It stands tall and majestic bestowing
on the landscape the gift of its
presence. Like a royal, the other
mountains in and around Abuja and
Niger State stay a respectable
distance from it; actually paying it
a kind of obeisance for its royal
presence in the locality.
Visitors and tourists to Nigeria’s
Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja, cannot miss it. Zuma Rock,
said to be 725 meters tall above its
surroundings, 3.1 kilometers in
circumference and stands at 623 feet, is one of the
wonders of the city. Although originaly located in
Niger State, North of Abuja, along the expressway
from Abuja to Kaduna, the monolith is indeed
quite breathtaking. First time visitors; even
residents of Abuja and environs, cannot but pause
at the foot of this massive rock to appreciate the
wonder of nature.
Over the years, it has remained a major symbol of
Abuja’s landscape, despite its geographical location
in Niger State. The significance of the rock is
furthered expressed by its display on the nation’s
N1000 currency bill.
A close look, reveals a sort of human face, looking
whitish on the outside. This only adds to the
myth of the rock. To most people, especially
indigenes, it tells of the mysterious powers,
surrounding the rock. This belief seems re-enforced
by the story that the strange powers attached to
Zuma Rock are responsible for the abandoned
proposed five-star hotel that has become a shadow
of itself, and now lying fallow, desolate and
overtaken by bushes.
Daily Independent investigation unearth different
stories on what actually transpired on the hotel
incidence. While some attribute the reasons for its
abandonment to lack of patronage, a position many
fault considering the hotel has not commenced
official business, indigenes insist the powers of the
deities of Zuma Rock frustrated the completion of
the project.
For instance, some inhabitants of surrounding
villages, who reside arround the Zuma Rock, such
as Gauaka, Dakwa, as well as Madalla Zuba,
painted various traditional beliefs surrounding the
rock. Many of them, mostly non-indigenes and die-
hard Christians, claim that the rock has been
responsible for the re-occurring high number of
incidents and accidents along the Abuja-Kaduna
Road leading to the loss of lives along the axis.
Some even say the inability of the $700 million
Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed between
the Niger State Government and a Canadian
tourism development company, sometime in 2008 to
take off, has to do with the mysterious powers
behind the Zuma Rock. Perhaps, this is why the
beautiful natural wonder has remained in its poor
state with no concrete efforts to make it the real
major centre of attraction, deserving of such a
prestigious mountain.
The story of the abandoned hotel is well known
among residents of the area. Even a child can tell
a first time visitor what happened to the hotel.
According to them, the white men refused to heed
the warnings of the villagers not to erect the
hotel near Zuma Rock. They not only ignored
them but went ahead to commence the
construction right at the heart of the rock. This,
the story goes, provoked the wrath of the deity of
Zuma Rock. The stories of what happened to the
white men and their local supporters sound like
stories from the Hammer House of Horror series.
The story went on; that those that did not die
mysteriously during the period the hotel was
undergoing construction, ran away never to come
back. From strange boils and snake bites to
inexplicable disappearances, the Zuma Rock deity
did not withhold its wrath from the doubting
foreigners. Though, the tales of Zuma Rock sound
and appear like fantasies but the fact that the
five star hotel remains uncompleted underscores
some of the mysteries related to the rock.
Abdullahi Sanni, has this to say of the rock and
the hotel. “It will never work, most of us were
just waiting to see the end, and we were not
disappointed. I have been residing in Dakwa all my
life. You know that white men think our beliefs
are cruel, but I’m very sure that those that
survived now have a better understanding of what
Zuma Rock is all about. They wanted to build a
hotel where prostitutes will lodge and engage in all
manners of atrocities, Zuma Rock deity will never
agree, it can never happen, not in any place near
the Rock,” he says.
He took time to explain the modus operandi of
the deity, which he notes does not spare its
desecration.
“There was a time that some foreigners also came
here and attempted blowing up the Rock with
dynamites, those ones saw and witnessed the wrath
of Zuma Rock deity. It killed almost all of them
but the good thing is that it does not strike
without warning. Like when the five-star hotel
was almost completed, the Zuma deity
continuously issued warnings telling them to stop
the construction which they ignored. After the
painting of the buildings, the deity launched a
vicious attack on them, killing some, and sending
others away. They had to abandon their
equipment and materials,” he adds
But how can one juxtapose this claim with alleged
activities of ritual killings around Zuma Rock?
According to investigations, ritualists operate
around this wonderful pictorial wonder-piece. There
are sufficient stories around the vicinity to
suggest that these ritualists use children and
adults for their dirty sacrifices, and while the
victims and their families grieve and wallow in
abject poverty. The beneficiaries are wealthy men
and women, who come in exotic cars to patronize
them for different reasons. Although the Police
authorities deny such activities around the rock
but, some residents insist it is true.
Joining the Police in denying this ritual angle the
Sarki of Chachi, Alhaji Musa Abubakar. According
to him, Zuma Rock is never a place for ritual
killings, nor any form criminal activities.
He has this to say of the place, “this angle and
story is coming to us as a surprise because we have
never heard of or had any such incidence in all
the years we have inhabited this place. No part of
our traditional rites involve killing. We don’t need
human sacrifices for any of the rites we perform.
None of us have complained of his child or relative
being kidnapped or missing and nobody has come to
us to make such a complaint; neither have we
found anybody in this vicinity who is a victim of
ritual killing,” he explains.
But a source insists that a shrine exists within
the vicinity of the rock where human sacrifices are
allegedly made and that only the high and
mighty visit there.
Irrespective of this controversy, the fact remains
that Zuma Rock is magnificent and a natural
edifice that Nigeria and Nigerians should be proud
of and celebrated.
Article Credit: Daily Independent Newspaper