Revealed: How Old JUTH Building Lies In Waste, Walls Broken, Reptiles Take Over Building, Roofs Vandalized

Yakubu Busari

The abandoned Old University Teaching Hospital, (JUTH) building lies in ruins in Plateau State.

For decades since it was built, the once iconic and legendary Centre for Continuing Education, University of Jos Building was the cynosure of all eyes.

It was the most easily identifiable structure that could be seen during the day by passengers sitting close to the windows of commercial buses going out of old JUTH to Bukuru, New JUTH, and Baluchi state.

Hundreds of visitors and students in classes and coming toward the mortuary usually throng that end of the roadside to have a glimpse of the several-room, multi-floor structure, which stands at a height of 5 to 10 meters.

It was completed in 1983 by the first civilian Governor of Plateau State Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, before the military regime took over. At the time of completion, it was the best building in West Africa.

During a recent visit to the abandoned structure, our correspondent learnt from someone knowledgeable about the building, but who pleaded anonymity, that problems ensued when the state government took over ownership.

This medium gathered that aside from the new owner’s inability to secure the franchise of a big edifice, the past and present were not able to maintain the gigantic edifice.

The source stated that for more than 10 years, the building has been occupied by scavengers, hoodlums, kidnappers, and men of the underworld who use the edifice as a transit spot.

“The government of this state and   Nigeria is not sensitive to the plight of the poor masses. That building is enough to feed more than two local governments if utilized properly. But because they are comfortable, they don’t care about what happens,” he said.

Again, another capital project that has been abandoned is the building opposite Jos main market authority (Terminus market).

This edifice can be used to build a four-star hotel offering safe and pleasant accommodation to visitors and other Nigerians arriving late at night.

It was also intended to provide executive offices for short lettings. But the building has been abandoned, unfinished. Immediately after the concessioning of the railways, there was confusion everywhere.

In an interaction with our correspondent on the issue of neglected or seemingly abandoned state property, and by extension, the whole country, is what he referred to as “nobody’s business syndrome.”

He explained that this syndrome accumulated from the following factors: “Projects being perceived as cashcow from every next-in-rank, turn-by-turn; ineffective planning and management from the onset; lack of interest in huge government investment costs by those in authority.

Stakeholders are not interested in the huge investment but only how it will benefit them before leaving office; lack of maintenance culture and so on.

“These are common knowledge to all of us. The professionals that are trained to manage these property, such as Estate Surveyors and Valuers, most times, are sidelined. The irony of it is that all the professionals in building industries are there to tap their knowledge and use the same effective management of these programmes.

“There are State Government property that have been doing relatively well as a result of government partnership with the private sector. Years back, I heard MoU signed for exercise  like the Jos Hotel ,Plateau Hotel ,Hill Station Hotel Thirty Hotel  while other , remain in a ‘sorry’ state.

“The best option for maximum returns on these wasting investment property is for the government to partner with the private sector to operate, manage and account for the same.

 Proper management is what is required, by putting round pegs in round holes.

Accountability produces great results with the required supervision.

“When you concession a project without adequate monitoring, it is as good as not starting it in the first place.

It is advisable to engage the right professionals, monitor their operations in line with the rules of engagement, then you will get the best out of these huge and wasting investments.”

My attention   recently brought to  the state Government the deteriorating state of the  Prof luka Bentus indoor theater abandoned over the years , which is within the terminus market oversight view of the government, headed by Governor Caleb Mutfwang , to embark on rebuilding it.

 A worrisome common denominator for the three buildings that collapsed under construction was the obvious flouting of building regulations with no government officials held accountable contrary to the outcomes of investigations. Next factor is the need for building and services maintenance.

“Some neglected state  Government buildings ,the BARC farm  in our neighbourhood have become havens for criminals, illicit drug peddlers, squatters, and illegal occupants, tarnishing the reputation of Jos and Bukuru metro as kidnappers den  .

We are concerned that lack of occupancy and regular maintenance are contributing to their dilapidation. We also know that steel scrap thieves and vandals are becoming widespread.

Notable among these abandoned state Government buildings is the multi-storey Nigeria Standard  Complex, west of mines , an expired symbol of Plateau pride in its prime.

 These multi-billion public investments should not be allowed to go to waste, especially at a time when the affordable housing sector is in crisis. In view of the negative social, economic, safety, and security implications of such blighted buildings in any high-brow neighbourhood, we urge you, Mr. Governor, to leverage your influence to foster the rejuvenation of the decaying infrastructure in Plateau siren soil .

In line with the Renewed Hope Agenda and ‘The time is now’, interests of Nigerians, we implore you to intervene and facilitate the revitalisation of the dilapidated state , surmounting bureaucratic hurdles to salvage the economic waste of such monumental buildings.

These state  monuments should unfold benefits to tax-paying Nigerians and not become a burden on the neighbourhood.”

The Former Chief Managing Director of Jos University Teaching Hospital ,Prof.Ishaya Pam also expressed dissatisfaction with the old site of JUTH as the building now host reptiles ,orthopedic, School Nursing and Midwives free .

 The  pulled up in front of a small, administrative building a short distance from the  main road , campuses spiritual dead .

 A crowd of several motorists ,hundred people gathered for the market  businesses  and then walked inside, eager for their first glimpse of the scaly and slick, slithering and hopping new residents for reptiles,roofs that  was vandalized greeting passerby .

They entered the reception room with a shallow old , tile-lined pool at its center where small alligators and turtles swam stinking smiling inside the abandoned wall .

 Set into the walls of the room were brightly lit tanks containing an eye-popping array of local and exotic snakes, lizards, and amphibians. Artists employed by the City’s Bureau of Parks had painted woodland, desert, or swamp scenes inside each roasting roofs with waving zinc   to mimic the natural habitats of the occupants.

 The visitors moved from the gate welcomed by security personnel  ushering students, visitors  to the poor admiring edifice of our old  JUTH  site with  animals ranging in size from a four-inch worm snake to a twelve-foot python scrapping into the dark night.

 If any visitors looked up to see the murals of closed irons doors  life decorating the arched walls, they might be reminded of the building’s fascinating past bubbling activities before the final relocation to the permanent site at Lamingo .

Introduced by President Olusegun  Obasanjo administration in the 70s With funding from the federal Works Project Administration, this same building—a former Plateau State house for a park reservoir that was later filled and turned into a softball field—had been converted many  years earlier into a teaching hospital  by JD Gwomwalk regime  .

Unfortunately, the hospital  was short-lived.and the building blocks was handed over back to Plateau State  , one of its primary objective .

Speaking to the Former CMD ,Professor Ishaya Pam agreed that there is a lot of concerned with parts of the old JUTH which host orthopedic and college of Nursing is been taken over by overgrown grass and no longer put into use .

He said ,the orthopedic hospital promised to resume operation also stressing that the front part can be commercialize and increase the revenue profile of the state.

Professor Ishaya Pam advocated for building shopping mull especially the former admin department were his office was operating and by side of the road either for parking space to generate revenue .

According to him ,he would bring the suggestion to Governor Caleb Mutfwang to carefully put the old admin blocks into commercial use .