Nigeria Newspapers Online

Alhaji Magaji Muhammed Inuwa is a 1966 science graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. He later trained as a metallurgist and worked in private companies in Jos and Kaduna. At one point he was the chief executive officer of the Ajaokuta Steel Company. He also served as a special assistant to a former minister of mines and power. In this interview, the former commissioner in the old Kaduna State between 1978 and 1979, shared his experiences.

How would you describe your early days?

 I was born in Bakori in Katsina State. My father came to Danja District, as it was called, as one of the few young men who were trained in writing. He was already a very learned Arabic person, so he was posted to Danja to the district head as an adviser and recorder, maybe scribe or something. Most of my siblings were born there. Later on, all the headquarters in Katsina Province were asked to move to the main road; that’s why Danja stopped being the headquarters and Bakori took over. I was born at Bakori in 1942.

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Unfortunately, I was born four months after the passing of my father, so I never knew him; that’s how I got the name, Magaji.

 

You inherited the name?  

That’s right. I was at Bakori for my first three years or so, then my mother moved to Katsina along with me and her two elder daughters, who were already married in Katsina. 

She got married to a gentleman who was a court examiner. Most of the time he was posted outside Katsina, but she remained in his house, which was convenient for her and me by the time I started school. 

I started school in 1950 and my life was shared between my favourite sister and my mother. When I quarrelled with my sister, I moved back to my mother. That’s how I started there. 

I was in the Central Elementary School in Katsina and every morning we had to trek for about two miles to go to school; and nobody wore shoes. When it was winter time, we had cracks on our feet, so we passed through the general hospital and begged for grease to apply on our legs. 

That’s how I finished elementary school in four years like most people. We were to move to middle school, but at that time, the school system was changed and senior primary schools were opened, as well as junior secondary school in Katsina. Those who had finished middle school at the time moved to junior secondary school and we freshers and those ahead of us by one or two years moved to senior primary schools. There were three or four senior primary schools – one in Daura, one is in Malumfashi, one in Kankia, and our own in Katsina. 

Our own senior primary school was unique. We had only three permanent teachers. The headmaster, Abdu Randawa, was a specialist in English Language. 

 Our school was next door to the Higher Teachers Training College in Katsina, and students to the college were coming from all over the North. So, every two weeks we got new teachers from this school. That was the first time I realised how wide northern Nigeria was because we had people from Maiduguri, Yola and all over. 

Anyway, we stayed in that primary school for two years. Usually, you should stay for three years, but I was one of those the headmaster decided that we should go and sit for the secondary school examination.

 The late Abidu Rafindadi, his cousin and few others were my classmates. Some of us passed. I was fortunate to have also passed the interview to Barewa College. Abidu passed but he didn’t get Barewa College. His uncle wanted him to stay another year so that he could get to Barewa, but unfortunately, he never did. 

 

How challenging was it to go to Barewa from Katsina? 

It was very challenging because in the whole of northern Nigeria, only 50 students were taken every year. Katsina sometimes got three or four. 

Usually, we used the Native Authority (N.A) lorry, which was sometimes given to us with a teacher and sometimes with a senior student to be in charge. In the rainy season we had a very tough time as it would start raining from, say Charanchi and continue up to Funtua. Then we stayed in the secondary school in Funtua and slept on the desks there and resume the following morning to Zaria.

 

So, it was not a one day journey?

It wasn’t; it was two days. Unfortunately too, our boxes or handbags were soaked; we were also soaked. It took about two weeks to get things dried up in Barewa, but we survived it.

 

Do you think that going to Barewa, an elite school, had an impact on you and your career?

We were not aware that it was an elite school. We thought it was just another school. And as young people, we behaved very well. During our first year, for example, the Queen visited Nigeria and about 10 of us were selected to go and wave the flag.

 

In Kaduna?

Yes. We didn’t know why we were going. They used the cattle train. We stood up in the carriage there. And we had buckets of yam and soup to eat on the way. Some of our uniforms were marked with palm oil. It was a long journey. All the teachers in Barewa then were English people.

 

How did you get to the ABU? Was it a straight transition or you had to work a little before going to the university?

It was a straight thing. In those days, after the five years in secondary school you had to sit for an exam for a Higher School Certificate. We went for the Higher School Certificate for two years and when we passed that, going to the ABU was straight.

 

Where did you do the HSC? 

In the same Barewa. I spent 10 years in Zaria and another three years in Samaru.

 

And you chose Physics and Chemistry?

Yes. Right from junior classes, few of us were interested in science subjects. And we had a science club where we experimented with many things. One brilliant friend of mine, Dahiru Ibrahim, was a radio engineer. Even in class, he set up a radio and he could talk to me in my house (hostel). I was the chairman of the Chemistry class in Barewa and we had experiments. Fortunately, we never exploded anything. 

At the Scholarship Board in Kaduna, I was informed that I was going to the United Kingdom, but they didn’t know what I was going to study. So I went to the secretary of the board, the late Mallam Mamman Daku and asked how I could go for a course without knowing what it was. He said I should not worry because they would sort it out. He added that he would make sure they chose a good school for me. 

When I didn’t hear anything and my friends had started receiving admission letters to ABU, I went straight to the registrar’s office and told him that I applied but hadn’t gotten anything. That was how they gave me admission and I joined others. 

 

What happened to the UK plan? 

I think we started our first year around August, then, late December, some officer came from the Scholarship Board and asked: “Where is Magaji?” He said I was going to the UK, adding that I was late. I asked about the course and he invited me to his office. When I went to his office he said, “When I got your papers, I was so interested in getting you through that I put them in my drawer and forgot about them. We have contacted them, so you can go and join your classmates. You will study Agricultural Engineering.” 

I told him I never said I wanted that; let me finish from the ABU and I would go and do that.

 

You were not attracted by the prospect of going to England?

No. But let me also say that I am sometimes adventurous. One day, when we were in the second year for the HSC, I went to the principal’s office and told him that I knew somebody from Katsina who was trained by Shell and he was working there, so I wanted a scholarship from the company. He wrote to Shell and they said they were ready to give me a scholarship.

 

Who was the person from Katsina? 

Sule Kurfi. I was called for an interview in Kano by Shell and I attended. By that time, I had convinced another classmate of mine, the late Sani Bello, to look for the same thing so that we could go together.

Sani Bello who was in NNPC? 

That’s right. We went for the interview together and got letters that we had been awarded scholarships and places had been secured in Loughborough College of Technology in the UK if we passed our exams. 

But for the very fact that they didn’t say Loughborough University, I said I was not going because I wanted a degree. You know that when you are young and naïve, you can miss many things. So I remained in ABU. But fortunately for him (Sani Bello), before they finished in Loughborough, their course was converted to degrees.

 By going to ABU to study Chemistry/Physics, were you preparing yourself to be a teacher? 

To be frank with you, I never got interested in teaching or working for the government.

Fortunately for me, Martinson, a professor of chemistry, who was the dean of our department, one day called me and said there was an English company in Jos that asked for some science students that would work during holidays. So myself and Mr Samson Tarka, a Tiv man who was my classmate from at the HSC, went and I started work.

 

What company was that? 

Makeri Smelting Company. We had a very good library in Barewa College; and there were many books, including Classics books from the old Katsina College. Unfortunately, at a time they had a fire incident and everything was burnt.

My library involvement all the time was to read for Chemical Engineering because I was fascinated by high-glass tubes and gas transmission. So, when I went there (Makeri), I saw exactly my dream because there was a furnace where tin and other additives were added. And it was heated up to 1,500 degrees. And the flux coming out was captured in cooler tubes, my dream. After cooling, the thing would become like powder, tin oxide. 

Meanwhile, when we tapped the furnace, it came out like 1,500 degrees. And the top part of it was directed to one siphon, and the bottom part, the other. The bottom part was clean metal tin. The top part was residue, which they called slag. And both were hot. 

The tin was taken into kettles, where it settled. And if there were additives, they would put it there. The slag was sent in a jet into a water pit and it settled there until it was cooled and taken aside. Then there would be a second campaign where this slag was taken instead of tin. Slag was taken to the furnace and it came out as alloy, iron and tin. 

We fed this alloy a little at a time because every time, we were testing the result of what was coming up. Sometimes we added oil, which is part of the carbon. Sometimes we added the actual powder, carbon. So it was a very interesting thing. When you apply yourself, you become an expert in it. I started as a technical assistant.

 

So you went from ABU just to see what was going on? 

Yes. I went to them when I graduated.

 

And they gave you a job? 

Yes. We agreed that they would give me a job. Not only that, they would send me to Imperial College (London) for training. They sent me there and I did one year. By the end of the year, they said the Senate had not approved my master’s course unless I put in another year. And by that time, if you were lucky, the Senate would approve the course. 

We were ready as a department, but the Senate of the university had not given approval. So, it was a question of whether you wanted to stay another year and get the degree or not. It was your decision. You would just be given a local recognition (certificate) that you had done this. 

And I remember that my old mother and my brother (who was) beginning to have a large family, so I pitied him and thought I should go back home and assist him. So I came to Makeri.

 

You were a trained metallurgist by then? 

Yes.

 

How long did you stay at Makeri in Jos? Was it a strange environment for you from Katsina? 

No. You know that when you start something when you are young, you are very adventurous. When I went for the temporary job, I got familiar with Jos, so by the time I went to work, I knew the town and had a few local friends. That was okay.

 

How long did you stay in this private company?

About four and half years; and suddenly, I was getting tired. I get bored easily. Nobody bothered to show me the figures we spent for raw materials and our wages, what we got from the metal, as well as our profit.

 

Maybe you were not in the management unit? 

I was in the management because I was managing the plant, but the accountants were upstairs doing this. Maybe my two bosses – the Works Manager and his deputy – were called for such meetings. I was only a donkey working hard, so I got bored. As God would have it, Mallam Musa Bello, who was the (managing director) of the Nortern Nigerian Development Company (NNDC), used to come to Makeri for board meeting. 

One day he said, “Magaji, we have a problem with our textile company; and we have nobody who has been exposed to factory life except you. Why don’t you come and join us?”

I said okay and went to Kaduna and we had a meeting with them and I said I would take it. I was 31 years old when I was appointed the managing director of the factory.

 

Was the factory doing, textiles? 

Yes. They were taking cotton, making threads and weaving calico and baft. They were selling baft to other textile companies like the NTL. They could print atampa and things like that.

 

So, suddenly you had the figures in your hands; what did you make of it? 

To my own assessment, I did very well because after the first year, I had a profit. And for many years, they hadn’t shown any positive performance. Then I had a lot of union palaver, which people thought I wouldn’t handle, but I handled it. There was a day I sacked the entire 1,000-plus workers and declared that whoever wanted a job should apply, and on a certain condition. By that time, Musa Bello had left the NNDC; he was in Lagos as a permanent secretary and Hamza Zayyad stepped in after being an accountant in ABU. He came in as the managing director. 

He called me and said, “What’s wrong with you that you are sacking people like that? And it was the fasting period of Ramadan. I will never forget it. 

He asked why I did not consult and I said it was my responsibility and I would handle it. I told him that I didn’t say he should come and talk to the labourers; if they wanted to kill me, let them kill me, but what I did was in the interest of Nortex. 

After a time, about 80 per cent of them applied on the condition I set and came back. 

 

Apart from the challenge of workers, was the Nortex job good? 

Yes. I also had lieutenants I recruited and they took over from me, such as Mansur Ahmed, who (moved) to the NNPC. I took him as my assistant general manager. 

I think I was lucky. There was a lot of political appointments and jingoism as they call it. Somebody from Kano was appointed the managing director of the NNDC. 

By the way, when I finished as commissioner, I didn’t go back to Nortex, I came to the NNDC headquarters as a divisional director.

 

After Nortex you were appointed commissioner? 

Yes. After my job as a commissioner, I went to the NNDC headquarters as a divisional director in charge of engineering and construction. 

I was doing that when the political change came and somebody came from Kano. I have forgotten his name. By that time, Hamza Zayyad had retired. 

This gentleman from Kano assumed that since I was in the second echelon of the NNDC and I was from Katsina, Hamza had left me behind to take over from him. So he started being funny.

 

He was not comfortable with you? 

Yes. And I was not used to such struggles. After two years or so, I became very close to Dr Rilwanu Lukman, whom I knew during my time in Jos as a deputy inspector-general of mines. He was deputy to Inuwa Gombe. He was my mentor. I was in Makeri while they were looking after tin mining. All the tins were brought to me and I was smelting it etc. 

I did something that impressed the two men while I was in Jos with them, so when Lukman moved to Sokoto as general manager of the cement company, he wanted me to join him, but I said no because I was still interested in Makeri. Two years later, he became a minister.

 

Under Buhari in 1984? 

That’s right. He telephoned me from Dodan Barracks in Lagos and said he had an order from Buhari to move me to Ajaokuta immediately as a chief executive. I told him that they were not smelting anything but just setting up a project, so why me? He said the president had given the order and I was to move there.

I asked when he wanted me to move and he said he wanted me there the previous day. That was how I went to Ajaokuta. And that was a real challenge.

 

Every Nigerian knows about Ajaokuta and how it hasn’t worked all these years; tell us about it. 

Every Nigerian doesn’t know anything about Ajaokuta. 

 

We are privileged to hear from the chief executive officer, so tell us. 

It is a very ambitious project. It is supposed to be an integrated steel plant, which means that it is also in charge of its own raw materials, as well as equipment and whatever. But in the case of Nigeria, they wanted the mining to be separate, so they created a company for mining the iron ore that Ajaokuta would require to smelt. They allowed the limestone (to be kept separate), which is important for smelting. 

Whenever they decide to go on again, they would have a problem because the limestone has been given to Dangote and he is making all the cement from there. That is a major omission.

When they set up the factory, it was a contract between Nigeria and the USSR. And in a typical communist system, the first thing they did was to produce all the equipment required and transferred it to Ajaokuta. 

There was an erection centre and a store where they had everything ready. It is just a question of when they are paid and they would take out and install. The installation has to be based on civil works. 

Unfortunately, they divided the civil works into three. They gave Julius Berger (German), Fougerolle (French) and an English company to set up the training school. I told you that it’s an integrated steel plant, so they should have everything there.

This is the chaos I had. I was to look after maybe 1,300 Russians, another 600 Germans and 250 or so French. The English had left by the time I went there.

My responsibility was more like checking that they had produced much concrete such that we could raise a certificate for payment. They also handled their personnel problems, so, it was very hectic.

Ajaokuta was conceived to start by producing rolling mills. There were four rolling mills there. The final nerve centre was the blast furnace, which we all studied in chemistry in school; but that centre has not been completed. 

There was another major aspect called the preparation belt, where they would mix iron ore, limestone, other additives and blow hot water, air and it would become half smelted and go up to the top of the blast furnace. That one too has not been done.

 

Why wasn’t the nerve centre completed? As managing director you were taken there to sort out the problem; what’s your insight?  

Have you been in government? It is a funny thing. If a government decides to share its money between a bakery and a steel plant, it looks at them as projects. So, Ajaokuta was always staffed; and every three months, they sent me money. And Julius Berger and Fougerolle would be paid much. I was just a clerk. 

There was also the foreign exchange part of these contracts; in some cases, 80 per cent and in some cases, 70 per cent, but we had nothing to do with it. The ministry was handling it for obvious reasons. So, we became a distributor of very little input of the naira.

 

Was it a case of underfunding? 

Yes. Underfunding is a key problem. And there was a very interesting population of young Nigerians qualified as engineers. Every morning, they would be walking to the factory, even if it was raining, and as small as I was, I was being driven in a Peugeot car; and it hurt me.

 

Why couldn’t they be transported? 

There was no money to buy buses for them. 

As a Muslim, things became so much that I was getting frustrated, so I went to Hajj and prayed before Kaaba to see if there would be a solution to the situation. And if there would not be a solution, may Allah remove me quietly. 

We struggled like that; and after three or four years, political appointments came in. They created a board and a very well known gentleman who was in Kaduna, a very close friend of IBB (Gen, Ibrahim Babangida) was made the chairman. Unfortunately, he came with the intention of making money to go into politics. So, on the very first day we met, he said, “Look, I have been sent here to make money, etc.” But I told him that unfortunately, there was no money there. I opened my file and showed him records of about two years. I showed him what they sent every quarter. 

But instead of understanding me, being a politician, he decided to blame me for everything. I had friends in Dodan Barracks who told me what happened. 

This man would start shouting that nothing would be achieved as long as the man in Ajaokuta was still there. And IBB started listening. 

My friends told me what was happening and I said, okay, let them sack me, but I would not leave. 

Two of my friends were appointed —one as permanent secretary and the other as minister. Haman Tukur, who was in the polytechnic for many years, and AVM Nura Imam were very close friends. 

I had to take my first son who was a sickle cell patient to Germany for treatment. When I was there, there was an announcement that the management of Ajaokuta had been dissolved. Some of these poor people were posted to wrong places. When I came back, I asked where I had been posted.

There was so much pressure on them, but because of my closeness to them, they didn’t know how to sack me. 

I told them that I had a solution—send me on sabbatical for one year. So, I was sent on sabbatical and I stayed in my house for a whole year. 

After that, because I never gave up, I went back and said I had finished my sabbatical; what next? ‘Where do you want me to go?’ I said it was not done like this in government – although I was not a civil servant, people didn’t choose where to go, they were posted. The following day, they said, “Okay, come and be a special assistant to the minister. But you are not going to stay in Lagos. We have opened an office in Kaduna to look after all the NEPA projects in the North.” I said, “Okay, give me in writing.” 

One of the houses belonging to Geological Service was renovated and converted into an office and I moved in. But there was nothing to do unless I created something.

 

Was that your last stint in public service? 

Yes.

 

From there, what did you do? 

At least I made sure that Rigasa got light. I am proud of that. 

I was there when IBB stepped aside, so definitely, his ministers would leave. I was only an appendage, so I left unceremoniously and that’s the end of my service.

 

Did you continue working in the private sector? 

I was involved in a number of private efforts, such as some mining and engineering management companies.

 

You set up a consultancy company? 

Yes; and it kept me happy. At least it gave me the opportunity to fly out for meetings and come back.

 

When did you stop working? 

I stopped working in 2005.

 

And since then you have not done anything economically? 

No.

 

Why? It looks to me like that is almost 20 years ago. 

Yes. As I told you, I made some investments in my earlier days and I am getting dividends. My boys also help me. So, I am alright.

 

You don’t feel the need to work anymore? 

No. This is because I have been hurt so many times.

 

By who? 

By circumstances.

 

Are you referring to what happened to you in Ajaokuta and all that? 

Yes. Incidentally, two days ago, somebody telephoned me and said there was a committee working on Ajaokuta and they asked that somebody should introduce them to me. But I said I didn’t want anything. In fact, I almost said I was not going to have this interview, because it would expose me to them again.

 

Do you think Ajaokuta would ever be sorted out? Do you think it would ever come on stream? 

It needs a lot of private money; the government cannot fund it. They don’t have the commitment. And Ajaokuta is too big; it is not a question of separating it. 

When they were building Ajaokuta, they built two bridges – both of them across the Niger – one going towards Benue and the East, and the other one, a railway bridge, was built and completed before I was appointed. It is still standing on water.

 

What do you mean on water? 

It is a bridge on a river.

 

Okay, was it completed? 

Yes.

 

So, it can be used. 

Yes.

 

Why is it not being used? 

Because they haven’t extended the railway.

 

So, all the infrastructures were not coordinated? 

Yes. There ought to be a standard gauge system from the bridge to Onne port in Port Harcourt so that they can offload from big ships. And there ought to be another connection from Ajaokuta to the bridge. Within Ajaokuta itself, there are 65 miles of railway within the project because most movements are supposed to be by rail from one section to another. So, and I can’t see how some private person would come and put so much money there.

 

Even Dangote or some foreign companies? 

Dangote is a very clever man. Sometimes he starts good projects and as soon as they take off and he makes something, he leaves it and goes for something else.

 

So, in other words, Ajaokuta would probably never see the light of day? 

There will always be a miracle coming from somewhere.

 

So, it needs a miracle. 

Yes.

 

Tell us about the private Magaji Inuwa. How is family life for you? What are your private interests outside work? 

Of course I have been married for 54 years and I had 5 children. The eldest died at the age of 36 from sickle cell anaemia.

 

How do you spend your day? 

I go to the Islamic school and come back, but not every day. I also read.

 

What kind of reading; Islamic books or something else? 

 I get homework from the Islamic school.

 

No books on metallurgy or anything like that? 

That’s in the past; I have decided to be free.

  

Do you visit friends? Do you have a place where you spend time together? 

No. I usually watch television for an hour or so a day. I have Netflix as well. If I see a good film I watch it and that’s that.

 

Do you do any physical exercise to keep fit? 

I walk.

 

Everyday? 

In the morning and evening.

 

To the mosque or general walking? 

General walking. I do it 14 times and it is enough;(go around) 14 times in the morning and 14 in the evening.

 

What about diet? Do you have any restriction?

No. I am supposed to be borderline diabetic; and I have been in that for the last 40 years or so. Of course I avoid certain foods, but I never had any serious attack of diabetes. The doctors said it’s because I keep walking.

I had an accident two years ago in my bathroom and hit my head against the bath and thought that was all. I thought there was nothing wrong, but after some days, my daughter who was here noticed that I wasn’t properly balanced in my movement, so she told her doctor and I went to him. They sent me for a scan and found out that there were blocks of blood here and there because of that fall. So they took me to Abuja for spinal cord and brain surgery.

According to the doctor, it took him 80 minutes to clean everything. When I came out, I was asking them when the operation they brought me for would take place and they said it was done in the morning. 

I found that there was a piece of plaster here and there because they did a pinhole camera operation. He said I was very lucky that it didn’t touch my brain as such; it was on top like a membrane.

 

And you have been feeling good since then? 

Yes. I felt weak immediately because I wasn’t walking properly. That’s when I started using a walking stick. But before then, I had a therapist in the hospital who was taking me round until such a time as I could walk with the walking stick. So I am okay.

 

Do you have hobbies? 

Reading is mainly is my hobby.

 

You are a Katsina man but here in Kaduna; how much are you in touch with your people at home? 

Yes. I have my own house in the town, Kofar Marusa new layout. I also have in the GRA, a guest house. If you don’t have anywhere to stay, you can go and stay there. 

The guest house is mainly for friends who come from somewhere. By the way, I built (my) three boys a house each over the years, because I wanted to peg them in Katsina. They have their own houses.  

 I go to Katsina quite often; at least once a month.

 

Do you travel abroad? 

I used to travel when I was connected with various companies, but not now.

 

From all the things you are saying, you sound to me like a very comfortable retiree; is that correct?

You can have comfort without having money. Don’t you believe so? 

It is possible.  

I think that to go to Umrah now will require about N4 million? I am thinking of going very soon, but the children have stopped me going anywhere alone. I have to go with one of them, so it depends on their convenience too. 

I go to see my doctor every six months, but the last time I went was February last year.

 

Where? 

London. And I had to go with one of the girls to sit with me in the plane as a patient.  So I decided to move all my manageable medical conditions to 44(Military Hospital) here (Kaduna). I have a doctor I see there, so I showed him all I had from the London doctor and he was quite agreeable with it.