The Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar at the weekend, led a team of the management staff for an on-the-spot assessment of the current state of facilities in State House, Dodan Barracks, the former seat of government, in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Details of the event were contained in a statement issued on Saturday by the State House Director of Information, Mr Abiodun Oladunjoye.

The facility was the official seat of govt business under former military heads of state, including Generals Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the Supreme Military Headquarters during the Nigerian Civil War.

After the seat of government moved to Abuja in 1992, the State House has maintained a Liaison Office in Lagos, which caters for presidential liaison in the southwest geopolitical zone and also provides protocol and logistical support services for top government functionaries visiting or passing through Lagos.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with the staff in Lagos, the Permanent Secretary said the Presidential facilities in the State House, Dodan Barracks at Ribadu Road, Ikoyi will receive the necessary attention to make them ‘‘active, functional and effective’’, in delivering services.

Noting the strategic importance of the former abode of Nigeria’s heads of state, the Permanent Secretary recounted that in January this year, President Buhari, while returning from a State visit to Ogun State, passed through Dodan Barracks, where he boarded a helicopter to Murtala Muhammed Airport, in Ikeja, Lagos.

He also added that the facility in Lagos also caters for the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), when he visits or passes through Lagos

‘‘We want to keep this place active, alive & functional as well as make the working environment a bit more conducive for the staff. We cannot fix the entire structure in one day, but we can begin somewhere and see it to completion,’’ he said.

At the meeting attended by all the Heads of Departments and Units in the State House, Umar announced that the Library/Archives at the seat of government in Abuja would be fully automated, to allow staff and interested educational institutions, have access to important national documents on Nigeria’s history.

Underscoring the need for record-keeping and preservation of government documents, the Permanent Secretary said the collection and preservation of archival materials for posterity in the seat of government would receive more attention.

He also encouraged State House staff to make use of the Library for research, and reference and to revive and entrench the dying reading culture that was needed for national development.

‘‘We are looking at scenarios where the Library will be open at weekends to encourage reading and learning among the staff & also accord educational institutions at the basic secondary level to undertake guided tours of the State House Library and Archives and see how the nation has evolved over the years, through our collection of historical records and artefacts’’ he said.

The Permanent Secretary also lauded the symbiotic relationship among the different government agencies working in the Lagos Liaison Office, especially the security, noting that a unity of purpose remains integral to improved service delivery.

The Liaison Officer Lagos, Mr Akinyemi Famakin, thanked the Permanent Secretary for bringing the top management staff to Lagos for the top-level meeting and facility inspection.

On establishment matters, the Liaison Officer commended the management for addressing some of the training needs of the staff in Lagos, especially drivers, who are frontline service providers in the Liaison office..

Dodan Barracks

Dodan Barracks is a military barrack located in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. The barrack was the Supreme Military Headquarters during the Nigerian Civil War and from 1966 to 1979 and 1983 to 1985. Dodan Barracks was the official residence of the military heads of state of the Nigerian military juntas of 1966–79 and 1983–99, and also the Supreme Military Headquarters from 1966 until the move to Abuja in 1991.

Name

The name "Dodan" originated from the site of a battle fought during the Burma campaign of World War II by the 82nd West African Division.

Military headquarters

Dodan Barracks was one of the bases of a group of Nigerian Army majors who overthrew the First Nigerian Republic in January 1966. The coup was suppressed by the army, whose commander, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, then became head of state. In July 1966, Dodan Barracks became the seat of power in Nigeria after a counter-coup in which Ironsi was killed and his chief of staff, General Yakubu Gowon was made head of state, moving into the Federal Guard officer's mess.

The Barracks was the location where Gowon received formal Biafran surrender at the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970. Subsequent rulers kept their base at the barracks for the next quarter of a century.

Gowon was overthrown in a July 1975 coup, succeeded by General Murtala Mohammed. In an attempted coup in February 1976, Murtala was killed when his convoy was ambushed. Obasanjo moved into the barracks for security reasons.

In 1977, troops invaded the compound of the influential musician Fela Kuti, called the father of Afrobeat, who was critical of the military regime. They beat up the men, raped the women and threw Fela into detention. His 78-year-old mother died later of injuries from being thrown from a second story window.

 On his release, he recorded an album titled Coffin For Head of State. Fela and his supporters marched his mother's empty coffin to Dodan Barracks and left it there to shame Obasanjo.The Dodan Barracks was the location for a meeting in April 1978 between US President Jimmy Carter and Olusegun Obasanjo.

In the successful December 1983 coup, when General Muhammadu Buhari seized power from President Shehu Shagari, the troops in the barracks initially resisted, only to yield the day after.

 A palace coup in August 1985 orchestrated by General Ibrahim Babangida, seized power from under Buhari. In January 1986, a Special Military Tribunal was established to try suspects accused of plotting to overthrow General Babangida. The tribunal conducted the trial at the Dodan Barracks, finding 17 of the defendants guilty of treason.

Dodan Barracks was one of the key locations seized in the April 1990 coup attempt by Major Gideon Orkar against General Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida was resident when the barracks were attacked, but escaped by a back route.The guards thwarted the coup attempt, losing five members in defence of Dodan Barracks.

Babangida's wife, Maryam, who was also present with her children at the time of the coup attempt, recalled that when she moved into the barracks in 1985 she had to arrange for considerable renovations to make the rooms more suitable for formal receptions.

Amotolongbo:
Seems like it was easier carrying out a coup in Dodan Barack then, unlike in Aso Rock

Amotolongbo:
Seems like it was easier carrying out a coup in Dodan Barack then, unlike in Aso Rock

Ebubu:
Perhaps. But I just think this set of Army officers are spineless and not adventurous, which is a good thing.

ChemicalReaction:
Muritala Mohammed.
13th February, 1976.

As a lover of history, this is one of the places I long to visit.

VPN11:


Asaba genocide; I despise the name Muritala Mohammed;I hate all the honor's given to him;I hate to see his face in our national currency;or in our National monuments;
He is a war criminal;a coupist.

Late Head of state, Murtala Muhammed who was in charge of the Command that carried out that savage crime ought to have had no role in a post-war Nigeria. Even though he rose to prominence through a coup, the army has been complicit in ignoring the fact that he had blood on his hands, not from legal combat but out of a pure sadistic instinct to shed civilian blood just because he could. He should not have had access to head a government in the name of the Nigerian army having committed what in the global community is adjudged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Lots of undeserving individuals seem to have either appropriated or been given underserved honors and have monuments named after them.

As we remember the Asaba Massacre, we suggest that it is never too late to do the right things in pursuit of justice and genuine national unity.

Astoria:
Don't forget to add Major Ibrahim Taiwo the Second-in-command to Murtala Muhammed who gave the on-the-spot direct orders.