Kano’s protracted developmental inequality and the need for alternative city-Muhammad A. Haske

By Muhammad A. Haske

The tenure of Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu as Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) recently ended in February 10, 2021. He bows out as a rare educational superman and radical reformer even as his exit was greeted with an avalanche of eulogies, commendations and celebrations.

During his stewardship, apart from transforming the university rating to an all-time high, he has also expanded access to quality educational opportunities for the most marginalised and remote areas nationwide. In his home state, Kano, Prof. Abdallah has through collaboration with state legislators at the National Assembly made a bold attempt to break an age-long jinx of Kano city monopoly of educational access points.

He was able to astonishingly increase the number of NOUN study centres in Kano State from only one to seventeen, a development that re-inscribed his name in gold in Kano’s hall of fame.

However, this unprecedented feat achieved by Abdallah has not only brought to fore the lingering marginalisation of the Kano South senatorial district but further exposed the total lack of commitment of our political leaders in the zone particularly members of the National assembly towards changing the narratives of lopsidedness in the special distribution of projects.

It seems to suggest that the plight of our people and neglect of the area was almost a self –inflicted.

Of the seventeen newly established centres; Kano South senatorial zone, the largest and most rural with Sixteen local Government Areas(LGAs) has no single study centre while Kano North senatorial district has thirteen study centres; one in each of its thirteen LGAs of Shanono, Bagwai, Rimin Gado, Dawakin Tofa, Kabo, Tofa, Bichi, Danbatta, Gwarzo, Kunchi, Makoda, Gabasawa and Tsanyawa. Kano Central zone has four mega centres in Dakata, Dawakin Kudu, Fagge and Kwaciri study centres. It’s worthy to note that Dawakin Kudu study Centre is the biggest in Nigeria. All of the facts above are verifiable @ www.nou.edu.ng.

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While commending Sen. Barau I. Jibrin, Hon. Mustapha Bala Dawaki and Hon. Aminu Goro of Kano North senatorial zone, DawakinKudu/Warawa and Fagge Federal constituencies respectively for such unparalleled achievements that led to the provision of numerous jobs and educational prospects for their constituents, I would like to respectfully draw the attention of political stakeholders from Kano South particularly Federal Lawmakers to wake up from their slumber and be strategic in bringing more dividends of democracy to their people. How this could happen to an area that produces some of the best, longest and most influential National Assembly Members; Sen. Kabiru Gaya and Hon. Alhasan Ado Doguwa must take the largest share of the blame.

Even though optimistic, I speculatively heard and doubt the viability of a bill to establish a Federal College of Education, (FCE), Tudunwada Dankadai being sponsored by Hon. Alhasan Ado Doguwa, because currently Kano hosts two FCEs and only miracle can make it the only state in the Federation to have three FCEs. Similarly, for more than three years now, the intrigues on where to site the proposed Federal polytechnic in Kano are compounding by the day and its proposed establishment bill is still pending in the air. It’s proposed to be sited in Kwaciri, later changed to Kabo then to Rano.

Now nobody knows where. Similarly, for the whole of Kano South, there’s no single facility to access tertiary services. Kudos to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for his ongoing work to upgrade Rano General Hospital to Specialist. We are also not unaware of the speculative but commendable manoeuvring to initiate a bill for the establishment of a Federal Medical Centre in either Doguwa or T/wada. However, citing it in any area beyond Falgore forest will definitely impede on public access and hamper on its primary purpose of providing advanced medical services to the people.

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Kano State as Nigeria’s centre of commerce and most populous state pride itself as the giant of the North. In terms of mega infrastructures, cosmopolitan composition, population, economic potency, rich cultural heritage and history, Kano is unmatched to any state in the north. Even with Kano’s superiority slogan of “Ko da me ka zo an fika, there exist protracted neglect and infrastructural inequality in the state.

It’s such a huge irony where the city is rated the best in the North while its rural LGAs are some of the remotest. Also, on critical state-by-state comparison, factoring into cognisance the one-city nature of the state, one could easily realise that Kano state, not Kano city is only an overcharge that most of the so-called rural states are far better than it.

Most of our neighbours were able to create at least one city/semi city in their state. For example; Kaduna state has two other alternative cities of Zaria, Kafanchan, Katsina (Daura, Malumfashi, Dutsin-ma), Jigawa (Hadejia, Kazaure and Birnin Kudu), Yobe (Potiskum and Gashua) and so on. Residents of these sub-cities could live in their places without putting much pressure on the capital. And it was on this note even Lagos state conceived the idea and developed the Atlantic City.

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Successive state governments in Kano have paid little or no attention on the need for fair distribution of development. Although, Kano as a state has been united but there are still unnoticed agitations in the state over political dominance particularly in the extreme southern part of the state. The defunct Movement for the creations of Tiga and Ghari States out Kano were indeed classical examples of the existence of such agitation.

The euphoria that greeted the recent balkanization of the Kano emirate was also relevant.
All previous efforts to create cities far away from Kano have failed; from Governor Shekarau’s effort to urbanise Rano, Bichi and Wudil to Kwankwaso’s five-kilometre project up to Ganduje’s ”Karkara salamu alaimu aialikum”.

While almost all LGAs headquarters in Jigawa state could boast of an effective network of township roads, not a single non-metropolitan LGA could do so in Kano. The earlier we realised the extreme need to develop an alternative city in Kano state with a view of the ultimate aim of decongesting the city, the better for us.

Previous efforts of expanding the city have not yielded the desired result as Amana, Kwankwasiyya and Bandirawo cities are still empty. While the expansion of the city should be sustained, the need to have second state capital in the state is imperative and sacrosanct.

It’s unfortunate that Kano is a one-city state where almost all the higher institutions in the state are concentrated either within the city or within the radius of 50km from the city, a development that put unwarranted pressure on the city and caused unprecedented rural-urban migration with an attendant economic and social consequence on the city. It also has the potency of exploding further the city’s population that grows almost exponentially.

In Kano metropolis alone, we have Bayero University, Kano (both old and new campus), Federal College of Education (FCE), Kano, Yusuf Maitama Sule University (Northwest), Kano Polytechnics, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education(SRCOE), School of Nursing, College of Health Technology, School of Hygiene, Aminu Kano College of Islamic and legal studies(ACKCILS), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital(AKTH), Digital Bridge Institue, Stored Products Institute and Aminu Dabo College of Health Technology. Others are the newly established private universities of Skyline, Maryam Abacha University of Nigeria, City Capital University, At-tanzil University. Other institutions that are within the radius of 50km from the city are Federal College of Education (Technical), Bichi (41km), Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil (41.2km), Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Danbatta (47km), School of Midwifery, Danbatta(47km) School of Nursing, Madobi (37.6km), National Police University (Police Academy) Wudil (41.2km). Why wouldn’t the city be overstretched?

Kano’s lack of an alternative city was one of the main reason for its exploding urban-rural migration, population, poor town planning and congestion. According to IQ Airvisual, Switzerland, Kano is one of the most polluted cities with 53.4% of pollution.
Against this background that I would like to reiterate that I am not against the idea of constructing mega structures in Kano, in fact, I would advocate building for more. However, I only want to advocate for fair distribution of social infrastructure and urge the relevant political stakeholders to see reason in the idea for developing Kano’s rural LGAs especially the one far away for this is the only way to decentralize development and creation of alternative city for the betterment of our people.

Haske, writes from Tudun-Wada Dankadai, in Kano state and can be reached at muhdhaske2007@gmail.com