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Gombe State

State of Nigeria

  • 10 min read
  • 17 chapters

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Geographically, the state is within the tropical West Sudanian savanna ecoregion. Important geographic features include the Gongola River — which flows through Gombe's north and east into Lake Dadin Kowa — and part of the Muri Mountains, a small range in the state's far south. Among the state's nature endowments are a number of snake species, including carpet viper, puff adder, and Egyptian cobra populations along with hippopotamus, Senegal parrot, and grey-headed kingfisher populations.

The state is inhabited by various ethnic groups, primarily the Fulani people living in the north and center of the state, and the Tangale, living in the Southern and Central part of the state, while the state's diverse eastern and southern regions are populated by the Cham, Dadiya, Jara, Kamo, Pero, Tangale, Tera, Lunguda and Waja peoples. Religiously, between 65% and 70% of the state's populations are Muslim while the Christian minority comprises between 30% and 35%.

In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Gombe State was split up between various states until the early 1800s when the Fulani jihad seized much of the area to the Northern Gombe and formed the Gombe Emirate under the Sokoto Caliphate while the Tangale seized the Southern Area to establish their Maidom which has traceable history to ElKanemi - Maiduguri migration. In the 1910s, British expeditions occupied the Emirate and the surrounding areas, incorporating them into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate which later merged into British Nigeria before becoming independent as Nigeria in 1960. Originally, modern-day Gombe 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 in 1976 alongside ten other states. Twenty years afterwards, a group of LGAs in Bauchi's west were broken off to form the new Gombe State.

Economically, Gombe State is largely based around agriculture, mainly of sorghum, maize, groundnuts, millet, beans, rice and tomatoes mostly in the Central and Southern axis. Other key industries are services, especially in the city of Gombe, and the herding of camels, cattle, goats, and sheep which are predominantly in the Northern axis of the state. Gombe has the fourth lowest Human Development Index and one of the lowest GDPs in the country.

Overview

The state has an area of 20,265 km2 and a population of around 2,365,000 people as of 2006.

It was formed in October 1996, from part of the old Bauchi State by the Abacha military government. The state is located in Nigeria's Guinea savannah and Sudan savannah belts. Undulating hills, sandy rocks, and a few volcanic rocks make up the landscape. Its location in the northeastern zone, right within the expansive savannah, allows the state to share common borders with the states of Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Adamawa and Bauchi.

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