Dr Adamu Mohammed Fika worked for many years in Maiduguri, Borno State Capital, as permanent secretary before he moved to the federal civil service where he also served in that capacity in many ministries. He became the clerk of the National Assembly when the transition to civil rule started. He later became the executive chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission. In this interview, Dr Fika shares his life experiences.
How would you describe your early years?
I was born in 1942 at Fika in Fika Local Government Area of the present day Yobe State. However, when I was born, we were still in Borno Province, the present day Borno State. We were part of the northeastern states.
I had my primary education at Fika from 1948 to 1952. I moved from there to Provincial Senior Primary School from 1953 to 1955 and was thereafter admitted into Barewa College.
How did you earn admission into Barewa, which was the premier college in northern Nigeria?
It was a very competitive process. There was actually an interview for selection. A senior education officer, an expatriate, interviewed us. In the end, five of us were selected from Borno Province.
Can you remember some of the five?
I can remember all of them – Ali Madaki, Ibrahim Alkali, myself, Alhaji Umaru and
Ambassador Mahmud Ahmed, who is still alive.
Barewa was in Zaria, which is far from Borno; how was the experience, especially travelling to Barewa in those days?
Most of the time we travelled by lorry. And it was very adventurous, especially in the rainy season. It took about 10 days from Potiskum to reach Zaria because whenever it rained, the trunk road was closed for 24 hours. And if you were not lucky, before 24 hours, another rain would fall and the road would be closed for another 24 hours. So there was no specific time for arrival, but usually, during the rainy season, it took a minimum of 10 days to reach Zaria.
As young boys, where were you eating and sleeping during such number of days on the road?
The lorry would usually stop in a village. And we had mats, which we would spread under the lorry and use our wooden boxes as pillows while sleeping. Sometimes we would sleep in the lorry when it was raining. But as young men, it was a real adventure for those five years. We used to come back home by train, often from Zaria via Kafachan to Jos, or from Zaria to Kano, then complete the journey by road. We really enjoyed it.
How long would it take on train?
The train service from Zaria to Jos took overnight. We would set off from Zaria around 5pm or 6pm and arrive in Jos around 5am the following day. It took some hours only to Kano, but we enjoyed it, whichever way.
Barewa was a very elitist school, where some intellectually gifted young northern boys were put together. This was a very sharp contrast to your lifestyle in Potiskum; what was your experience there?
We had six houses in the college. It was in those houses that you would meet your classmates for the first time, as well as your seniors with a year or two. We were about five students in a room.
Normally, we would assemble from 7am and there would be a parade, after that we would go to classes and take breakfast at 9am. Thereafter, we would go to school and continue with academic activities till 1:30pm, then go to pray. We would have lunch and afternoon rest; then games in the evening.
Were you eating good food?
The food was excellent, better than what we enjoyed in our respective homes. And we had three square meals every day. It was a pleasure to be in the college.
After Barewa, you went to Keffi for a higher school certificate, another long way from Borno, can you also share your experience?
Yes, I went for a Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Keffi because it was the policy of the northern government then to reshuffle students. Although HSC started in Barewa before I finished Form 5, the government decided that I should go to Keffi to do it, while some students from that place, Ilorin, Sokoto etc would do theirs at Barewa. That was one way of expanding the experience of the younger elites as they grew up.
In Keffi, we also met a new fresh set of people. In the art class we were only 11 while the science class was bigger; they were up more than 20.
We did two years and stayed for the final exams. Luckily, I passed all my papers in flying colours.
How come you went to Makerere University, Uganda, for your degree?
It will say it was just luck because when I finished at Keffi in December 1962, I went straight to Kaduna, where I met Alhaji Adamu Fika, who later became head of service.
At that time, he was the principal of the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna, so he gave me a job as an assistant instructor. It is from the training centre that I went for an interview of the Northern Nigeria Scholarship Board.
They offered me a scholarship to go to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), which started one year earlier. But I said I wanted to go to Ibadan, where I would read History as a single honour. In ABU you had to study two subjects, and that was not appealing to me.
But the secretary said the Northern Nigeria Government would not give me a scholarship to Ibadan, and I said I would not go to ABU either, so I went back to teaching.
Why were you determined to read History in Ibadan at that age?
Ibadan and Makerere were started at the same time. I wanted to be a teacher of history, so any other subject would distract me from my area of interest. The secretary was unyielding, so I went back to teaching.
In July 1963, Alhaji Sabo, the then secretary of the scholarship board phoned the principal, asking of the whereabouts of his troublesome younger brother and he said I was teaching.
He said that two days ahead, the registrar of Makerere University was coming to interview students to study on USAID scholarship for teachers in Nigeria, so if he was interested he should come on the day in question. I took that opportunity and attended the interview. Two of us were selected from northern Nigeria to go to Makerere – myself and one Shittu Alimi from Kabba Province. That was how we set off to Makerere.
So you found yourself in Kampala in the 1960s, how was it?
I was the only Hausa-speaking fellow of the whole of Nigerian students, the rest were Igbo, Yoruba or other languages. But I was able to adjust properly because those senior to us, especially those in the same hall, took me as their younger brother, particularly one older Ukeje Elogu, who is now about 92 years in age, and Ralph Eboje from the Mid Western State.
I quickly settled down and I enjoyed my studies. In the first year when we studied three subjects—English, History and Geography—I concentrated on History.
At that time, how was life in Uganda when compared to Nigeria?
We had the same level of development. The good thing was that they used shillings as their currency while we used pounds. I think that among the students, Nigerians had the highest allowances. So, life was really very enjoyable with all the scholarship paid, plus pocket money to go along with it. We had no problem whatsoever until we graduated after three years.
Did you travel and make friends in Uganda?
I made friends and travelled, particularly to northern Uganda. I also travelled to Kenya with some friends. We really enjoyed our stay. After graduation I visited Nairobi and other places several times.
Is it true that after graduating from Makerere University you taught for a while in Kenya?
Yes.
Why did you choose to do that?
I chose it because when I finished my examinations, the 1966 coup in Nigeria had just happened about two and half months earlier and the papers and magazines were full stories of uncertainties and anxieties about the country. So I felt it would not be safe to return home; hence I opted for the job in Kenya. I taught there for about eight months before I came back to Nigeria to join the staff of the Ahmadu Bello University but based in Abdullahi Bayero College, which was in Kano. It was a campus of the ABU, Zaria.
When you were moving from Uganda to Kenya to teach, did you have a family?
I did not have a family, but three or four days before l left Uganda for Nigeria, I got married to a Ugandan, who was a student in an equivalent of a teachers’ college.
Did you come back together?
No; I left her to finish her studies before joining me.
You were in Bayero, an affiliate of the ABU for quite a while before going abroad again, the United Kingdom, for further studies, was it on another scholarship?
It was another scholarship because when I started teaching in 1966, I registered for a master’s degree under the late Professor Abdullahi Smith, who was the head of the Department of History at the ABU. There, I did two years and I had nothing to show for it towards achieving the master’s degree.
Didn’t you make progress in those two years?
I didn’t make progress. We were young, so we spent a lot of our time in social activities rather than studies. Besides, my supervisor was in Zaria while I was in Kano, so there was a problem. I just could not make much headway towards achieving a master’s degree. So I booked an appointment to see the registrar, the late Professor Ishaya Audu.
Was he the registrar or vice chancellor?
He was the vice chancellor. Luckily, he gave me an appointment. And before it would be concluded that I was unproductive or not brilliant, I narrated my predicament, saying I needed his assistance to be able to pursue postgraduate studies outside the country.
He looked at me and said if I could get an admission in any university in the United Kingdom or United States, he would get me a scholarship to go and study.
So, I applied to many American and British universities and a British university gave me admission. I chose to go to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
I informed the vice chancellor, a wonderful leader, and I got a Ford Foundation scholarship through the Institute of International Education in New York. It was a full scholarship.
So I packed my things; and at that time, my wife had arrived from Uganda about three months earlier. We headed for London, where the scholarship board was very generous.
They also allowed me three-quarter of my salary monthly in Nigeria. So, if I ran short of cash in the United Kingdom, I would always run to the ABU, London office, to sign a cheque of say, 100pounds. And our pound and the UK pound were about the same.
How was life in London for a young scholar at the time?
It was very interesting and time-consuming because my main place of study was the public records office because I was to study Kano history and most of the references were in that place. And you had to be on queue by 7am.
And because the seats available were only 17 or so, every morning you had to race to be at the gate of public records office to be able to be allowed to enter for study, from say, 8am until 5pm everyday. I really enjoyed it because either buses or trains kept to time in arriving at a particular station.
How did you deal with cold in UK?
I had to buy warm cloths, but we were young people, so we were able to tolerate a lot of the cold. Sometimes when it was summer you would go out in shorts.
But now, even when I am in suit in London, I feel cold 24 hours unless I put on the heater. It was very pleasurable to be in London.
It seems you combined the master’s degree and PhD there; how long did it take?
In fact, when I went to London in the first instance, I registered for a Master of Philosophy in History, but after one year, my supervisors decided that I was good; therefore, I should skip the programme and go straight for PhD. That was how I came back to Nigeria after one year to do a field work, where I conducted a lot of studies and information from Kano, Zaria and Kaduna archives, as well as Arewa House.
I went back to London after one year to start writing my thesis on the history of Kano from 1882 to 1940. I went to my supervisor and reported that I was back, and asked how I would go on.
He said I was the expert; therefore, unless I wrote my first chapter there was nothing he could do. And I had never been taught how to write, so I was stuck. For five months I could not produce the first chapter.
I did not go to see my supervisor and he kept phoning me because I took up a job in a factory making sweets, until he finally caught up with me and begged me to come, saying my study was waiting for me.
We sat for three hours and he lectured me on how to go about it. In a very short time he encouraged me to commence writing my thesis and I started.
When I wrote my first chapter, I took it to him and he was very happy. He really improved it, to my amazement. I was surprised at myself and that made it easy for me to continue writing until September 1972 when I finished writing the PhD thesis.
Bala Usman, Mahmud Tukur, Sule Bello and many others also studied Nigerian history. Was Abdullahi Smith still the head of the Department of History when ABU was known as a radical school?
Most of them were my friends.
But you seem not to be in this radical kind of tradition of the ABU?
I was radical but a very subdued one. That was how I was even elected as a member of the ABU Senate, representing grassroots teachers.
So, you didn’t quite flow with Bala Usman?
I didn’t go with the extremism of Bala Usman; I did it in my own way in Kano. I was probably the foremost radical at that time because the authorities said students were not allowed to go to staff club, but as a rebel, I would always invite students to join me because I said that before God, we were all the same, so why shouldn’t they come. That was how my rebellion went.
But Marxism and all those things were not for you?
My own was for equality before God and man; the students were not small boys, so why should you prevent them from going to wherever they wanted on campus. We made many friends, and we are still friends with some of them.
Eventually, we had an acting head of department, a Sudanese, who issued a circular that Nigerian History would be optional for those reading History for honours. He put it on various boards. I went and tore it, stating that given my experience in the US, UK, India and every country in the world, the history of a country was compulsory for an honours degree in History, so we would not allow a black Sudanese to treat us as second class citizens.
I stated that I was also in Sudan and their history was compulsory. We quarreled with him and he couldn’t pull out my own circular because he was afraid of the reaction of Nigerians.
I went to Zaria to see the vice chancellor and complain. The vice chancellor, who was very friendly, said I should write to him through my head of department; and I said okay.
I went back to Kano, wrote a letter of resignation and gave a six-month notice, which would expire in November 1974.
I went to Maiduguri for an interview in the Civil Service Commission for a job. But one of the members who was from Borno didn’t want me to move from teaching in ABU to the civil service of the state, but the chairman was sympathetic, as well as the governor.
Despite the visit by the vice chancellor, Prof Ishaya Audu, the governor still wanted me to come and work in his office.
So the vice chancellor tried to stop you from going to the civil service?
He tried to stop me because they had spent so much on me by way of scholarship, and I had taught for only one and half year or so.
So you didn’t fulfill your own part?
Yes, I didn’t fulfill the minimum requirement but that was how I left.
You left the university rather abruptly as lecturer one. Before that incident, did you intend to stay in the university and become a professor?
That was my intention, but I was put off when the vice chancellor told me to write to him through the head of the department, who I was not even on talking terms with.
With a PhD from London, any other university would have loved to have you; why didn’t you think of going to another school?
My ambition was to teach in ABU, so once that was frustrated, I said it was better for me to offer my services to my people.
Were you aware that the tradition of the academia was quite different from the civil service?
I knew. I was welcomed and my permanent secretary and other colleagues helped me to settle down. I was promised accommodation so that my wife could join me in Maiduguri.
I was given an office as a principal assistant secretary in the Political Affairs Department in the governor’s office. So it was another exciting change and I was very happy. That was in December 1974.
Is it true that you served the Borno State Government as a permanent secretary in virtually every ministry?
Key ministries like Trade and Industry, Works and Housing, Animal and Forest Resources, Agriculture, Finance and Health. When I became a permanent secretary in the governor’s office I was in charge of administration and the political department, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Information.
Didn’t you find the freedom of the academia versus the restrictions of the civil service strange?
I did not find any restriction in the civil service. As long as you complied with the rules and regulations you were free. People like us really had a wonderful time during the 10 years I was a permanent secretary in Borno State. I had an opportunity to make a difference and it was worthwhile.
Can you recall anything as your special contribution to Borno?
It was during my time as the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Animal and Forest Resources. It was one of the most controversial; it even appeared in the New Nigerian newspaper in 1980 as a scandal of sorts. I went to Kenya to collect wildlife the then President Jomo Kenyatta donated to northeastern states when he visited Maiduguri in 1973.
In Kenya, I was taken as a guest of one of the elephant farms, where there were more than 5,000 elephants. I spent about a month there. The animals had to be caught and tamed before they would be sent out.
When I came back to Nigeria, the news leaked that I had gone to Kenya in East Africa with N52 million to buy animals, but it was 52,000 shillings only.
It was very cheap, including the air freight from Nairobi to Maiduguri. Among the gift was also a giraffe, but it could not enter the plane.
By the time the rest of the animals came, we took them to the Northern Province because they were being acclimatised not to run away from people. But the newspapers carried out a sort of drawing showing animals in the aircraft, including the neck of a giraffe, which we did not bring.
What I did was to send one forest officer to Sambisa forest, where we had two giraffes already.
He was told to go and not come back to Maiduguri except he brought back a giraffe for Kalami Park.
He went and caught a giraffe, brought it to the park and set it free. And giraffe is not used to other animals or people, so it kept running until it broke its neck and died before I came to see it. It was another very interesting incident.
So you moved to the federal service after 10 years in Borno?
Yes.
Was it by invitation or you decided to move?
In fact, I was forced to move to avoid being retired because by 1985 I was virtually the most senior of the permanent secretaries, after the secretary to the government.
Following the Ibrahim Babangida coup in 1985, Muhammadu Buhari was toppled, and the governor, General Abubakar Waziri, who was a classmate, towns mate and friend, was retired. During Waziri’s time, the secretary to the government felt that I usurped his powers, which is not true.
Were you the permanent secretary in the Government House?
No. I was permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, from where I was moved to Establishment. Within three months, there was another announcement to reshuffle permanent secretaries, but my name did not appear. So I headed the Ministry of Establishment and waited for 10 days, but there was no news.
I went to the secretary to the government and told him that he had taken me away from Establishment but I did not see my name on the circular he issued. He told me that they wanted to retire me but too many people from Fika were retired, so the new military governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Aminu from Katsina said they should send me to Biu as a sole administrator of a local government.
That was what prompted me to expedite action about transfer because I said if Aminu was transferred, the secretary to the government would probably recommend that I should be retired and I was only in my 40s. I think it worked.
And you applied to the federal service?
I applied to the federal service for transfer and kept following it up through friends etc until it was successful. But before that happened, nine months after I was in Biu, there was a circular, a signal from Maiduguri, that I should leave whatever I was doing in Biu and come to Maiduguri.
I went to Maiduguri, and the following day, I went to the secretary to the government and he said, “I am going on leave and the military governor said you should come and act as secretary to the government.” I said there was no problem.
He handed over on a Monday to start his leave. Three days later, by the time I got to work, I was working on the conference table rather than from the table of the secretary to the government. My boss was in the office; he was back. I asked what happened and he didn’t tell me anything. He just sat there. We spent six weeks and I was doing the work of the secretary to the government on the conference table. My boss was sitting there every day until his leave was over and I handed over to him.
Do you think he was worried that you would take over the job?
I think one of the mallams misled him to believe that if he went away for six weeks, I would take over the job.
Thereafter, I went to say goodbye to the military governor and he said I would not go. I asked how and he said he enjoyed working with me as secretary to the government. He made me the permanent secretary, special duties. So whatever files that went to him from the secretary to the government, he referred them to me.
When my transfer came, the governor said he would not release me to go to Lagos because there was nobody for him to work with.
I reminded him that his job was temporary, which meant that if they took him away, my boss would recommend that I should be retired, and I was not yet 50. So, I begged him and talked to all his friends all over the country before he finally agreed to let me proceed to Lagos. I did that in November 1986.
Did you find it challenging working in Lagos?
It was challenging but I got used to the routine. In any case, Alhaji Adamu Fika, my namesake, was the Head of Service. I was in his office as his special assistant pending when I would be posted to a ministry.
Eventually, in February the following year, I think it was in 1987, they posted me to the Ministry of Works and Housing as secretary for administration and finance.
I was enjoying my job there. By July I had solved the backlog of promotions in that ministry. By August, while I was still at work on promotions, there was an announcement on television that I was being appointed a commissioner in the newly created National Electoral Commission under Professor Awa.
I wrote a petition, stating that I was a civil servant and didn’t want to bother about a political job, so the government should leave me to continue enjoying my job.
After about four weeks, the Head of Service phoned me, saying that government had instructed I should report to Professor Awa unfailingly or both of us would be shown the way out of service. I had no option but to obey.
Did you enjoy it?
I didn’t enjoy it because I didn’t like it from the bottom of my heart. To my surprise, Prof Awa had so much confidence and faith in me, such that he kept me very close to himself. I had to do my best and became the head of the Recruitment and Training Unit. That way, I had the chance to give jobs to a lot of acquaintances, which I think many of them still appreciate.
You also had another political job, so to say, or something associated with politics, as clerk of the National Assembly.
Yes.
How did that go?
It was very rewarding because the Shagari National Assembly was disbanded following the coup of 1983/1984 and the entire staff disbanded and humiliated and I became the first to be appointed by government as the clerk of the National Assembly. I had to employ the rest of the staff, from messenger to deputy clerk.
I could only attract two people from the defunct Shagari National Assembly because the treatment they received was very bad, so only two were willing or able to accept to come back to serve in the Assembly. I had to fill all other vacancies.
How many years did you serve as clerk?
I stayed there for about four years. In fact, I stayed there until the ill-fated
Third Republic Assembly was convened in December 1992.
You were made the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission; was it a continuation of your civil service career or it came after retirement?
It was long after retirement. I was retired in April 30, 1999, one month before the General Abdulsalami Abubakar transition ended. So, from that time until 2013, I was a retired person.
But in the interim, from March 2004 until the end of 2019, I was teaching at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), where I rose from the position of a study group director to an acting director of studies for six years.
That gave me another opportunity to interact with top civil servants and people from both the public and private sectors who came to do their courses in order to be made members of the national institute.
What have you been doing since you left the National Assembly Service Commission?
I have not been working. But we were doing consultancy programmes. Myself, Prof A.D. Yahaya and several colleagues owned a company through which we were invited to do a lot of training and retraining for top civil servants.
Are you still doing that?
No. I think the thing has dried up. We dissolved the company because we spent up to five years without any job and we kept paying rent for the office, paying secretaries, messengers etc.
Having fully retired, what do you do?
I just read. I go to London at least once a year. And I make sure I go to a first
class bookshop to buy books every time I go there. That keeps me abreast of politics, current affairs and history. I have been enjoying it that way.
Aside reading, do you have another hobby or activities you do?
No.
How is your typical day?
I normally wake up around 4:30am, say my prayers and continue supplicating to God Almighty until 8am or 9am. Very often, I go back to bed for about three hours before the 1pm prayer. That is the pattern every day.
Do you socialise or you just stay at home most of the time?
I stay at home most of the time.
Do you observe any restriction on your diet?
I eat anything brought to me except pork; I am lucky.
How is family life for you?
Family life is okay. I am lucky to have been blessed with 14 children, and 12 of them are already graduates and working, mostly here in Abuja. That gives me great joy.
Did you marry again after Uganda?
I married again and they became two. At one stage they became three; then ultimately, they remained two because I divorced one and the senior wife died in
- But I still married another one, so there are still two of them, although they don’t live in the same house. That situation forced me into having two homes.
Do you still socialise with your friends, peers and mates?
I socialise largely through telephone or when I go to Friday mosque. I meet with friends like Prof Bajoga and others. I also talk with friends like Tonnie Iredia. We have been close friends since I was an electoral commissioner. He lives in Abuja, so he visits me. Before I had a problem with my legs, I used to travel to Benin with him and we would often visit Chief Igbinedion, his uncle. We got a lot of generosity from Chief Igbinedion and his son, Lucky, a onetime governor of Edo State.
Do you still go to Uganda and other countries?
I used to travel outside the country, at least three or four times, and I have been to Uganda several times since then, but most of my travels are to London for medical checkups and treatment.
You have seen quite a lot of Nigeria over the years, what is your feeling about the current state of the country?
I think the country was in a state of despondency under the former administration. But I think that people, including me, are now being very optimistic and expectant of better life under the present government.
Despite the problems we are having with diesel, petrol and electricity prices, we believe that things ought to be better for us in the next four or eight years.
We also believe that the security situation in the country would improve. I have not travelled to Potiskum for about 10 years because of the fear of the dangers on the road. I want to see a change in my lifetime.
Whenever the name, Adamu Fika is mentioned, the first person that comes to mind is the older Adamu Fika; has that ever been a kind of disadvantage or advantage to you in your career?
I think it has been an advantage because wherever one goes, one would have recognition until one explains to them that the older Fika is my teacher, relative and boss. Another difference is that he is addressed as Alhaji while I am called Dr Adamu Fika.
So, the name has never been a problem to you?
No. This is because Google has something on people, and there is something on me which gives my background and shows that I am the smaller Fika.
I also have contributions to the wellbeing of some students and Nigerians, especially in Borno and Yobe. Some of our projects are still being used; and I am very proud to visit Yobe and Borno states at any time.
