WorldStage— The Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, on Friday commissioned a modern community market, which he attracted to his late mother’s hometown of Dutsen-Kura community, Kafur Local Government in Katsina State.
This is even as the Speaker performed the groundbreaking on four projects: the Darika Central Mosque, the Dutsen-Kura to Kahutu road, the rehabilitation and expansion of an earth dam, and a new skills acquisition centre at Gozaki.
He also inspected a skills acquisition centre at Dutsen-Kura.
Commissioning the Dutsen-Kura Community Market, the Speaker said the market would open doors of opportunities and boost trading in the community and its environs, noting that it would provide a safe, “orderly and dignified environment in which the commerce of Dutsen-Kura may flourish. It offers modern, secure trading spaces for our farmers, traders, and artisans.
“It is a great honour to stand before you once more, this time to commission the Dutsen-Kura Community Market. On a day already rich with new beginnings, we now inaugurate a project that will touch the daily life of this community perhaps more directly than any other.
“I confess that it moves me deeply to render this service here in Dutsen-Kura, the home of my beloved mother. Every visit to this soil is, for me, a return to my own beginnings, and to the values of honest labour and neighbourly kindness that I first learned among these very people. To build a market for this community is therefore not a duty alone. It is an act of gratitude and of affection.
“A market is far more than a gathering of shops. It is the very centre of a community’s economic life. It is the place where the farmer sells his harvest, where the trader earns her living, and where the artisan finds a buyer for his craft. It is where prices are set, where news is shared, and where the wealth of a community changes hands and multiplies.
“A thriving market is among the surest signs of a thriving people. For too long, however, our people have carried on this vital commerce without a proper and secure place in which to do so. That era ends today. In the life of our people, the market has always been more than a place of buying and selling,” he said.
Speaker Abbas added that with the commissioning of the market, “a woman who once traded in the open, exposed to the sun, the rain, and insecurity, will now conduct her business in comfort and in safety. She will keep her goods in a secure place. She will earn her income with dignity. And the profit she makes will return to her home to feed her children, educate them, and lift her family. When we strengthen the hand of the market woman, we strengthen the entire community.”
For the young people, the Speaker noted that the “market opens a door of opportunity. It will create employment, both within its walls and in the many trades that serve it. A young person seeking a start in life will find here a place to trade, to learn a business, and to build it into an enterprise. Idleness is the enemy of a young man’s future and of a community’s peace. A market such as this offers our youth an honourable alternative, the chance to earn a living by their own effort, and to take just pride in it.”
He said the benefits of the market would also reach far beyond the community, as it would open wider outlets for agricultural produce and locally made goods, connecting Dutsen-Kura to trade with neighbouring communities and the wider region.
“Buyers will come to us, our goods will travel farther, and our village will grow into a centre of exchange for the entire area. In this way, a single market becomes an engine of growth for many communities at once.”
Speaker Abbas pointed out that the project reflects the wider purpose of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, “which seeks to build the prosperity of our nation from the grassroots upward, beginning with the ordinary trader, farmer, and artisan.
“The reforms of the past two years have asked much of our people, and I am mindful of the hardship they have borne. Yet those reforms are now restoring the strength of our national economy and releasing the resources that make projects such as this one possible. When we strengthen the small enterprises in rural communities, we lay a brick in the foundation of a stronger Nigeria.
“I salute our people for their patience, and I assure them that its reward is beginning to show. As we approach the important decisions of 2027, let us remain steadfast upon this path of progress, so that the prosperity we are building together may endure and grow.
“As I hand this market over to you, I charge you to make the fullest use of it and to guard it as your own. Keep it clean. Keep it orderly. Let it be managed well, through a committee that is fair, transparent, and answerable to the traders it serves.
“Let the trader deal honestly, let the buyer be treated fairly, and let every measure be just. Let peace and good conduct prevail within these walls, for a market divided against itself cannot prosper. Above all, maintain what has been built. A structure that is cared for will serve this community for generations, while a structure that is neglected will be lost within a few short years. I place my trust in you to choose the path of care.”
He commended all those who laboured to bring the project to completion and thanked the revered traditional and religious leaders for their prayers and their guidance. He also thanked the good people of Dutsen-Kura for their patience, support, and affection throughout my life.
On the four projects, which the Speaker performed their groundbreaking, he said the mosque would provide the people with a dignified place of worship and religious instruction, while the Dutsen-Kura to Kahutu road would connect the community to the wider world and convey the farmers and their produce to market, the children to school, and the sick to the clinic.
On the rehabilitation and expansion of the Dutsen-Kura earth dam, the Speaker said when completed, it would “greatly increase our capacity to store water. It will enable our farmers to cultivate through the dry season, and not just in the rains alone. It will sustain our livestock and bring an end to the seasonal shortages that have long troubled us.”
Speaker Abbas expressed delight that he returned to Dutsen Kura, the hometown of his beloved mother, saying the community “holds a special place in my heart. Before I am the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I am a son of this soil, bound to this community by blood, by memory, and by affection. My mother was a daughter of this land, and from her I received the values that have guided me throughout my life: discipline, faith, and a sincere love for the ordinary person.
“I thank Almighty Allah, who has granted me the honour of returning home in good health. I salute my relations, our revered elders, and every son and daughter of Dutsen-Kura. Whatever office I may hold today, I have never forgotten where I come from, and I have returned to render service to the land that gave my family life.”
