Opinion

By Aliyu Nuhu

Northern leaders are expressing their position on 2023 election. The North wants to retain power. They rely on the Constitution and tenets of democracy to reach their conclusion. Nigerian constitution does not recognize power rotation or zoning. They said democracy is a game of numbers, and that since the North has the numbers it can rule forever.

For North to actualize its “day”dream, it should also field both presidential and vice presidential candidates from the North. That will ensure they keep power even if the president dies or suffers from infirmity.

Well let us just say our laws are flawed given our peculiar plural nature. Leadership of Nigeria cannot follow the law and still keep Nigeria in one piece and we are entirely to blame.

In every election win, Nigerians know how to bask on ethnic triumphalism and use power to alienate other tribes. Nepotism defines Nigerian leadership. If the North has been treating Nigeria as a one entity in fairness, the complain from the South will not be much. But look at Buhari presidency and tell me why a Southerner will want to remain under the northern rule, where both the Northerners and Southerners suffer greatly!

Fortunately APC does not think like northern elders. The party will pass its ticket to South West. APC has what it takes to win 2023 election. PDP will field a northern candidate, and surely that will be its funeral.

So far Nigeria is not matured for democracy. We are still learning the ropes. One day we shall get to that point where the origin and religion of leaders don’t matter. That will only happen if we eschew tribalism, nepotism and bigotry and appoint people to position based on competence.

Aliyu Nuhu is a socio-political analyst, from Abuja, Nigeria

By Ahmadu Shehu, PhD.

It is no longer debatable that Nigeria, despite its crippling challenges, may never disintegrate, at least geographically. Of course, the animosities, hatred and distrust between the ethnic and regional nationalities might worsen, but Nigeria’s elasticity is exemplary and uncommon. However, I still do not accept the convenient folktale deployed by politicians that our country’s unity is non-negotiable. By now, our experience as a nation should have liberated our minds to begin a conversation on any topic of national interest, no matter the controversy or emotional delicacy.

As we approach the 61^st birthday of our beloved country, I find it imperative to discuss this controversial but important issue. From the outset, let me clarify that this article is not about the Igbo as an ethnic group or the southeast as a region. Given the rise in pro-Biafra sentiments and agitations at the moment, this article is only meant to provide an outsider view of some arguments espoused by the secessionists in their attempt to generate sympathy and popularity.

When you think of Nigeria’s disintegration, the first thing that comes to mind is Biafra – a defunct Igbo separatist nation in the country’s southeastern part. The attempt to curve this region from Nigeria in 1967 remains one of the most gruelling experiences of our country. A barely six-year-old nation was thrown into chaos by a set of greedy politicians and unscrupulous military officers who wanted power at the centre. Within those thirty months, millions of innocent citizens lost their lives, got injured or lost their possessions. In addition, Nigeria lost a large chunk of its national treasury meant to set the country on the right footing. The rest, as they say, is history.

Instead of learning from our past mistakes to avoid the recurrence of this destructive, reckless and unnecessary event, Nigerians of this generation seem to be oblivious of the necessary truth. As with most factual historical events in the Nigerian psyche, this painful experience, its true causes, and damning consequences are not well-known to the younger generations. The biased narratives in various country sections ensure that our population only hear the stories that suit their mindsets without alternative facts that would open their minds to self-criticism.

In the case of Biafra, most of the young Igbo folks have a pretty false image of their fate as a people if Biafra had happened. This skewed imagination is not unconnected with the biased, often imaginative stories these young Nigerians were told about their defunct “nation”. The Igbo popular culture and the intelligentsia depict a fictional image of Biafra as a dream-nation where the Igbos shall live in peace and prosperity devoid of challenges.

They imagine, albeit naively, that Biafra will be unlike Nigeria and that their lot would have been better than it is today. These unsuspecting chaps are led into believing a mirage of living in a nation flowing with honey and milk. They are also told that other ethnic and geopolitical sections of Nigeria are responsible for all their woes. They argue, albeit ignorantly, that if not for the North, the West, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, etc., theirs would have been a heaven on earth. These ignorant tales conclude that a united Nigeria does not help their course as a people.

Well, I think that these views are simplistic. I also believe that it is our responsibility to tell our brethren the truth that they need to hear. Firstly, the creation, proclamation of Biafra was not in the interest of the ordinary Igbo people. It was the last-ditch by Igbo politicians to hide their faces from problems they caused and ensure they stayed in power. Secondly, our brethren are mischievously told that the Igbo were so rich that the Igboland was the largest economic contributor to the federation. Unfortunately, the falsity of this assertion is not far-fetched, as the southeast was and is still the least contributor to the Nigerian GDP. Moreover, during the attempted secession, Nigeria’s GDP was mainly from the agricultural sector, predominantly from the North.

Thirdly, it seems that many people are misled into believing that Biafra would be an oil-rich country even though none of the Southeastern states is truly oil-producing. The Niger Delta, Nigeria’s oil pot, was not and will never be part of Biafra.

Fourthly, young Igbo people tend to believe that the southeast was Nigeria’s cash-cow at independence. The bitter truth is that even in the ’60s, the perceived strong Igbo economy depended entirely on other regions. This scenario is worse today as there are probably more Igbo people and Igbo businesses in other parts of the country than in Igboland. Worse still, the Igboland is closed and unfriendly to Nigerians, making external investments impossible.

The most supposedly intelligent argument advanced by the secessionists hinges on the current centralized federal system. They claim that the centre is too powerful and that Igbo states are marginalized. This is an argument of convenience, at best. Nigerians are not oblivious that the current unitary system was the handwork of Igbo politicians who saw a unitary arrangement as the answer to their political agenda. Today, the tides have turned, and these very people are calling for the system they abolished. Restructuring this country – whatever that means – might be a good idea, but only after a genuine debate that will ensure we do not return to the same vicious circle.

People with secessionist tendencies have used the challenges in northern Nigeria as reasons for disintegration. However, Biafra will by no means be a safer or better place. Currently, some of the most terrible crimes bedevilling this country are not unconnected with the southeast. From drugs to internet fraud, armed robbery and kidnapping to arms smuggling, if not worse, the southeast is not holier than other parts of this country.

Another commonplace argument is that the industrious nature of the Igbo people is enough evidence that Biafra will be a great country. But this argument, too, has failed to account for the fact that the wealthiest and most successful Igbo people and their businesses owe their success significantly to Nigeria and not Igboland. The Igbo people are traders, and the economic success of trading lies in the customer market, not the number of sellers. What do the Igbo people actually produce or sell that does not rely on the larger Nigerian population?

On the one hand, there is nothing that the southeast offers that cannot be produced or sold by other Nigerians. But, on the other hand, everything from food to livestock, energy, and the market for everything sold depend on the other regions. The southeast is asking to leave under this situation is the most absurd strategic blunder of the century.

Similarly, Igbo politicians and administrators have not distinguished themselves from the rotten Nigerian public servants. We do not see a difference between southeastern institutions or southeasterners in Nigerian public offices and their counterparts in other regions or ethnic groups. The same crop of people will lead Biafra. So, nobody should be enthusiastic.

Therefore, it is evident from the preceding that the viability of Biafra as an independent state is not assured. For one, it will be a landlocked, forty-one thousand kilometres square piece of land, which is just a half of Niger state and less than the size of Kaduna state. Worse still, it will be circled on all four corners by its biggest adversary, the Nigerian state. Secondly, it will depend on its biggest adversary for nearly everything except air, including waterways, food, and labour. Third, it would be one of the most overpopulated countries vis-à-vis its landmass and population.

The bitter truth is that these ecological, geographical, demographic and economic factors do not support the presupposition that the Igboland is better off as a separate entity than it is within the Nigerian federation. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that even if Biafra was to happen on a platter of gold, it is not going to be the rose garden these populists have configured our brothers to believe. Thus, we should all look before we leap!

Dr Ahmadu Shehu is a nomad cum herdsman, an Assistant Professor at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, and is passionate about the Nigerian project. You can reach him at ahmadsheehu@yahoo.com.

By Mukhtar Garba Maigamo

The trending video that surfaced after President Buhari attended the UNGA in New York, showing an unprovoked assault on some people that are considered “Hausa-Fulani” or “Northern Muslims” by their provocateurs on account of their facial countenance and, or the apparels in them, is a perfect example of the deep-rooted hatred, obsessions and insecurities bedevilling many people in some parts of this country which translated into this dismissive ‘othering’.

It is even very possible that these two or three people in the video who are being verbally assaulted with a barrage of racist abuses and the most opprobrious language, share no cultural or ethnolinguistic affinities with Fulani, but because of the fact the racialization of the Buhari/APC government has taken a firm root, the entire people of the North are lumped together as either Fulani or Hausa-Fulani (whatever that means) and demonized by many people in the South, including even the most educated ones. What a profoundly ignorant mischaracterization!

This sort of ignorance has historically also manifested in the ‘Aboki’ and ‘Gambari’ ethnic slurs these people used with profound contempt.

But the striking irony is that there are many people here in the North or even residents of Daura (hometown of Mr President) who might have felt disillusioned with the Buhari’s administration, who could also share cultural, ethnic and religious affiliations with him. Still, they are worst-off today, and there are those also who do not share these features with the president. Still, by their circumstances or by way of geography, they are lumped together and mischaracterized as Fulani or Hausa Fulani.

But the danger of this otherization and the racialization of APC is that it could provoke ethnic and religious sentiments during elections and make people rally around a maligned candidate- whether he is the right choice or not, in terms of capacity and ability to deliver.

When, because of your pathological hatred of a single person, his party or associations, you pigeonhole an entire stock of his ethnic nationality and derogate as dregs of the country, you are invoking his people’s consciousness to rise against you whether or not they love him.

This same thing happened during GEJ when some clannish zealots otherized the entire country, but south-south. Under GEJ watchful eyes, Edwin Clerk and his passengers went about with rhetorics and threatened fire and brimstone against anyone who raised eyebrows against their posturing.

His wife also went about demonizing the North as the habitat of almajiri (the almajiri that are menacing the North too, and whom many people in the North were campaigning against).

Her infamous diatribe, “our people no dey born shildren wey dem no dey count. Our men no dey born shildren throway for street. We no dey like the people from that side” was the final straw that galvanized the anger of people to rise and rally around ethnic solidarities to defeat GEJ.

The victory of APC in 2015 and 2019 was, therefore, a combination of many factors, including the idealization and evocation of sentiments for candidates put forward by the party.

And this will continue to play out if the antipathy like the one we’ve seen in this video continues.

Mukhtar Maigamo writes from Kaduna. He can be reached via mgmaigamo@gmail.com.

By Abubakar Ibrahim

Those looking for devolution of powers to make the states more powerful than the centre had forgotten about history.

The Soviet Union (USSSR) collapsed when it gave more powers to its states.

Nigeria government has given Governors’ clubs (governors forum; southern governors forum, northern Governors forum, etc.) leverage to the extent that they are now flaunting executive orders.

No governor obeyed the executive order to give monthly allocation directly to local government councils, legislature and judiciary in their respective states.

The antics of southern governors, especially of Rivers, Lagos and Ogun, will send Nigeria to its waterloo.

Governors forums have made them act as devils instead of angels. They have frustrated the inflow of funds to LGAs, state legislatures and judiciary. They have refused to pay the correct minimum wage.

Governors forums have done more harm than good. They are only good at wasting state resources in crisis, crossing the skies in charted flights attending their meetings at various locations. The worst scenario is they will leave their states at the mercy of nobody. Hence, this stagnates work until they are back.

It is time for these unproductive governors forums to be abolished. We like to see state governors behaving like former governors with integrity, people like late Governor Jakande, who had never travelled outside Nigeria and never run away from his state responsibilities throughout his tenure.

Governors like Audu Bako, through under a military regime, would only travel out to bring back goodies for the ordinary person, such as “irrigation schemes” that Kano people are still benefiting from after all these long years. It is a legacy he left behind.

Nigerians should come back from supporting politicians who are only good at building themselves and championing the course of disintegration.

Abubakar Ibrahim can be contacted via ai869802@gmail.com.

By Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim

By Abdullahi Abubakar Lamido

Waqf, translated as Islamic endowment, simply means a perpetual charity. As a strategic Islamic socio-economic institution, it entails dedicating a benefit-creating or revenue-generating asset for the sustainable provision of free public services to the society – especially for the less privileged. It can be created by an individual, a group of individuals, a corporate body or even a governmental institution. Waqfable asset is that which is legally owned by the endower and is cable of perpetually creating benefit or generating revenues which would be channelled to defined religious or charitable purposes.

From the dawn of Islam passing through the periods of the companions, Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubis and the Ottomans, waqf was maximally utilized as a unique instrument for addressing virtually all aspects of societal religious, economic, educational, healthcare and environmental development needs. In fact, what “substantial historical evidence” suggests, as established by Islamic economic historians like Murat Cizakca and before him, Marshall G.S. Hodgson, is that, “waqf, not zakah was the most important institution for redistribution of wealth” in Muslim history.

Historically, waqf has sufficiently financed virtually all aspects of public welfare and developmental needs, especially education and healthcare. To wit, in the area of education, it was used for building schools, libraries, laboratories, student hostels and lodgings for teachers, scholars and researchers. It also funded scholarships, payment of teachers’ salaries and the provision of food, clothing, learning and instruction materials as well as creating conducive teaching-learning atmospheres. Great Muslim Universities were built as waqfs and have continued to be substantially financed from waqf proceeds. It grew so ubiquitous that “A person can be born in a house belonging to a waqf, sleep in a cradle provided by that waqf, be educated in the school of the waqf and read the books provided by it, become a teacher in the waqf school, earn a waqf-financed salary and at his death be placed in a waqf-provided coffin for burial in a waqf cemetery”.

Relating to health, waqf has been used to build hospitals, clinics and medical laboratories which provide a wide range of free medical services, including surgery. It is documented that it was due to the advancement in service provision through waqf that the need was not even felt for governmental ministries or departments for education and health, as these were fully financed by waqfs.

Education and health were not the only areas of waqf interventions. Waqfs sustainably financed all forms of social, economic and community development services including transportation, environmental protection and beautification among others. At some historical epochs, various Muslim nations relied on waqf sources for a substantial portion of their national income.  Waqfs were used to finance the building and maintenance of mosques, traveller’s lodgings, orphanages, bridges, water-wells, public conveniences, soup kitchens, roads, street lights and gardens.  In fact, in many Muslim communities, waqfs were created for the sustainable provision of all conceivable public welfare services. Until the colonization of Muslim societies, waqf remained a significant contributor to socio-economic development in many Muslim countries. It was colonialism that changed the subject of the formula.

Having realized how waqf provided social, cultural and economic independence to especially Muslim scholars and intellectuals, who incidentally were usually the most resilient class against selfish imperial policies; the colonial “monsters”, implemented well-orchestrated policies that saw to the hibernation of the waqf sector. They syphoned many waqf assets, weakened many, deliberately rendered many irrelevant, and calculatingly destroyed the functioning and autonomy of waqfs by subjecting them to government control. They created governmental ministries that coordinate waqfs, with all the negative consequences of that.

Worth stressing is the fact that western imperialists destroyed the waqf system in Muslim lands only after they had already copied the concept from the Muslim Middle East through the crusaders, and then developed it as an instrument for financing developmental services. In her celebrated 1988 study titled “The Influence of the Islamic Law of Waqf on the Development of the Trust in England: The Case of Merton College”, Monica Gaudiosi established that it was actually the waqf institution that gave birth to the concept of Trusts and Foundations in the West.  Modified and enhanced waqf was used to establish great western institutions such as the Merton College which still shares clear similarities with the waqf institution. And except for a few changes in the English law of Trust, most features of waqf have remained unchanged in the western practice of Trusts till date.

Interestingly, for more than two decades now there has been a growing global waqf reawakening. From the Middle East to Africa, and from the West to the East, waqf consciousness has continued to balloon. Despite the big blow that colonialism did to the waqf sector, making it reduced to merely an atomized institution concerned with financing some aspects of the spiritualties, the global Muslim communities have now rejuvenated their commitment to reposition waqf as a dynamic Islamic, third sector socio-economic institution. Waqf is seen and promoted as an engine of poverty reduction, wealth creation and distribution, employment generation and socio-economic development. In 2016, the World Bank noted that if properly harnessed “even if partly”, waqf, alongside zakah, can eradicate poverty in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. For a long time, combine global assets are estimated to be close to USD 1 trillion and growing.

Conversely, the story of waqf in Nigeria is largely different from other Muslim communities like Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and even others like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Yes, waqf knowledge and practice have existed in Nigeria for well over a millennium. But for several reasons, including historical, it was not comprehensively institutionalized in Nigeria’s pre-colonial history as a holistic, comprehensive socio-economic institution that provides a wide range of public welfare and developmental services. Its knowledge and practice have largely been reduced to the religious waqf, mostly mosques, cemeteries and religious schools. Even these waqfs, hardly had other revenue-generating waqfs for their sustainable funding as obtained in other climes.

But why should waqf be of great significance to Nigerian Muslims? It is of course factual that poverty is largely a Muslim phenomenon in Nigeria. All official statistics show that the states with the highest poverty rate are the Muslim dominated states. The majority of the Muslim population live in sorry conditions of socio-economic deprivations; poverty, hunger, squalor, illiteracy and poor healthcare. Muslims account for the highest number of out of formal schools and vulnerable children. These – combined with other factors – have resulted in rising insecurity and underdevelopment. For long, the solution to this has been largely viewed by many as the sole responsibility of the government. Only a few have realized that while governments have a great responsibility, Muslims can only alleviate their sufferings if they explore, among other things, Islamic socio-economic institutions in addition to agitating for good governance.

One important instrument that can significantly reduce the poverty and socio-economic backwardness of the Nigerian Muslims is no doubt the waqf institution. The flexibility and dynamism of the waqf institution provide for the mobilization of diverse resources in the forms of cash, landed properties, real estate, and other resources, which would be developed and invested, such that their revenues and fruits would be channelled to developmental services.

Nigerian Muslims already have the potentials for this. The long history of Islamic belief and practice, the enthusiasm of the population towards anything connected to Islam, the high spirit of giving that exist within the rich, middle class and even the masses, the availability of Islamic intuitions such as mosques, Islamic schools and media channels, the prevalence of governmental and non-governmental zakah and waqf institutions, among others, all provide a handy infrastructure that can be explored and utilized in the campaign for a new holistic waqf regime in Nigeria.

Particularly, the growing atmosphere of waqf consciousness among the elites and Islamic scholars, as exemplified in the increased awareness creation and establishment of Islamic charitable foundations in especially the last five to seven years, all point to existing opportunities for making waqf a veritable instrument for socio-economic empowerment. All this can also be added to the vast arable land an array of professionals and intellectuals that the Muslim community is blessed with.  It is our opinion that with these and several other potentials, if philanthropic waqf were to be well studied, promoted, institutionalized and maximally harnessed and utilized, poverty would be largely reduced and socio-economic empowerment would be greatly triggered in Nigeria.

In this regard, there is the need to utilize several platforms for waqf discourse such that its potentials would be unearthed, its dimensions analyzed, its impediments examined; goals defined, priorities set and methods of actualizing the dream well spelt out. These platforms should bring together the Islamic scholars, business persons, professionals, community leaders and all important stakeholders to common thinking tables. In the light of this, the AZAWON Newsletter presents itself as a primary platform for debating, dialoguing and analyzing waqf matters (alongside other Islamic social finance instruments).

Scholars, intellectuals, professionals and other concerned citizens are therefore invited to continue contributing articles, reports (written, pictorial or otherwise), opinions, comments and all valuable information that can enrich and smoothen the journey to making waqf a serious business in Nigeria.

Malam Abdullahi Lamido is the Chairman, Zakah and Waqf Foundation, Gombe, Nigeria. He can be reached via lamidomabudi@gmail.com.

By Mohammed Zayyad

By Muhsin Ibrahim

German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn’t need any introduction. Divorced and with a doctorate in Physics, Merkel, 67, has been a leader of Germany for sixteen years. She is the first woman to lead Europe’s economic powerhouse and the beacon of democracy.

Chancellor Merkel wanted to leave in 2016. However, many people, including world leaders, encouraged her to stay. With Donald Trump coming to power in the US, Brexit knocking on the door of the European Union and the smoke of refugee crises still smouldering, almost everyone knew that Merkel was the best in that crucial position. Thus, she re-contested in 2017 and, expectedly, won.

But, whatever has a beginning has an end. Germans go to poll tomorrow, Sunday 26, 2021, to elect Merkel’s successor. The electorates are practically voting for parties, not a particular candidate for the chancellery. The parties would, of course, want to have the majority to form a government, but it does not happen. Often if not always, a party will have to negotiate with another party – or even other parties – to have enough votes to appoint a chancellor in the Bundestag. The negotiations can take months.

There are three chief contestants from three major political parties. They are 60-year-old Armin Laschet (CDU/CSU), 40-year-old Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and 62-year-old Olaf Scholz (SPD). The first, Mr Laschet, is the current Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia (where Cologne is) and leader of Merkel’s party, CDU.

Despite Merkel’s endorsement of Mr Laschet, he is unlikely to win. It may surprise you to know that what may cause him this defeat is mere laughter. Deadly flooding killed people in Germany and some neighbouring countries in July. The President of Germany visited a town destroyed by the catastrophic flood. While the President was delivering a sombre speech, a camera caught Mr Laschet laughing behind him. Since that faux pas, many people have lost confidence in him.

Ms Baerbock is young, energetic and confident and started her campaign with a lot of optimism. Nonetheless, her party does not have enough clout to win nationally. But, that is not the real issue for their candidate. You may also find it astonishing to hear what has befallen Baerbock’s candidacy and tarnished her reputation. It was possible plagiarism and padding of her CV.

Olaf Scholz is Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Finance. So far, opinion polls favour his chances of succeeding Merkel. Unlike the two other leading contestants, he has almost no major ‘sin’ affecting his campaign. Moreover, his party, SPD, was in power until Merkel’s outstanding victory in 2005. Thus, they are thirsty for a win and are therefore doing everything possible to come back.

Frau Merkel will be greatly missed. People around the world will never forget her extraordinary benevolence during the 2015 refugee crisis. As a German resident with no right to vote yet, I wish for the best outcome in the elections. May we continue to live in peace and prosperity, amin.

Muhsin Ibrahim is a Nigerian. He studies and works at the Institute of African Studies and Egyptology of the University of Cologne. He can be reached via muhsin2008@gmail.com.

Dear Sir,

This is to draw your attention and that of NCDC to the ongoing controversy over the cluttering of Kwari Market. We hope you will temper the issue with compassion and shrewdness befitting your sage, administrative excellence and political dexterity. Sir, if you solemnly declared that Kano will become a megacity in the very near future, which you did as reported on Blueprint Newspaper, August 21, 2020, why do you now allow our markets, especially Kwari to be congested? You made the declaration “on the eve of the Kano Economic and Investment Summit (KanInvest) which held in May, 2017, where stakeholders and bigwigs in the business sector converged to share ideas concerning issues affecting the economy, especially as it concerns Kano state”. There you rightly observed that the crowded population of Kano of about 20 million people will multiply in 5 years time. With Coronavirus threatening our lives, now is the time to decongest the city or else risk spreading the virus like wildfire.

In the process of affirming your declaration, you continue with the construction of the new Economic City of Kano located at Dangwauro Town along Kano -Zaria federal highway. However, your construction of a mall at the popular Kantin Kwari textile market named ‘Yan Tebura Mall has opened a dangerous door of congesting the market. What follows the mall are structures being erected on Taambo and Bayajidda Streets in the market. Unfortunately they are becoming a greater bone of contention because they stand on the way and so will endanger our hygiene, your excellency. After the recent rainfalls in Kano, the market was always flooded as the main waterways there happen to be on these streets. With the buildings being erected on them, the ancient market is seriously damaged, congested and so the megacity target is defeated.

Moreover, the damage brought about by the new buildings includes blockage of the former known 16 entries to the market which were serving as good ventilation and escape exits in case of a stampede. Still, the structures have saturated almost all the streets in the market, whereas the frontage of every shop is also “officially” being choked with iron stalls which would lead to disaffection, disharmony and clashes between the shop owners and stallers. To make matters worse, the installers of these iron stalls are damaging some newly tarred roads as they fix the stalls on the edge of the roads to larger part of the roadside drainage. Therefore, as the whole pathways are narrowed to almost nothing, people have to be squeezing around, highly vulnerable to Coronavirus infection.

These problems are not far from the government’s sidelining of the market people in the activities of the market, especially on strategies to improve the government’s revenue. This way, the outsiders brought in to supervise and advise on such affairs, as in the case of an administrator appointed from the head of service, come to enrich themselves only at the expense of anything good in the market. They never protect the interests of the market but theirs and sometimes end up starting a fire of enmity among business friends. It is a wonder how an outsider could tell an owner of a house where roofing leaks. Instead of looking at what is good for the market, those people look at what could bring them money no matter how damaging they appear to the good people of Kano. In that respect, owners of shops have to pay 200 thousand Naira to buy their shop front if they do not want that iron stall stationed there for sale.

Worse still, over five thousand labourers stand the risk of losing their livelihood if the contentious buildings continue. As a politician who is committed to forestall the increasing poverty-induced insecurity in the State, we are sure that you would not take this risk. Notwithstanding, the already erected structures have no accessibly enough toilets as those available are far upstairs and so women customers going to the market suffer super shame when they want to ease themselves in the centre of a Shari’a compliant state, under you, Khadimul Islam. In case of a fire accident like that of Sabon Gari Market, God forbid, the large fire fighting vehicles that need room for manoeuvre would never get entry as the ways are now being blocked. So against this background, all concerned persons in the market say no to the project and even go to court.

Following on from that, the State High Court, on 12th August, presided by Justice Suleiman Baba Namallam, has restrained the Government of Kano State from blocking or erecting structures at any part of Taambu and Bayajidda Streets at the popular market, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. Nonetheless, It has never been our intention, your excellency, to be at loggerheads with your government over this issue. We are only after decongesting the market especially to observe the Coronavirus protocol; to help the government, on the other hand, in spacing the already jam-packed market in preparation to reaching the megacity status and to target the recent Federal Government’s campaign of “Ease of Doing Business”.

Nevertheless, Your excellency, we appreciate your effort towards making Kano a megacity as you ease traffic congestion by finishing the construction of the Sabon Gari axis 2km bridge inland flyover (named after the Kano business mogul Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata) along Murtala Muhammad Way, which is the longest in West Africa; the Sharada/Panshekara Junction Underpass; the Bukavu Barracks underpass; the Underpass, Flyover and Roundabout at Dangi road connecting Zaria road-Zoo road and Silver Jubilee road as well as the now-under construction Hotoro NNPC (Muhammadu Buhari) bridge among others. These justify your administration’s commitment to the safe development of the sprawling city of Kano. In spite of that, we also need our existing markets to be spacious, uncrowded and comfortable so as to have good standards of health and hygiene regulations, especially Covid-19 protocol.

It is our fervent hope that Kano will continue to benefit from the wealth of your immense administrative experience and astuteness in politics, especially in this much worrying matter. Show the world that you are an ace politician, agreeable to the yearnings and aspirations of your people by justifying the confidence collectively reposed on your administration and unselfish persona.

We pray that may Allah Subhanahu wata’ala strengthen your resolve in elevating the status of Kano to compete with other megacities around the world. May you be successful in your future political endeavour. May Kano remain peaceful forever! Amin thumma Amin!

Yours,
Concerned Citizens!
08067444787