Why Yauri is home to every tribe in Nigeria – Emir of Yauri

The Emir of Yauri, Dr. Muhammad Zayyanu Abdullahi, in an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday talked about why his emirate deserves more attention from both the state and federal governments and the agricultural, mining, fishing and trading potentials of the Emirate among others.

Some group of youth in Yauri recently embarked on counting of millet and declared that there are 11,979,868 million in a 50 kilo bag. What would be the impact of that on your emirate?

The millet counting has not been done anywhere before. It was a tedious exercise because it involves Mathematics and like you know Mathematics consists of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The youth took their time trying to do what has not been done before by counting the grains of a bag of millet. What am proud of is that these young people are gainfully employed. They didn’t embark on the exercise because they have nothing to do but for the interest they have in doing so. They made name for themselves, the emirate, Kebbi and the country at large. Instead of wasting their time watching videos or browsing the internet, they engaged in a brain exercise. Just as we exercise our body the brain also needs to be exercised. I am really proud of them. I wish other youth will emulate them and government will encourage them just as the governor has promised.

You are in the vanguard of calling the attention of the authorities to the abundant agricultural, mining and fishing potentials in Yauri. What responses have been received?

Yauri is rich in agricultural resources. It is also rich in gold and other mineral deposits. I hope government and other companies will explore these potentials. We have River Niger here. The whole of the western boundary of Yauri is River Niger and 70 percent of Kainji land is in Yauri Emirate. If developed it would attract tourists. I am calling on the Federal Government to come and do something about the abundant potentials of Yauri in agriculture, mining and fishing. The recent millet counting exercise has put Yauri on the world map. Many people are now aware of Yauri and its potentials. Many of them have come here to see what is happening in the emirate and by doing this they will explore and discover the potentials of Yauri. There is no crop grown in any part of this country that cannot be grown in Yauri. This is the only place where rice is grown three times in a year. I am hoping that Dangote will establish a rice mill in Yauri and other companies will also come to invest here so that the potentials of Yauri in wheat, tomato, potato, pepper, fish and other crops production will be fully utilized.

For many years now you have been raising the alarm over issue of electricity and bad roads in the emirate. What is the state of things now?

As far as electricity is concerned, we are hoping that in the next few months they will come to the end of the problem. The sub-station is near completion. It has been abandoned for many years but the Federal Government has come to revive it and we can see that the work going on and we are hoping that very soon the problem of electricity will be a thing of the past. For many years, I have been talking about the issue of our bad roads but Alhamdulillah work is in progress. Now the road contractors are in Yauri town. From here to Kontagora, Kaduna, Abuja the road is good. The remaining problem is from Koko and Shanga to Yauri but the worst part of the road is from Yauri to Koko. What we want is for them to start the road construction from Yauri and progress to Jega. What they promised us was that they would start the road work from Yauri but they didn’t do that instead they started from somewhere. We don’t know how long it will take them to come here. We want the remaining work to be completed before the next raining season.

We have seen much of Argungu fishing festival and Uhola festival in Zuru. What has happened to the rich Yauri cultural festival?

The festival we are planning to do here is called boat regatta and other activities that concern the river. Alhamdulillah we have been representing the state in various cultural activities even at Abuja and the state government is now ready to back the regatta activities in Yauri. By February next year, we will have the regatta. It is part of our cultural heritage.

How old is Yauri town?

Yauri is more than 600 years old. You can see from the chart displayed in the palace showing the emirate and its emirs since the 15th century. I am the 47th emir. We have published a book on the history of Yauri. We wanted to launch it a long time ago but for the bad situation of our roads. We don’t want those that will be invited to suffer on their way to Yauri. When the road work reaches its advanced stage we will launch the book. It contains everything about the history of Yauri.

What can you say about the history of Yauri?

Just as I said, the Yauri dynasty is over 600 years old and it has two major tribes called Kambari and Gungawa. They united to provide one leader who originally was from Katsina. The descendants of that leader are still alive today. One of the descendants of their leader from Katsina is Jerabana. Yauri originally is a commercial centre. The Trans-Sahara Trade brought traders from Niger, Morocco, and Algeria to Yauri. They would sail through the River Niger to Ghana and other countries on trade missions. Because of the strategic position of Yauri they established a stop-over called Zango. The town was named after its 6th emir called Yauri because during his reign the kingdom was expanded.

What would you say makes Yauri different from the three other emirates in Kebbi State?

Yauri is a commercial centre, it trades in fish, onion, rice, potato, tomato, pepper and other crops. Before the construction of the Kainji Dam, people from the Niger-Delta would sail up here for fishing. They still do so till today. If you go to the River Niger in Yauri you will see people from Mali, Niger Republic and other countries with our fishermen. They come here from November, December, January to March every year to fish. The fish from Yauri is taken to every part of the country, especially the southern part. Yauri is a mini Nigeria with people of different tribes coming to either engage in trading, farming and mining. Yauri is a very rich emirate and we want its riches be tapped so that other people from different parts of the country can benefit from it.

How have you been managing the co-existence of the different tribes that are in your emirate?

I was a Vice Chancellor. In the university we have students from different tribes, religions and other walks of live. We have Christians, Muslims, from West, South East and North. I learn from the university community, so when I became emir it was just easy for me to be hospitable and draw people nearer. It was that experience that made me to accept people from all over the country and make them to enjoy their stay in Yauri provided they are here in good faith.

If you are not attending to your subjects what do you do with your leisure hours?

I am a farmer. I grow virtually everything. I grow rice, onion, potato, pepper and every other crop. Apart from being a farmer I also rear cattle. This is my past time.