Samuel Bitrus Atukum | |
---|---|
Governor of Plateau State | |
In office January 1984 – August 1985 | |
Preceded by | Solomon Lar |
Succeeded by | Chris Alli |
Personal details | |
Born | 1940 Plateau |
Military service | |
Branch/service | ![]() |
Rank | Rear Admiral |
Samuel Bitrus Atukum (born 1940) was the military governor of Plateau State, Nigeria from January 1984 to August 1985 during the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari. [1]
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]
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]