”And it will be in a happy position of judging from the high standpoint of accomplished fact”, John Buchan
A landmark event will take place in Abuja on 14th September, 2026 at the NAF Conference Centre, Ahmadu Bello Way, Kado. It is the launching of a book in commemoration of Brigadier Musa Usman, first Governor of the North-Eastern State. He may have been immortalized by Hajiya Pompo Nyawala of Adamawa and Alhaji Gilashi Azare of Bauchi in their songs, but Brigadier Musa Usman is more tangibly remembered in Maiduguri by the State Secretariat that bears his name today.
The complex, initiated and completed during his administration, still stands with uncommon dignity and remains, in my estimation, one of the finest and most aesthetically outstanding administrative complexes anywhere in Nigeria. More than half a century after it was conceived and built, it has lost none of its presence, elegance, solidity, proportions and air of permanence that continue to convey something of the confidence, seriousness and administrative imagination of the age in which it was created.
The Musa Usman Secretariat is therefore more than an assemblage of government offices. It is a monument in concrete and brick to the creativity and foresight of the man whose name it carries. Musa Usman became Governor of the North-Eastern State in 1967 when I was only seven years old and still a pupil at Mafoni Primary School in Maiduguri. I was far too young to understand the intricacies of administration or the enormous responsibilities placed upon the shoulders of a young military officer, but childhood has its own way of recording history.
