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 |  Nigerian Navy |
| 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]
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