Today’s Make Nigeria Better Series takes us to Sokoto State, the epicentre of the jihad that brought literacy to the country

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Known as the Seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto State is the spiritual home of Nigerian Muslims. It was the centre of Usman Dan Fodio’s jihad which fundamentally changed modern day Nigeria. Such a state should never have anything to do with poverty

[2] In what can only be described as a mental illness, successive Sokoto State governments have been more interested in sharing free crude oil handouts than in developing their tourist potential. Just imagine how many billions of dollars a global tourist attract built around Usman Dan Fodio’s tomb and the remnants of his library would generate annually

[3] Sokoto desperately needs a building of the statute of the Taj Mahal where the remains of Usman Dan Fodio and Ahmadu Bello should be moved to. It should attract Muslim pilgrims from all across Africa and seek to compete with the Kaaba, St Peter’s Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Giza Pyramid, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, etc

[4] Apart from tourism, over 80% of the inhabitants of Sokoto State practice one form of agriculture or another. They produce crops like millet, guinea corn, maize, rice, potatoes, cassava, groundnuts, beans, wheat, cotton and vegetables. With a landmass of 25,973 km2 and a population of just 6m, Sokoto State has the potential for hundreds of commercial plantations

[5] Its cities like Sokoto, Gada and Sabon Biri should all be home to food processing plants need to all become major food processing centres. At the moment, I doubt if the state even has one industrial

[6] Sokoto State is also home to the famous Bakolori Dam. Can anyone please explain to me, why it does not have a hydroelectric plant attached to it that generates say 3,000MW of power?

[7] Because of its geographical location, Sokoto has an annual average temperature of 28.3 °C, making it the hottest part of Nigeria. It should thus be the solar capital of the country. Were I the Sokoto State governor, I would convert about one tenth of the territory into one huge solar farm and then open the world’s largest solar panel manufacturing plant in Sokoto City

[8] In addition, local crafts such as blacksmithing, weaving, dying, carving and leather works also pay an important role in the economic life of the people of Sokoto State. What the state government needs to do is get industrial estates up and running where processing plants can thrive

[9] In addition, Sokoto State is one of the major fish producing areas of Nigeria Thus a large number of people along the state’s basins are engaged in fishing activities. What the Sokoto State government needs to do is woo fish processing plants so they are exporting finished products, including say tinned fish

[10] Sokoto State also has solid minerals such as kaolin, gypsum, limestone, laterite, red mills, phosphate, yellow and green shade clay, sand etc available in commercial quantities. We need processing plants to convert all these raw materials into finished products, generating billions in export revenue