Zik’s Mausoleum, the final resting place of Nnamdi Azikiwe, first President of Nigeria and the Owelle of Onitsha, currently needs immediate attention as bushes, weeds, as well as all manner of abandoned trucks and other vehicles have taken over the entrance gate of the edifice.

The BusinessDay Investigations on Thursday also revealed that the premises facing the edifice on the left side have grown green and bushy, which deserves urgent attention to clear and remove.

Recall that the place for the Mausoleum was mapped out by the late Zik himself when he was alive as his final resting place, and he erected some structures before his demise on May 11, 1996, at the age of 92.

During his burial in 1996, when the Federal Government decorated him as a Field Marshall, late General Sani Abacha, the then Military Head of State, represented by the Chief of General Staff, late Lieutenant-General Oladipo Diya, announced that the Federal Government had awarded a contract for the expansion and beautification of the Mausoleum in honour and recognition of Zik’s contributions towards the unification of the Nigerian nation.

The initial contract for the construction of the Zik Mausoleum was awarded in 1997 by the Abacha regime to Messrs Lemmy Akakem for N350 million.

It was abandoned and overtaken by weeds until it was re-awarded in 2013 by the then President Goodluck Jonathan regime to a French construction company at N1.49 billion.

President Muhammadu Buhari, upon coming to power in 2015, gave a marching order to his Works Minister, Babatunde Fashola, that the contractor must deliver the job by October 2018.

Eventually, the late Buhari completed the project and inaugurated it to the delight of Ndigbo and Nigerians in general.

The Zik Mausoleum consists of the museum housing Zik’s grave and an administrative unit on two floors.

The administrative block is made up of a reception, offices, conference halls, VIP lounge, museum-cum-archives, video display room, research, library, documentation section, and conveniences.

The Zik Mausoleum follows in the line of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the grave of King Mausolus of Persia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

But after the completion and commissioning ceremony, the project appeared to have been abandoned to its fate, allowing the entire compound to be overgrown with weeds as of the time of filing this report.

In the compound, one of the security guards disclosed that apart from the ongoing renovation of one of the buildings behind the Mausoleum being carried out by Zik’s wife, both the Federal and Anambra State Governments had not shown any concern in keeping the place tidy, not to mention upgrading it to a tourist attraction centre.

The security guard lamented that for years now, nothing tangible is happening at the compound as the Museum, the Library and the Hall are not functional but under lock and key.

He added that many visitors and tourists, who came all the way from Asia, Europe, Africa and other parts of the world, usually end up making uncomplementary remarks against Nigeria’s Government and the entire citizens for not recognising Zik’s personality as the father of “One Nigeria.”

Those who spoke along the same vein said: “Of course, the man called Zik of Africa in his lifetime would not be happy in the grave as per what his dear country has turned out to become”.

According to one of them, “the Zik Mausoleum, Zik’s resting place, in Onitsha, Anambra State, is a crucial metaphor that tugs at the challenges attending to the demise of a pan-Nigerian essence.”

They lamented that the final resting place for Nnamdi Azikiwe, the only black Governor-General of Nigeria, the first President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the only Nigerian whose name appeared in the Constitution of Nigeria, among many other sterling firsts, could not be properly maintained and advanced to the level it deserves as a tourist place.