Birnin Kebbi Overrun by Billboards: Citizens Demand KUDA Enforce the Law

Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria — The streets of Birnin Kebbi are drowning in faces — not of entrepreneurs, innovators, or educators — but politicians. Within a few kilometers, one can count more than 50, sometimes nearly 100, billboards. The vast majority have little to do with commerce or public service. Instead, they are filled with smiling portraits of government figures.

For many residents, like Ameer Ameen puts it, this is more than visual clutter. It is a civic embarrassment.

At the heart of the controversy is the Kebbi State Urban Development Authority (KUDA), the body created under Edict No. 2 of 1991 to regulate outdoor advertising. KUDA is tasked with issuing permits, collecting revenue, and ensuring the orderly beautification of the state’s urban spaces. Yet, the capital city now resembles a patchwork of unchecked political branding, and citizens are asking: Is KUDA doing its job?

“These billboards are supposed to be instruments of business visibility, social education, and civic engagement. Instead, they’ve turned our city into a gallery of politicians,” said Ameer Naseer Ameen, a concerned citizen in his social media post.

The questions being raised are pointed:

How many of these billboards have valid permits?

How much revenue has KUDA collected from them?

Are government-related or political billboards given special exemptions?

If the answer to any of these questions is silence, critics argue, then KUDA’s authority is already compromised.

In countries where urban planning is taken seriously, billboards are strictly commercial or educational. Political ones appear only during election season — and are taken down immediately afterward. “Why should Kebbi be different?” the citizens ask.

The demands are clear: a public audit of all billboards, immediate removal of those without valid permits, and strict guidelines to ensure political boards only appear during campaign periods.

The issue is not cosmetic. It is structural. Every unauthorized billboard is a lost stream of state revenue, a blow to urban order, and a reminder that regulation can be bent when politics enters the frame.

For now, KUDA remains silent. But citizens are watching. And they are demanding that the institution rise above politics and return to its core mandate: protecting the integrity, order, and beauty of Kebbi State’s cities.

Because in the end, a billboard is never just a billboard. It is either a sign of development — or a sign of neglect.