21/09/2022
THE FADING MEMORY OF THE NIGERIAN PYRAMIDS
It is another bustling sunny day. Punctuated by the inconspicuous eventuality of nothing. I find myself gladly yielding to a weird addiction, groundnuts. Yes, I remember joking to a friend about the possibility of selling more than my birthright for a bottle of groundnuts. He thought it ridiculous and even remarked that my lips overflowed with a creative juice for humour. Of course it sounds ridiculous for a guy to put his birthright on market shelves in the hopes of getting
a bottle of groundnuts. But my adoration for the legendary nut isn’t far fetched. Historical antecedents (in Nigeria) have celebrated its magnificence with the blasts of trumpets and the strumming of harps. Aspiring to enthusiastically to the aboriginal home of the crescent were the regal groundnut pyramids of Kano. Bordered to the north and east by Jigawa, to the southeast by Bauchi, to the southwest by Kaduna, and to the northwest by Katsina. Kano is drained by the Kano-Chalawa-Hadejia river system and consists of wooded savanna in the south and scrub vegetation in the north. The light sandy soils of the state are ideal for growing groundnuts, a major export. The concoction of prominent kolanut and groundnut magnate, Alhassan Dantata, the groundnut pyramids were pyramid-like buildings fashioned of groundnut sacks. In northern Part of Nigeria, where groundnut cultivation played a significant role in the economy, cities like Kano were where the pyramids were constructed. They were seen as a symbol of prosperity and as well as a tourist hotspot. The arrival of Dantata ensconced itself on the savanna lands of Kano in 1919 and within five years, the cocoon of his economic metamorphosis culminated in his being one the most successful businessmen in Kano supplying the Royal Niger Company(RNC) with most of their groundnuts. As the 1960s progressed into the 1970s production shifted from agrarian to a petroleum based economy. This created fog and night into which the great pyramids disappeared. The groundnut value chain initiative was introduced on February 24, 2014, by Dr. Akimwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FG) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics are partners in this initiative (ICRISAT). Their objectives are to boost groundnut output in Nigeria and to repair the groundnut pyramids. In an address given to dedicate a bridge in March 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan underlined the government's aim to reconstruct the pyramids. Do you think the pyramids are still needed? How much revenue can be generated from the pyramids? What is the niche of the groundnut pyramids in contemporary economic growth? Do you think they can be rebuilt? Please Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
