THE Director-General of NCMM, Yusuf Abdallah Usman stated that as cultural products, the walls and gates are best managed by involving the natives and other non-governmental agencies.Kano City Wall is over 900 years old, defining the iconic image of Kano citys urban landscape. It has played a significant role in the emergence of Kano as a powerful and influential kingdom in the then Western Sudan and continued to sustain its existence over the centuries.Usman explained that the NCMM has set up a protection and rehabilitation committee of the walls and gates where members were drawn from among all relevant stakeholders, including Federal, State and Local Governments, NGOs, Kano Emirate council and local communities. This committee, he said undertakes various conservations and management issues relating to the walls. The exhibition, he stressed has been conceived as part of the conservation and management strategies designed to salvage the encroached and destroyed walls and gates from total extinction.We are totally convinced that the restoration and rehabilitation of the ancient Kano walls are about the health and wealth of Kano people. He decried that the 14km wall, which encircles the old city has been turned into refuse dump and latrine. The situation, he added could be responsible for the intermittent flood witnessed in the city and almost annual outbreak of cholera among the over six million inhabitants of the city. Restoration of this heritage, he argued is restoring the health of the people.Similarly when the walls are restored they will serve as veritable tourist attractions where visitors will come and enjoy the Durbar and other tourist sites and be able to purchase art works and other cultural products in the famous Kurmi market. It will serve as an avenue for job creation and revenue generation for tour guides, artisans, artists, hoteliers, caterers and other cultural producers.Usman, during the exhibition urged individuals, corporate organizations, NGOs, foreign missions and other stakeholders to identify and choose segments or sites along the city walls and gates that they can assist for rehabilitation. This appeal for conservation, he assured, will help the organizations to realize their corporate responsibility as well as promote national development. NCMM will therefore, welcome and consider all forms of partnerships and collaborations to achieve her conservation goals and aspiration to enlist Kano City Walls and associated sites into the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List.NCMM explained that the city walls and gates of Kano remain valued for their ancient history and cultural significance as well as the intangible traditional knowledge system and skills, which they embody as evidence of the technological excellence of the past. The heritage, it was stressed also represent human adaptation, deployment of organized labour and social organizations.Each gate has a keeper known as Sarkin Kofa who reports to his District head (Hakimi) through one of four Divisional Heads (Wakilan Fuska).The walls and gates have been scheduled as national monuments under decree 77 of 1979, the provisions of which are enshrined to the NCMM through its office in Kano at National Museum Gidan Makama.Within this legal and administrative framework, currently, the walls, NCMM noted, are in various stages of dilapidation and defacement. In some places they provide cheap source of sand for construction of houses for the city dwellers sometimes right on top of the walls. While the ditches on both sides have in many places been turned into refuse dump, unscrupulous persons have converted many portions of the wall into latrine where they openly defecate and urinate on. For example early last year a construction company, on the instructions of officials of the state government, demolished the 800 year old Kofar Naisa ostensible giving way for the construction of a dual carriage way.Usman, however, commended the consistent support NCMM had enjoyed from His Highness, Alhaji (Dr) Ado Bayero the Emir of Kano. He recalled that when he was the curator of Gidan Makama Museum, we organized a similar exhibition in 1999 where His Highness graciously attended and set the tone for a generous contribution that made it possible to carry out extensive rehabilitation on some of the ancient city gates. He also commended what he described as the prompt response of the German Embassy with a grant of N9.3m culminated in the reconstruction of Sabuwa Kafo and half the stretch to Kofa Danagundu. He stated that spirit of magnanimity of foreign stakeholders has brought the Embassy of the United States of America to donate the sum of N1.2m as a counterpart fund to rebuild Kansakali gate in collaboration with National Commission for Museums and Monuments who also contributed about N1.3m.Among the supporters of the restoration, he said are Kano State Government and its agencies, especially KNUPDA and the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning for their joint efforts at erecting barricades along Bayero University, Kano Road which serves as a buffer corridor for the protection of the city walls.
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