“Poverty is still a Northern phenomenon”.

Jigawa in a new world

July 11, 2013   12:44 am   /  

By Ochereome Nnanna

TERSEER ADAMU (Review)

A  LITTLE over six years ago, Jigawa State was rated by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, as the poorest state in Nigeria. At a public lecture in Kaduna, former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, after reviewing the figures from across the North, reached the sad conclusion thus: “Poverty is still a Northern phenomenon”.

I had the opportunity of touring the state in June 2007, paying particular attention to the rotten educational facilities and infrastructure. Six years later, after many postponements due to security uncertainties in the North, I returned to the state to assess the situation. I can comfortably report that Jigawa State is not only in a new world, it is also in a world of its own.

It has almost completely overcome its infrastructural deficits, especially in the areas of roads, education, water supply and health. Though surrounded by terrorism flashpoint states such as Kano, Bauchi and Yobe, Boko Haram staged only one raid in the Ringim area and it was a clear hit-and-run raid, as the anarchists have no home base in the state.

An official of the state government who explained the reason the terrorists have not found a breeding ground in the state, said Governor Sule Lamido runs a government of total inclusion. No section of the state is left out from the benefits of governance, and this includes non-indigenous residents.

The Jigawa State government is welfarist. It is the only state where beggars are paid monthly stipends to keep them away from the streets though al majiris are still noticeable around eateries. In Jigawa, every certified handicapped person of the state’s origin is paid N7000 per month. Education is free for girls to close the huge gap between males and females in the state, while the boys enjoy partially free education.

The Fulani nomads have also been brought into the care system. The perennial conflict between them and farmers is almost a thing of the past because government established windmills all over the state.

These draw water into surface tanks from the aquifers as the wind blows. It provides water for people and their cattle and reduces communicable diseases which result from drinking water from unsafe sources. Pastoralists and their cattle have been granted safe passage corridors along all federal and state roads to prevent livestock from stomping through farmlands. During our visit over the past weekend, emirs and chiefs were undergoing a seminar on conflict resolution in the state capital.

In Jigawa State, villages are frequently evacuated to create room for development. For instance, the natives of Ngullo village near Dutse, the state capital, were evacuated to make way for the new international cargo airport.

But the state government first built modern huts for them in their new village and still paid them compensation.

They are living happily in their new abode and the airport project is going at a break-neck pace, giving officials reason to believe that a Hajj flight will take off from there this year.

Inclusion is also evident in the spread of amenities. The major roads in all the headquarters of the 27 local government areas have been constructed with drainage channels and street lights powered with solar energy.

The housing bonanza also benefits all strata of government workers – from junior to senior civil servants, from commissioners to ministers and from the Deputy Governor to the Governor. The emirs of Dutse, Hadejia, Gumel, Kazaure and Ringim, have luxury plazas built for them in a section of the state capital. Lamido made a rule that every top government functionary must own a comfortable house in Dutse to avoid the temptation of straying back to Kano or getting stuck in Abuja.

What impressed me most was the Jigawa Academy, a model school for gifted children in Bamaina, the Governor’s hometown. It currently has 160 students drawn from all parts of the state, with one student each from 17 of the 19 states in the North. Admission is strictly on merit and once a student gains admission he or she is on full scholarship.

We were told that due to the strict merit-based admission, none of the children of the top officials of the state government – including the Governor and Deputy – is studying there. In compliance with the prompting of President Goodluck Jonathan, the school will open its gates to students from the Southern states in the next academic session.

Governor Lamido paints a picture of his political history with the way he is building up Dutse. There is the Aminu Kano Triangle, the Jigawa equivalent of Eagle Square, Abuja. Inside, there is the Sawaba Monument, set up to honour the eight founders of Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU, who, in 1948, met and issued the Sawaba Declaration for the liberation of the masses (Talakawa).

These were: Abba Maikwaru, Musa Kaula, Magaji Danbatta, Mudi Sipikin, Abdulkdir Danjaji, Bello Ijumu, Abubakar Zukogi and Babaliya Manaja.

Also, near the “three arms zone” is a housing estate named after the G.9, the group that met in 1998 and demanded General Sani Abacha to hand over power to civilians when it was clear he was poised to succeed himself through his five registered political parties. Each of the nine chalets in the estate is named after Alex Ekwueme, Bola Ige, Iyorchia Ayu, Jerry Gana, Francis Ellah, Adamu Ciroma, Solomon Lar, Abubakar Rimi and Sule Lamido.

Lamido is a disciple of the Aminu Kano NEPU/PRP ideological school and a founder of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. But from all indications, he is running a NEPU/PRP government. The whole of the Jigawa landscape is green and crawling with intense agricultural activities, with government-sponsored oxen-drawn carts (6,000 in all) putting as many idle hands as possible to profitable work.

By the time the airport comes alive Jigawa will no longer be in the back waters. It will come to the centre stage as a rapidly developing state in the country.