Yankari Game Reserve: A tourist haven

Details of the transformation worked out by the Mu’azu administration showed that the project would cost N5 billion. Further details showed that the first phase of the project would involve the construction, improvement and renovation of existing facilities. Its second phase would be the provision of additional facilities such as a golf course, more chalets […]

Details of the transformation worked out by the Mu’azu administration showed that the project would cost N5 billion.

Further details showed that the first phase of the project would involve the construction, improvement and renovation of existing facilities. Its second phase would be the provision of additional facilities such as a golf course, more chalets and an air strip. The reserve, which covers an area of 2,244 square kilometres, was first demarcated as such in 1957, but officially opened to the public in 1962.  It habours a wide range of prized indigenous wildlife, including baboons, monkeys, warthogs, hippopotamuses, lions and leopards.

Other animals include buffalo, gannet, roan antelope, bubal hartebeest and spotted hyena. Also in the reserve are African elephants, African hunting dogs,  cheetahs, giraffes, western kobs, red-fronted gazelles, bucks and stripped-hyenas.

The reserve also host water-bucks, grimm’s duckers, oribi as well as red-flanked duikers. Records from the reserve showed that it also hosts more than 350 species of indigenous birds, 26 species of fish, seven species of amphibians and 17 species of African reptiles.

Before the amendment of the National Park Act in 2005, which transferred ownership and management of the park from the Federal Government to the Bauchi State Government, the reserve was at different times managed by different agencies. For instance, the reserve was transferred from the defunct Northern Nigeria Government to the North-Eastern State in 1967.

With the creation of more states in 1976, its control and management was moved to the Bauchi State Government. Also in 1990, the Bauchi State Government sought the intervention of the Federal Government to save the reserve from extinction when it was clear that it could not effectively manage it.

For most stakeholders, the handing over of the reserve to the Bauchi State Government was a good development as not much improvement was recorded throughout the 15 years the federal authorities controlled it.

One reason they gave to buttress that argument was the bad state of the roads meandering through the reserve before the Bauchi State Government took it over in 2006. They also say that most of the chalets built between 1977 and 1985 were left in dilapidated conditions due to years of neglect by the federal authorities.

Analysts said it was owing to such visible neglect that the National Assembly transferred the ownership of the park to the Bauchi State Government in 2005 by amending the National Parks Act.

Since taking over the reserve, the state government has been rehabilitating some dilapidated structures, with some being completely reconstructed. Among infrastructures undergoing rehabilitation is the 72-kilometre access road from Dimdima to Wikki Resort. Other roads within the reserve have also been rehabilitated.

According to Alhaji Mohammed Jibrin, the State’s Commissioner for Tourism and Culture, government is also constructing new chalets while some of the old ones that “still have some value’’ are being renovated.

On further efforts to modernise the park, he said that work on the installation of Internet facilities had also been completed and would soon be inaugurated.

According to him, mobile phone facilities have been installed in the game reserve by Zain, while MTN is still working to register its presence. Jubrin said that a commercial bank had also offered to put up a website that would enable tourists to have first hand information on the tourism potential of the state, including the world-class tourism facilities provided in the reserve.

The Commissioner said that the state government has also signed an MOU with two South African tourism firms and a British tourism outfit for effective and proper management of the reserve when fully completed.

“The idea is to maintain the standard,’’ he said. According to Jubrin, plans are also underway to ensure more private sector participation in the management of the reserve so as to transform it to an international status and facilitate the completion of the second phase of its transformation.

Jibrin said that in addition, the state government was also spending an average of N750,000 as monthly feeding allowance for the 300 wildlife donated by the Namibian Government. The amount, according to him, covers the cost of buying special feeds for the animals at Sumu Park in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state.

“The animals are alien to West Africa and need to be specially treated and specially fed,’’ he said. Among the 300 animals brought from Namibia are Giraffe, Eland, Kudu, Impala and Zebra.

He said that the “foreign animals’’ were fenced in in an area of about eight square kilometres near Kafin Madaki in Ganjuwa Local Government Area, adding that they had multiplied from 300 to 500.

“In fact, we are already working toward constructing a new game viewing track in the newly created park,’’ he revealed.

He said that the new area would afford Nigerians the opportunity to see wildlife species that are not common in West Africa.

To protect the Yankari Games Reserve and the new Park from game poachers, the Commissioner said that the state government had recruited 20 local hunters to ensure a 24-hour patrol.

The hunters, he said, were recruited from the host communities to offer them a source of livelihood and discourage them from indulging in illegal hunting of wildlife in the protected areas.

“The conversion of the local hunters to rangers is a deliberate strategy to discourage poaching of animals as the host communities are given maximum support by the authorities to fight poaching, grazing and other illegal activities.’’

He said that the hunters have so far arrested 14 persons allegedly involved in poaching. Jibrin said that government had approved the purchase of uniforms for proper identification and protection of staff of the Yankari Game Reserve, while an approval has been obtained to purchase fire-fighting equipment worth N16.3 million.

(NANFeatures)