MOVEMENT FOR CREATION OF HADEJIA STATE SINCE 1975.

HADEJIA A YAU! The struggle for the creation of
Hadejia State traces its history back
to 1975 when the community
forwarded its request to the then
military head of state, the late
General Murtala Ramat Muhammad.
Since then, the community has
never failed in exploiting every
opportunity offered by the government for
the creation of more states.
According to findings, the request for the
creation of Hadejia State received a boost
between 1982 and 1983 when the then
National Assembly endorsed the request for
the referendum, but due to a change of
government, the long-awaited dream could
not be actualised.
Also in 1991, a similar request was put
before the then Military Head of State,
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. In
1994 another request was submitted to the
then National Constitutional Conference
under late General Sani Abacha.
Pyramid Trust learnt that when the National
Constitutional Conference submitted its
report to the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC)
, the proposed Hadejia State was among the
seven states recommended for early
creation by the PRC.
The community, our correspondent learnt,
made a fresh request for the creation of
Hadejia state in 1996 through the Local
Government and Boundary Adjustment
Committee, a committee set up by the
federal government to re-examine the
recommendations of the National
Constitutional Conference on creation of
states and local governments as well as
border adjustments.
However, following the PRC’s
recommendation that suggested the
creation of one state in each of the six geo-
political zones, Hadejia community lost their
bid to the present Zamfara State being the
only state created from the North-West zone
then.
In October, 2009, the request for the
creation of Hadejia State was also
forwarded to the National Assembly for
endorsement and onward conveyance to
the executive arm of government for the
final approval. Furthermore, in 2009, a
memorandum requesting the creation of
Hadejia State was also presented to the
NASS. The community also requested the
creation of 11 additional local governments
that included Bualngu, Biram, Diginsa,
Dakaiyawa and Fadama local governments.
Others are Sarawa, Jarkasa, Kadira, Ruba,
Jabo and Ayama local government areas.
This makes the number of local
governments for the proposed Hadejia State
to 19, as initially, the Hadejia Emirate
comprises of only eight local government
that include Auyo, Birniwa, Guri, Hadejia,
Kafin-Hausa, Kaugama, Kirikasamma and
Mallam-Madori.
Findings indicated that the proposed
Hadejia State has a land mass of not less
than 7000sq km with a population of
1,245,571 according to the statistics of the
2006 National Population Census. The
population might have increased by now
given the average national growth rate of
2.83% per annum.
Under the provincial system of
administration, Pyramid Trust gathered,
Hadejia Emirate was the second largest
emirate in the then Kano province in terms
of size, economy, population and other
socio-economic indices. The area was also
blessed with enough human and natural
resources that include water and fertile soil
suitable for all kinds of agricultural activities.
However, just last Wednesday, the July 28,
2010, Hadejia community under the auspice
of Movement for the Creation of Hadejia
State again put another request before the
National Assembly for the creation of
Hadejia State.
The delegation was led to the NASS from
Jigawa State by the Speaker, Jigawa State
House of Assembly, Alhaji Adamu Ahmad
Sarawa.
In a separate presentation, the Speaker
informed the leaders of the NASS that, “From
the information available to us, each of the
requests previously put before the
concerned authorities made progress
towards realisation of our proposed state,
but only to be scuttled apparently due to the
undemocratic nature of the situation.”
Alhaji Adamu further recalled that the
proposed Hadejia State and its people were
the most unfairly treated in the history of
state creation exercise of the military
nationwide. He added that although
pessimistic Nigerians have the belief that
due to the cumbersome provision of the
constitution, new states could not be
created under a democratic setting, the
people of Hadejia do not share this
pessimism.
“We believe the National Assembly can break
that jinx and create more states during the
lifetime of the present administration. And
we hope that Hadejia State would be one of
the new states to b