Re: Lagos Vs Kano

I hope everything is well and peaceful around you.  Thank you very much for your rich, knowledgeable and objective ideas in your Lagos Vs Kano write up. How I wish Kano politicians will wholeheartedly embrace your ideas in developing Kano State.  We’re grateful to you. 

Barrister Tijjani Kabiru Dukawa, Kano: 0803 803 2376

Thank you for bringing up the economic disparity.

The Adaidaita Sahu issue of separating men and women, I think is to protect the women. I for one, as a Muslim (married) woman would not want to share a seat with another man. The moral decay is incomparable between Kano and Lagos, I for one would not want my children growing up in Kano without moral guidance, where we are gradually accepting ills that will later ruin our generation. Hisbah is doing well in stopping some immoral acts both offline & online. Various authorities have corrected them on the methods of their operations, I hope they take it into account.

The industrial area in Bompai is almost dead, wasted infrastructure because of factories that have been abandoned for years. I know two factories that have not been operational for years only now to have been converted to schools (which is a good development).

Samira M. Miko, Kano. 0803 394 2644

• NBTE inspects Plateau College of Agriculture programmes for accreditation
• Hardship: Wage increase not solution to workers’ problem – SDP presidential candidate

Good piece today, Suleiman.

Ephraims Sheyin, Editor-in- Chief, NAN: 0815 216 5526

Lagos Vs Kano, your caption in today’s Daily Trust above is food for thought, especially for northerners and Kanawan Dabos.

Musa Auna Arpa: 0805 899 1826

Thank you for your piece in DAILY TRUST EDITION of 4/3/2024. I really appreciate your comparison of Lagos and Kano as regards to politics. I hope Kano spends more time in identifying its strength as regards to votes so it benefits more in politics than it does now. That Kano must understand. Given the large population it has, I hope Kano wakes up.

Bello Ahmed Rufai: 0803 659 0066

Alhamdullah Sulaiman. Your article is nothing more than jihad. Yes. It’s the only way to lift this great Muslim society from the grip of mediocre religionists, who use religion to feather their nests by indoctrinating the half-literate masses while blindly stealing their revenues, lands and everything.

Pray, may Allah (SWT) give this great city, with potential to be a mega city (not the mega slum it is now) leader who will open people’s eyes to greater economic greatness. And break the harsh poverty imposed on the majority.

Tijjani Balarabe: 0803 704 1672

This is an apt juxtaposition of Kano and Lagos, two politically, regionally and economically strategic states in Nigeria. Many of us who have been wondering why Lagos is always having an edge over us and why the gap between the two states is, instead of narrowing, just becoming ever-widening, can understand that it’s as a result of our different trajectories and priorities. I agree with the author that in Kano, we have misplaced some of our priorities and the earlier we realise this and re-strategise, the better. My only reservation is that no developmental drive should come at the expense of our moral wellbeing. For me, the two are mutually exclusive. I really enjoyed and learned from this piece and hope you too will do the same.

Thank you, Suleiman

Dr Ibrahim Siraj Adhama: Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano 

Lagos Vs Kano: I respect your write ups on anything to do with northern Nigeria. But will there be any change for the generation yet unborn to be proud of about the North?

Captain Sadauki Rtd: 0802 858 7750

A blow to the solar plexus of political elites of Kano – and Muslim North generally. There’s no state in the North where a governor has articulated a vision of what his state should be at the end of his rule and a plan to achieve it. Instead, each strives to prove himself more religious or more religion-friendly than his predecessor. Maintenance of public infrastructure is not a concern, new facilities are built, old ones left to collapse. Net effect, zero accretion. This swipe at the leadership will surely elicit negative reactions.

Thank you.

M T Usman: [email protected]

Dear “White Paper”,

Peace to you. I’m a Dutch resident in Ibadan, having got to know Kano since the nineteen-eighties and conversant in Hausa. Thanks for your column yesterday. If I’m not mistaken, at this very moment in history, two unfortunate Nigerian citizens are awaiting the execution of the death penalty, one of whom by hanging (which is quite a contestable colonial innovation in Shariah jurisprudence). Lagos (and Ibadan) is a thriving city, diverse in culture and religion and with a very prominent presence of diverse Islamic branches (contrary to the overwhelming presence of less diverse Islam in Kano). Could there be a fundamental difference between Yoruba and Hausa Islam? And why was the Kano Emir sacked four years ago?

Yours,

Rev.Fr. Johan Miltenburg

Emeritus Parish Priest, St. Thomas Catholic Church, Agbowo, Ibadan, Oyo, State ([email protected])

I read the article yesterday and concluded that as usual, Dr. Suleiman A. Suleiman has done justice to the issues he raised in the article. We really need to do a lot to bring the state back on track.

However, the only place where the piece seems to get it wrong is where it fails to recognise that an average Kano person would hardly trade moral values in place of structures or development projects. Some people in the city believe that the relative peace (by extension peace of mind, peaceful coexistence) the state is enjoying might not be unconnected to the people’s interest in enjoining good and forbidding wrong. When one has the opportunity to live or stay in the two states for a while, then the person can better understand what peace of mind or peaceful coexistence, not structures, means to an ordinary man on the street.

Dr Gambo Nababa, Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano

LAGOS Vs KANO: To start with, I think you got it wrong over your claim that Kano has largely leap forward in being more Islamic than other states courtesy of Hisbah, Adaidata Sahu etc.  Those were not the crux of the matter. Kano’s apparent decline in comparison to Lagos were largely attributable to deliberate policies at the federal level, especially with the advent of former President Obasanjo administration whose banking reforms, power supply disparities and strangulation of Northern-based industries dealt a serious blow not only to Kano, but to Kaduna and others.

Recall all the closed down textile, automobile, food processing, steel rolling and building materials industries in Sharada, Challawa and Bompai in Kano, etc. at the time industrial hubs were emerging within the Lagos/Ogun axis etc. Imagine that Nigeria’s richest man, Aliko Dangote (incidentally, my college classmate) and Abdussamad Isyaku Rabiu of BUA Group had to move or establish their major industries down south due to the unfavourable climate up north.

The other issue militating against the sustained development of Kano was lack of visionary leaders, disunity and egocentrism of the leadership elite. If truth be told, the last governor of Kano State with a master plan for all sectors, was the late military governor, Abdu Bako (1968-1975). Some of the successive governors came with visions of their own like the late Air Vice Marshal Hamza Abdullahi and Abubakar Rimi. But in real terms, most civilian governors were mainly enmeshed in local political power rivalry rather than real sustainable economic and industrial growth and development. In fairness, though some like Gov Shekarau sought to embark on capacity building and moral regeneration given the huge challenges facing the state at the time with its current spillover. Governor Kwankwaso in an attempt to correct the shortcomings of his first tenure (1999-2003), embarked on the flyover and underpass projects during his second coming (2011-2015) to address frustrating traffic gridlocks in Kano. His successor, Ganduje (2015-2023) built on this urban transport infrastructure tradition instead of massive support for trade, industries and commerce. Unlike Lagos, which was dominated by the same leadership clique under Bola Tinubu since the 1999 return to democratic rule, Kano was oscillating among different egocentric political leaders.

In a nutshell, for Kano to make a leap forward and regain its place as the second leading commercial hub in Nigeria, its intellectual, business, political, spiritual and traditional leaders must put petty interests aside, close ranks and draw up a multi-sectoral developmental agenda to which all must subscribe. Federal level political actors who thrive on dividing Kano for their political interests, must be told in words and deeds, that enough is enough. Your issues about Hisbah et al. would be adequately addressed if “Work and Worship” are captured in a comfortable mix.

Garba Isa, Jigawa State