History of Kaduna

History
Until the late eighties when Kaduna State seemed
to have slid into intermittent sectarian and ethnic
violence, its capital city, Kaduna, was one of the
most peaceful, cosmopolitan and politically
important cities in Nigeria. These crises have,
however, merely diminished rather than
eliminated the city’s virtues, thanks largely to the
effective measures the authorities in the state
adopted from 2000, the year of the worst crisis,
to curb the hostilities in the state.
Established in 1912 by Lord Frederick Lugard,
first as a garrison town and then as the regional
capital of the then Northern Protectorate, Kaduna
soon attracted people of all races, religions and
cultures. Within two decades of its
establishment, it grew from an almost virgin
territory of small scattered settlements of the
indigenous population, mostly the Gbagyi, to a
town of over 30,000 people. This population
comprised the British colonizers, artisans from
other West African British colonies, artisans and
clerks from the Southern Protectorate as well as
labourers and traders from the Hausa, Nupe,
Kanuri, Fulani and other tribes in the Northern
Protectorate.
By 1963 the town had about 250,000 residents
and nearly 30 years later, the 1991 census put
its population at 1,307,311, a little over a third
of the population of the entire state.
Kaduna’s history reflects that of the North in
particular and Nigeria in general. This history
dates back before 1912, the year Lord Lugard
chose it to become the dual capital of the North
and Nigeria. The road to Kaduna actually started
in 1900 when Lord Lugard was first appointed
the High Commissioner of the Northern
Protectorate. At that time Lokoja, at the
confluence of the mighty rivers Niger and Benue,
was the centre of British missionary activities
and British trade. It was also the headquarters for
its wars of occupation of the North.
Lugard first settled in Lokoja as regional capital
to continue with the colonial conquest of the
region. Two years later, i.e in 1902, he moved
the capital from Lokoja further upstream of River
Niger, to Jebba. However, Jebba remained the
headquarters for only a few months. Towards the
end of the year, he moved even further upstream
to Zungeru with the intention of making it the
permanent capital of the North. Many Nigerians
will remember Zungeru, a major railway town, as
the birth place of Nigeria’s foremost nationalist
and first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. His
father had worked there as a railway staff.
For a while it seemed as if Zungeru had
succeeded where Lokoja and Jebba had failed; it
remained the regional capital for 10 years.
However, with time, Lord Lugard himself began
to doubt the wisdom of his choice especially
given the vastness of the North which had been
“pacified” by 1906. He then began a search for a
more central and more accessible location than
Zungeru.
His search finally ended at a location on the
Zaria plains, roughly in the middle of the region.
Not only was Kaduna centrally located and much
more accessible than Zungeru, the Zaria plains in
which it was located were well served by two
major tributaries of River Niger, River Kaduna,
which gave the settlement its name, and River
Gurara. River Kaduna itself was so called
because it was crocodile infested, kadduna being
the plural of ‘crocodile’ in Hausa.
Apart from its centrality, accessibility and
abundant water supply, the location also
possessed a clement environment. Also,
following the not-too-happy relationship of the
colonialists with the large indigenous population
of Lagos as capital of the Lagos Colony and
Calabar as capital of the Southern Protectorate,
the British considered the virginity of a location
an important consideration in their choice of a
capital. Kaduna, with its sparse and scattered
settlement of the indigenous population, satisfied
this criterion.
No sooner had Lord Lugard settled down in
Kaduna as regional capital in 1912, than he
began to plan for it as Nigeria’s capital, ahead of
the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern
Protectorates in 1914. This followed his
promotion that same year as Governor-General of
the amalgamated Nigeria. As Governor-General,
he did not hide his antipathy towards Lagos and
recommended that the capital be moved to
Kaduna as quickly as possible. “Government
House, Lagos,” he wrote in one of his papers,
“would make an excellent hotel if the transfer to
Kaduna was achieved.”
The transfer was never achieved. First, the
Colonial Office in London thought Kaduna was
too far inland for quick and effective
communication between motherland and colony.
Second, in 1919, Lord Lugard was succeeded as
Governor-General by Lord Clifford, who did not
share Lugard’s loathing for Lagos. In any case,
such a transfer was considered too expensive an
exercise by the British.
And so it was that Lugard could not fulfill his
wish to see Kaduna become the capital of both
the North and Nigeria. However, as the capital of
the biggest region in the country – at 730,885
square meters the North was more than three
times the size of the Western and Eastern
Regions combined. It was also the most
populous – Kaduna City was to assume an
unmatched political importance in the country,
not least because it became the headquarters of
the Northern Peoples’ Congress. The NPC
eventually became the ruling political party in the
North and the senior partner in a coalition
government at the centre up to the first military
coup in January 1966.
The political status of Kaduna before
independence rose a notch higher when a group
of Western-educated Northerners led by the late
Dr. R.A.B. (Russel Aliyu Barau) Dikko, the
region’s first medical doctor, founded the
Jam’iyyan Mutanen Arewa A Yau (Association of
Northerners Today), in 1948 in the city,
ostensibly as a cultural association. The JMA
transformed into a political party in October 1951
and subsequently chose Sir Ahmadu Bello to lead
it. It held its first convention in Kaduna in July
1952.
The most important symbol of the city’s political
importance was and remains the Lugard Hall
Complex, named after Lord Lugard. Located at
the heart of Kaduna and painted in the national
colours of green and white, the complex with its
prominent dome sits on a large expanse of land
that forms a huge roundabout bound almost right
round by Coronation Crescent and by the northern
end of the broad Independence Way on its
southern entrance. It served as the regional
House of Assembly and House of Chiefs during
the First Republic. Today it serves as Kaduna
State’s House of Assembly.
In addition to being the political capital of the
North, Kaduna soon developed into a pre-eminent
center of media ( Broadcasting Company of
Northern Nigeria, New Nigerian and the defunct
Today, Hotline, Democrat, Citizen and Reporter)
and of commerce and industry in the region and
in Nigeria. These developments started in 1957
as the city became the most important hub of
the country’s railway network connecting Lagos
to Kano, Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and Baro,
the country’s then biggest and busy inland port
on River Niger.
The Arewa House lies on twenty acres of
beautifully wooded land with equally beautiful
landscape in the quiet neighbourhood of the
former Ministers’ Quarters. It is located on No. 1
Rabah Road, on the grounds of the official
residence of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the regional
premier who was assassinated in the first
military coup in the country.
Apart from the Arewa House, Kaduna has a large
concentration of educational institutions including
the Kaduna Polytechnic, possibly the largest in
Africa, and the Nigerian Defence Academy, which
doubles as a military training institution for
officers of the Nigerian military and a degree
awarding institution.
People and Culture::
The state is politically classified as belonging to
the northwestern part of the country with about
6.1million people (2006 estimate). Kaduna State
is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic state
populated by over 60 different ethnic groups with
Hausa/Fulani and Gbagyi as the dominant ethnic
groups.
Others include:
1. Adara (dubbed Kadara),
2. Akurmi (labelled Kurama by the Hausa),
3. Anghan (dubbed Kamanton by the Hausa),
4. Amo,
5. Aruruma (named Ruruma by the Hausa),
6. Atachaat (dubbed Kachechere),
7. Atyab (dubbed Kataf by the Hausa),
8. Ayu,
9. Bajju (dubbed Kaje by the Hausa),
10. Bakulu (Ikulu by the Hausa),
11. Bhazar (named Koro),
12. Bur (Sanga),
13. Binawa,
14. Dingi,
15. Fantswam,
16. Fulfulde
17. Gbagyi (Gwari in Hausa),
18. Gure,
19. Gwandara,
20. Gwong (Kagoma in Hausa),
21. Ham (dubbed Jaba in Hausa which is a
derogatory name),
22. Hausa,
23. Jangi ( dubbed Gwari by the Hausa),
24. Kaibi,
25. Kahugu,
26. Kanufi,
27. Kigono,
28. Kinugu,
29. Kitimi,
30. Kiwafa,
31. Kiwollo,
32. Kono,
33. Kuvori (call Surubu),
34. Kuturmi
35. Lemoro
,36. Mada (Mardan) Mada must have migrated
during colonial rule,
37. Nandu,
38. Nduyah,
39. Numana,
40. Nindem,
41. Ningeshe,
42. Ninkyop,
43. Ninzo,
44. Nyenkpa (Yeskwa),
45. Oegworok,
46. Pikal,
47. Pitti,
48. Ribang,
49. Rishuwa,
50. Rumada,
51. Ruruma,
52. Rumayya,
54. Sholio (Dubbed Marwa),
55. Siyawa (Bauchi state?),
56. Takad,
57. Tarri,
58. Tsam (Chawai) ,
59. Tuku (Atuku by the Hausa).
Geography:
The state is located at the Northern part of
Nigeria's High Plains. The vegetation cover is
Sudan Savannah type, characterized by scattered
short trees, shrubs and grasses. Soil type is
mostly loamy to sandy type. Substantial amount
of clay is found also.