The Funtua and Bakori dichotomy has never been brought to the fore till the Katsina State Government announced the prohibition of Inter-local government movement to curtail the dreaded novel Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19.
Funtua and Bakori local government areas are two of the most intertwined local government areas in Katsina State such that their borders are not clearly defined to most people. Bakori and several other local government areas were carved out of the old Funtua local government area. Because of the proximity of Funtua and Bakori, residents of these two towns have always regarded themselves as living in the same town.
As children, it was no big deal to ride a bicycle from Bakori to Funtua and vice versa to visit friends and relatives. It's only a distance of about ten kilometers, with no gap of up to two kilometers in-between. When we were in tertiary institutions and had motorcycles, we always rode to Funtua from Bakori to watch movies at Palace Cinema. So, we were never conscious of any demarcation between the two towns.
When Katsina State Government announced a ban on Inter-local government movement, my first thought was how it was going to work between Funtua and Bakori on the one hand, and between Katsina and Ɓatagarawa local governments, on the other hand. Later on, the state government lumped Katsina and Ɓatagarawa as one entity in its ban, because it's virtually impossible to physically separate the two local government areas. I expected the state government to do same between Funtua and Bakori local government areas...
Now because of this proximity between Funtua and Bakori, the people living in the two towns never gave a second thought to where projects are cited in the two local government areas because all the people use the facilities together wherever they were cited. For example, Funtua Low-cost Housing Estate was constructed in Dutsen-Reme, Bakori Local Government Area. But nobody gave that a second thought. It's also not uncommon for Funtua inhabitants to come to Dutsen-Reme and build houses or for Bakori indigenes to build and live in houses in Government Reserved Areas (GRA), Funtua.
It's probably this sense of togetherness that has robbed Bakori of facilities and amenities such as Banks, General Hospital, Water Storage Tanks etc, which we all share with Funtua.
There used to be one commercial bank, UBA, in Bakori but was shut down after robbers attacked, killed 4 people and carted away some money. The robbers were reportedly intercepted by police at Ɗanja, who killed 3 of the 4 robbers and recovered the money. The other robber escaped and was later apprehended somewhere. Since then, UBA closed the branch and sold off the building which was turned into a Petrol Station. No other bank has opened shop since then. And all other banks are concentrated in Funtua.
Perhaps after this pandemic, people and the state government will start thinking of providing these necessary facilities in Bakori.