Kaduna

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Kaduna, Nigeria
Province	Kaduna State
Governor	Ahmed Makarfi PDP
Area
- City	km²
Population
- City (2005)	1,582,211
- Urban	1,582,211
	estimated
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+1)

Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria. The city, located on the Kaduna River, is a trade center and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas with its rail and road junction. Kaduna is also an industrial center of Northern Nigeria manufacturing products like textiles, machinery, steel, aluminum,petroleum products and bearings.

[edit] History

Kaduna was founded by the British in 1913 and later became the capital of Nigeria's former Northern Region in 1917 and remained so until 1967. Kaduna remains an important political center in Northern Nigeria today, as the city is home to the Nigerian Defense Academy (1964), Kaduna Polytechnic (1968), and the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research (1951). The population of Kaduna is (1995 estimate) 333,600. There is a large racecourse, approximately 1 mile round, inside which the Ahmadu Yakubu Polo Club and Kaduna Crocodile Club are situated. Whilst the Kaduna and Rugby Clubs are on the periphery. There are two airports. The Nigerian Defence Academy is situated in Kaduna. Lord Lugard, the 1st "Governor of the Northern Region", has a majestic legislative building named after him, Lugard Hall. Currently a huge bypass is being completed around Kaduna. The symbol of Kaduna is the crocodile, called 'kado' in Hausa. It is now the "country residence" of many beaurucrats and business men from Nigeria's capital, Abuja. It is a very mixed city with fourth generation Italian, Lebanese, and British people living there along side Hausas, Ibo, Yoruba etc. Pottery is highly prized from Kaduna, especially from Maraban-Jos, which follows close behind Abuja and Minna. There is a museum with a vast array of priceless artifacts. The main highway through the city is called Ahmadu Bello Way. A lot of the place names come from past Sultans, Emirs and Decorated Civil War Heroes. Since the closure of the Durbar, the ledgendary Hamdala Hotel is the main big hotel, with an excellent Chinese Restaurant. Kaduna has a very large market recently rebuilt after the lethal and devastating fire of the mid-1990s.

[edit] Religious Strife

Due to its religious makeup, Kaduna has been the scene of deadly religious tensions between Muslims and Christians, particulary over the implementation of shari'a law in Kaduna State beginning in 2001. One particular incident in February 2000 saw at least 1000 killed in a particular riot. The city remains segregated to this day as religious tensions and sporadic riots continue.BBC News linkWhen I lived in Kaduna from 1975 to 1982 religion was not an issue at all, in fact a number of my richer Muslim friends, all members of the so called peripheral Rugby Club, were proud to boast that at least one of their four wives were Catholic and the natural choice of school for the offspring of these richer Nigerians was the Sacred Heart School, run by an order of teaching nuns. My daughter attended Sacred Heart for five years and as Protestants arriving from Glasgow we were astonished to meet and be made welcome by the headmistress, a very plain speaking nun from Dumbarton, just outside Glasgow. Kaduna was a place of integreation - of races, religions, ethnicity and attitudes. As late as 1975 I met 'chaps' who had served in the West Afica Rifles during the Second World War as officers who still felt the need to leave the Rugby Club at 9pm to change into a long sleeved shirt as it just was not done to appear after that hour with one's arms showing. In Kaduna I discovered that Catholic and Protestant Irish people saw themselves as just Irish whether from the six counties or the Republic. I learned that my country had abandoned BPPs - holders of British Protectorate Pssports that looked identical to mine until you read the small print - in a country to which they had been encouraged to move to help support the development of British West Africa but who were not welcome into the UK without a visa. I learned that the southern areas of Nigeria had well established missionary supported schools where education was free as long as a Chritian name was adopted and a Christian lifestyle was followed. As my then husband taught at Kaduna Polytechnic he met many Muslim Nigerians who had two identities - a Muslim identity that they returned to after undergoing secondary school education as Christians in the souhthern states. The recent religious divides are terribly sad and were a shock to me when seen on news reports as the Kaduna I remember and still love was religiously and ethnically pragmatic and only interested in how much business could be done and how much fun could be had - no matter which selection of religions or ideals we chose to follow. I also watched the Durbar Hotel being built and especially remember the single pour concrete swimming pool that required a team of pool bulders to be flown in from Florida for two weeks to do the job. I spent many happy afternoons teaching mydaughter to swim in that huge, glorious pool. However the blood red Holiday Inns standard issue nylon carpeting did deserve to be burnt!

[edit] References