Malam Ibrahim Aliyu was born in August 1948 and he will soon clock 70. The seasoned economist is the Chairman of Urban Shelters Ltd, an Abuja-based real estate development company. In this interview, the former Secretary to the Niger State Government, Federal Permanent Secretary and one time gubernatorial aspirant tells the story of his life. Excerpts:
What are your memories of childhood?
My earliest memory is of my grandmother: she was an energetic Gwari woman who left her village and came and settled among the Hausa in Minna. I could see her energy because she was going all over the country trading: Lagos, Ibadan, Onitsha, and even Accra, in Ghana. So I was certainly influenced by her energy and ability, and it has engendered the respect of women in me.
I was born in Minna and went to the Native Authority Primary School as a day student for four years, which was the practice then, and passed the examinations to proceed to senior primary school for three years. I spent seven years in primary school. I then sat for the Common Entrance Examination; I passed and was admitted to Government College, Kaduna, in 1962. I was there for what was then called Higher School Cambridge.
Were you your grandmother’s pet?
She didn’t see me as a pet because she was a first class disciplinarian and I have no doubt in my mind that my mentality, my outlook and my drive have much to do with the kind of drilling I got from her.
The fact of the matter is that I didn’t get to know my father well until after her death. I had to gravitate back to our main house to meet all my brothers and sisters. I take much of my character from her – honesty, sense of justice and the idea of being fair to all irrespective of tribe or religion.
My father was a positive influence as well. He was an educated man – western and Islamic. By the time I came back to my father’s house I was already a boarding student in Primary 5, and I continued to be a boarding student throughout my school days.
Did you play pranks as a child?
No, my grandmother would not allow that. It was quite common for young men then to learn how to ride bicycle, but my grandmother wouldn’t allow it primarily because the people who gave the bicycles for hire were anything but honest, and her hope was to buy me a bicycle. She never got to do that until she passed away.
However, at a very early age, I realised the importance of education. I was focused from my primary school days. I was a relatively serious person right from childhood.
How were your secondary school days?
Kaduna Government College was a very interesting place. In those days it was made up of boys from different parts of the country, so it was great. I had no issues. I had a great time throughout my seven years there, from 1962. The teachers were predominantly white. In primary school, I was the best student in English, and when I came to Government College, Kaduna, the teachers were either British or American and I couldn’t understand their English. Therefore, in my first exam, I came either number 21 or 22. It was not until the second term that I improved and was promoted. By the time I finished I was one of the top five before getting into the university.
I finished secondary school in 1968, went to ABU Zaria in September 1969 and graduated in June 1972.
One good thing about ABU is that it is more cosmopolitan than any other university: a mini Nigeria sort of. It was a great place with a lot of friends who continue to be of great benefit to me till today.
I studied Economics at the university, although I also studied Mathematics and Geography. I was the best student in the faculty in 1970. I went to the University of Ife, Ibadan Campus, from September to December 1972 to study Project Analysis and Finance. One of the most useful programmes I ever attended.
Meaning you graduated before the NYSC scheme came into being.
Yes, that’s true. We should have been the first set but we went on strike and Gowon had a law in place already that we were exempted, but it fell on those that graduated in 1973.
I think I missed it because I think of myself as a nationalist. I don’t think I would have had problem working anywhere in this country. The NYSC and Federal Government Colleges are great integrating tools: so it’s good.
From January to April 1976, I was at the University of Branford in the UK for a Diploma in Development Banking and Finance, and later Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School, USA, from 1977 to 78, for an MPA in Development Economics, and again in 1980, I believe for a course in PPP and Privatisation of Public Enterprises.
What happened after your graduation?
I came back to work in Sokoto. Then, the jobs were everywhere but I decided to go back to my state. It was a new state and they needed every hand they could get, and by the time I went, there were only two Economics graduates; Umaru Liman from Kontagora, he’s deceased now, and Shaba Lafiagi, who later became the Governor of Kwara State.
I started work in the finance and economic planning ministry. It was a very important ministry; a powerful ministry. I was secretary of the Planning Council, as well as the Implementation Council. The Governor then was Col. Usman Farouk.
I was quite active and many of the skills that were needed, like working with people, putting your points across, writing good quality minutes, making a point and people listening, were skills I had already learnt in school right from when I was a house captain.
Sokoto was interesting. We were there for about four years before Niger State was created, and I had advanced rapidly in the public service in Sokoto. What I remember vividly is that people had respect for rules which unfortunately are now missing.
Then, only about 30 per cent of the budget was devoted to recurrent expenditure while the rest was for capital expenditure.
Whatever the governor wanted to do in his household would not exceed seven per cent of the budget. Governors did not have personal assistants then.
Were you married then?
No, but I got married before leaving Sokoto. The lady I married then was just a stone’s throw from my house in Minna. I knew her at a much younger age. I didn’t realise that she had blossomed into a beautiful young lady, and I think that did it. I got married in December 1974. The marriage was quite simple. I remember you were supposed to bring materials for the wedding, but because of the nature of my work, I was going to Lagos frequently, so I was buying things from Lagos. People were appreciative of what I brought. A party was organised by my colleague, Mr. Raji. He organised a party for me in a classroom. He gave me advice on running a married home. So I took my wife to Sokoto.
Thereafter, I left for Libya on attachment because there was partnership between the Northwestern State and the Libyan Government.
How was your Libya experience then?
I was there for about three months. The only problem was that I didn’t speak Arabic. This was the early days of the Gaddafi regime. He was relatively still liked: he hadn’t become the dictator he later turned out to be. While I was there, new states were created in 1976.
So, you came back to a new Niger State…
Well, I did play a significant part in the creation of the state. Much of the memo that was written to justify the creation of the state was written by me. I personally took it to Lagos and gave it to people. Many of the members of the Supreme Military Council at that time, like General Babangida, were from Minna, and around him were influential officers, including a minister like Gen. Wushishi, and there was Col. Sani Bello. Therefore, we were not surprised when Niger State was created and Minna made the capital.
Were there considerations for other towns as the state capital apart from Minna?
Yes, there was a strong contest from Bida, primarily because the largest and the most sophisticated tribe in the state are the Nupe. Therefore, it was natural for them to wish the capital to be in Bida. Besides that, they had many important people; including a former Emir, Alh. Umar Sanda, God bless his soul, then a federal permanent secretary. They were right to seek for the capital, but one or two things weighed the decision in my view. One was the simple fact that most of Niger State was carved out of the former Niger Province, which capital was Minna, because it was fairly neutral.
Two, important emirs, one in Bida and the other one in Kontagora, the one in Bida from a protocol point of view was senior to the one in Kontagora, but both of them were first class, I guess they must have conceded to Minna which was probably more neutral
At that time, Minna was a provincial capital and there was no emir. There was a chief for Minna in 1950 that had authority only over Minna town. However, an administrative reform later brought all of Gwari land under the emir.
Therefore, it was a much later creation. At that time there was no question of him becoming a threat in any way. But later, all Gwari land, including Suleja, was brought under Minna, an emir was then created in a kind of federal arrangement. And so once it was made capital, the status of Minna increased naturally.
However, I noticed, having been Secretary to the State Government, that we maintained a hierarchy, they continued to maintain the hierarchy because almost all the emirs today are first class but they have continued to maintain that hierarchy.
The Emir of Bida was No. 8 I think. He’s the chairman of the traditional council of chiefs, and the Emir of Kontagora was No. 10; I’m not sure. Then the Emirs of Agaie, Suleja and Lapai, I can’t remember the order.
What happened to you after the creation of states?
When I came down to Minna, I was the Chief Economic Planning Officer under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. It was a very strategic position because we were responsible for determining the capital budget. It involved a lot of coordination with other states, as well as the Federal Government. I was always travelling to Lagos, and we created the first plan for Niger State, to provide for a rail network, to ensure that there was water, electricity and schools. We did that and then went for the second plan, but by then, I was to leave, to go for further studies. There were good people who worked under me like Abubakar Gimba: we had been career mates. I had a good team.
The first Military Governor of the state was Murtala Nyako, who was brilliant and hard working. After four years, the state was well established and we handed over to a civilian administration.
So you moved on…
I got admission to Harvard University in the USA to do a master’s degree. This was in 1977. I did a master’s in Economic Development in Harvard Kennedy School of Government. I was there till 1978, and I had a swell time.
When I came back, I responded to an advertisement by the NNDC. I went through the interview, came out the best and was employed by Hamza Zayyad as Head of Investment and Supervision in late 1978. I didn’t stay long because after the elections in September 1979, the Governor of Niger State then, Awwal Ibrahim, now the Emir of Suleja, and Alh. Tanko Kuta, and, of course, the late Sen. Idris Ibrahim, came to my house one morning in Kaduna and told me I was to become the Secretary to the State Government.
I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad, but I knew it was a heavy responsibility. I didn’t lobby, of course. They knew my antecedents. I was only 31 years old then with about only 10 years of experience. Only Sule Hamman was of similar age and status. He was in Kano, there was also Audu Ogbeh, a cabinet minister.
So I worked with Gov. Awwal Ibrahim for four years. They were difficult years because as a new state, wounds were still fresh and there was a strong contest between the three major tribes, Nupe, Gwari and Hausa. What made it easy was that the party had a structure.
Were you a politician?
I did not start as a politician, but anybody who became secretary to the government, by definition would wind up as a politician because major considerations have to do with politics. They had a committee of nine made up of three people from the executive, the governor, deputy governor and the SSG, and three from the party; the chairman, secretary and the treasurer, and three from the House of Assembly, the speaker, his deputy and the majority leader.
Often, these people would sit down, sometimes in emergencies, to look at the programmes and progress of government and how best to adjust them. That structure made it possible for the state to function.
I find politics very intriguing. Again, the fact that I was an active student unionist made it easy. I found it useful throughout the period until 1983 when my position was unfortunately not renewed. It was a surprise, more like a shock, because I expected it to be renewed.
Were there clashes between the three major tribes you mentioned?
There were. The government came in then, in my view, on a foundation of fear. Everyone who wasn’t Nupe tended to be afraid of them, believing they were more educated or richer. So everyone rebranded sort of. They didn’t want a Nupe man as governor, so they produced an alternative, so there was a lot of suspicion.
However, there were individuals, like the chairman of the party at that time, Kure, who wanted to become governor, but he was SSG in Sokoto State. He was the father of a later governor, people liked him. And there was Tanko Kuta also, who always brought their experience as old civil servants. Therefore, when push came to shove, they sat down to ensure compromise.
However, there was a breakdown between the Gwari and the non-Gwari communities, mostly engineered by the NPP in Plateau State, but it was resolved. Competitions, however, continued.
Do they still exist?
I don’t know, perhaps I’m not the one to be asked this question, but from the very beginning, I had grown up with the Nupe and I am partly Gwari and partly Hausa. I tend to see all as my simple people, and the truth of the matter is that people came to appreciate this. It is a respect I continue to enjoy.
In this regard, what call will you make to the people of Niger State?
Unity of course, I think if there is division today, it certainly isn’t what it used to be. I commend former Gov. Kure for putting in a rotational principle. He doused the fire in many ways.
Yes, there may be issues, but if there are divisions, I don’t think they are tribal as such. It’s a big horizon, we are just a small group of people in a big place called Nigeria. We have to put our heads together to make it work.
After the 1983 coup what happened?
You know God has a way with miracles. Like I told you, my position was not renewed but God has plans you don’t even know. It was like a ship and the ship was meant to sink but God took me off the ship and from afar I was thinking I ought to be on it but the truth was that my position wasn’t reviewed as SSG.
On December 17, 1983, I was appointed a federal permanent secretary, just 13 or 14 days before the coup. I was sworn in by President Shehu Shagari. That too I never lobbied for. Both Shagari and Gen. Wushishi, the then Chief of Army Staff, were surprised my tenure wasn’t renewed. Wushishi took my case to Shagari whom I knew when I was in Sokoto when he was a Commissioner for Finance.
I was posted to the Police Service Commission as permanent secretary, but 14 days into the posting, there was a coup that brought Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as Head of State, and a month or two later, I was deployed to the Ministry of Communication. Gen. Ahmed Abdullahi was then the minister. He came from the signals arm of the army. He was probably a year older than me, but we graduated in the same year from different institutions. We worked well and we took risks. If we were older, we probably wouldn’t have taken the risks. He wanted us to restructure Post and Telecommunications (P&T) because we couldn’t then even call Ibadan from Lagos. You could call abroad through NITEL and often people would call somebody in London who would call somebody in Kaduna to pass a message. Meanwhile, the P&T at that time was responsible for posts and wireless but it couldn’t perform a single function for which the place was designed. Mails coming by ship were loaded but were not distributed for months. So there was an emergency.
Therefore, we cleared that and created self-sustaining parastatals, hence breaking P&T into NIPOST and NITEL.
There were only about 300,000 lines when we came in, and by the time we left there were double of that number. It was quite an achievement, we streamlined a much more efficient outfit.
We had to decrease the staff by about 50 per cent because we discovered that many people who were there should have retired. We then made sure they were retired but we didn’t retire anybody without giving them their gratuity and we made sure they were paid their pension.
And after serving in the communication ministry…
I moved to the Federal Ministry of Industries, under Gen. Akinrinade, and was responsible for two major things: the Onne and Port Harcort refineries. I enjoyed working with Akinrinade because his economics was right. He realised that an industry was there to produce and make money.
Eighty per cent of the industries were working; fertilizer, pulp and paper, they were all working before they became moribund and were therefore, privatised. From there I was appointed as the MD of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB), now called Bank of Industry (BoI). This was in 1989. I was there for two years. It was efficient but for close to 10 years there were issues. Its capital dwindled and people weren’t paid, but I reorganised the place.
Were there elements of corruption then?
I certainly didn’t know.
In terms of repayment of loans and all that…
I streamlined it in such a way that people came back to pay their loans. I never sat down with anyone to say I am to take a decision, therefore, you should give me this, and God help you if you tried it. I left NIDB in 1991 and went for the governorship.
What informed that decision?
I had good will. I got on well with people and many seemed to agree that I was probably one of the least tribalistic, and was encouraged by everyone and was well received. I contested under the National Republican Convention (NRC). There were 23 other candidates, but I was disqualified, unfortunately. I was, however, elected into the Constituent Assembly during the Abacha period and went on to form a party, African National Congress (ANC), but Abacha didn’t register any party, instead he created his parties. Once that happened, I made up my mind that this was a case where the referee was also a player. Therefore, the possibility of your winning such a game was zero. The referee himself in this case was the major player, so I made up my mind.
Abacha nominated me after the Constituent Assembly to be the Minister of Communication but I didn’t go for the screening.
Why?
I wasn’t sure I wanted to serve. I told you this was a situation where you couldn’t win, making me minister made me totally political, meaning I could not start to be the businessman I wanted to be in that very environment, so I didn’t do the screening. I went directly to the private sector.
Was that when the seed of Urban Shelters was planted?
Yes, having made that decision, I cut off my links with politics, concentrated on business and established Urban Shelters. To be frank, I think I made a mistake of coming back to Abuja. I should have stayed in Lagos, it probably would have been better I have no doubt. I would have been doing what I am doing in Abuja from Lagos. I would have been able to exploit many opportunities in Lagos.
Property development is about you being there first, you see the site, make up your mind about what you want to use it for, then chase the money. Now most of the money is in Lagos. At any rate we thank God.
How did you establish Urban Shelter?
I had no doubt that if I built houses and sold them they would do well. When I built a house as a federal perm sec in Lagos, we were given plots of land in Victoria Island, most of my colleagues developed them and were collecting rent of about N300,000, but I built mine and sold for N10m, which was much then, and I never looked back.
Therefore, when I came to run for governorship I had enough finance. I established Urban Shelters immediately after my disqualification in 1991. The idea was simple, it was novel. I was the first to start building houses commercially in Abuja for the simple purpose of selling.
After Abacha died, Gen. Abubakar came, he called me and we worked with other brilliant people like Nasir el-Rufai. We worked as a committee that steered the transition programme and he stuck to that programme and handed over power to civilians. From that time, I made up my mind never again to have anything to do with public office.
Looking at your life, what advice will you give youths?
I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. There were times when payment of fees was a problem, but I was always focused right from primary school. It is not being born in an easy environment; it’s about knowing what you want, targeting your resources to achieve that objective, and with prayers, getting there.
My advice is for them to be focused and stick to it. Sometimes it’s up, other times it’s down, but don’t give up because someone is successful. You too, with time and energy and the required resources, you’ll get there.
However, good quality education is number one, and development is all about people, training people like in Japan and Korea, and we are seeing same in Rwanda. The government is doing its best. We hope many of government’s programmes will succeed. Progress is being made, like in agriculture and anti-corruption.
What about the home front?
I have the privilege of having two wives; wonderful women I can tell you. I married my first wife in 1974 and my second wife in 1980. The mere fact that I have such wonderful women says something about them. It may also say something about the man. I have a great household; six children alive, all of them educated. Sa’adiya, a lady, is now the COO of Urban Shelters. I first had two daughters who died; they had sickle cell. My first daughter died at 30, she had first and second degrees, my second daughter died at 38, she also had first and second degrees. I have three boys: Mukhtar, Bashir and Farouk. Farouk runs the hotel in Garki. Maryam is a housewife, Firdausi too, they will soon join us. My youngest child is working with InterC, formerly Intercellular. I was the founding chairman. I am also Chairman of North South Power Company Ltd. So we keep ourselves busy.
