Beyond
Colourful Campaign Posters: The Leadership Kano Needs and
the Leadership it Deserves
27 December 2009By Muhammad Sagagi
Kano must be in a hurry to develop, to have its
prosperity restored. KN envisions to re-emerge as a
vibrant, prosperous and self-reliant economy,
operating in a just, secure and disciplined
environment. It shall be the largest economy and the
hub of investment & commercial activity in the Western
Sudan. Its development shall be anchored on its
resources and the resourcefulness of its people. Its
business men will re-embrace modern industrial
pursuits and revive that spirit of adventurous
entrepreneurship which made medieval KN great. They
will re- trace the trans-Sahara trade route and
re-establish their presence. Kano will once again
attract investors, merchants and scholars from all
corners of the globe. Kano shall rise again with its
people happier, healthier and wealthier.
Yes, Kano can realise beyond its dreams. Kano needs a
leader who shares its vision, who has the capacity to
articulate an acceptable notion of development and
form a proactive, people-centred government, with
strong and efficient institutions. It requires strong
commitment, initiatives, and a discernable shift from
the mistakes of the past, to lift Kano from the abyss
to the top of the ‘sugar candy’ mountain.
Kano desires no less. Over the years Kano has suffered
de-industrialization and long-term social and economic
decline. KN has transformed into a rudderless and
apathetic society and economy. Several years of
neglect and inadequate protection have robbed
agriculture of its capacity to support a modern, fast
growing economy. Sustained industrial production which
holds the key to growth, wealth creation and
employment generation is similarly constrained by an
inhospitable investment climate. Faced with the
challenges of ‘economic reform’, the business
community appears indifferent to modern industrial
pursuits.
The poverty profile of the State has worsened over the
years. KN is the 15th poorest state in the Federation
with a Poverty Index of 61.9%., above the national
average of 54%. This implies that nearly 7.5 million
people in the state live below the poverty line. More
than 80% of Kano people are dependent either on
subsistence agriculture or the urban informal sector
for a livelihood. Access to public services- water
supply, education and health- is severely constrained.
The grim statistics say it all: water vending is
perhaps the fastest growing industry in the state as
only 12.8% of households have access to improved
sources of water piped into their dwelling (2.8%) or
their yard (1.5%) or from a nearby tap (8.5%). Adult
literacy rates are 34% for male and 15% for female;
only approximately 50% of children of primary school
age attend primary school, with a net primary school
completion rate of 15%; and less than 30% of children
of secondary school age are attending secondary school
or higher education. Health indicators are more
pathetic: 70% of infant deaths are caused by pre-natal
infectious and parasitic illnesses which are
preventable; only 35% of women receive ante natal care
one or more time during pregnancy; and KN along with
six other Northern states are responsible for 70% of
maternal mortality in the country: for every 100,000
women, over 7,000 die during child birth-compared to
the national average of 800/100,000.
Decay in economic and social infrastructure is
significant; the environment is filthy and polluted:
public sanitation facilities are unavailable and the
Kano metro area alone is saddled with a daily dose of
more than 3,000 metric tons of refuse. The city is
characterized by over-crowding, traffic congestion and
is in a perpetual state of confusion and
disorderliness-exacerbated by the presence of between
1 and 1.5 million motor cycles in the state-killing
passersby, maiming their passengers and emitting tons
of carbon monoxide thereby subjecting the public to
slow death. There is no ‘optimal’ land use policy: we
seem to build everywhere-inches away from the road or
railways, on water lines, under high and low tension
power transmission lines, in schools, hospitals, in
green areas and even cemeteries. No space is spared.
There are increasing incidences of street begging, by
the young and the old, girl-child hawking, stealing
and robbery, political banditry, drug-using and
trafficking, prostitution, child labour and many other
social vices, all significantly related to the high
level of unemployment and poverty.
KN does not deserve any of these. KN possesses all it
takes to engineer a takeoff to a higher level of
development: a huge population which would provide
enormous market opportunities and serve as a potential
reservoir of skills, a large agricultural sector which
could provide tremendous opportunities for primary
processing and for local resource based
industrialization, and tons of untapped mineral-
resource deposits. Its business men have a long
history of contact with strategic markets in West,
Central and Northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula,
Europe and the Far East. A railway terminus has
existed since 1914, and there is an international
airport.
In terms of population Kano is 7% of Nigeria, 13% of
the North. It is more than 50% of the South East and
about half of North Central Nigeria. Kano is bigger
than each of a dozen successful nation states: Israel,
Switzerland, Libya, Singapore, UAE etc. Kano has an
estimated 1’754’200 ha of fertile agricultural land,
approximately 75’000 ha of forest vegetation and
grazing land, 128, 000 irrigable land and several
dams, including the 7-km long TIGA Dam with a capacity
to supply enough water to irrigate 72’000 ha of land
in the Kano river basin.
That is the ‘Kano Paradox’: potentially great but with
features of a failed state. Availability of resources
matters little without a committed, forthright and
visionary leadership, with the necessary zeal to
effectively harness and efficiently utilize such
resources. Leadership must unravel this paradox and
endeavour to end it. KN needs a leader who understands
the complexities of the development process and who,
therefore, is willing to articulate & implement a
transformation agenda with specific policies and
programmes to address these challenges of
underdevelopment.
Those who aspire to govern us must begin to unveil
their priorities-which must be in tandem with those of
the general citizenry. They must come up with
practical short, medium and long-term strategies to
deal with a plethora of local and national issues from
the mundane to the most complex: achaba, Almajirci and
street begging, rural-urban disparities, basic health
and education, girl-child hawking, drug addiction
amongst the youths, corruption, accountability and
transparency in budget formulation and implementation,
taxation and external borrowing, Shari’a, Hisbah and
societal re-orientation, state creation etc. Those who
seek to represent us in Abuja must show some
familiarity with, and speak up on, the impending
constitution review, federalism, the agitation for
resource control and revenue allocation, deregulation
and liberalization of the economy, Vision 2020,
rotational presidency, electoral reforms etc. Each of
these has an important weight on the future of the
state. Those nauseating inscriptions- ‘MUNA FATA’,
‘FATAN ALHAIRI’ etc- on their colourful campaign
posters just won’t do!
We all must remember that fundamentally, our numerous
successes in the past were leadership driven. Our
visionary leaders did not just ‘wish’ us well, they
worked assiduously to provide for our well being. They
built power plants and water works and constructed
industrial estates. They built gigantic dams and
irrigation canals using local human and material
resources; thanks to the vision of one Chief Executive
and his cabinet, a little corner in Kano is today one
of the leading producers of rice in the country. They
established and ran what could qualify as the best
examples of government agencies and parastatals:
effective and efficient in the provision of world
class services. The Water Resources &Engineering
Construction Agency (WREACA) and REB not only
successfully carried out local construction works,
including the construction of TIGA and BAGAUDA dams
but also exported their works to other states of the
Federation. The Kano State Agency for Mass Education
received recognition from the Federal Government and
the UNESCO. KN was known for its innovative efforts in
education-having pioneered the establishment of
primary schools board, the ‘in service’ training
centre and the exclusively- science colleges. Kano can
rebound if KANAWA make the right choices.
Muhammad Sagagi: Economic Forum-Nigeria.
drmuhammadsagagi@yahoo.com
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