Niger State is one of the most unfortunate states in Nigeria, if not the most unfortunate. The state is like a melting pot where calamities converged in recent times. I plied through Niger State en route to Ilorin a few days ago. The roads are as bad as bad can be and as ugly as ugly can be. The potholes are veritable death traps.
A part of Niger State, Birnin Gwari, had been abandoned by travellers for some years. It is the shortest route that links Kaduna State to Kwara and many states in the South-West. Birnin Gwari was abandoned not only because the pothole-ridden road is a death trap but also because bandits have taken over the axis like a colonized territory forbidden to travellers.
In Niger State, if it is not an overwhelmingly annihilating flood, then it is mass abduction. People are not abducted in twos or threes in the state. They are abducted in dozens, scores, and hundreds. If the news is not about miners killed in scores inside a cell, then it is about a money-sharing stampede that claimed lives. I shall return to this soon.
The state is host to two living generals who were at different times military Heads of State. Though General Abdulsalami Abubakar spent less than one year in office, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) spent eight years as Head of State. While IBB took his time to build Abuja, the FCT, which was largely carved out of Niger State, he paid little or no infrastructural attention to his natal state. The only thing the people of Niger State can be “proud” of is the large landmass that is now a burden to the state but a cynosure to the eyes of terrorizing bandits.
Niger State alone is almost the size of all six states in the South-West (Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo) put together. It almost triples the size of all the states in the South-East (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo). But ironically, it is a big-for-nothing state and a receptacle for calamities due to years of bad governance and neglect.
“Dear Jagaba: Borgu Land is Bleeding” is the title of a column I wrote two weeks ago. By Borgu Land, I mean Niger State and some parts of Kebbi and Kwara States. In that column, I made an honest and passionate appeal to President Tinubu, being the title holder of the Chief Warrior of Borgu Land, to pay attention to Niger State. The state is in need of intervention, a serious one.
After my open letter to Jagaba on the state of affairs in the state, calamities have continued to pile upon one another as if the state is under a curse. Blood continues to flow like a flood. Scores of miners, many of whom were minors, were arrested and left to die. They were left to die, not by bullets, but by the wickedness and crass display of lawlessness by those employed and paid with taxpayers’ money to protect us.
The killing of 37 miners in Niger State by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps is a national calamity. A defence corps whose motto is “Defending the Defenceless” sent the defenceless to their graves for mining “illegally” to escape hunger in a state that is being swept by the ill wind of multidimensional calamities.
Reacting to the incident, the Niger State Governor, Umaru Bago, transferred the blame to the Federal Government, claiming that the 37 suspected illegal miners died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and any compensation due to their families should be paid by the Federal Government.
His logic? The NSCDC is a Federal Government agency. In an interview with Minna-based online television platform, Zarar Bunu, aired on Sunday, Bago reportedly said: “We are not bound to pay any compensation, except the Federal Government. Our own is to offer support.”
Bago might not be wrong, considering that he is willing to offer support to the victims’ families as Governor. However, since Bago has absolved himself of responsibility for the death of the 37 miners, we hope he will hold himself responsible for the women who died as a result of his money-sharing stampede on Tuesday.
Three women reportedly lost their lives while six others became unconscious and were critically injured in a stampede at the Niger State Government House in Minna. Two of the deceased were already internally displaced, living in the Maitumbi area of Minna as IDPs. As if their conditions were not terrible enough, the governor’s money-sharing put a final end to their lives and sent them to their graves.
We live in a regime where poverty has completely reduced citizens to worthless paupers to whom crumbs are thrown in the name of palliatives.
Daily Trust gathered that people trooped to the Government House after hearing that the governor would distribute N10,000 each to the youths. A stampede followed after the governor addressed the crowd and his aides brought out cash to share.
This was not the first time Bago would be sharing money to a crowd. He is a money-sharing governor. That seems to be his pet empowerment project. If this is his idea of good governance and distribution of dividends of democracy, Nigerians should pity the Nupe people and other ethnic groups in the state. The governor, by his style, seems to be bereft of any idea of governance, let alone good governance.
The recent stampede, to say the least, is evidence of government failure. Dividends of good governance should reflect in the qualitative improvement of people’s lives. It is not by the “almajirization” of responsible citizens who queue up for a few government naira notes — a euphemism for crumbs.
Governor Bago can do better. He should treat his people as human beings. He should stop treating them like homeless and ownerless dogs. Nigerlites deserve some respect. They deserve motorable roads and protection. Bago should create sustainable jobs and make hopeless youths become hopeful. Distributing cash that can only feed “lucky” beneficiaries for one or two days is an exercise in futility and a waste of resources.
Governance is a serious business. Jokers should stay away from it. It is kidding to reduce the serious business of governance to the distribution of money. What Bago should be distributing are life-changing opportunities. I wish Governor Umaru Bago success, if he turns a new leaf by treating citizens as humans and giving governance the seriousness and attention it deserves.
The state and federal governments should come together to break the cycle of calamities in Niger State. We have already had too many disasters — this latest one should be the last, and something must be done to stop it. Hundreds in kidnappers’ dens, bandits denying farmers their source of livelihood, hundreds in IDP camps, flood ever raging, 37 miners dying in custody, now three women dying in a stampede while waiting for cash — it is one calamity too many for Niger State.
May God console and ease the affairs of the victims’ families and grant the deceased eternal bliss.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
