Yankari Game Reserve: The other face of N. Nigeria

By Ogbodo Ndidi

BAUCHI

Located in the Alkaleri local government area of Bauchi State, Yankari Game Reserve offers a completely different view of Nigeria's north – a region otherwise known for the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

With an area covering 2,244 square kilometers of protected land and containing over 50 mammal species and 350 kinds of birds, the game reserve remains one of the most attractive and oldest tourist attractions in Nigeria.

Lions, leopards, elephants, antelopes and striped hyenas are frequent features of the reserve, which sits in the heart of Yankari, a town from which it derives its name located 150km from provincial capital Bauchi.

There are also about 26 species of fish, seven species of amphibian and 17 species of reptiles, crocodiles and snakes.

Various species of monkeys – including patas, tantalus and baboons – graze the expansive area, along with hippopotamus and buffalos, among others.

"These animals are on their own; finding their own food the natural way," Jibril Aliyu, a worker at the reserve, told The Anadolu Agency.

"We have well-fed lions and elephants at the reserve because they feed for themselves; the habitat provides sustenance for the animals," he said.

The reserve has more than 100 resident rangers to protect animals from poachers.

"We protect the animals by ensuring that nobody goes there to shoot them," said Aliyu.

He added that a resident veterinarian doctor attended to sick animals.

Visitors take tours of the park to see the wildlife and other interesting features, either from the park's open trucks or from their private vehicles.

The reserve has facilities including a museum, tennis courts, chalets and restaurants.

Apart from the animals it hosts, the reserve is home to five different types of springs, which vary in temperature throughout the year.

One of these is the Wikki, a warm spring where water gushes out from under a cliff and the water is about six feet deep.

Because of its warmth, visitors are able to swim comfortably and enjoy the clean, fresh, crystal-clear water.

The Wikki spring is wide, long and deep, yet shallow, depending from which side it is entered.

Another tourist attraction is the Dimi spring, which locals say has healing properties and helps relax muscles.

The Tunga Maliki is the coldest of the five springs, according to records kept at the reserve.

-Insecurity-

Established in 1956 and opened to the public in 1962, Yankari is considered the most popular tourist reserve in Nigeria.

Tourists, conferees and researchers from different parts of the country – as well as foreigners – once thronged to the reserve in droves, both to savor the alluring nature and to carry out academic research.

"This is becoming a thing of the past in view of the security threats across much of the northeast," Audu Bako, a cab driver who once did brisk business taking tourists from Bauchi to Yankari, told The Anadolu Agency.

Bako said many people now stay away from the region for fear of being caught up in attacks by Boko Haram militants, who since 2009 are said to have killed at least 13,000 people.

Bauchi State has suffered numerous attacks, including suicide attacks and bombings in some of its key towns.

"The reserve used to host events attended by government officials, NGOs, journalists and financial institutions from different part of the country," Bako added.

One game reserve employee, who asked not to be named, lamented declining visitor numbers – especially during festive periods – due to insecurity.

"Expatriates are no more visiting Yankari since the activities of the insurgents started in the area – except Lebanese, who are based in Kano," he told AA. "They do come here occasionally."

The employee said visitor numbers were seriously affected last Christmas after a bomb blast hit Bauchi's central market on Dec. 22, killing several people.

"All the people that have already booked from different places with the intention of coming to celebrate Christmas at the reserve could not come because of the bomb explosion," he lamented.

Bauchi resident Kefas Ali agreed.

"I used to take my children to Yankari during the festive period, but with the insecurity in the northern region – where people are being bombed every day – we stopped visiting the reserve," she told AA.

For the last five years, Nigeria has battled a fierce Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the country's volatile northeast and claimed thousands of lives.

The year 2014 proved to be the insurgency's bloodiest year yet, with increasingly frequent attacks, higher death tolls and a deluge of displaced persons.

A seemingly emboldened Boko Haram recently stepped up its militant activity, seizing several areas of Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where it has since declared a self-styled "Islamic caliphate."

Nigeria's official emergency body, the National Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday that 981,416 people had been displaced by the violence while as many as nine million had been "directly or indirectly affected."

-Expensive-

But many also blame the reserve's astronomical entry fee for the low number of visitors, particularly among low-income Nigerians and students.

One source at the reserve said the fee had been raised in order to restrict the area to "people with serious business at the reserve," describing the move as "a strategy to fend off miscreants."

Entry fees were recently increased from 300 Nigerian naira (about $1.6) to 5,000 Nigerian naira (roughly $28) for adults, while children who had paid $0.80 earlier now must pay roughly $14.

Many Nigerians would describe this as very expensive in a country in which more than half the population survives on less than $2 a day.

"We used to go to Yankari to organize parties and have fun, but with the recent increase, which we could not afford, we don't visit the reserve anymore," Aliyu Abubakar, a student at Bauchi's Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, told AA.

"We have also decided to keep away from the reserve for fear of being attacked by insurgents because it is located on the outskirts of Bauchi city, which is very easy for the insurgents to strike," he added.