Kaduna

/keuh dooh"neuh/, n.

a city in central Nigeria. 186,000.

* * *

▪ Nigeria

      town, capital of Kaduna state, north-central Nigeria. It lies along the Kaduna River, which is a major tributary of the Niger River. Sir Frederick (later Lord) Lugard, the first British governor of Northern Nigeria, selected the present site along the Lagos-Kano Railway for a town, and building began in 1913. In 1917 Kaduna (a Hausa word for “crocodiles”) replaced Zungeru, 100 miles (160 km) west-southwest, as the capital of the Northern Provinces; it also served as capital of the Northern Region from 1954 to 1967. Lugard Hall, the legislative assembly building constructed in simplified Islāmic style, stands at the head of the main street. The assassination in Kaduna of Sir Ahmadu Bello, sardauna (sultan) of Sokoto and northern premier, in an Igbo (Ibo) military coup in January 1966 led to the Nigerian civil war (1967–70).

      Since the late 1950s, Kaduna has become a major industrial, commercial, and financial centre for the northern states of Nigeria. It has a branch of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Most industries are grouped south of the Kaduna River near the main railway junction. The town's cotton-textile spinning and weaving mills are Nigeria's largest and among the largest in Africa; knit fabrics are also produced in Kaduna. The food industry produces beer, soft drinks, baked goods, and processed meat. Light manufactures include leather goods, plastics, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, furniture, and televisions; and there are several printing and publishing firms. The town's heavy industries make steel and aluminum products, cement, asbestos cement, concrete blocks, electrical motors, ordnance, and explosives. There are a steel-rolling plant, an automobile assembly factory, and an oil refinery (supplied by a 377-mile- [607-km-] long oil pipeline from the Niger delta oil fields). A petrochemicals plant began operations in the early 1980s.

      Kaduna is also a centre for the construction industry. The town serves as a collecting point for cotton, peanuts (groundnuts), shea nuts, and hides and skins; there is also a considerable local trade in sorghum, millet, corn (maize), kola nuts, goats, poultry, and cattle. The government's Livestock Services Training Centre with headquarters at Kaduna serves the stock-raising enterprises of the northern states.

      The Kaduna Polytechnic college (1968) and the Nigerian Defense Academy are located in the town; it also is the site of Christian teacher-training colleges and the Kaduna State Library. The Geological Survey of Nigeria (1930) has its headquarters there, and a geology museum is found in Kaduna. The National Museum, also located there, features exhibitions on the culture of the northern Nigerian states. Kaduna has a racecourse and the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (1964). The Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) Research (1961) and the National Eye Centre are located in Kaduna.

      The trunk railways from Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Zaria form a junction in the southern part of Kaduna, and the Lagos-Kano highway passes through the town. There is also an airport 5 miles (8 km) north of the town. Pop. (2005 est.) 1,375,000.

▪ state, Nigeria

      state, north-central Nigeria. Its area includes the traditional emirate of Zaria and Jemaa town. Kaduna was substantially reduced in size when its northern half became Katsina state in 1987. Kaduna is bordered by the states of Zamfara, Katsina, and Kano to the north; Bauchi and Plateau to the east; Nassawara to the south; and Niger to the west. Abuja Federal Capital Territory also borders Kaduna state to the southwest.

      The Kaduna River, a tributary of the Niger River, flows roughly east to west through the centre of the state. The state's natural vegetation consists largely of savanna woodlands. Much of the area suffered greatly in the past from Hausa and Fulani slave raids from the north, and many walled settlements remain in the vicinity of Zaria. Almost all of the state's Hausa and Fulani inhabitants are Muslims; in the south, however, there are about 30 other ethnic groups in the state, not all Muslim, of which the largest is the Gbari (Gwari).

      Kaduna state produces cotton and peanuts (groundnuts) for export. Other cash crops include shea nuts, ginger, and peppers; vegetables grown in the riverine floodplains, brown sugar processed locally from sugarcane; onions; and soybeans. Tobacco is a major cash crop around Zaria (where cigarettes are made), and sorghum is utilized by a brewery in Kaduna town. Sorghum and millet are staple foods. Cattle, chickens, guinea fowl, and sheep are raised, and hides and skins are tanned for export.

      Kaduna, the state capital, is Nigeria's largest textile-manufacturing centre and has other major industries as well, including an oil refinery. Another industrial centre, Zaria, processes tobacco and cotton seed and manufactures textiles, bicycles, and printed matter. Traditional crafts, especially cotton weaving and dyeing (with locally grown indigo), leather processing, raffia weaving, and pottery designing (notably among the Gbari), also retain considerable economic importance. Tin mining continues near Kafanchan on the western edge of the Jos Plateau, and tantalite is also found there.

      Zaria has the Ahmadu Bello University (1962) and agricultural, livestock, and education institutes. Kaduna town has several colleges as well as institutes for trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and eye diseases. The National Museum (1975), with archaeological and ethnographic exhibits, is also in the town.

      Kaduna and Zaria are major railway centres in the state, with lines from Lagos and Port Harcourt (south) serving both towns, and lines running to Kaura Namoda, Jos, and Nguru (north and east). The main highway network serves Kaduna and Zaria. Area 17,781 square miles (46,053 square km). Pop. (2006) 6,066,562.

* * *