Jigawa’s Cursed Capital CityBy Adam Muhammad
Why is it that when most of the state capitals in the Federation seem to be competing to out-beautify and out-modernize one another as their various governments stock them with one social facility meant to upgrade the social standards of their residents thereby ensuring their utmost comfort and wellbeing, the seeming objective in Jigawa State is to drive away as many of the capital’s residents as possible from it and make life as uncomfortable and uncompromising as it can bee to those diehards who won’t leave?
Not only does the government of the day seem to refuse to provide any more social amenities than it inherited six year ago, but it looks as if it is determined to go to the length of reversing the efforts made by past military administrations to build the capital city. For example, the multi-million-naira specialist hospital built by the administration of Lt. Col Shekoni was passed off as a potential site for a Federal Medical Centre and turned into a rat and termite-ridden storage facility where equipment and furniture meant for one bizarre project or other are kept before being transferred to Kazaure, the Governor’s hometown, where all those projects invariably end up. The multi-million-naira Governor’s lodge build by the same administrator is also not spared as it was almost auctioned off to prospective investors and was only grudgingly adopted as the governor’s guest-house and office, albeit an un-kept one, whenever he visits the state capital after those would-be-investors shunned it off. Even seemingly indestructive structures do not escape the assault as the 10km Dutse main road, built by past administrations, is now in the processes of being ploughed open in the name of dualization as seemingly dim-witted and clearly inexperienced employees of a shady construction company, said to belong to the Governor’s brother, learn on the job as they battered away with diggers and axes and employ watering cans and water hoses as they try to justify the 4 billion naira paid to the company.
Seemingly under the assault also is the palatial 3-star hotel completed by past military administrations because it now serves largely as a free lodging facility to the semi-literate expatriates that keep trooping the state capital and other government functionaries resulting in pathetic staff conditions and a dilapidated edifice now being seriously threatened by erosion.
The assault on the residents comes in various forms ranging from the relocation of most of the offices of the state ministries from the capital to other local government areas thereby ensuring that the civil servants that hitherto inhabited the city vacate it in droves as they move their families to the villages their offices are located; to the placement of exorbitant rates on the jam-packed, aged market stalls and the stopping of the building of a general market initiated by past administrations - an action that drives most of the town’s traders back to the more welcoming and accommodating Kano state; and the closure of the only modern day public secondary school in the capital resulting in the dispersal of its students to other schools in the state.
The government’s seeming concerted effort is not without its effect. If you are visiting Dutse for the first time, you are bound to experience something all first-time visitors do: As you reach the first roundabout you have the impression that you are in the outskirts of the town. You wonder at how widely spaced the dilapidated structures littering the town’s outskirts seem, then you reach a spot that looks like the 60’s small-town market place with their thatched-roofed, sagging stalls and an aged community bank. As you look forward to entering this queer looking town, you pass a signboard that says ‘Dutse General Hospital’ and you wonder if the derelict building beside it actually serves as the capital’s general hospital. You begin to wonder when you will enter the town proper but patiently go on till you reach a signboard of the 3-star hotel that towers over a deserted, bushy background. You then get worried and either turn back to ask directions or call a friend. Either way, you find out that you have already seen all that is to see in this state capital that hauntingly seem like a seedy-looking outskirts of an average local government headquarter.
Some Federal Government outfits in the state, on sensing the disposition of the state government towards the city, also contribute to its backwardness. For example, the current business manager of the Electric National Power Authority in Dutse makes no effort to hide his disdain for the city. On his resumption of duty last year he swiftly severed all arrangements made by his predecessor with Bauchi and Hadejia power substations who took turns with Kano substation in providing the capital with power. The result is that the city now only gets low-current power supply for about three to five hours everyday leading to the residents aptly nick-naming the pitiless manager as ‘sa su a duhu’.
People tend to attribute the travails of Dutse to the current governor’s apparent dislike of the city. It is rumored that due to some reason best known to him, the Governor is out to belittle Dutse and make a point to its people. This seems a strange way to repay the people who passed on one of their own to make him the governor in 1999 and overwhelmingly reelected him in 2003.
Oddly enough, VIP visitors to Dutse either choose to close their eyes to the unpleasant sights that greet them or let themselves be fobbed off by the Governor as he and his cronies rant on about the Broadband project. This is said to be a multi-billion naira ‘investment’ to the Jigawa people but is actually a small, non-descript, single floor affair, no bigger than an average bungalow, with two huge satellite disks outside that transmit internet services to about 3000 out of the 3,000,000 indigenes of the state. Hopes were high last year when President Obasanjo was visiting Jigawa and everybody looked forward to when he would reprimand the Governor on the pitiful state of the capital city, but like all visitors before him, all the President saw and talked about was that awful project.
Perhaps this is the most backward of all state capitals in Nigeria. Certainly capital cities where only the water taps in the governor’s house run in the past 6½ years; where there is only one major street; where primary school pupils sit on the floor; where less than 100 housing units are built by the government in 6 years; where the general hospital has no power generator or mortuary; where there is no sports stadium, no central market, no bus stations, no fenced up public schools, no taxis, no streetlights, no cinemas, no state television station and no standard higher institution do not abound in the country or we wouldn’t be much different from our non-oil rich neighbors.
Sadly, even the immediate future doesn’t look too bright for Dutse. With speculations ripe that the Governor is set to install one of his cronies in power in 2007 to avoid persecution, there’s every likelihood that the guy would follow in his mentor’s footsteps. Afterall, it is very tempting to keep one town short of development projects if all those projects end up in your hometown and no questions get asked. The popular belief is that in Jigawa State everything goes. Maximum leadership is the order of the day. Politics are used to enslave the mostly illiterate and ignorant populace. 80% of the population is ready to spend hours on end in the sun singing the government’s tune in return for a cash of N200 per person. Only 30% of the cabinet members exceed the level of primary school education. The legislature might not have been there these past 6 years for all the impact it made on the people. All the local government chairmen and all the councilors come from the same political party, thanks to State INEC. The governor only visits the state when he has visitors, and when he is away, nobody acts for him. There is no dissent from the politicians. Those that voice their concern do so from outside the state and visit it even less than the governor does for fear of contamination. Dividends of democracy indeed!
Perhaps there is more to the government’s motive than meets the eye. Perhaps its seeming disinterest in the capital city is imaginary. Perhaps it bodes well to its people. Perhaps its real motives would emerge with time. That time would be when bulldozers start prowling the uneven streets of its only two, aged housing estates.
Adam Muhammad,
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