Renovation efforts on the Nnamdi Azikiwe statue in Zik Hall have gone into hiatus. Observation by Zik Press showed that as of Friday, 20th of June, 2025, only the statue and its base area have been repainted.
A section of the background wall was painted black, with the rest seemingly abandoned.The budget for the statue renovation, a project which has been on the bucket list of the hall chairman, Sotomi Daniel, since he was social minister. A total amount of #203,000 was approved unadjusted by the 7th assembly of the ZHLC in May. Consequently, work began on the statue less than a week later, on on May 10 to be precise.
Zik Press observed on that Saturday that the gravel and dirt around the statue had been cleared and the statue was was being repainted. The idea, according to Sotomi Daniel, was to beautify a central aspect of Zik Hall in order to improve the overall aesthetics of the hall and to show the efforts that Zikites themselves are putting into improving the attractiveness of their hall in order to subsequently attract sponsors too.
In his words, "This is the central part of Zik Hall, so we must make it look good. When we finished the repainting of the statue, people were amazed. There were some who were not aware that a statue was there, and it made the hall look more beautiful."The project was supposed to feature a repainting of the statue, getting new gravel stones for the base area, a repainting of the background wall, as well as a string work design for the background. New flags were also supposed to be erected around the statue.
However, since the repainting of the statue and its base was completed, nothing else has been done, except for the time when a section of the background wall of the statue was repainted earlier this month.
Zik Press subsequently reached out to the hall chairman on two occasions to enquire about the progress of the renovation. In the first instance, on May 13th, Sotomi stated that the project (statue renovation) was 50% done. He also noted that the flags would be brought before the end of that week. And that a Zikite, Artwaves, would be in charge of the string art aspect of the project.
When asked when the string art would be finished, the hall chairman stated that he could not give an estimated date of completion given how massive the design being prepared is.
On the second inquiry on Saturday, 14th of June, Sotomi revealed that the flag is ready. He then attributed the delay to the contractor in charge of the thread art. "We don't want to mount the flag when everything else is not complete. This week (the previous week as at the time of publication) the contractor brought the wood for the design, and he assured me that by Wednesday (June 18th) or before the end of the week, the string art will be completed," he said.
The problem, according to the hall chairman, was that there was a change in the design, and this took a lot of time because the contractor in charge couldn't get the materials he needed. He further revealed that all the contractors had been paid but that some aspects of the project were being delayed because of the way it would all come together in the end.
When Zik Press reached out to Artwaves, Mr Akubuike Jonathan, on the topic, he stated that string work takes a lot of time. A visit to check in on the string art showed that the project was still at the nailing stage. He confirmed that changes in original design plans slowed down the project, but he also expressed confidence in the fact that the project will be finished in a month.
"I can't estimate given the extent of the work required," he said while showing Zik press correspondent. "But if I have to say, I will say this will take a month or even less than that."
