BY
JUBAL FREE-MAN DABO B.
INTRODUCTION
State creation in Nigerian has been connected with the problem of ethnic minority fears of domination. The Henry Willink Commission set in 1957 is a consequence of these fears. This fear brought about the creation of many states in Nigeria, many of these states began the move after the Gurara quest, they are states now an the Gurara quest is still on, some among these states however, are beneficiaries of the misfortune of the Gurara quest, I stand to be corrected.
There has been a long standing struggle for a Gurara state to be carved out of the present Kaduna state. The struggle has been a long and challenging one, hopes rising so high at periods or events where reports of various committees at different instances will declare the struggle worthwhile and meeting all pre-requisites. The problem however is the fact that with all these assertions, Gurara is still yet to come to fruition. Questions arising bother on what is left undone, when is the right time, who will bring it to a finish, who will come to our aid.
This contribution will cast light on the long standing, frustrated and buried Gurara quest of a much marginalized ethnic group who measure out asset to the entire nation. The study also aims at bringing to consciousness the history of the struggle: a stink to reason.
THE PLACE GURARA
The name Gurara defines the Southern Kaduna minority ethnic groups of Kaduna state. The former southern Zaria now Southern Kaduna is located within the central high plains of Northern Nigerian. It is located between Longuitude 5o and 7o East. It comprises of Chukun, Jaba, Jama’a, Kachia, Kagarko, Kajuru Kaura, Kauru, Lere, Sanga and Zagon Kataf Local Government Areass of Kaduna State. It has a culture complex sub-region together with the Jos Plateau, Nasarawa and Federal Capital Territory Abuja which forms the heartland of Nigeria. Gurara is consisting of the River Kaduna, River Kachia, River Iri, River Maro, River Sarkin Pawa, River Gwaro, River Dingo. Others are Rivers Gurara, Kagom, Mada and Sanga that drain directly into the Niger and Benue. It is endured also with rich soil, Hills and is rich in Agriculture.
The Gurara people are a distinct linguistic, cultural and racial Bantoid speaking group. Base on the linguistic and cultural linkages between and among these groups seven distinct ethnic lingustic clusters are formed to include:
The Netzit (Katab) Cluster
The Ham (Jaba) Cluster
The Adara (Kadara) Cluster
The Gbagyi (Gwari) Cluster
The Ninani, Saminaka (North Eastern Ethnic) Cluster and
The Koro Cluster.
THE GURARA QUEST
The preamble to the motion for the creation of Gurara state established the basis for the demand as reported by Ibrahim James. It states that Kaduna state has a population of 3,969,252 million people by the 1991 population census. Here, Kaduna state stands as fifth largest in population after Lagos, Kano, Sokoto Bauchi and Rivers. The population then of the nine (9) Local Government Areas in the proposed State was 1,806,773 higher than the population of states as Yobe, Taraba, and Kwara then.
This struggle dates back to the Colonial period when Gurara first sort excision from Kaduna state then in the light of an alien Emirate traditional form of domination and control. This claim is true with a flashback to historic Southern Zaria of Old. The struggle began in 1957, at the Henry Willink Commission established by the colonial administration to address issues arising from agitations for the creation of new states where Gurara submitted a memorandum requesting to be excised from Zaria Emirate. At the end the recommendation of the commission presented her recomendations which did not favour state creation but suggested “the entrenchment of the fundamental human rights, establishment of social development authorities in categorically defined areas and the fostering of greater participatory democracy”1 as remedies which the colonial government of 1985 accepted. But, further agitations made continuous political crisis inevitable2 to this end, new states emerged by a simple merger of two or more provinces in the Northern Region. Later in 1967 at the dawn of the creation of twelve (12) states by the Gen. Yakubu Gowon Administration, Gurara requested for excision from Zaria and a merger with Plateau judging the fact that we share a lot similarities in identical occupational and settlement patterns, family and kinship structures, traditional political organizations and traditional religious beliefs and practices. Gurara was only left with a promise of sending a boundary delimitation Commission which suffered a calculated delay. In 1976 the Justice Irikefe Panel was appointed by General Murtala Muhammed where Gurara submitted memoranda requesting for a (Nasarawa) state of their own or a merger with Plateau state the second time. This request was not favorably considered by the Panel on the grounds that there were no sufficient consultations among the groups agitating for a Nasarawa state, also she argued that such a creation will upset existing demands for the creation of other states that have enjoyed greater support. As for the merger, the argument was that certain areas of Plateau were hostile to the demand.
Later as the House of Representatives Committee on creation of State was constituted in 1976 Gurara again submitted a memoranda requesting for a state of her own. A consequence of the 1960/1970 reforms and reorganization of the Local Governments and the provincial political rivalry between Kaduna and Katsina Provinces. This too was fruitless. We still kept faith in the future, and in 1986 when the Gen. Babangida Ibrahim’s led administration inaugurated the Political Bureau also known as the Cookey Commission, Gurara submitted yet another memoranda requesting for a state of her own which at the end and for the first time, the commission proposed and recommend the creation of a southern Zaria State.3 Though Babangida’s administration created all the states proposed by the Chief S.J. Cookey’s led commission, only Gurara State was not created. Then at the Sani Abacha’s administration, the National Constitutional Conference was inaugurated and as usual, Gurara submitted memoranda for the Creation of a Gurara State. This particular memoranda enjoyed the highest support however, the result is not different.
WHY A GURARA STATE?
From the introduction, we stated that a struggle as this is first a consequence of fear of domination. Any answer we shall arrive at shall not be far-fetched from this. Tracing through history, we are able to understand, the Gurara struggle as triggered by nothing more than the pains of marginalization, subjugation and domination by their Zazzau brothers as all the different memorandas upheld highly an excision from Zaria. This is born out of the fact that the Gurara nation have so long endured these that wisdom will only trace the struggle for such freedom to fears of the unknown future which given the delay yielded what the region suffered in the recent past. Zazzau took the patience of Gurara for fear, our peace for cowardice and our hospitality for folly hence, the domination and other related vices. On the other hand, government gave us the impression that she is a part of our odel by the delay in meeting our demands. A popular adage read thus “when the pushing gets to the wall, two forces will then push”. This is what I see in the early stage of the struggle.
The 1994 National Constitutional Conference Committee on Creation of State and Local Government while submitting her report suggested that it was “…time to remedy the errors and emotional conflicts of the past.”4 the conflict here is a claim as contained in the report of the 1986 Political Bureau and Creation of a Southern Zaria State that, the creation of a [Southern Zaria (Gurara)] state as such will “envisage a total dismantling of the (then) Federal structure and that the country could not afford the resources for such a reorganization and more importantly (they said) it would encourage Nigerians to retreat into their ethnic enclaves, thus damaging the chances for the evolution of true federation”5; on the contrary the National Constitutional Conference Committee on Creation of State and Local Government observed that any attempt to coerce unwilling communities or ethnic groups into living together in the same state would ultimately result in a breakdown of law and order6. However, possibly because Gurara was taken for granted, the Federation defened her ears to Gurara’s plea for a State. What is the result? The Kafanchan Crisis of March 1987, the Zangon Kataf Riot of February and May 1992, and recently the Gurrilla night attacks and other related security challenges.
More to that, Gurara suffered and still suffers a lack of equity, fairness and justice on areas as appointment into government offices, Creation of More Local governments, Wards, and Chiefdoms (especially then), Students admissions into state and Federal Tertiary Institutions within the state, uneven employment opportunities, allocation of contracts and projects to mention but these. We cannot undermine the fact that these long experiences are the causal forces for the struggle.
THE POLITICS: AN EVALUATION?
Gurara state till this very moment is yet to be, the question is, what is left undone? Has Gurara failed in anyway? Granted, the Gurara quest has suffered inconsistences on the part of 'Gurarians', as it was a demand for excision from Zaria and Merger with Plateau, later it turned a request for a Nasrawa State, at other times it was a demand for a Southern Zaria, southern Kaduna, New Kaduna State before finaly settling for a Gurara state. However, turning back through memory lane we will realize, answers to these two questions will only refer us again to the sub-theme above “a struggle long overdue”. What is worrisome are the flimsy excuses Gurara continued to receive with regards to why a state should not be created. The Justice Irikefer’s Panel for instance reported against Gurara’s demand for a Nasarawa State on grounds that there was no much consultations among the groups agitating for such, again that the creation of Nasarawa state would seriously upset existing demands for other states. Granted that the first recommendation of non sufficient consultation may hold water to an extent, however, if others have made demands and do not meet the requirements, the question is should those who met the requirements suffer injustice simply because the others must be pleased? If however they all meet the requirements, why should they not be given the state or is there a constitutional limitation for numbers of state Nigeria should have? Fine, why should Gurara still remain a dream even after these states are created. On the merger with plateau, thesame Panel said no on the grounds that some areas of Plateau state were hostile to the merger. The big question is why not define clearly how many local governments or what percentage of the State House of Assembly stood against it?
From the unset we observed that many states had their freedom or are states today because of the misfortune of Gurara, for instance, the creation of a Nasarawa state as demanded then by Gurara would have interfered with the creation of states as Niger form the North-west, Benue from the Benue-Plataeu and the Federal Capital Territory and that is the politics. Another politics I see here is in the 1970s demand for the creation of a Katsina State and New Kaduna State form the then Kaduna State, at a time when the relationship of Katsina with other parts of the then Kaduna State broke so terribly, we saw another politics against Gurara that, when in 1979 the House of Representatives Committee on the Creation of State recommended that no referendum should be held in the area demanding the creation of New Kaduna state (which was one of the first three demands submitted) on the bases that one will be held in Katsina and to save public funds. The question is why should only Gurara stand the sacrificial lamb at all times? Is the Nigerian Constitution unaware of the economic challenges and the implications there in when it defines that a people reserve the right to request for a state if they so wish? If a referendum cannot be held in Gurara because Nigeria is too poor to finance such, why should it be held in other places anyway? Why should Gurara not be treated equally at others?
We saw another politics in the creation of Katsina State; when Gen. Babangida after the Political Bureau of 1986 stepped into state creation, the states even the Political Bureau rejected were split. Anambra and Imo state into Enugu and Abia states, Delta state was calved out of Bendel. Oyo was split into Osun state, Sokoto and Kano brought forth Kebbi and Jigawa states, Cross River was broken into Akwa Ibom States and Borno, Gongola and Kwara States were broken into Yobe, Taraba and Kogi States and the creator rested until 1987 then creation continued where Katsina was created out Kaduna state leaving the proposed southern Zaria to fate. We must ask, why the break if Gen. Babangida was confident that the demand for Katsina state deserved more credence than southern Zaria?
CONCLUSION
Here we have to God’s glory assessed the development of the Gurara struggle and the politics of state creation with particular interest to the calculated frustration of the Gurara quest. It is important at this juncture to not that the non complaince to the demand is out of a calculated attempt to enslave Gurara. What the Federation never grew to know is the fact that the entire nation would be a victim of this enslavement not only the Gurara people. I. Say thumps up to Gurara for her maturity else she would have felt justified losing trust and confidence in the constitutional means of agitating for a state of her own. As seen above, We are not unaware of the recently concluded National Conference that recommended the creation of Gurara state among others, however we will not so soon forget the vain hopes we have lived with in time past as the tempation to continue frustrating the effords of the Gurara citizens still is alive and active, what we espect is that the present Government will outstand other administrations by overcoming this temptations. Southern Kaduna so much believes in due process and expects nothing short of the best. Any attempt for further frustrations will surely end up a frustration on the part of the enemies of the struggle.
As we congratulate the present administration on her historic success at the polls, we call her to the knowledge that Gurara is a collection of a people whose world view has been changed by eventualities as such should not be taken for granted. As such, she (the present administration) should atleast appreciate the patience of Gurara and grant her request for a state as recommended at the National Conference. The significant needs of Gurara are Justice, equity, security and a State of her own. The greatest of them all is A STATE OF HER OWN.
NOTES
The Henry Willink Commision Report 1957
Ibrahim James, Studies in the History, Politics and Culture of Southern Kaduna Peoples Group, Landsomas Press Limited Jos. 249
National Constitutional Conference Motion for the Creation of Gurara State Out of the present Kaduna State.
Report of the Committee on Creation of States and Local Governments NCC Abuja p. 7-8
Report of the Political Bureau and Creation of a Southern Zaria State, p. 176
Report of the Committee on Creation of States and Local Governments NCC Abuja p. 7-8
ONLINE MATERIALS
www.nija.com>News>politics, accessed May 4th 2015.
www.theparadigmng.com/%3Fp%3D19667, accessed May 16th 2015.
www.nigerianeye.com>Home>LetestNews in Nigeria, accessed May 16th 2015.
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