Kebbi, Yauri emirate and marginalisation

Educationally, our emirate has been left behind because it is the only emirate in the state that does not have a tertiary institution. When a Federal University was to be established, we had high hopes that it will come to us since Zuru emirate has College of Agriculture, Argungu with the State College of Education […]

Educationally, our emirate has been left behind because it is the only emirate in the state that does not have a tertiary institution. When a Federal University was to be established, we had high hopes that it will come to us since Zuru emirate has College of Agriculture, Argungu with the State College of Education and Gwandu Emirate having the State University, Federal Polytechnic, State Polytechnic, School of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Health Technology and recently the Federal University all in one Emirate of which his Excellency happens to come from. This is not fair. In fact even our Primary and secondary schools from Yauri, Shanga and Ngaski local government area are not having school furniture, the students sit on the floor.
However, the infrastructural development in our emirate is so neglected, reason being that out of the hundreds of kilometers of roads constructed by the Dakingari administration of which he has been commended by the Good Governance media tour team, no single kilometer has been constructed within Yauri emirate, even though the projects are reportedly being financed through the local government joint account.
Our state slogan still remains (Land of Equity). The governor has sworn to serve the people of Kebbi without fair or favor, since his oath of office: for instance under Gwandu Emirate alone his administration has constructed Birnin Kebbi Makera road, Suru – Dakingari, Bunza Dakingari to koko, Dakingari to Fana, to Kamba, Kamba to Burza among others worth billions of naira to the detriment of Yauri Emirate who is also a contributory, from the 25 percent generated from each local government for development project.
With the new federal Government policy of utilizing fuel subsidy under (Sure-P) to help the less privilege, create job opportunities, states are being given huge amount of money to support them.
On health issues also the emirate is being marginalized as well. One could see that the Annex of Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital was sited in Argungu Emirate, Kebbi North Senatorial District, while Gwandu Emirate in Kebbi Central Senatorial District has both the Federal Medical Center and the State Specialist Hospital, i.e Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital Birnin Kebbi. When the issue of establishing federal medical center annex came into being, it was suggested that it should be sited in Kebbi South Senatorial District comprising the two Emirate i.e. Zuru and Yauri emirates, out of the 4 emirates that made up of Kebbi State, because of their distance to the state headquarters where the federal medical center in Gwandu Emirate is located, yet it was sited in the governor’s village. Another part that suffers neglect is the Eye Center that was established by the Aliero administration at Birnin Kebbi, in which during its existence people from within and outside the state have benefitted their services. But this initiation now suffers as its lacks funding.
We have therefore come to the conclusion that the present administration is not fair to our emirate. For instance, because of our economic importance to the country, we are the most affected emirate along the bank of River Niger; where the largest Hydro Electric Power of the country is being generated, we were said to have been a priority to have pipe borne water since in 1962, but this project is now a story of the past, as the project no longer exists for lack of maintenance on the part of the government. Kebbi state is one of the states affected by the activities of kainji hydro electric power, which manifested the establishment of (HYPADECH)
Each of the affected hydro states has contributed their quota but Kebbi is lagging behind. This lack of commitment by the Dakingari administration can also be seen when the Good Governance Media Tour Team visited Kebbi state, out of the four emirates of the state, it was only Yauri that was not visited because there was no single project to be identified by his administration. In fact the distance between us and the state capital, e.g Ngaski local government is almost 300km away from the state capital. We neither have access to local radio nor television, talk less of national media. We as a team have written a letter to His Excellency, and copied to all the relevant stakeholders yet our efforts proved abortive.
In conclusion, during his re-election bid, Governor Dakingari has acknowledged the fact that he has done enough to the emirate and promised to concentrate on the emirate if re-elected in 2011. It might surprise you to know that the amount of money spent in Suru local government alone, where the governor came from, is more than the amount spent on Kebbi South Senatorial District.
As a PDP- dominated emirate we expect that priority should be given to us. From 199-2007, when Kebbi State was under APP, Yauri Emirate was a PDP emirate, having first the Chairman of the Local government, First National Vice Chairman (North West) of the P.D.P, first National Chairman appeal committee of the PDP, first Adviser to the National Chairman on policies and strategy all of the from Yauri emirate. But it might surprise you to know that the emirate benefitted more under APP (1999 – 2007) even though the previous administration received less allocation from the centre.
We are urging and appealing to the governor to do something fast to redress this imbalance and injustice.
Barr. Saidu and Hammani are chairman and secretary, respectively, of Yawurara youth development association