THE KURAMA PEOPLE: DEMANDING POLITICAL EMANCIPATION FROM INEC

The peak of the aspiration of any group of people is the attainment of self-determination and realization politically and economically; no wonder, such excitement is provoked annually every first day of October in commemoration of Nigeria’s independence from the shackles of imperialist colonialism in 1960. So also, the Kurama (Akurmi) people, indigenous to Lere local government of Kaduna state, are eagerly anticipating there political emancipation from years of internal colonization, which has been perpetuated through arbitrary skewing of wards and polling units to their disadvantage regardless of being the first settlers and most populated ethnic group in Lere local government.

This unfortunate reality has placed the Kurama people as second class citizens, even with the benefit of historical records which states that the Kurama people where the first settlers in the present day Lere local government (formerly known as Kasar Kurama). It is on record that the Kurama people have been in their present location since the 14 Century (1350AD), while the Hausa-Fulani in Lere that now dominate the political and economic affairs of the local government only arrived around 1773. Historical records have also shown that Lere District (now a local government) came about as a merger of two Kurama dominated districts of Kudaru and Garu and the Hausa-Fulani dominated district of Lere into a single entity in 1936. This gave the favored Hausa-Fulani the platform to be given undue advantage in the affairs of the present-day local government.

This has ensured over the past years the capture of political and economic power by the highly favored Hausa/Fulani in the local government, due largely as a result of their ethno-religious affiliation with the then provincial rulers in Zazzau, which has been extended to our present day reality.  This political enslavement was fully entrenched in the 1991 questionable population census that brought to the fore the deliberate miscalculation and manipulation of the population figures of the Kurama people to the advantage of the Hausa-Fulani.

Before proceeding with my arguments, I would like to acknowledge the fact that even with the deliberate manipulations to silent a giant like the Kurama people, we have also been able to achieve some economic and political gains. This is evident in our being able to attract political appointments and hold elective positions in the local government; this is only realizable not because there exist a level playing ground but due mainly to the charismatic resilience of the Kurama people and providence. Even at that, we still suffer discrimination as regards certain elective positions (local government chairmanship), local government indigenization, appointment, quota system, contracts and other empowerment programmes.

At this juncture, it is pertinent for me to restate that facts are sacred, and so they should serve as references when it comes to addressing issues that have to do with constituency delimitation and the destiny of a law-abiding people. If population consideration is a key factor in the demarcation of wards and distribution of polling units, then a great injustice has been perpetrated against the Kurama people. Allow me to bring to the notice of the reader some undisputed facts:

According to the Zaria gazetteer of 1911 the Kurama people were the largest ethnic group in the highlands and plains of Eastern Zazzau during the colonial period (larger than that of Kagoro, Jaba, Moro’a and Chawai), and they remain so due to near absence of any epidemic or major war. This fact was further buttressed by the tax return of 1963, with the Kurama population returning sixty nine percent (69%) of the total. Furthermore, as at 1986, Kurama chiefs were in the majority with 60% representation in the council of chiefs in the defunct Lere district as against 40% for other ethnic groups.

It is also believed, and rightly so, that it was as a result of the intimidating population figure of the Kurama people that necessitated the manipulation of the 1913 administrative changes that witnessed the ceding of some part of the Kurama nation(Kasar Kurama) across Zaria, Kano, Nasarawa (now known as Plateau state) and Bauchi provinces. This was done to neutralize the political strength and set-up of the Kurama people for reasons that are crystal clear to any discerning mind. Also, I am of the confident opinion that it was as a result of the population strength of the Kurama people that warranted the creation of the office of the Iyan-Kurama by the Zazzau Emirate to administer villages around Kasar Kurama.

With the above uncontestable fact, anyone not conversant with happenings in Lere local government would assume that the Kurama people would be in control of affairs, but would be disappointed with the facts I would be reeling out as regards the unfair distribution of wards and polling units to the political disadvantage and subjugation of the Kurama people.

The political set-back suffered by the Kurama is not a contemporary issue; it started when the British colonialist created the Zaria province in 1902 which subsequently led to the partitioning of Kasar Kurama into three districts (Kudaru, Garu and Lere). This was followed by the splitting of Kasar Kurama between four provinces in 1913, as highlighted earlier. The nail was finally hit on the coffin in 1998 with the delineation of wards and polling unit which was carried out in Lere local government without due consideration for population spread, contiguity and settlement. The outcome of the exercise carried out by the electoral umpire was/is the political subjugation of the Kurama people to the perpetual position of second fiddle in the political scheme of things.

The political structure in Lere local government is made-up of eleven lopsided wards and a total of 246 polling units; which suggest a conspiracy to numb the political progression of the Kurama people. One is amazed that even with the facts presented above which makes the Kurama people the dominant population, our former district have been allotted only two (2) wards out of the eleven (11) wards in the local government. While our other populated villages have been balkanized and placed under wards dominated by the Hausa-Fulani, with few polling units stationed in those villages. While out of the total number of polling units (246), one hundred and sixty eight polling units are sited in Hausa-Fulani dominated areas as against eighty one (81) in Kurama dominated areas.

As it stands today the Kurama chiefdom is the largest in terms of population but has been mischievously squeezed into a single (1) ward, while the chiefdoms of Lere and Saminaka controlled by the Hausa-Fulani have three (3) and five (5) wards respectively. With Piriga chiefdom a cosmopolitan set-up of a dominant Kurama population with other ethnic groups such as Gure, Kahugu, Piti among others has two (wards). The question that is begging for an answer is why is it that out of the four chiefdoms it is the Kurama chiefdom that has only one ward? Again the answer is crystal clear to any discerning mind. I see no explainable reason why Yarkasuwa ward consisting of over eighteen (18) villages should still be a single ward.

Another instance of this grand political conspiracy, is that of Goron Dutse and Kakku which are districts under the Kurama chiefdom, but have been manipulatively placed under Kayarda ward, this is more of a replica of the “divide and rule system” being inherited from the British colonialist to perpetuate the rule of a particular ethnic group. Furthermore, other instances of political subjugation are in areas such as Dan’ Alhaji, Abadawa and Lazuru wards which are predominantly Kurama, the distribution of polling units are skewed in favor of the minority Hausa-Fulani. It is no longer a hidden fact that the absence of corresponding polling units to reflect the true population spread is a covert plan to perpetually subjugate the Kurama people and deny them access to democratic institutions and dividends.

It is common sense arithmetic that the more wards allotted to any group of people, the more the polling units, which means more voting power. It is this calculation that is being used to hold the Kurama people politically hostage. No wonder the agitation by the Kurama people to be part of the proposed Gurara state, where they are optimistic that there would be a level playing ground for their political development.

It is this aspiration of the Kurama people in adjusting the injustice done to them as regards wards and polling units; that instigated the excitement that greeted the now suspended constituency delineation by INEC with the swearing-in of Technical committee headed by Engr. Nuru Yakubu on 10^th October, 2013. We hereby urge INEC to show more transparency, fairness and justice by looking into the plight of the Kurama people by putting into consideration the population spread, contiguity and settlement patterns of our people when the suspension is lifted and increase the number of wards and polling units to reflect the true reality. They also should look into allegations of undersupply of electoral material to polling units and under-registration in areas dominated by Kurama people.