography of the city the memory of that visit. Behind the pageantry, however, lay a serious project of construction and state-building. It was during Musa Usman’s administration that Maiduguri witnessed what may properly be described as its first major construction boom. Foreign companies such as Borini Prono, G. Cappa, Songhai, A. G. Ferrero, Dumez and others became familiar names in the city.

Engineers, heavy equipment and new techniques of urban development arrived in considerable numbers. Roads were opened and surfaced, modern drainage systems constructed, government offices and residential quarters developed, and the physical framework of a modern administrative capital began to take shape. The city also acquired its orderliness and planning from the design of th Max Lock group in 1976 during Musa Usman’s time.

Those drainage systems still serve Maiduguri today, more than half a century later, providing a quiet testimony to the quality and seriousness with which public infrastructure was conceived. The roads, drains, offices and housing projects of that era were not isolated embellishments. They reflected an administrative philosophy that understood development as something that had to acquire physical form. Government was expected not merely to make announcements, but to build.

‎Maiduguri consequently changed almost beyond recognition. As civil servants, professionals, contractors, traders and others arrived from throughout the North-Eastern State, new neighbourhoods developed, commercial activity expanded and the city’s horizons broadened. The work begun under Musa Usman was naturally extended by later administrations, notably those of Alhaji Muhammad Goni, Kashim Shettima and Professor Babagana Umara Zulum. Cities are cumulative creations, but foundations matter, and the Musa Usman period occupies a distinctive place in the making of modern Maiduguri.

‎His administration was concerned with more than construction. The North-Eastern State was an extraordinary political entity, embracing ancient kingdoms and emirates, pastoral societies, farming communities, different religions, numerous languages and ecological zones stretching from Lake Chad to the Mambilla Highlands. Governing such a territory required balance, imagination and accommodation of diversity.

‎Through policies of unified development and integration, Musa Usman’s government helped to cultivate a North-Eastern consciousness that survived the state itself in lives in us even today. The annual North-Eastern State Games, Agricultural Show, arts and cultural festivals and other gatherings were more than ceremonial occasions. They were instruments of integration.

‎Athletes from different parts of the state competed against one another, farmers displayed produce and livestock, cultural troupes introduced unfamiliar traditions to new audiences, and traditional rulers, civil servants and public officials repeatedly met within the same civic space. For those of us growing up in Maiduguri, places such as Bauchi, Gombe, Yola, Mubi and Jalingo gradually ceased to be remote names. Their people came to us, and through them we encountered the extraordinary diversity of the state. A vast region thus begun to discover itself.

‎Tourism became another avenue of regional discovery. It was during Musa Usman’s time that many of us came to know of the famous Yankari Game Reserve, now in Bauchi State, as part of the shared patrimony of the North-East. His administration encouraged awareness of the natural attractions of the vast state, from Yankari and Lake Chad to the Mambilla Highlands and the forest and mountain areas around Gashaka and Gumti.

‎This was more than recreation. It helped the inhabitants of the region to develop a mental map of the extraordinary land they shared. The North-East Games introduced them to one another through sport, the Agricultural Show through production, the cultural festivals through tradition, and tourism through geography.

‎When the North-Eastern State was dissolved in 1976, Borno, Bauchi and Gongola States emerged from it. Later exercises produced Yobe from Borno, Gombe from Bauchi, and Adamawa and Taraba from the former Gongola State. One became three and eventually six, yet the multiplication of boundaries did not entirely erase the sense of common belonging created during the earlier period of Musa Usman.

‎Indeed, the North-East today remains one of Nigeria’s most cohesive geopolitical regions despite its immense size and diversity. There persists among us its peoples a residual feeling that once we belonged to the same political household. The term “North-East” consequently carries a meaning deeper in us than contemporary geopolitical convenience. For our older generation and those older, it recalls an actual state with one capital, one administration, shared institutions and common experiences.

‎It would, of course, be wrong to attribute the achievements of an entire administration to Musa Usman alone. He worked with a cohort of seasoned administrators, commissioners, permanent secretaries, engineers, teachers, agricultural officers, traditional rulers and countless public servants whose contributions also deserve recognition. But leadership establishes tone, and the tone associated with his administration was one of order, foresight, seriousness, development and inclusiveness.

‎Those of us who saw Musa Usman as children are now ourselves among the older generation. Many who worked directly with him have passed away, and firsthand memories of his era are becoming fewer. This is why the book being launched in his honour is important. It is not merely a tribute to an individual, but part of the larger duty to preserve the institutional memory of the North-East and Nigeria at large.

‎Public office, after all, is temporary and the office holder leaves the stage. What remains is what was built and what people remember. In Maiduguri, the Musa Usman Secretariat remains. Many roads, drainage systems and institutions associated with his era remain. Across Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe, the consciousness of a shared past remains. And among those of us who remember something of those years, there remains gratitude for having witnessed an age when a young officer was entrusted with an immense and diverse territory and helped its peoples to discover one another.

‎The North-Eastern State is gone and Brigadier Musa Usman has long passed into history, but something of the family he helped create still survives. That, perhaps, is his greatest monument. One important thing that will always be associated with his name is that he was upright. He did not amass wealth because even now, I cannot point to a mansion or a costly edifice anywhere as belonging to Musa Usman. His probity will undoubtedly testify to his posterity. 

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