The withered Durbar Hotel
Tall grasses, a crumbling concrete structure and emptiness greeted Daily Trust when it paid a visit to the Durbar Hotel, Kaduna. This is the story of an abandoned property that was not only a pride of the people of Northern Nigeria but also a national mon
Strategically located along Independence Way in Kaduna, Durbar Hotel was established mainly to provide accommodation for guests during the two-day Durbar, that is horse the riding event of FESTAC 1977. The hotel was first class and catered for accommodation needs of both Nigerians and foreigners in Kaduna.
It was a federal government project executed by the General Olusegun Obasanjo-led military government. The hotel, occupying a land area of about 400 by 600 square meters, was built within two months at the cost of 100,000 pounds. It was built at the same time with the FESTAC Hotel, Lagos. Durbar Hotel, a once blooming majestic structure was no doubt among those that dictated the social life and development of Kaduna city.
The nosedive
After FESTAC, Durbar Hotel was handed over to Arewa Hotels, the hospitality department of New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) to manage. The hotel was functioning well during the military era up till the Second Republic, but suddenly along the line, report came that the hotel was sold to an individual.
Information gathered revealed that the late Kano-based business mogul and airline operator, Alhaji Muhammadu Adamu Dankabo bought the hotel in 1992, when the federal government under the Gen Ibrahim Babangida-led military government offered it to the public for sale.
The Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialisation (TCPC) led by the late Dr. Hamza Zayyad carried out the sale offer and sold to Dankabo’s Kabo Holdings Limited
Continued from page 29 as the first choice and highest bidder. He bought the hotel for N90 million. It is said that after buying the hotel, despite his vast experience in hotel business, every effort by him to make it function effectively was unsuccessful.
Our correspondent gathered from a publication that Kabo sold 40 percent shares of the property to the public and over 70 shareholders subscribed to the shares with anticipation to rake in good dividends from their investments. Though Dankabo maintained his 60 percent shares, the hotel was still not giving him the kind of profit he anticipated, therefore, in 1996, exactly three years after the purchase, Dankabo as the major shareholder in Durbar Hotel sold off all his shares to Nasimatume Investment Limited.
It said that Nasimatume Investment Limited is owned by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha. Nasimatume Investment Limited officially took over possession of Durbar Hotel management in 1997. Abacha died in 1998 but his son Mohammed Abacha took over as chairman of Nasimatume and maintained a management team that ran the hotel till 2000.
Those involved alleged that the federal government in 2000 initiated a move to retrieve the hotel even as it was disposed of by TCPC. The argument of government was that Kabo holdings allegedly paid N27 million for acquisition of Durbar Hotel and the balance of N63 million was obtained from the Federal Ministry of Defence and passed through Kabo Holdings. Government believed that the hotel was corruptly acquired, thus the order for Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to take it for re-privatisation.
According to reports, other reasons filed in the suit by the federal government and BPE were that Kabo Holdings or Nasimatume Investment Limited didn’t follow due diligence to buy the hotel; that Nasimatume Investment Limited was not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); Kabo Holdings didn’t notify BPE of its intention to transfer its shares to Nasimatume Investment Limited; non registration of shares with the Security and Exchange Commission; failure to register shares with CAC among others issues raised.
It’s the Abachas property
In the course of the legal battle, the hotel’s facilities and structures were vandalized and looted. Valuables including doors, window blinds, toilet facilities, curtains, aluminum roofing, generators and other valuables were either removed or damaged.
After the vandalism, the Abacha family filed a suit before a Federal High Court to challenge the seizure of the hotel. In 2005, judgment was delivered in favour of the Abacha family on grounds that the federal government and BPE could not present proof to show that the sale and transfer of shares didn’t follow due process.
By the judgment delivered with Suit No. FHC/KD/CS/66/01 at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, Durbar Hotel still belongs to the Abacha family and since then, nothing positive has happened to Durbar Hotel.
A veteran journalist who covered the commissioning of Durbar Hotel and FESTAC 1977, Alhaji Tajudeen Tijjani Ajibade in his account of events leading to the birth, life and demise of Durbar Hotel said, “There’s no prominent person in Nigeria that time, that is from the FESTAC time to the First and Second Republics, Buhari and Babangida’s regimes that did not know about Durbar Hotel.”
MKO in Durbar Hotel
Ajibade who recalled the history with nostalgia said, “It was at Durbar Hotel I first interviewed the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola. He came with his children. All of us went there. It was also in Durbar Hotel I met the late Chief Toye Coker, the Agboko of Egbaland, a lawyer. It was there I met the late Ahmed Kusamotu who later became the national chairman, National Republican Convention (NRC). It was in Durbar Hotel we met ministers coming in…Generals, in fact, it was in this same place I met the late Group Captain Tony Ighazubor. These are the people we met.
“I’m talking about the late 1970’s and 80’s, so for Durbar Hotel to have become what it is today is very unfortunate. It was in Durbar Hotel I met the late Inusa Osiobomei although we had met when we were young men on sea. He was a sailor and I was a maintenance officer there. At that time, they took us to sea and many other places. We were young then. When he came back to Durbar Hotel he became the Chief Engineer. This is where we met ourselves.
“It was in Durbar Hotel in the Second Republic that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo addressed the largest press conference. The same Durbar you see is where Alhaji Shehu Shagari was picked as the presidential candidate of National Party of Nigeria (NPN). In this same hotel Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe sat to bring about the NPP at that time with the late Isaiah Balat and Madaki Ali chairman and secretary respectively.
“It’s a sad memory when people like us now drive past Durbar Hotel to see it like this. I remember that once upon a time there was a place called Durbar Hotel; but today I’m still alive to see Durbar under this deplorable condition and I weep for my country.”
Any hope for return of good old days?
A security guard on duty on the premises said he was employed by the Abacha family to guard the premises 10 years ago. Although he seemed not to know much about the old good days of Durbar Hotel, when asked if there were plans to resuscitate the hotel, he said, “There are signs that something good is about to happen to the project based on the ongoing property manager office newly erected at a corner of the hotel premises.”
The guard said the presence of security personnel has prevented intruders from coming in and hoodlums from using the property as hideout.
When contacted on phone, the lawyer to Abacha family, Dr. Reuben Apapo said, “We won the case at the Federal High Court in Kaduna. But, in January 2005, the Abacha family started clearing the premises for investors to come and take over the hotel, then the federal government appealed the High Court judgment. Fortunately for the Abacha family, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on 30th May, 2014, so the owners are planning to resuscitate the hotel.”
Going by the guard’s and Barrister Atabo’s accounts, the glorious days of the historic Durbar Hotel will soon return.