Hooray! Kebbi State is 25

Come 27th August, 2016, Kebbi State, located in north western Nigeria, will be 25 years old; naturally, the period will provide the people of the state and their well-wishers the opportunity to assess the journey so far and to plot a more progressive course for its people for the next 25 years and beyond. I […]

Come 27th August, 2016, Kebbi State, located in north western Nigeria, will be 25 years old; naturally, the period will provide the people of the state and their well-wishers the opportunity to assess the journey so far and to plot a more progressive course for its people for the next 25 years and beyond. I am aware that a modest celebration of the state is underway and this is expected to bring together its past administrators and other stakeholders at a lecture scheduled to take place in Birnin Kebbi next weekend.
Kebbi State, created out of former Sokoto State in 1991, is bounded by Sokoto, Niger and Zamfara States, as well as Niger Republic and Benin Republic. It is the homeland of one of the Banza Bakwai of the Hausa Kingdoms. The major language of the people is Hausa and the main religion is Islam. The state has 225 political wards, 3000 settlements and another 1036 almost sequestered settlements located in 21 Local Government Areas. The 2006 population census put the number of males at 1,631,629 and 1,624,912 females giving the state a total 3,256,541 persons. The people of Kebbi living on a total land area of 36, 800 km2 are predominantly farmers. The River Niger which traverses the state from Argungu to Ngaski provides a lot of Fadama land on its banks and over the years this has been quite suitable for agriculture, particularly the cultivation of abundant grains like rice. Animal husbandry and fishing are also common among the people, with Nigeria’s most famous fishing festival taking place in Argungu intermittently. 
In the past, state had mainly two federal institutions; a battalion of the Nigerian Army and a prison.  However, in recent times, Kebbi has become home to a federal medical centre, a federal polytechnic and even a federal university!
At the risk of repeating myself, I dare say that there are basically two advantages for Kebbi: land and people, and the future of the state lies in tilling the land and developing its human resources. We have to develop agriculture and establish the value chains on all the commodities we produce. It is gratifying to note that the anchor borrowers’ programme launched by President Muhammadu Buhari and facilitated by the Central Bank of Nigeria and Bank of Agriculture in collaboration with the state government has boosted the production of rice among our small farmers. It remains to be seen in the years ahead whether this is sustainable or if it is a mere flash in the pan. But whatever happens, it is important for our people to regain the initiative in agricultural production so as to liberate ourselves from undue dependence on the proceeds of petroleum export in the light of current developments not only in the Niger Delta but also in the international crude oil market. A genuine and productive return to agriculture including animal husbandry holds the promise of providing financial and economic security for our people. We must also learn to process our crops instead of just disposing them in their primary form. We must find investors to establish factories to process these crops.
However, our long term development is by far dependent on our ability to educate our populace so as to unshackle them from ignorance and also empower them. Conscious efforts must be made from now to train the architects, builders, electricians, engineers, surveyors, medical doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, etc. that Kebbi needs in the few years to come. We must invest in the qualitative education of our children. We must provide a conducive atmosphere for learning in our schools, and this includes deploying qualified teachers. If our teachers cannot do the job we must dispense with them; we must replace them with those who are competent and find them wherever we can. I personally know some teachers, to whom I cannot entrust my children to teach, we must identify these teachers, remove them from the schools and retrain them to be something else; teaching must not be seen as an occupation for people unable to find another job.
We must also invest in sports. This is one area in which we can direct our teeming youth population. For every sporting star you produce there are countless other champions that will emerge. Kebbi can collaborate with Nigerian Institute of Sports to train coaches and other sportsmen. There are hockey champions, football strikers, slamming and dunking basket ballers, sprinters and marathoners in Kebbi but we have failed to find them because we didn’t look for them. We must begin to look for talented sportsmen and women among our school children. We must restore inter-house and inter-school sporting competitions so as to fish out these talents, develop them and seek glory. A successful sportsman or woman necessarily breaks out of circle of poverty and will be of immense assistance to his family and community. If he goes out there and wins a contest, he brings glory to Kebbi State.
The National Sports Festival is around the corner, has Kebbi State figured out which athletes will represent it and which competitions it can possibly enter for? How many medals are we targeting? In the past, Kebbi had consistently placed last in these competitions; we cannot afford to annexe that position. We must do something. We must begin to provide facilities for our youths to excel in sports and if we can’t, then we must sponsor them to train somewhere. We must employ qualified coaches to train them in athletics, badminton, basketball, football, hand ball, hockey, javelin, lawn tennis, table tennis, squash, etc.  We must try this for a difference, it is people that compete in these sports and we have the people.