Sir Ahmadu Bello is to Hausas what Obafemi Awolowo is to the Yorubas. Similarly, Emeka Ojukwu is to the Igbos what J.S Tarka is to the Tiv people, and what Joseph Gomwalk is to the Plateau people. All these people are considered as heroes of their own people and even the nation at large. If these people were books to be placed on eternal library shelves, then there ought to be a row too for unsung heroes; people who were not praised publicly but venerated in the souls of men who have come across them and have witnessed indelible legacies cultivated by these men which can stand the course of time. On my mental shelf of heroes, within the row of unsung heroes, lies the voluminous book of Jika Langkuk; a common man with an uncommon difference.

To many, Jika Langkuk is a name they are hearing for the first time. I guess that is why he is an unsung hero. While to others, it is just a mere name. However, one cannot capture the complete story of the Pyem people in Plateau state without mentioning Jika langkuk even though most Plateau people can readily recall Alhaji Nasiru Mantu, Mr. Danko Makama, late Ezekiel Washik, late Evangelist Paul Gindiri and late Isa Washik among many other notable sons of the Pyem nation. To most people that have heard about Jika langkuk, the first erroneous impression they get is that Jika Langkuk was the first man to ever climb the famous Wase rock of Plateau state and come down alive. I used to hold that belief too until he humbly and candidly told me that he was not the first man to climb the rock, it may surprise you that he is not even the second, but he was the first to climb the rock again after a ten year ban prohibiting the climbing of Wase rock was lifted. Prior to the Ban, Mr. Wilkinson of the Man’o War was killed by some wild bees as he almost reached the peak and that necessitated the ban on climbing the Wase rock. According to Jika, one Mr. Wallace, a British soldier and district officer of Pankshin as at then was the first person to climb Wase rock in May 1957, after him were two other white men before Wilkinson who died in 1971. After two years of seeking permission to climb Wase rock, Jika Langkuk was finally granted permission to climb the rock in 1981 along with his former student in Kuru, Melchizedek Iliya Gwaivanmin. What is so spectacular about climbing Wase rock? You may ask. It may interest you to know that Wase rock is a massive dome inselberg found near Wase town in Wase L.G.A of Plateau state. It achieves a remarkable height of 1150 feet above the surface of neighboring surroundings and is visible within a radius of 40 Kilometers. It is also a breeding ground for the rare Rosy-white pelicans. Wase rock is one of only five of its kind in the world.

Sir Ahmadu Bello is to Hausas what Obafemi Awolowo is to the Yorubas. Similarly, Emeka Ojukwu is to the Igbos what J.S Tarka is to the Tiv people, and what Joseph Gomwalk is to the Plateau people. All these people are considered as heroes of their own people and even the nation at large. If these people were books to be placed on eternal library shelves, then there ought to be a row too for unsung heroes; people who were not praised publicly but venerated in the souls of men who have come across them and have witnessed indelible legacies cultivated by these men which can stand the course of time. On my mental shelf of heroes, within the row of unsung heroes, lies the voluminous book of Jika Langkuk; a common man with an uncommon difference.

To many, Jika Langkuk is a name they are hearing for the first time. I guess that is why he is an unsung hero. While to others, it is just a mere name. However, one cannot capture the complete story of the Pyem people in Plateau state without mentioning Jika langkuk even though most Plateau people can readily recall Alhaji Nasiru Mantu, Mr. Danko Makama, late Ezekiel Washik, late Evangelist Paul Gindiri and late Isa Washik among many other notable sons of the Pyem nation. To most people that have heard about Jika langkuk, the first erroneous impression they get is that Jika Langkuk was the first man to ever climb the famous Wase rock of Plateau state and come down alive. I used to hold that belief too until he humbly and candidly told me that he was not the first man to climb the rock, it may surprise you that he is not even the second, but he was the first to climb the rock again after a ten year ban prohibiting the climbing of Wase rock was lifted. Prior to the Ban, Mr. Wilkinson of the Man’o War was killed by some wild bees as he almost reached the peak and that necessitated the ban on climbing the Wase rock. According to Jika, one Mr. Wallace, a British soldier and district officer of Pankshin as at then was the first person to climb Wase rock in May 1957, after him were two other white men before Wilkinson who died in 1971. After two years of seeking permission to climb Wase rock, Jika Langkuk was finally granted permission to climb the rock in 1981 along with his former student in Kuru, Melchizedek Iliya Gwaivanmin. What is so spectacular about climbing Wase rock? You may ask. It may interest you to know that Wase rock is a massive dome inselberg found near Wase town in Wase L.G.A of Plateau state. It achieves a remarkable height of 1150 feet above the surface of neighboring surroundings and is visible within a radius of 40 Kilometers. It is also a breeding ground for the rare Rosy-white pelicans. Wase rock is one of only five of its kind in the world.

The Inhabitants of Wase have always surrounded the rock with superstitious beliefs and that had probably informed their not attempting to climb the rock. Jika Langkuk defied all beliefs including the white man’s belief that the rock could only be climbed by the whites and climbed it once, then severally, even including girls in the adventure.

It was the same courage, zeal and assiduousness that Jika Langkuk employed to work; he tacitly detests the words ‘impossible’ and ‘give up’. Jika Langkuk was a teacher by profession but his passion for adventure saw him climbing the perilous mountains of Kebbi and other difficult terrains around northern Nigeria. He has worked efficiently with the Man’ o War and was later consulted, along with some other white men, in the design of rock/mountain climbing courses training for men of the Nigeria police, army and man’o war club.

Any dress-sensitive person would want to score him below ‘F’ in fashion because his darling sneakers footwear never departs his feet except when he is asleep. He wears his sneakers with anything, an active sportsman.

Jika Langkuk wears a thick beard that instantly reminds you of the uncompromising, never relenting Ojukwu. Perhaps they share similar traits in that regards. Jika’s ‘yes’ is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is ‘no’. He has mentally inscribed the word ‘Integrity’ on his forehead and has since been unable to betray himself by swallowing his words or perpetrating evil. He has taught in Provincial secondary school, now Nagarta College, Sokoto, Government Science School Kuru, Government Secondary School Wase, Government Secondary School Shendam (as Principal) and in Mangu Area Office as Inspector for Science and Technology until his voluntary retirement in 1993. Throughout his 31 years of civil service, Jika langkuk has been credited with outstanding performance among his colleagues. During the 11 years he spent in Kuru, he taught Metal work, Wood work, Hausa, English, Technical Drawing (which he introduced) and Bible Knowledge. While in Kuru, he was transferred five times by the ministry but his principal then, a white man refused to release him because he was indispensable to the school. In Wase too, his performance was outstanding that the Commissioner of Education made a special recommendation that he takes over as the principal of G.S.S Shendam, a school which he instilled discipline, hard work and commitment among teachers and especially students. Like many achievers, his success didn’t come without a price; while in Wase, there were ten petitions against him and another five petitions against him in Shendam and all of them couldn’t count as much as a basket could hold water so the allegations were all dismissed.

Jika Langkuk could have been a wealthy man in Plateau State today but he traded such opportunities for nice and neatly wrapped packages of ‘integrity’. At one time, he was in charge of the first ever Benue-Plateau sports festival in 1974. He was not directly appointed but Mr. Taylor who was in charge had an accident and died. Among other reputable people of his time, Jika Langkuk was appointed to take over the mantle of leadership and ensure the success of the first-ever Benue-Plateau sports festival, a competition that hosted 1200 sportsmen. 240 000 Pounds was earmarked for the whole festival and Jika Langkuk accounted for the money even to the last Shilling. The unspent money was returned to the state treasury. At another time, Jika Langkuk was in charge of another committee that would build the NYSC camp in Plateau State in the late 70’s. The Federal Government gave N250 000 but the state could not give its own share of the N250 000. Langkuk sought permission to build a school in Wase with the money since the State Government could not provide their own share. His request was granted and that gave birth to a Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, cum School of Relevant Technology Wase in which Jika Langkuk insisted that it must be coeducational (that is a mixed school) because the community wanted it to become a school for boys alone.

In 1983, Plateau state witnessed a series of demonstrations from secondary schools across the state and that prompted the Governor, Chief Solomon Lar, to call for a meeting of all principals and stakeholders of Government Secondary Schools. In that meeting, Jika Langkuk made five useful suggestions that almost cost him his life and even his job. Three of the suggestions were accepted and implemented. They were;
– Secondary Schools should have the autonomy to draft their feeding system (That is, every school’s food timetable should be localized). The available food of every community should be reflected in the school within that community.
– That supply of food should not be handled by contractors but by the schools themselves
– Schools should be given the right to supply firewood, writing materials and some other things by themselves and not through gullible contractors.
When his suggestions were implemented, a mob of contractors almost lynched him at Langtang on his way back to Wase. They accused him of taking food out of their mouths. His salaries and allowances were unjustly delayed by staffs of the sub treasury who were enjoying kickbacks from the greedy contractors. The Climax of it was when he was sent out of a meeting chaired by Aliyu Akwe Doma, who was the deputy Governor and acting Commissioner for Education. He recognized him as the man who spoilt the market for his contractor friends and immediately sent him out. While plans were being made to fire him, the heavens smiled at him as he was given admission to study for an MSc at Norfolk University, Virginia, U.S.A. On graduation he was given three Job offers there in U.S.A. One of the offers included a flat already rented for two years in his name but he declined the offers with the hope to come and support the Buhari/Idiagbon War Against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAIC) agenda, only to be disappointed by IBB who set precedence for worsening the Nigerian nightmare of corruption.

In all the places in which Jika Langkuk served, he left a crystal clear record of all his activities and when he was strongly tempted to play the typical Nigerian civil service game, he did the noble thing, he voluntarily retired from civil service because he believes that if you can’t beat them, leave them alone. While at his last post, he was expected to make monthly reports of all the schools he had visited within his area but was impeded by lack of vehicles and financial resources (allowances) to travel around the schools and he couldn’t afford to concoct lies as his monthly report so he humbly resigned.

He established his own private school in 1993, unlike private secondary schools of nowadays, with aim to prove that education could be cheap and available for everybody. He also holds late Professor Thai Solarin’s notion that Nigeria has the capacity to educate all her citizens without charging them money for school fees. Though his school was not completely a charity school, Jika ran the most affordable school in the whole of Mangu L.G.A, with Government schools inclusive for thirteen years (1993-2006). Students outstanding fees for ten years was about 1,654 000, an amount which may just be about half or a quarter of what most schools obtain every term. Jika was paying his staff from his pockets and his school was not grant aid. He stopped admitting students in 2003 and closed down the school in 2006 after the last set had completed their Junior Secondary School.

Jika Langkuk was not one that could afford to buy a national Honors award; he most likely wouldn’t, even if he could. He has declined two offers to be titled as a chief, one as the Tsarkin Dutsen Wase (King of Wase rock). The other title was at his Pyem Chiefdom which he declined before knowing what the title was. To Jika, then common ‘Mr.’ is also too great a title so he simply wishes to be addressed as Jika Langkuk, whether in writing or verbally.

One’s definition of a hero would most times boil to his perception of values, ideals and notions about other individuals. Jika Langkuk has met my standards of an ideal hero although he is still not widely celebrated; I would not want to partake in the posthumous celebration of a person that could have been told of or declared a hero while still alive.

Jika Langkuk still lives in his home in Kasuwan Ali, Gindiri in Mangu L.G.A of Plateau State with his mother. He is a lover of plants, pets and wild animals. If Jika were emulated, Plateau and even Nigeria as a whole would be a better place. If everyone would stick to his words and do the right thing, Nigeria would be better. Jika Langkuk is just an example of the very rare heroes we come across, once in a very long while.

Reaching the shores of age seventy, Jika still jogs in most mornings and reads the Bible without glasses. Maybe i should add that Jika is a voracious reader because he still reads a lot. He has become to me, an epitome of a good Christian and a good citizen that is truthful, honest, faithful, fearless, courageous, incorruptible and unrelenting.

by Bizum Yadok

Bizum writes for ViewPointNigeria from Jos – He can be reached at the address below:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @bizuumyadok

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JIKA LANGKUK: AN UNSUNG HERO OF THE RECENT PAST