Browsing: Tiga Dam

Agriculturally, Kano has been a lucky state. Four decades ago, a non-nonsense and visionary Governor, Police commissioner Audu Bako of blessed memory, built a multi-million Naira Tiga dam with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters of water through direct labor. Then, it was the biggest dam in Nigeria. The dam was built to irrigate 64,000 hectares of land and supply water to several communities. In addition to the Tiga Dam, Audu Bako equally built the Thomas Dambatta and Minjibir dams, irrigation schemes, and the Kafin Chiri dam. A decade later, under the democratic dispensation, another visionary governor, the charismatic Abubakar Rimi, emerged with an unsatiable appetite for developing agriculture and rural development. He built over ten dams across Kano State, and four of such dams are located along Dayi – Gwarzo – Kano Road, which is evidence of his excellent stewardship. Still, in the early 1990s, when some states with privileged information of Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000) entry into Nigeria were foot-dragging to host SG 2000, Kano state went the extra mile and courted to accommodate and partner with it. That made Kano state the first beneficiary of SG 2000 interventions in Nigeria.