A beautiful array of fishermen at the Argungu fishing festival. (File photo)
…As Atiku Bagudu takes Kebbi to global audience
By Abdulrahman Hamza
The fundamental advantages to tourism, culture and economy are very obvious. The Argungu Fishing and Cultural Festival – one of Nigeria’s most important cultural gatherings and destination takes the centre stage to redefine a 21st century paradigm shift from a festival of just cultural displays to a one pragmatically programmed to inject economic stimulus, flaunt the peace inherent here and eventually woo investors from all corners of the globe. It took too long for the festival to come on stream after many years in the doldrums.
The Argungu fishing festival is a national event that has become popular and irresistible until 2009 when it was abruptly stopped. Why was it kept in abeyance for this long? What about the good image it brings to a country badly in need of some laundry? I think the absence of direct benefit in concrete terms to both Kebbi state and the country at large must have played a part in its eventual halt for so long.
Can we then say that the Atiku Bagudu administration has done a good job of not just bring the festival back, but by inculcating in it, compartments that draw economic advantages reflective to Kebbi and the nation at large? The fact that it Is about to take place presupposes that there has been a shift to a new dawn that takes into account the need to leverage on all likely benefits to stakeholders. The truth is that as an economist of international repute and a man with the right international connections, Governor Atiku Bagudu has scored distinction where past Governor have woefully failed. Of course, the world has changed from the era of profligacy in the name of mere festivals to one that looks inwards in order to profit from investment of any type.
The 2020 Argungu Fishing Festival is like no other. The need to use it to consolidate on the achievements of the Atiku Bagudu administration in the areas of improved farming culture and innovative industrialization policy cannot be overemphasized. Unlike in the past, the 2020 Argungu show has received very wide acceptance across the world. The involvement of national and international bodies with sights on helping the local economy to grow has positioned Kebbi state to reach out to the world and to capitalize on this opportunity to make further inroads in its quest to develop its economy and bolster its capacity to make life better for its people. Already, Kebbi has made name as Nigeria’s rice farming hub and economic recovery destination. The successes of the Atiku Bagudu policy of opening up the state and expending huge resources to empower farmers to produce more, can be seen in the number of industries that are springing up in Kebbi state.
The rice mills that are already churning out thousands of tons of rice to feed the country and beyond are testimonies of this development. the fact that many more are nearing completion while many others are on the drawing board gives credence to a Kebbi that is on the rise to economic posterity and industrial revolution. All the industries are not only privately owned by both local and international investors, but are also agro allied base. Agriculture and mineral deposits, which have helped many countries to diversify and grow especially among the Tiger nations of Asia, has been Nigeria’s most promising leeway out of its overdependence on oil. Northern Nigeria is full of potentials for agro allied growth and like Kebbi, many parts of the North have very unique topography and arable land to grow almost any crop. In fact, there is no part of the North that is bereft of the land to see Nigeria out of the quagmire of food insecurity and economic problems.
Despite these opportunities everywhere in the North, Kebbi becomes the surest destination because some parts of the agrarian North are facing acute security challenges, Kebbi, as Nigeria’s most peaceful state, offers a welcomed advantage of amenable environment to achieve its policy of feeding itself and other countries in its immediate vicinity. On top of that, it offers very cheap, hard working and able bodied manpower to pedal the engine of growth for all investors. The population of skilled and manual labor of young men and women, stable electricity supply, very friendly people and opportunities of return for investment are additional incentives that should attract investors. Again, apart from having an international Airport in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital as well as accessibility to inland sea ports in parts of Nigeria, Kebbi has the advantage of accessing other sea ports in Benin Republic and Togo.
The nature of the fadama outlay and the advantage of river tributaries almost statewide offers agro allied investors advantage to establish sugar and wheat base industries, among many others. Rivers Niger, Rima and Zamfara crisscrossed into Kebbi by hundreds of Kilometers and all but 3 of the 21 local governments areas of the state have been passed into by these rivers.
The decision of the Atiku Bagudu administration to organize the 2020 fishing and cultural festival should therefore be seen from a perspective of opening the state up, developing tourism, laundering the image of the country at this time of the criticality of direct foreign investment DFI in economic development, sustaining and facilitating the industrial development of Kebbi state, enhancing peace through economic activities and making Kebbi the first truly African economic Tiger.
While our guests merry-make and savor the many events lined up at the Argungu fishing and cultural festival, this masterstroke of a vision by Governor Atiku Bagudu in the conception, planning, objectives and marketing strategy to sell Kebbi and Nigeria to a world that is already a global village, has truly cemented the position of Kebbi as the cornerstone of national revival.
Abdulrahman wrote in from Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, Kebbi State
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