By Umar Akilu Majeri, Dutse
Jigawa state is still a predominantly rural area with peasant
solidarity still intact. Therefore, the menace of these emerging
forces is not felt like in Lagos, Nairobi, Abidjan, and even Kano but
still, especially at the political front, they could be noticed in
Hadejia, Gwaram, Gumel, Ringim, Birnin Kudu and other towns in Jigawa
State.with poverty injection among the people living around the area
and yet government of the day is celebrating every year in every 27of
august .
But this time around sourcess close to the government leeked that the
state government this time around will not celebrate the annual
occasion that is jigawa @22 and yet no reason was aired by the state
authority it remain cillent our reporter gathered that one lecturer
malam ma,azu muhammed yusif of the department of political science
Bayero university in a paper he wrote august 2007 stated that
When governments in developing countries are withdrawing social
protection for their citizens in order to appease the market-oriented
international community, the Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule
Lamido, is reversing that trend of history by bringing back the idea of social protection for physically deformed citizens of Jigawa state.
This is contained in his inaugural address titled ‘Expanding the
Frontiers of Democracy in Jigawa State’, where the governor
articulated social justice to be the eradication of poverty by
introducing welfare services to the most neglected sections of the
people.
Like philosophers such as Spinoza and Leibniz, the recognition of
social protection of the weakest by Sule Lamido is an admission that
democracy needs solidarity of people directed to reason for overall
development of the society.
Therefore, ‘Expanding the Frontiers of Democracy’ is a political and
ideological doctrine which the NEPU – PRP oriented governor needs to
develop further in order to capture and improve other emerging needy
groups in Jigawa state.
Like in other major cities in the developing world, especially in
Africa, the trend in Jigawa state is a growing mass of unemployed
youths who are graduates of post primary schools and tertiary
institutions. These are emerging great and strong forces that any
foresighted leader cannot dismiss and ignore as these could become
great agents of either constructive or destructive changes.
These new groups are now the ones shaping the political terrain of
violence or peace in Jigawa State. As youths who have no employment,
they are finding solace in partisan politics instead of directing
their energies to productive activities.
Thus, instead of productive industry growing and expanding, only the
‘patronage’ industry is booming. The former civilian governor has sown
and promoted this dangerous patronage system, all at the expense of
the progress of the economy.
Furthermore, the patronage economy not only did not move Jigawa
forward but has resulted in virtual decline of everything good with
Jigawa state – economic, social, and educational and other indices.
The latest Central Bank of Nigeria report placed Jigawa state as the
poorest state in Nigeria. What else do we expect in a predominantly
peasant economy which lacks access and network with modern economic
system and is fortified and re-imposed by a patronage system?
Yes. There is a large stratum of poor peasants characterized by a
‘Prussian’ model of farm production, in the sense of each owing a
small patch of land which is not enough to produce his food needs for
the year. This implies that this group of peasants need social
protection to live reasonable life.
Whereas, there are small numbers of rich peasants (kulaks), educated
elites from various profession and institutions of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, big businessmen and politicians but except
perhaps the ‘kulaks’, these classes or forces are not living and
investing in the economy of Jigawa state.
In view of the above, there is need of the government of Jigawa state
to extend the social protection policy and to redefine the scope and
the strategy. The new targets would naturally be the unemployed youths
and the poor peasants (including the women who are not identified as
independent groups because their economy is in their homes).
The redefinition of the policy is a political technology. The governor
has to bring his NEPU – PRP past and values in framing and planning a
talakawa/human development. There are evidences of this inclination in
the inaugural speech referred to above but they need to be widened and
popularised. Doing so would enrich Nigerian politics, ideologically.
The specificity of the Lamido doctrines of development may be
articulated in such a way that theory and practice become the same and
indistinguishable.
However, there is much that can be learned from the practices of NEPU
and the PRP governments in Kano and Kaduna states which the governor
was a participant and made a lot of input.
Proposing a policy line requires a lot of information to evaluate the
possibilities and the consequences. But in broad sense, the details
may be worked out such that social protection is redefined and
situated within a wider frame work of modernisation and development of
Jigawa state.
In this context, the unemployed, the poor peasants and the beggars
will benefit from these programmes and the unemployed youth in
particular would be stopped from moving to higher level of frustration
and aggression when they metamorphose into street boys in our major
towns. Peasants would be transformed into modern big and petty
capitalist and workers.
As every economic change will produce its own contradictions, the
government of Jigawa state may create legal previsions to regulate
change, now and in future. The state has a total land area of
approximately 22,410 square kilometres. Its topography is
characterized by undulating land, with sand dunes of various sizes
spanning several kilometres in parts of the State. The southern part
of Jigawa comprises the basement complex while the northeast is made
up of sedimentary rocks of the chad formation The main rivers are
Hadejia Kafin Hausa and Iggi Rivers with a number of tributaries
feeding extensive marshlands in north-eastern part of the State.
Hadejia – Kafin Hausa River traverses the State from west to east
through the Hadejia Nguru wetland and empties into the Lake chad
Basin.
Most parts of Jigawa lie within the Sudan Savannah with elements of
Guinea Savannah in the southern part. Total forest cover in the State
is very much below national average of 14.8%[1]. Due to both natural
and human factors, forest cover is being depleted, making northern
part of the State highly vulnerable to desert encroachment. The State
enjoys vast fertile arable land to which almost all tropical crops
could adapt, thus constituting one of its highly prized natural
resources. The Sudan Savannah vegetation zone is also made up of vast
grazing lands suitable for livestock production.
The socio-cultural situation in Jigawa State could be described as
homogeneous: it is mostly populated by Haua /Fulani who can be found
in all parts of the State. 1 kanuri are largely found in Hadejia
Emirate, with some traces of Badawa mainly in its Northeastern parts.
Even though each of the three dominant tribes have continued to
maintain its ethnic identity, Islam and a long history of
inter-marriages have continued to bind them together.
About 3.6 million people inhabit Jigawa State. Life expectancy as at
2001 was about 52 years with a total fertility rate of about 6.2
children per woman of childbearing age (a little above the national
average). Although population of the State is predominantly rural
(90%), the distribution in terms of sex is almost equal between male
(50.8%) and female (49.2%). This pattern of population distribution is
same across various constituencies in the State and between urban and
rural areas. In terms of age distribution, the 2002 CWIQ Survey
indicates that 45.2% of the population was made up of young people
below the age of 15; 49.0% between the ages of 15 and 59 while 5.8%
were people aged 60 and above. This survey reveals a source of almost
1; meaning that there is almost one dependent to every economically
active person in the population.
Average household size was about 6.7 almost all of which were headed
by males. About 60% of household heads were self-employed with
agriculture as their main occupation, and nearly two-thirds of these
households were monogamous families. The overall literacy rate was
about 37% in 2002 (22 percent for women and 51 percent for men).
School enrolment ratio is fairly high with very good improvements in
the last few years, even though there is still clear disparity between
boys and girls.
Basic indicators for water supply sector show that access to potable
water is over 90%, which is among the highest in the country. The 2002
CWIQ Survey however, indicated that while access to high quality safe
drinking water (pipe born, hand pump boreholes and protected wells) is
low at about 63%, nearly two-thirds of households have good means of
sanitation. In terms of heath services, about two-fifths of the
population have access to medical services which is, however, higher
in urban areas where access was found to be about 55%. The CWIQ Survey
found that an average of 70% of those who consulted a heath facility
expressed satisfaction with the services provided.
The Religion in Jigawa State is mainly Islam The Sharia is valid in
the entire state. No Roman Catholic diocese has its seat in the state.
Jigawa State—created out of the old Kano State in August 1991—is one
of the 36 States in Federal Republic of Nigeria. By the 1999
Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, the state comprises 27
Local Government Councils, which are divided into 30 State
Constituencies, grouped into 11 Federal Constituencies and 3
Senatorial Districts. These 27 Local Government Councils were further
subdivided into 77 Development Areas per law No. 5 of 2004 of the
State House of Assembly. In line with the democratic setting in the
country, the governments at both the State and Local Government levels
are elected, and comprise an Executive with a unicameral legislature.
The State legislature has 30 elected members each representing one of
the State Constituencies. To complete the State governance structure,
there is an independent State Judiciary as the third arm of
Government.
The State Government administrative apparatus is organized into
Ministries, Extra-ministerial Departments and Parastatals, which are
located across the three Senatorial districts in the State since 1999.
This decentralized approach to overnmental administrative structure
was seen as a move towards stimulating economic activities
socio-economic development and empowerment over a wider area since
government is the largest employer, perhaps second only to
agriculture. In addition, this was also seen as a way for spreading
even development among major urban centers and a shift from
“city-state syndrome” that obtained in the old Kano State
Jigawa State has 27 local government namely:
Auyo
Babura
Biriniwa
Birnin Kudu
Buji
Dutse
Gagarawa
Garki
Gumel
Guri
Gwaram
Gwiwa
Hadejia
Jahun
Kafin Hausa
Kaugama
Kazaure
Kiri Kasama
Kiyawa
Maigatari
Malam Madori
Miga
Ringim
Roni
Sule Tankarkar
Taura
Yankwashi
The political Economy of Jigawa State is largely characterized by
informal sector activities with agriculture as the major economic
activity. Over 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming
and animal husbandry. Trade and commerce are undertaken on small and
medium scale, especially in agric goods, livestock and other consumer
goods. Other informal sector activities include blacksmithing,
leather-works, tailoring services, auto repairs, metal works,
carpentry, tanning, dyeing, food processing, masonry etc. Even though
modern industrial sector is yet to gain a solid footing, the seed for
their development was planted through establishment of small-scale
industries particularly in areas of food processing and other
agro-allied activities. These industries have been helped by the
Information Communication Technology program initiated by the Saminu
Turaki the states former governor. 2
The Federal Office of Statistics, in 2001, classified Jigawa State
among those with relatively high severity and incidence of poverty in
the country, with a Gross Per Capita Income of N35, 000 per annum
(US$290), which is below the National Average. However, the 2002 Core
Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey indicated that over
two-fifths of the population do not consider themselves poor.
The State of infrastructure for economic development such as roads,
electricity, telecommunication and information technology have
recently witnessed tremendous improvements through massive
rehabilitation and expansion works. With massive road rehabilitation
projects already undertaken throughout the State during the last five
years, coupled with efforts made towards power generation via
Independent Power Platforms, and the Internet Broadband Project,
investment climate in Jigawa State in terms of economic infrastructure
is quite promising.
Government of Jigawa State relates very well with multilateral
agencies in the country particularly the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF,
DFID and other international donor agencies and NGOs. Multilateral
agencies have been a veritable source of development funds and
technical assistance to State Government. Presently, the State
partners with DFID, UNDP, UNICEF, IBRD, IFAD, ADF and some other
International Development Agencies in pursuit of several development
projects and programmes, particularly in the sphere of pro-poor
growth, poverty reduction, education, and positive reform programmes
such as Public Expenditure Management, Health Systems and Justice
System Reforms.