KCCI: KANO TOMORROW?

It is not every day that an association can bring Aliko Dangote and AbdusSamad Rabi’u (BUA) together in one place, and have each of them to speak on the occasion. And if Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, is seated between these two immensely wealthy Kano sons, that will be the proverbial ‘icing on the […]

It is not every day that an association can bring Aliko Dangote and AbdusSamad Rabi’u (BUA) together in one place, and have each of them to speak on the occasion. And if Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, is seated between these two immensely wealthy Kano sons, that will be the proverbial ‘icing on the cake’. But that was exactly what happened last Saturday April 20 at the Dangote Business School of Bayero University, Kano.

A relatively ‘new’ organisation known as Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative (KCCI) made that possible, and was able to pull this through by bringing almost all who matter in Kano (and its neighbourhood), to speak about our sorry state in politics, economics, society and all other aspects of our lives. And sorry we are, wallahi.

Friends of Kano who were at the conference included Ambassador Shehu Malami from Sokoto, Senator Ibrahim Mantu from Plateau, Mallam Wada Maida from Katsina and others. The dire straits Kano is in across all aspects of live was reechoed by these ‘neighbours’ who confirmed that this malady is Arewa-wide, and Kano is being to looked up to in order to stop the rot so that the rest of Arewa could borrow a leaf, or a branch.

KCCI, known in Hausa as ‘Hadakar Ma Su Kishin Kano’ is an amalgamation of patriotic citizens spanning across every level of the society, including but not limited to Elder Statesmen, the Business Community, the Ulama, Technocrats, Academia, Artisans, the Traditional Institution, Women, Youths and NGOs. The initiative has evolved due to great concern about the general direction in the nation and the perception that Kano has lost its prime position in many strategic spheres, especially the much-needed economic stand points for which the state was significantly famous for not so long ago.

Since its inception two years ago, KCCI has been intervening positively and helping in the economic, social and educational activities of the people of the state. It is KCCI’s conviction that the lost glory can be redeemed with conscious efforts to entrench good stewardship through capable representation at the various levels of our democratic process.

Over the past two years, KCCI has been meeting all strata of society to see how simple well-thought out interventions could redeem some lost momentum. There have been several meetings and visitations and studies on the markets and the businesses; there have been meetings with the youths and with women; there were also meetings with political candidates at the eve of the recent circle of elections.

The Bayero University event last Saturday was convened as a General Assembly to chart a way forward for Kano and for the larger Arewa. KCCI Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Tofa and his associates were able to bring all these people together to address these issues. He said, among other things in his opening address, that today our society has become rudderless, with no one recognised as real community leader who would say ‘stop’ and people would obey. This, he added, is quite evident among our youths.

KCCI, Tofa said, is a patriotic non-governmental organisation aimed at galvanizing the different strata of our society in a spirited quest to bring about tangible change in the socio-economic and political affairs of Kano State in the areas of Economy; Education; Agriculture; Commerce and Industry; Mineral Resources; Healthcare; Infrastructure; Law and Order; Social Justice; and General Welfare.

Tofa hoped that this initiative – KCCI – will one day metamorphose into an Arewa Concerned Citizens Initiative, with a Hausa name as Hadakar Ma Su Kishin Arewa. This, he said, is informed by the fact that all Northerners are in almost the same problems and troubles. Inviting elder statesmen from other states to attend this occasion was for that end.

Many scary statistics were reeled out – Prof Murtala Sagagi, Dean of the Dangote Business School, revealed that there are currently more than four million jobless people in Kano, due to the poor development agenda of successive governments. The inability of politicians, communities, academicians and other relevant stakeholders to collaborate in comprehensive strategies for economic development and prosperity of the state has made the state to remain backward, he asserted. He stressed the need for more efforts to ensure development in the state.

Sagagi, who is quite familiar with the Development Agenda of [South] Western Nigeria (DAWN), put together by the six Yoruba-speaking states of Nigeria’s South West Geopolitical Zone, lamented the lack of blueprints for most things Northern; and in fact, when scholars research and study and come up with ideas to move Arewa forward, the zones political leaders are usually not interested because of their ignorance or I-Don’t-Care-Attitude, or both.

Agriculture, the scholar had noted, is an area of great comparative advantage for the North, and there is the need to do more to improve the sector as several years down the line we only have LAKE Rice (joint Lagos and Kebbi States venture) to celebrate. Sadly, Kano and other Arewa states have done nothing much to set the agricultural sector in the right direction. Other gory details included that over 500 industries are currently shut down in Kano principally due to lack of electricity and also due to lack of consensus for development and effective implementation of government agendas and policies.

Echoing Sagagi, two of Africa’s richest men Aliko Dangote and AbdusSamad Rabi’u (BUA) advised the Federal Government to review its policies on agriculture and industries to provide enabling environment for job creation. The Federal Government should, according to them, intensify efforts on power generation, lamenting that most industries collapsed largely due to inadequate power supply. They noted that although government alone cannot meet the job needs of all citizens, it was necessary for it to create the enabling environment for people to engage in self-employment.

Similarly, in his remarks, Emir Muhammad Sanusi II frowned, among other ‘frownables’, at the current condition of the Kano City Wall where corner-shops are being recklessly constructed. He tasked Aliko Dangote and AbdusSamad Rabi’u to, as matter of urgency, do everything possible to reconstruct the city wall in order to return it to its lost glory, and stop these ‘wall poachers’.

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX: At an earlier KCCI event, this Columnist had made some ‘out-of-the-box’ suggestions to tackle incessant kidnappings, and KCCI Chairman Tofa had asked that it be articulated and put in writing for the authorities to perhaps note. The suggestions were: BURN THE FORESTS; TRAVEL IN CONVOYSS; and ERECT MULPTIPLE WATCHTOWERS.

First suggestion is that the forests where Boko Haram and kidnappers hide should be burnt down in a controlled manner. Sambisa (Borno), Rijana, Birnin Gwari (Kaduna), Rugu (Katsina), Zamfara and other forests should be put on fire to smoke out these criminals. Please don’t anyone start telling us about desertification, global warming or climate change – there have to be humans alive to start that discourse. Human life is worth more than forests, and nature has its ways of rejuvenating itself (read more here https://www.blueprint.ng/set-zamfara-forest-ablaze-to-stop-killings-don-tells-fg/).

Second suggestion is to create a security motorcade convoy on the Kaduna-Abuja Road. Fifty motorists could be ‘convoyed’ every hour say from Kaduna end Tollgate to Abuja end Tollgate with armoured pilots, escorts and ‘in-betweeners’ at the front, middle and back of the entourage. That can be done every hour in joint operations between Kaduna, Niger and FCT Police Commands.

Third suggestion is for the erection of high and armoured watchtowers every five hundred metres along the Kaduna-Abuja Road and also at all similarly dangerous spots. Allah Ya sa su ji!