Kano State

By Musa Sa’adu

Political parties remain the only vehicle or platforms for candidates/politicians to aspire for political offices. This, however, leads to the emergence of various interest groups within a party. The groups work harmoniously together to pursue their common goals. However, the success or otherwise of a political party depends mainly on how the stakeholders manage these interest groups in the distribution of party positions, party tickets, appointments and the traditional largesse as the case may be. Failure to do these for any reason has, on so many instances, led to the internal party crises.

The 1983 election that produced Senator Sabo Bakinzuwo against a well-performing Governor Abubakar Rimi, seeking reelection resulted fromf party crises. The PRP crises that metamoposed into ‘Tabo‘ and ‘Santsi‘ factions, led by Malam Aminu Kano and Rimi respectively, forced Rimi as a sitting Governor to dump PRP for NPP to seek reelection. However, this was one of the cardinal reasons behind his Waterloo despite his performance in office throughout Kano and Jigawa.

Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and, of course, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje are no doubt the principal actors of the Fourth Republic Kano politics. The three have benefited and suffered the consequences of internal party crises.

Our memories are still intact on how the political hullabaloo, shenaniganism and internal party wranglings ruined the reelection bid of Governor Kwankwaso during the 2003 Governorship election. The defection of Danhassan, crises between Kwankwaso and some members of the National Assembly, notably the then speaker of the House Of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Na-Abba and perhaps General Buhari factor were among the contributing factors that led to the Kwankwaso/Ganduje downfall and the emergence of Malam Shekarau.

Likewise, Shekarau suffered the repercussions of internal party crises; his anointed candidate Salisu Sagir Takai was defeated by Kwankwaso/Ganduje. The crises between Shekarau and his deputy, Abdullahi Gwarzo, popularly known as Ruwa Baba, the over fifty thousand votes garnered by him during the Governorship election, has smoothly leveraged the second coming of Kwankwaso and Ganduje in the 2011 election.

The current turmoil rocking the Kano APC is a cause of concern to any committed party member. The internal crises that paved the way for two parallel conventions that produced Abdullahi Abbas and Haruna Zago representing Ganduje and Shekarau led factions respectively will create a hole that will gradually sink the Kano APC ship, and neither the Ganduje nor Shekarau will survive the mishaps including their supporters.

In politics, number matters; everyone is important! Don’t tell me someone who’s Governor for eight years and a serving senator doesn’t have political influence, and these G-7 members, as they fondly called themselves, are blessed with sturdy supporters and resources to bankroll political movements that can make or mar an election.

With the Tuesday court verdict favouring the Shekarau-led faction and considering the nature of Nigerian litigation processes, I’m afraid that whichever faction the pendulum swings and even if they won the general polls, the replica of Zamfara 2019 is imminent.

Both Ganduje and Shekarau should tread with caution; there is still time. They shouldn’t listen to the sycophants instigating the crises. Let them sit, discuss and iron out the grey and problematic areas and find out political solutions; otherwise, Kwankwaso will send them to political oblivion.

By Abdulahi Majeli, Esq., AICMC

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

By Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan

Audu Bako, a Police Commissioner, the first military governor of the old Kano State from April 1967 to July 1975, was a wonderful human who executed superhuman projects that were, to this day, unsurpassed. When he came, Kano was the most educationally deprived among the 12 states created in 1967. Nevertheless, he made it compete with the rest before he left.

Together with his dutifully well-meaning permanent secretaries and commissioners, Audu Bako charted a good Kano development plan that was followed by successive governments up to the year 2000. Only a few changes were effected in the last 20 years. However, he was regarded as the most insightful governor of Kano to date.

Audu Bako gave Kano life when he came despite having met only 743 staff in the entire state, most of them junior officers; no single Kano indigene that could operate a bulldozer; only 241 primary schools, 16 post-primary schools and 139 teachers; no tertiary institutions in the whole state except Bayero University College and Advanced Teachers College, ATC Kano.

With the take-off grant of N10 Million on 1st April 1968, Audu Bako created six ministries, (1) Agriculture, (2) Forestry and Community Development, (3) Justice, (4) Education, (5) Finance, Industry and Commerce, and (6) Works and Surveys, as well as three other commissioners under the governor’s office who took charge of Home Affairs, Local Government and Information Division.

To bring the government closer to people, Audu Bako established 8 administrative headquarters: (1) Kano North Central -Ɗambatta which includes Ɓaɓura, Garki, Ringim, Gabasawa, Gezawa and Minjibir; (2) Kazaure, Comprising Roni, Yankwashi and Amaryawa; (3) Gumel which includes Sule Tankarkar, Maigatari, Ɗanzomo and Gagarawa.

The fourth (4th) was Haɗejia comprising Birniwa, Malam Madori, Guri, Kirikasamma, Auyo, Bulangu and Kafin Hausa. (5) Kano West with headquarter at Gwarzo includes Dawakin Tofa, Bichi and Ƙaraye. (6) Kano South-East with headquarter at Birnin Kudu has Gaya, Jahun, Dutse, Sumaila and Gwaram. Then (7) Kano South-West -Rano, Dawakin Kudu, Kura, Ƙiru, and Tudun Wada. Lastly, (8) Kano Metropolitan that comprises Ungoggo, Kumbotso, Kano and Waje.

This way, the far-sighted governor touched the lives of everyone in the state. Among his accomplishments, Audu Bako expanded the government house, built administrative area offices, the famous Gidan Murtala, the Audu Bako secretariat and the State Fire Service. He also built the Bagauda Housing Estate at Dakatsalle, Bagauda Lake Hotel, 13 junior Staff quarters, the 500 Housing Units at Tiga workers village, the bedroom houses at Suleiman Crescent and WRECA Staff quarters at Challawa and Gari Dams.

He also built 130 housing units at the pilgrims camp and junior staff quarters at Haɗejia and Gumel. Similarly, he built Teachers’ Housing Estate at Gwammaja as well as Waziri Giɗaɗo Flats at Lagos. As for roads, he laid tarred roads at Gwagwarwa, Tudun Wada, Kano City, Gyaɗi-gyaɗi, Tarauni, Nassarawa, Sabon Gari and other places.

He dualized Murtala Muhammad Way, from Ahmadu Bello way to Triumph Junction; BUK Road, from Ƙofar Nassarawa BUK; Aminu Kano way; Triumph Roundabout -Ƙofar Mazugal, Ƙofar Ruwa, Katsina Road Junction; Ibrahim Taiwo to Ƙofar Mata, Ƙofar Ƙwaru, Ƙofar Kudu, Kasuwar Rimi to Ƙofar Nassarawa. Still, he dualized State Road from Silver Jubilee Roundabout to Audu Bako way. Others are Lagos Street, Airport Bridge, Mandawari to Ƙofar Kabuga and Suleiman Crescent.

These were part of his achievements in infrastructure. The next write up will look at his success in Kano rural areas, Agriculture, education and health sectors. Indeed there were leaders who, because of their honesty, integrity, political will and commitment, achieved, in about 8 years, what present leaders put together can not achieve in 30 years.

May we learn from this past!

Mal. Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan is a Lecturer at Alƙalam University, Katsina and writes from Kano State.

By Salisu Uba Kofar-Wambai

By Muhammad Sabiu

A 23-year-old female student of Bayero University Kano (BUK) has on Tuesday afternoon been abducted around the Rijiyar Zaƙi area in Kano State.

The student identified as Sakina Bello is a botany student at the university.

Hours after the abduction, reports have it that the kidnappers of Sakina have demanded N100 million ransom from her family.

A source, who is in the know of the incident, was quoted by an online newspaper as saying, “She left home around 3 pm on Tuesday and could not come back until this moment. She was supposed to go to Janbulo from our house in Rjiyar Zaki.

“They called her elder brother around 9 pm and informed him that she was in their den and that they would call back on Wednesday. And the next they do is to demand N100million ransom,” the source added.

Unlike Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and other terrorised northwestern states, kidnappings and killings are not incessant in Kano.

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad

The Government of Kano State ordered the closure of no fewer than 1,581 premises used as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and patent medicine shops in 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

The government embarked on these measures following the growing menace of quack doctors, inexperienced pharmacists, and other health officials that use unlicensed premises for rendering health services across the state.

In this regard, the government’s action was said to have been prompted by reports that many unsuspecting residents had continued to fall victim to the nefarious activities of quack doctors and illegal clinic operators in the state.

The state, working in collaboration with the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), has since swung into action, shutting the fake centres and moving ahead with more measures to sanitize the state and save the lives of the citizens.

The Registrar of the PCN, Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed, represented by his Director of Enforcement, Stephen Esumobi, told the media that efforts to sanitize the state would continue until the place is safe and secure from unqualified persons to practice and render services.

Mohammed said: “A total of 1,581 premises comprising 657 pharmacies and 924 patent medicine shops were visited across 20 local government areas of the state. A total of 537 premises made up of 138 pharmacies, and 399 patent medicine shops were sealed for offences which include: operating without registration with the PCN, selling ethical medicines without the supervision of a pharmacist, poor documentation, poor storage conditions, unauthorized sale of substances of abuse, amongst others.

While 25 were issued with compliance directives. Many patent medicine shops and medicine dealers in Kano still operate without adequate storage facilities, while others have illegal warehouses scattered around the state, some of these warehouses have a large stock of ethical products and substances of abuse which could find their ways into the camps of criminal elements in the society thus contributing to the adverse security situation.”

Similarly, the Private Health Institutions Management Agency, PHIMA, has also closed down many illegal clinics actively rendering services as hospitals to unsuspecting persons in the state. The Agency’s Executive Secretary, Usman Tijjani Aliyu, said the agency shut a chemist operated by a low-level secondary school exciter as a ‘hospital,’ describing it as a case of ‘quackery’.

The Chairman of the Kano State Chapter of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Usman Ali, said that efforts were in been taken to checkmate activities of quack doctors in the state; “We are fighting this quackery, and it is because of this that a committee, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, (MDCN) monitoring team was set up in the 36 states including Federal Capital Territory.

“The committee comprises director of medical services of the Ministries of Health as chairman and the NMA chairman of each state as the secretary. About two years back, with the collaboration of the Kano Police Command, we have arrested two to three quack doctors in the state. Similarly, for all doctors in the state, we must make sure a doctor is qualified and certified to practice in Nigeria. That is why the same monitoring team is going round to help check these in hospitals.”

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

Kano is the centre of commerce. Kano is the state where you find the complete structure of Nigerian cultures coexisting. The state gives potentialities of what Nigerians should envisage in peaceful coexistence. That includes interrelationship between marketers of different ethnic backgrounds to the various categories of people in the market system and beyond.

The Kano market system remains one of the most organised in Nigeria. The market structure sees room for you to decide your scale of preference as a buyer or seller. In addition, there are distinctions as to where and what you can obtain from a particular place in a specific setting.

These markets range in various products. Kano is known to harbour the sales of everything saleable, and this is why this essay intends to highlight to you a Kano resident or someone new to Kano the focus of some of the major markets.

Sabon Gari is the largest market in Kano state. In this market, you can get anything you wish to, irrespective of your preference. Though the market has sections of varieties from kitchen wares, shoe wares, body wares, home appliances, and many more, the most common segment exemplified as the rowdiest remains the perishable foods section (Yan Kura). You find fresh from farm tomatoes, veggies of various types, seafood, and many more in this part of the market. This market section has different Nigerian tribes. However, the most prominent remains the Igbos and the Edos. The sweet ambience that comes out of this market section is when you hear every tribe speaking in Hausa to form a unification.

Another prominent produce you can get in Yan Kura is raw food. You get rice, beans and even Garri at cheaper rates. This is because, in this market, the packaging of produce is not a celebrated thing. Therefore, lower-class, average and high-class people can access this market and find the prices very affordable.

Kasuwar Rimi is a market located around Kofar Nassarawa. It focuses on the sales of kitchen utensils. In this market, you get to be thrilled by the number of people that can hoard the same business and yet live on common grounds. Kasuwar Rimi is also a big market that can harbour newcomers asking about the routes if they do not know the ways of the markets; this is because the market is also very large.

 In this market, there are Kano indigenes, and the ambience that comes with the native speakers is so beautiful. However, you find out that those not from Kano find joy in communicating using the tone of the native speakers.

Kasuwan Wambai is more of a farther affiliation to the route of Sabon Gari market. To go to this market from Yan Kura, you get to board a specially organised tricycle generally known as “Keke Napep” that is different from the common yellow ones. In this market, you get to see the actual definition of runners and plastics with a preference for quality. You get to have wholesales in this market for almost every seller of the rubbers, plastics, jerry cans, and gallons sell in dozens or more. In this market, you hear a name like “Yan rubber”, and you know there are other boundaries to help you understand the market more according to the categorisation.

A sequel to this article will give you hindsight on navigating the various major markets in Kano state. This is to help you map out the way to go and the way not to go. This will also help curb if insecurity, as sometimes an unknown route becomes a danger zone.