Issues on population and sustainable development in Kano
By Nura Ibrahim Hassan
Kano was among the 12 states created in May 1976 out of the defunct Northern Region. The state remained intact until August 27, 1991 when Jigawa state was carved of it. It is located in the North- West geo-political zone of Nigeria. Hausa and Fulani who are mostly Muslims predominantly inhabit Kano state. Prior to British colonial rule, which started in 1903, the state was under Fulani rule from the early 19th century until 1903. The State today has a substantial Christian minority.
Kano state today is the largest in Nigeria in terms of population and number of local government areas, having a population of nine million four hundred and one thousand two hundred and eighty eight (9, 401, 288) in the recently-conducted 2006 Census head count and forty four local government areas followed by Lagos south-west Nigeria with nine million one hundred and thirteen thousand six hundred and five (9,113,605) in terms of population and twenty local government areas in its domain. The state has witnessed tremendous population surge from 1991 to 2006- a time span of 15 years. Equally, the state has the largest population in 1991 census head count with five million eight hundred and ten thousand four hundred and seventy (5,810,470). From 1991 to 2006 an increase of 46.29 per cent in the state’s population was observed with inter-census growth rate of 3.03per cent and 6.70 per cent proportion of the country’s population of one hundred and forty million, four hundred and thirty one thousand seven hundred and ninety (140,431,790).
Its forty four local government areas almost doubles the numbers in more than twenty six states in the federation where some states have seven to eighteen local government areas. The structure of state’s population in terms of population spread on the twenty one thousand, two hundred and seventy six sq km (21,276 sq km), the eight metropolitan local government areas (Fagge, Municipal, Gwale, Nassarawa, Ungogo, Kumbotso, Tarauni and Dala) which are regarded as core nucleus local government areas occupying a land area of about 200sq km with a population density of 450-500 people has a total population of two million, eight hundred and twenty six thousand three hundred and seven (2,826,307) which accounts for thirty percent of the state’s total population. The surrounding local government areas of Kura, Garum Mallam, Madobi, Kabo, Rimin Gado, Dawakin Tofa, Minjibir, Gezawa, Warawa, Wudil, Dawakin Kudu, Bunkure which equally are the peri- urban areas because of their proximity to the urban centers account for two million, two hundred and twenty three thousand tne hundred and thirty people (2,223,130) and constitute twenty three percent of the state’s population which by far sit on larger proportion of the state’s land mass. But, Tofa, Madobi, Kura, Dawakin Tofa, Minjibir, Gezawa and Dawakin Kudu are closer to the urban centre or core nucleus than the rest.
Knowledge of demographic trends (total population, fertility, mortality, migration, family formation, etc) is essential for drawing up appropriate government policies in the social, economic, education, housing, migration and regional planning fields. But in developing countries population data is an indispensable tool and pre determinant of the rest. These areas are endowed with human and natural resources which if fully harnessed and utilized efficiently for maximum productivity could change the standard of living of the mass populace in the area. The basic factors which influence economic development with both positive and negative effects possible are population characteristics, cultural attributes, technology, energy and resource base and government. With regards to the above, three factors are critical in the peri-urban Kano; population characteristics, resource base and government- commitment. The inter play of these is essential to the development of the surrounding local government areas and even the outer Kano. The rate at which Kano is urbanizing is alarming along with other Nigerian cities as the country runs an urban based developmental strategy at the detriment of rural areas.
It has been observed that Nigeria is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate. According to Oni, urban population as percentage of the national population in 1970 was 20 per cent. This rose to 38 per cent in 1993 and the projected proportion at 60 per cent in the year 2010. The rate of urban population far exceeds the national growth rate of 3.2 per cent. This rapid growth rate is largely responsible for the unmet need and demand of the populace. With the development of transportation facilities in Kano, the morphology was also affected.
City sprawl will continue without effective mechanism or developmental strategy to checkmate rural urban drift in Kano. The concentration of most of the basic infrastructure in the Kano nucleus has been a magnet of attracting more people into the urban Kano. The consequence of this on the existing city infrastructure is enormous as more people are daily trouping to the nucleus (core) in search of livelihood. The growth of core is only possible through the systematic underdevelopment of the periphery as Wallestein’s world system model is based on core periphery relation at the global system.
Geographically, the term core refers to region of economic opportunities- employment, capital and economic control which the core Kano has been identified with them in the recent past. It is an established issue that infrastructure development has a scale effect and the larger the scale, the more business sense it makes to invest in it. As city serves as a magnet for employment opportunities, shops, services and leisure activities.
Over the years, it has become the epicenter of economic and social life and has been called to accommodate increasingly varied activities and house a growing proportion of the population like the one of metropolitan Kano. However, as city become congested this raises the costs of transporting goods and labour. High densities of population are associated with high location rent, pollution make cities unpleasant places to live, social control is relaxed and crime and social unrest can arise, etc. Some cities combat these problems through new technical or social innovations (traffic management, sanitary engineering, development of social welfare and security systems, etc.). However, recent decades have seen these innovations lag behind the population pressure to move to locations with more housing space, with less traffic congestion, with less crime and a better environment. As a result populations in the most advanced countries have been de-concentrating. The deconcentration is based on the development of faster and cheaper intra-urban and interurban transport systems. This de-concentration is not a return to farming activity but a new form of dispersed urbanization with more people living in low-density suburban settlements and small towns and cities.
Apart from the metropolitan agglomeration of eight local government areas in the state all the remaining local government areas in Kano are less developed in terms of provision of basic infrastructure capable of opening their economy for maximum utilization for productivity and sustainable development. Also it must be reported that Nigeria’s development pattern has been largely urban- based. With such a development paradigm, any region with a high number of rural centers will suffer from the absence of infrastructure. That is why the need for timely intervention is imperative, the development of outer Kano as this would at the same time to a larger extent transform those areas proximate to Kano city into townships. One important benefit associated with the opening of rural economy is going to be a decrease in rural urban drift where those clamoring to come to the Kano city in search of one thing or the other would be minimally reduced until where necessary. The state ranked 20th in land area (in Nigeria) and even those states with larger land mass in the country the topography and terrain are rugged and difficult of some sort where such factors had created development rather difficult. In Those states the population density is lower than that of Kano where even the rural population density is 450-500 people per sq km at the same time large expanse of land in those areas is devoted to farming and in the forest reserve the density could be as low as 300 people per sq km.
The position of Kano city as commercial nerve centre in the whole of northern Nigeria has played a viable role in attracting people from all walks of life into the main core nucleus of Kano as most of the said commercial activities are located within the city centre, banking, trading, transportation and insurance. There are well over 300 large and medium industrial establishments in Kano spread across Bompai, Sharada and Challawa industrial estates (KSEEDS).The population density in Kano city is about 1000 people per sq km. One of the problems associated with urban centre is myriad, in fact, Kano will continue to face increasingly paradoxical situation in the absence of any absorber to neutralize the incessant drift to Kano city that is why the need for alternative developmental strategy is important. On the other hand, unless cities can be made to work, national economic growth is seriously impeded. The strategy is to have fast growing economy, propel areas running behind economy and neutralize great socio-economic imbalances and shift towards strategies based on efficiency in all places in Kano.
Kano state is endowed with human and natural resources spatially distributed to harness these potentialities application of growth pole model propounded by Perroux can to some extent bring a sustainable development in the whole of the state. Though, some modernization Theory exist like Rostow’s ‘Stages of Economic Development,’Sectoral Shift Models and Pred’s Circular and Cumulative Causation.
Growth Pole is a point of economic growth and central location of economic activity also a point where economic growth starts and spreads to surrounding areas. It is also regarded as an urban location where economic activity ignites growth and better quality of life in the urban periphery. This definition presupposes a linkage between growth poles, economic growth and urbanization, as well as potential interaction effect regions and countries. The intuitive notion of growth poles would identify a growth pole as an industry or perhaps a group of firms with an industry. At an extreme a growth pole might be a single firm or it might be a group of industries. Per roux, however, defined growth poles in terms of what he called abstract economic space. In the US the concept of growth poles has usually taken the form emphasizing geographic location which is called Growth Centers. Growth centers are related to the concept of agglomeration. In many ways the American work on growth centers is virtually independent of Perroux and the French literature on growth poles. The core idea of the growth poles theory is that economic development, or growth, is not uniform over an entire region, but instead takes place around a specific pole. This pole is often characterized by a key industry around which linked industries develop, mainly through direct and indirect effects. The expansion of this key industry implies the expansion of output, employment, related investments, as well as new technologies and new industrial sectors. Because of scale and agglomeration economies near the growth pole, regional development is unbalanced. Transportation, especially transport terminals, can play a significant role in such a process. The more dependant or related an activity is to transportation, the more likely and strong this relationship. At a later stage, the emergence of a secondary growth pole is possible, mainly if a secondary industrial sector emerges with its own linked industries. Locating industries like the proposed tomato processing factory at the State’s river irrigation of Hadejia River Basin Development Authority is timely aimed at reducing wastage of the product as well as to boost its commercial potentials. That industry would now be a primary one leading to the establishment of other secondary ones with common relationship.
As all the remaining local governments in Kano excluding the metropolitan ones are the most urbanized and at the same time the core nucleus of Kano has the fastest rate of urbanization at the expense of rural Kano.
As Kano state is blessed with network of roads, telephone facilities, pipe-borne water, and electricity which all contribute to the development of its economy are mostly located in the city centre with some in the rural areas.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Kano state’s economy involving at least 75 per cent of the rural population. Before the oil boom of 1970s, Kano was the main producer of groundnuts (producing at least half of the country’s total out put). Other important crops produced in the state are cotton, maize, cow peas, and varieties of vegetables. This sector of the economy is the largest in term of provision of employment and income to Kano state’s populace. Over 70 per cent of the working populations are directly or indirectly engaged as about 90 per cent of the land in Kano state is arable also it is Kano where there is largest irrigation project. Some of this irrigation projects or infrastructure include the following: Kano River irrigation, Watari irrigation project, Gwarzo Road Dams project, Kafinchiri Dam, Thomas River project, Gari River irrigation project. Kano state had constructed 22 earth dams which provides water for domestic, industrial, and irrigation purposes (Kano state: the people vision and developments). These areas if fully developed in term of agricultural infrastructure which include basic, economic, and institutional frame work would serve as an engine of growth and development in the peri- urban Kano as infrastructure is indispensable to achieve the main development targets in developing countries, such as urbanization, industrialization, export promotion, equitable income distribution, and sustainable economic development as the lack of it is hindering the economic growth in many places in Kano Infrastructure investment has the effects of contributing to increase the productivity and it is expected to contribute to future economic growth in those areas where infrastructure is still insufficient. Therefore, infrastructural development is one of the most integral parts of the public policies in developing rural Kano. “the adequacy of infrastructure helps determine one country’s success and another’s failure – in diversifying production, expanding trade, coping with population growth, reducing poverty, or improving environmental conditions” (World Bank Report) Supporting infrastructural development in peri urban Kano by the present administration is extremely important field.
The seven major infrastructural factors that are most significant in accelerating the pace of economic development are: energy, transport, irrigation, finance, communication, education and health. While the first five refer to economic infrastructural facilities, the latter two relate to social infrastructure.
Aptly suggests that in any modern society, infrastructure plays a pivotal role- often decisive role in determining the overall productivity and development of a country’s economy, as well as the quality of life of its citizens.
All the local government areas specialized in one or several economic sectors, with the potential of increasing if provided with a better business environment and Kano state is rather balanced demographically, with large rural populations spread around spatially core nucleus Kano so each combination of peri urban local government areas has the potential to become a growth pole. A growth pole policy can allow a fair chance for all places in the State and channel the funds into investments with greater economic return and also ensure impact and visibility.
This can be inferred from the fact that many international organizations such as World Bank and OECD are actively promoting the improvement of infrastructure by providing various support programs to developing countries which the state can equally look for assistance any where in the world. However, the precise relationship between infrastructure and economic growth is still frequently relevant. Enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship and efficient urban planning management would open those areas to economic growth and development neutralizing the effect of rural urban drift and could as well transform those areas into townships decongesting the metropolitan Kano because aiming to come into the city centre would found those areas as a safe haven for economic livelihood.
The development of a framework for the provision of infrastructures is one of the major focal areas of any state. Any such framework must ensure that which is developed is sustainable, the framework should be transparent and easily understood by the community and last, but not the least, that unreasonable expectations that cannot be fulfilled are not raised in the community-local areas. It is with the above in mind that the infrastructural development frameworks of most cities are being prepared. John Sarr is of the belief that for a successful growth pole strategy to be effective it must be appropriate, feasible, realistic and Affordable.
There are occurrences of solid minerals in the southern parts of the state. These include tin, gold, stones, lead, zinc, copper, porochlovo, woalfam and bauxite. If such areas would be provided with basic infrastructural facilities to harness such potentials as well as good enabling environment large segment of the state’s population would be adequately engaged in term of employment as the development of Haipang areas in Jos Plateau state and Riruwai in Doguwa local government area of Kano state attested to the rapid development and economic growth of these places in colonial days. It is time for Kano State authorities to create integrated development plans based on “running engines” with spillover effects over the region as the city is now grappling to resist the population growth as its implication are myriads from high and rising urban poverty and inequality, lack of efficient and effective city governance, unprecedented environmental crisis, absence of modern urban and regional planning legislative and institutional framework, inadequate infrastructural facilities and infrastructural services to meet increasing demand.
Hassan resides in Kano.