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Is Kano’s Population Urban-Tilted? By Kabiru Inuwa Tsakuwa
“Auwal talks carelessly about propaganda and how amenities are concentrated in the urban centres to the detriments of the rural areas, but is there honesty in such claims… if it appears to Auwal that Kano urban gets more than its fair share in the allocation of projects, it should also be clear to him that, with 8 local governments councils and over 75% of the population, Kano’s population is urban-tilted.” Sule Ya’u Sule, Daily trust, March 11th, 2008
Precisely three month ago, a certain patriotic Kano citizen wrote a letter to the editor titled: “Can Shekarau be trusted?” The said letter which appeared in the daily-trust of March 10th, 2008, vividly expresses the concerned and disenchantments of the writer with the current unfortunate turn of events, in our beloved state. Mallam Auwal attempted to show the glaring injustice in the spreads and over-concentrations of social-amenities in the metropolis in flagrant violation of the oath of office to govern the state equally and without the least partiality. He wanted to know whether the below average performance of the present ANPP government of Kano and glaring corruptions, has justify the overwhelming trust reposed in it by the teeming populace or not.
After going through a subsequent letter to the editor by one Mallam sule-ya’u-sule, titled: “Yes, Shekarau can be trusted” which appeared in the daily-trust of 11th of March, 2008, in response to the questions earlier raise, by the clearly disturbed Mallam Auwal; I was left with no option other than to conduct a research into the population pattern of Kano state in order to set the records straight and to prove the veracity and honesty in Mallam Auwal’s claims!
In paragraph three (3) of the said letter, Mallam Sule tried to distort facts by claiming that, the (eight?) metropolitan local governments areas have over 75% of the population of Kano without any supporting evidence to buttress his assertions. But unknown to him, facts are sacred and no amount of sophistry can cover or blur the truth no matter how hard someone tries! Besides that, the reality of the population spread is an open-secret to the politically conscious people of Kano.
However, what the patriot-Auwal D. Dankano probably failed to reckon with, was the fact that, he had honestly spoken the minds of millions of the suffering people of Kano who have defied incumbency factors in 2003 general elections on the one hand and federal might in the 2007 general elections on the other, to ensure the final and double electoral successes of the incumbent ANPP administration.
Unfortunately for Mallam Auwal, these patriotic acts had resulted in his outright dismissal from the service of Kano state government in flagrant breach of his fundamental right to fair-hearing! But this is a topic for another day-Surely.
Our main concern here like earlier pointed out, is to try to debunk the fallacy which seeks to out -rightly distort facts about the true situation of things, as regard the population pattern of Kano state. And in trying to do so, we shall unlike Mallam sule, rely on concrete facts and figures as provided by the relevant national and state electoral and population agencies to support our arguments, so that the on-going injustice in the over-concentrations of vital capital projects in the city may be brought to the fore, for the general understandings of Nigerian.
Let me however, clarify at the on-set that, the people of Kano, whether from the city or from the villages, bounded by a common destiny, are united in the pursuit of justice and progress. And to many of them, the oft-repeated issue of rural-urban dichotomy is simply, one of the many elites systems of divides and rule to perpetually pitch the peace-loving people against one-another for easier exploitations. I believed quite strongly that, no responsible Bakano/bakanuwa, would object to the pursuit of justice and fair-play-that being the integral part of our sacred religious injunction.
In addition to that, our continued agitations for equality in the spread of amenities are simply meant to ensure justice and to begin the process of changing the ugly one-city status of the mega-city of Kano, so that the current over-stretching of infrastructures in the metropolis vis-à-vis the rural areas, may be redress completely.
Now, to begin with, let us consider the summary of the final figures as provided by the national population commission (census, 2006) which accords Kano state the highest population in the country with 9,384,682(nine million, three hundred and eighty four thousand, six hundred and eighty two).
If we break down the total figures, the six metropolitan local government areas have a combined population of 2,163,225(two million, one hundred and sixty three thousand, two hundred and twenty five); while the rural local government areas have a combined population of 7,220,450 (seven million, two hundred and twenty thousands, four hundred and fifty).Please, refer to table 1a below:
Table: 1a
Source: national Population Commission. The two local government areas of kumbotso and ungoggo said to be part of the metropolitan Kano by Mallam sule are sincerely speaking, partly urban and partly rural. But if we graciously, concede them to the metropolis for the sake of this analysis, we will be arriving at the following figures as shown in table 1b below: Table: 1b
Source: National Population Commission.
It can be inferred therefore, from the fore-going tables that, the urban-Kano has a population in the range of 23.05%-30.14%, while the rural-Kano has population in the range of 69.86%-76.95% respectively. These can be verified from the relevant agencies, by any doubting Thomases!
In addition to the above, we can also refer to the summary of the total number of registered voters in all the 44 local governments Areas of Kano as provided by the Independent National electoral commission (INEC).I believed that, readers may agree with me that, the total number of registered voters in any locality is a function of the population of that particular area. So, Let us therefore have a look at table 2a, as shown below: Table 2a:
Source: INEC, 2007 Voter Registration Exercise
If we assume like before, that Kano-urban comprises of eight local governments, then we will be arriving at the following figures below: Table 2b
Source: INEC, 2007 Voter registration exercise. We can see from the two tables above that, the total registered voters for Kano-urban is in the range of 32.76%-38.13%, while that of Kano-rural lies between 61.87%-67.24%.
Furthermore, if we refer to the summary of the total electoral wards being a function of population as provided by Kano state independent electoral commission (kansiec), the following result as shown in tables 3a and 3b would be seen respectively: Table3a:
Source: Kansiec
Table3b:
Source: kansiec From the two tables above therefore, one can see the superior number of electoral wards for Kano-rural with a range of 81.36%-86.36% as against Kano-urban with a range of 13.64%-18.64%%.
And the same inference can be deduced from the total number of polling units in the 44 local councils of Kano state as shown graphically in table 4a and 4b below: Table 4a:
Source: kansiec Table 4b:
Source: Kansiec From the fore-going tables, one can see the difference between Kano-urban with a range of 28.80%-33.10% polling units as against Kano-rural, with polling units between the ranges of 71.80%-66.90%.
Anybody with elementary knowledge of arithmetic knew that, federal allocations due to states are directly proportional to total number of population. But why most rural-Kano, with the highest populations continue to suffer unimaginable neglect? Why developmental efforts that are being extended to the peripheries are not commensurate with their higher population figures-this is the basic arguments and the point of contention as elucidated by Mallam Auwal D.Dankano, which unfortunately cost him his source of livelihood!
Therefore, based on the indisputable and verifiable facts presented in tabular form above, one wonders how Mallam Sule got his figures to justify the 75% urban-tilted hypothesis! That is all the more reason why all well meaning Kano-citizens, should eschew sentiment and collectively continue to protest the on-going day-light sleazes and injustice in the spread of amenities to only six metropolitan local governments’ areas, to the absolute detriment of rural areas. This is imperative for the sake of natural justice and if we really hope to translate Kano from being a state with a single mega-city status to one, with a cluster of viable cities- status; that every bona-fide Nigerian can be proud of.
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