Torn Between Starving Zamfara Folks And Killings By Terrorists, Matawalle Moves To Reopen Weekly Markets
The Oasis Reporters
November 2, 2021
In the face of challenging security situations in Zamfara State, beleaguered Governor Bello Matawalle has directed the reopening of some weekly markets.
This is to give the citizens some breather and respite having been torn between being killed by terrorists and starvation induced due to lack of food and medicines.
The Governor however, retained the ban on sales of livestock in the markets which may have been the source of friction between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and sedentary Hausa peasant farmers.
In a statement issued by Commissioner of Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, the government said, the reopening of the markets, followed improvement in security situations in the State as well as series of requests by members of the public.
“Following reports of some sanity in some parts of the state, and the series of requests by members of the public for the reopening of some weekly markets, the state government has considered and approved the reopening of some weekly markets, beginning from Monday, November 1, 2021″, the statement read in part.
The markets re-opened include: Nassarawa Burkullu in Bukkuyum local government, Talata-Mafara market in Talata-Mafara local government, Gusau market in Gusau local government and Shinkafi market in Shinkafi local government.
Others are Kasuwar Daji in Kaura-Namoda local government, Nassarawa Godel in Birnin Magaji local government and Danjibga market in Tsafe local government.
“The state government however did not approve the reopening of livestock markets (kara) in any of these markets”, the statement added.
The Government equally warned against any act of violations of law and order in the markets.
The principally agrarian state in the vast North Western Sahel Savannah region has seen in recent years, massive invasion by fortune hunters mining for gold, and they come with sophisticated weaponry, trying to eliminate the indigenous population in order to reach underground gold deposits.
Another mix to the tumultuous situation is hordes of Fulani herdsmen migrating from arid and desert regions of West Africa in search of water and pasture for their cattle by trekking further down southwards and devastating the crops of peasant farmers.
Deadly kidnappings for ransom has sent most well to-do citizens of the state, scampering for safety in Abuja and other states of Nigeria, abandoning the poor and the helpless to their fate and the mercy of bounty hunters, bandits and terrorists.
The territory is vast and remains largely ungoverned. The previous governor, Abdullahi Yari was often accused of abandoning the state to govern from Abuja. This was one of the accusations of a leading Nigerian international journalist, Kadaria Ahmed when she led a group of Zamfara women to protest on the streets against insecurity, under television klieg lights.
Development indexes of Zamfara remain bleak and gloomy and educational attainment is the lowest in Nigeria. A girl-child needs score only 4 marks or less to be admitted into Federally owned colleges from the state.
Whereas in the Southern State of Anambra, a girl-child may score as much as 80 marks, and still have no fighting chance on admission probability.
Greg Abolo.
