Bauchi State (Bauchi State)
Of the 36 states, Bauchi is the fifth largest in area and seventh most populous with an estimated population of over 6,530,000 as of 2016. Geographically, the state is divided between the West Sudanian savanna in the south and the drier, semi-desert Sahelian savanna in the north with a small part of the montane Jos Plateau in the southwest. A key defining characteristic of the state’s landscape is Yankari National Park, a large wildlife park in southern Bauchi State that contains large populations of waterbuck, African buffalo, patas monkey, hippopotamus, roan antelope, and western hartebeest along with some of Nigeria's last remaining West African lion, African leopard, and African bush elephant populations.
What is now Bauchi State has been inhabited for years by various ethnic groups, including the Bolewa, Butawa, and Warji in the central region; the Fulani, Kanuri, and Karai-Karai in the north; the fulani and Gerawa in and around the city of Bauchi; the Zaar (Sayawa) in the south; the Tangale in the southeast; and the Jarawa in the southwest. Religiously, the vast majority of the state's population (~85%) are Muslim with smaller Christian and traditionalist minorities at about 6% and 9%, respectively.
In the early 1800s, the Fulani jihad seized much of modern-day Bauchi State and formed the Bauchi Emirate under the Sokoto Caliphate. About 90 years later, a British expedition occupied the Emirate and incorporated it as Bauchi Province into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate which later merged into British Nigeria before becoming independent as Nigeria in 1960. Originally, modern-day Bauchi State was a part of the post-independence Northern Region until 1967 when the region was split and the area became part of the North-Eastern State. After the North-Eastern State was split, Bauchi State was formed on 3 February 1976 alongside ten other states. Twenty years after statehood, a group of LGAs in the state's west was broken off to form the new Gombe State.
As a major agriculture-based state, the Bauchi State economy partially relies on livestock and crops, such as cotton, groundnuts, millet, tomatoes, and yams with advanced irrigation schemes increasing agricultural production since statehood. Other industries include food processing and canning facilities, tin and columbite mining, and tourism in Yankari National Park and its Wikki Warm Springs.
According to tradition, it was named after a hunter known as Baushe, who settled in the region before the arrival of Yakubu, the first traditional ruler of Bauchi emirate (founded 1800–10). Bauchi and Adamawa were the two main sources of freedom and tourism for the Fulani empire of Sokoto.
Map - Bauchi State (Bauchi State)
Map
Country - Nigeria
Flag of Nigeria |
Nigeria has been home to several indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms since the second millennium BC, with the Nok civilization in the 15th century BC, marking the first internal unification in the country. The modern state originated with British colonialization in the 19th century, taking its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Lugard. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms in the Nigeria region. Nigeria became a formally independent federation on 1 October 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970, followed by a succession of military dictatorships and democratically elected civilian governments until achieving a stable democracy in the 1999 presidential election. The 2015 general election was the first time an incumbent president failed to be re-elected.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
NGN | Nigerian naira | ₦ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
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EN | English language |
HA | Hausa language |
IG | Igbo language |
YO | Yoruba language |