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LGAs in Biu Emirate

(census 2006)^*

Density (2006)

From the pinnacle of the city and the Emirate, one could cast a long shadowy look into the historic kingdoms of the plains. To the north of the horizon is the Sheikdom of Borno Emirate; to the east and the west, the Emirates of Adamawa in Adamawa State and Gombe in Gombe State. Biu kingdom has had and continues to have close interactions with these kingdoms.    

    Biu may be the loftiest city in the emirate but the pride of place reserved for the highest point in the area is claimed by Tilla Hill. Many people are acquainted with this hill because of the nearby tourist attraction, the Tilla Lake. Tilla Hill, at latitude 10.5500° and longitude 12.1333°, is about 883.92 metres above sea level.

    Biu is accessible by road from different parts of Nigeria and from neighbouring West African countries. Those coming by air may want to land at Maiduguri, Yola or Gombe airports and take an airport taxi to the city of Biu, a mere 96 minutes’ to two-and-half hour’s drive, depending on which airport you are driving from. Visitors coming by road from outside the north-east, particularly those from the southern part of Nigeria, may drive for long hours but would be rewarded by the exciting landscapes and diverse cultural expressions they would encounter along the way.

The cities in the above table are from what used to be called the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria – these two former British colonies were amalgamated in 1914 by Frederick Lord Lugard, and the centenary of that historic event was marked in 2014 as this book was being prepared for publication. Below is a map of Nigeria which could help the reader get a more graphic understanding of the location of some of these cities vi-a-vis the city of Biu (Biu is circled in the north-east corner of the map – between Gombe and Damaturu).

Topography

Biu town lies on the Biu Plateau which dominates its topography. The plateau is known for its precipitous escarpments that stretch over a wide area, close to the River Hawul, and overlooking the River Gongola and the scenic Adamawa landscape. The plateau is fed by the following rivers: Hawul, Divana, Ruhu, Mandafuma, Manda Kisim, Sabil Hili, Manda Mbwla, Whu-Mandara Abdu, Mwada ka Thlama, and Gwand Zang. Hawul is the biggest of these rivers; the rest are actually mostly shallow rivers whose beds go dry during the dry season. The rivers of Biu Emirate are listed below.

    As could be distilled from the above table, the preponderance of streams or rivers in a given Biu Emirate location has topographic implications: the most topographically elevated areas have fewer rivers than the downhill communities. So, as water naturally flows downwards, lower terrains host more water courses than hilly ones.

    Above the rivers, the escarpments are stable features of the Biu environment. Their panoramic attraction stretches into the distance, but there is a topographic realignment as the plateau edges into the plainer woods. The convergence generally takes place over a relief of less than 300 metres. It is a beautiful union of two plains in those areas where the Biu Plateau slants into the surrounding land. Even in the few cases of steeply descent, the meeting of the plateau and the plains still looks fascinating and agreeable. Elsewhere, especially towards the southern part of the emirate, a range of shrub-dotted hills, generally flattened at the top, reinforce Biu’s renown as a recreational resort and the most delightful highland of the Savannah closest to the Sahara Desert.  

    The hilly table formations, which transverse the whole of Biu, bear captivating evidence of extinct volcanic eruptions. Although in recent years there is no known magmatic activity and no hilly formation in the emirate has spewed lava and poisonous gases from a caldera in its top, the preponderance of “well-developed craters with breached rims and steep sides”⁵ is a clear evidence of past volcanic eruptions.    

    Tilla is among the best-developed and the best-preserved of these craters. Conscious touristic enhancements around the crocodile-teeming Tilla Lake also make it the most-visited and, perhaps, the most fascinating crater. Tilla Lake is in south-west of Biu, in Hawul local government area. It is about 7 km from Biu. Its size varies from season to season but it is generally fuller during the rainy season. It is said to have completely dried up sometime in the past but was “revived” by a German conducting research in the lake.⁶

    The time zone in Tilla Lake is Africa/Lagos. For the lake and its tourists, the sun rises at about 06:34 and sets at around 18:16. The environment around the lake is cool and serene, and suitable for romantic or scholarly pursuit.

    When this author visited the lake in 2002, there were chalets and restaurants built beside the lake for the use of tourists but little was provided to stimulate tourists intellectually or to entice them to appreciate the culture of the area. The need for a bookshop and an arts/crafts shop, which were both absent, to complement the folksy accommodation and local cuisines being provided, was badly felt.

Soil and Vegetation

The Biu soil is of two major types: alluvial and rocky. The alluvial occur in areas close to rivers, streams and other water courses. They can be clayey in some cases, giving rise to several cracks when they shrink during the dry season. This soil type, characterized by a mixture of sands and silts, usually delivers good farm yield but its usefulness goes beyond this. It is the soil preferred by Biu potters, usually women routinely engaged in moulding and firing utilitarian earthen wares.   

    Biu’s other soil type, the so-called rocky type, is a mix of coarse earth, granite, and pieces of rock. In some areas, where the foundation for a cemented bungalow need not be more than one foot, the abundance of bigger rocks can pose a hindrance to farmers. Most of Biu Emirate has this soil type and this should not be surprising. Biu is a town on the plateau which itself is made up of basalts. Laterite beds found in the emirate and other commoner mineral deposits such as limestone and calcrete also influence the nature of surface soil.

    For instance, what the Babur/Bura call “Ngwana” is soil derived from the basalts – which incidentally form the most important aquifer in the emirate. Ngwana soils are “either dark brown clay, rather similar to the Limestone Shale soils (though not with the bogey or shrinkage capacities) or they are a red clay soil.”⁷

    Since in-depth geological enquiry into the minerals of Biu was not one of the objectives of this book, surveys in that regard were not conducted. As such, this writer opts not to speculate on the question of commercial viability of any of the mineral resources believed to reside in the emirate. However, in the chapter devoted to the economy of Biu Kingdom, we will be provided with geological information about specific minerals found in the area.

    Biu Kingdom, in terms of vegetation, falls into the savannah region of northern Nigeria which is different from the high/swamp forest vegetation of southern Nigeria. The savannah, however, is sub-divided into three distinct categories. Two belts, the more luxuriant southward Guinea savannah of north-central Nigeria and the drier northward Sudan savannah of the north-east, are known for their dense grass and few trees. The third, the Sahel savannah, which is towards Lake Chad, is in the northern-most zone: it is arid and has mainly short weather-beaten grass and widely-spaced sun-scorched acacia trees. 

    Biu Emirate embraces both the Sudan and Guinea savannah zones. The northern Guinea agro-ecological zone is semi-arid but has a thriving small-holder agricultural economy. Its grass is longer and thicker than that in the Sudan zone. Most parts of Biu, however, fall into the Sudan zone where the trees are scanty enough from each other to allow the sun direct contact with the sandy/clayey soil. But the stubborn shrubs of the Sudan savannah and its resilient economic trees ensure that the area is not unduly stripped of nutrients and vegetation.

    Environmental changes have adversely affected the arid and semi-arid north-eastern part of Nigeria over the last few decades but Biu, being more humid than many other areas of the zone, has managed to conserve significant portions of its vegetation. In spite of being on the fringe of the Savannah, Biu, on account of its topography and location, has forest land with plant species of botanical and environmental interest.

    Two of the commonest trees which line the streets of Biu town are neem and ficus (dalbeji). Other trees in the Emirate include tamarind, desert date (kurna), bamboo (kida) and baobab (kogu or kuka in Hausa). Baobab thrives mostly in the sandy high ground of the southern part of Biu territory. There are smaller but significant plants: they include cactus (hira), a tree also found on Jos Plateau and used in fencing native households, and a special Biu reed (chara) used for making arrows.

    And now, a brief comment on the most important resource beneath the earth – in terms of its impact on the daily life of the people – water. Water supply in the emirate might not have been as convenient as the inhabitants would have wished but the people have always managed to have their water needs met. Water traditionally came from streams or wells obtained from water tables 12 or more metres beneath. Water is abundantly supplied during the rainy season; many places become water-logged as water returns to dry streams and water paths, and the banks of Gongola and Hawul rivers over-flow. During this time, the soil in some vulnerable areas is eroded, although erosion is not a great ecological problem here.

    Dry season comes with renewed water concerns, as water levels in many wells recede. In modern times, local authorities and some individuals have responded to this challenge by sinking boreholes. Boreholes in arid and semi-arid areas are especially treasured because they serve the end-users during both rainy and dry seasons. Moreover, water from boreholes, even from public or community boreholes, is more conveniently obtained and more hygienic than well water.  

    But Biu inhabitants have reasons to dream beyond their current boreholes. Biu has been a city for more than 100 years and has served as the seat of a divisional/local government since 1918. Yet, the city of Biu still has real issues with potable water supply. The question of pipe-borne water has, for several decades, been tied to the perennially uncompleted Biu dam project. As at the time of revising this chapter in 2014, neither the Biu pipe-borne water scheme nor the Biu dam had been completed.

Climate

Biu’s climate is considered the most clement in north-eastern Nigeria. Its elevated position on the plateau accounts for this. At 765 metres above sea level, Biu is more than twice Maiduguri in elevation. Maiduguri is 300 metres above sea level. Biu is even much higher than Yola which, at 163 metres above sea level, is generally humid in contrast to Biu’s breezy temperate terrain.

    Although Jos in north-central Nigeria, another town on a plateau, with an altitude of 1,238 metres above sea level, is regarded by many as the most temperate city in Nigeria, Biu’s cool weather is sharply remarkable on account of the hot, humid and semi-arid nature of much of the north-east zone. Biu is a climatic oasis of sorts in that zone.

    Dry season in Biu is brief and is made tolerable by the breezy mix of hot and cold weather. It begins in December with the harmattan and ends in March just before the on-set of the rainy season. During the harmattan, all over the country, the weather is very cold, though much colder in places like Biu and Jos. However, in Biu the harmattan months of December and January are devoid of the extreme dryness experienced in many parts of northern Nigeria and the cloudiness hoisted over many areas in the south.

Tabular View for Biu Temperature and Precipitation (see graphs below)

Biu Average Temperature (°C) per Month⁸

Explanation to the Graph:

Max temperature: Average max daily (24h) temperature per month

Minimum temperature: Average minimum daily (24h) temperature per month

Average temperature: Average daily (24h) temperature per month.

The temperature normals are measured in the period 1961–1990.

Source: WMO

Biu Average Days with Precipitation per Month

Explanation to the Graph:

    N.B:Precipitation is the quantity of rain water falling in a specific

area within a specific period.

The graph shows average amount of days (24h) with precipitation during a month. When precipitation has surpassed 1mm per day (24h) it is defined as a day with precipitation. The mean period is 1961–1990.

     Biu is generally humid during the rainy season. To herald the rains, the hitherto eastern winds of the dry season give way to the surface rain-beckoning winds from the west. And Biu’s rainy season is much longer than its dry season, usually stretching from late March to October. The total annual rainful in Biu varies from year to year but annual rainfall records of 102cm -127cm are not rare. The annual record for Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, is not usually more than 76cm and, indeed, is known to have been, in some years, lower than 51cm.

    As in some parts of the country, Biu rains are characterized by thunderstorms and furious winds. Flashes of lightning accompany thunder clanks, especially at the beginning of the rains. In recent times, no major lightning-related incidence has occurred. This could be due to the introduction of lightning conductors in Biu in 1950.⁹ Prior to that, a number of lightning disasters were recorded:

     In 1927 a dogari was killed in a farm close to Biu… and in 1928 two men were killed at Tilla, a house in Biu was set on fire and the N.A (Native Authority) workshops were struck – a three-foot hole being torn in the roof and going to earth through a pillar which had an iron bar leaning against it… In May 1938 the D.O’s (Divisional Officer’s) boy was killed in the servants’ quarters to the D.O’s house…¹⁰ (Brackets mine)

    Biu whirlwinds are mild and do not usually leave in their trail uprooted trees, damaged roofs and similar havocs commonly experienced elsewhere, particularly in the southern part of Nigeria.