Kano State, the commercial heartbeat of Northwestern Nigeria has resolved to take special interest in future national leadership and the issues of restructuring of Nigeria’s federation. What this boils down to remains unclear but the communiqué of a multi-stake holders’ meeting at the instance of the Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative, (KCCI) indicates that the resolution came along with determination to come up with a position on the prevailing political debates bordering on restructuring and security; to utilize democracy for the common good, with priority for Kano people rather than partisanship and the prevailing politics of disunity and acrimony and to take measures to reclaim Kano’s pre-eminent position as a leading center of commerce and industry.
This picture captures a face of Kano City, otherwise called ‘the belly of the elephant’ that can take any and everything
Beyond these key features of the summit, there is also the expressed determination to promote what the communiqué calls exploring “job opportunity for citizens of Kano and Jigawa states anywhere in the world” additional to creation of jobs.
The dire need for unity among all segments of Kano society as the only guarantee for achieving meaningful progress dominated the February 15th, 2020 Summit attended by prominent elders, professionals, members of the business community, academia, the Ulama, women/youth groups and student bodies. So also was the idea of a united approach to our socio-economic and political issues, “especially the ability to talk with one voice” as far as restoring “Kano’s lost glory”.
The summit which might be transformed to a regular feature with particular reference to follow-ups on tasks and activities arising out of previous summit equally took time to decry the prevalence of drug abuse, rampant family instability, cases of divorce and unwarranted number of Almajirai, girl child hawkers and the crisis of hate speeches on the wave lengths of the electronic media.
The summit is calling for greater investment in public center investments especially in education, sports and health; encouraging research-based initiatives for socio-economic development challenges; deploying media resources to promote peaceful co-existence and generally ensuring that the media become an agent of social order and as opposed to the promotion of hate speech and chaos.
Promoting skills acquisition and entrepreneurship opportunities to achieve self-reliance and actualization for the youth, women and people with special needs also formed part of the checklist that extended to embracing emerging technologies including robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, etc and, lastly, partnering with government towards ensuring the success of the renewed free and compulsory education initiative.
The communiqué was signed by Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi as Chairman while Dr Sa’aidu Ahmad Dukawa signed as Secretary.
