Mohammed Tukur Usman (1932 - 2009) was a Nigerian government official who was permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Works during the Murtala Mohamed and

Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 2007 ...

administration from 1975 to 1979. He was a cousin of the Yaraduas.

Life

Usman was born in

Katsina Katsina State ( ; 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞥁𞤭𞤲𞤢) is a state in the northwestern geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It is bordered to the west by Zamfara State, to the east by Kano and Jigawa states, and to the south by Kaduna St ...

where he spent most of his childhood. He finished his secondary education from

Barewa College Barewa College is a college in Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria. Founded in 1921 by British Governor General Hugh Clifford, it was originally known as Katsina College. It switched its name to Kaduna College in 1938 and to Government College ...

Zaria, and was in the graduation class that became the first to take

General Certificate of Education The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is a subject-specific family of academic qualifications used in examination board, awarding bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Education in the Crown dependencies, Crown dependencies and a few ...

examination at Barewa. After taking the exam, unlike his peers who went straight to work for the native Authorities, Usman decided to join the colonial civil service as a civil engineer. The first process of joining the service began with him taking a civil service exam in 1949, he was then accepted to study civil engineering. Between 1950 and 1953, he was in training at the Yaba polytechnic and spent other months as an apprentice under public works engineers. In 1954, he obtained a scholarship from the Northern regional government to study civil engineering at

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. After learning civil engineering skills abroad, he returned to Nigeria; Usman's first job was with the regional Ministry of Works as one of the four pioneer engineers from the region. He later was posted on secondment for three years to the

Nigerian Ports Authority The Nigerian Ports Authority (''NPA'') is a federal government agency that governs and operates the ports of Nigeria. The major ports controlled by the NPA include: the Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port in Lagos; Calabar Port, Delta ...

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

and Port Harcourt. In 1968, he joined the Federal Ministry of Works Usman rose through the ranks within the federal civil service, beginning in 1968, when he became the Chief Engineer of the Federal Ministry of Works. In 1971, he was appointed director of works and became the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Works in 1975. Usman was Permanent Secretary when the exclusive list of roads maintained by the government increased from 11,000 km to 27,000 km. Usman recognized that there is a poor attitude towards road and building maintenance by the government, placing some blame on over protection of civil servants and shoddy work by companies lacking necessary manpower. His tenure saw the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Benin-Shagamu dual carriageway and the A2 road, linking Warri-Benin-Okene-Abuja-Kaduna.

References

{{reflist Nigerian civil servants