Opinion

The Nigerian Army Day is an annual event typically held on 6 July in honour of Nigerian gallant soldiers who dedicated their lives, especially those who had taken part in World War I and World War II, as well as those who had lost their lives during the Nigerian Civil War and other conflicts. 

The families of these bravest soldiers encounter many challenges, and untold hardships as the government leave them in the lurch simply because of the demise of their loved ones.

However, the families and widows of these gallant soldiers were thrown into misery and abject poverty because the federal government has failed to pay their husbands’ entitlements to enable them to cater for their children’s school fees or university tuitions. The wives and children of these bold individuals who tirelessly made significant sacrifices to their dear country and the World, in general, should not be left in this unfortunate situation.

Mrs Williams, a widow of a Nigerian Army officer, who had died on a peacekeeping mission in 2016 in Somalia, told me sad stories. She has been suffering since that time without any help, including the government. Her children that are supposed to be enrolled in school or tertiary institutions are now roaming on the streets. What sort of injustice for these children whose fathers dedicated their lives to safeguarding our fatherland? 

In a nutshell, the government should address the plight of these widows through timely and speedy payment of their fringe benefits. In addition, the government should also set up an endowment fund. Thus, the children of our late gallant soldiers will be sponsored to schools and the widows economically empowered to continue with their everyday lives.

Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

Writes from Sabon Fegi, Azare.

Musbahumuhammad258@gmail.com

Bauchi State.

By Amir Muhammad Harbo

It is undeniable and physically known that Jigawa state is blessed with high fertile land suitable for farming and grazing. However, the clashes between Fulani herders, natives, traditional rulers and some government officials have almost encircled the state’s cities and villages in a wave of violence that resulted in many people losing their lives and their houses being razed.

Jigawa state purely depends on agriculture -so, I never see any impact on its disintegration. But, the emerging unrest has started shooting the single ball of its cherished unity and harmony. So, can you answer one question – how can the state build forward better from the current existential crisis plaguing it, especially that of pastoralists? 

These clashes and disputes are all over the land ownerships between these warring groups. It is for settlements and rearing fields to the herders as they’re there countless years back, while to the remaining groups, it is about farming for their economic gains.

The proprietorship of the lush land wants to take it from one of the parties. This has led to too many conflicts between the groups over the years in the state. It’s now more worrisome because there is an increase in skirmishes among the groups. Hostile exchanges have already started, and some people got stabbed. Many also were feared injured recently in some local government areas in the northeastern zone of the state.

Now, nonnatives residents have started coming from Zamfara, Yobe and other restive cities across the North, said a victim when I visited him. When I contacted Lutto, the chairman of Udawa (one of the sects of Fulani), he said they have been sitting with some stakeholders, but nothing has been implemented yet. A lot of sorrowful mysterious tales to tell. Yet, the government and community organisations for long don’t come with an active and formidable strategy to mitigate the conflicts.

These villagers are low-income earners; they know nothing but going to farm and cattle rearing. Taking advantage of their illiteracy in persecuting and duping them must be stopped now. They are seeing everyone as a contributor to the blockage of their future. Everyone must act before these parties start fleeing to take refuge in other places.

I hope this misfortune between heartless traditional rulers and politicians, Fulani herders and indigenous farmers bedevilling this state will finally come to an end and be over forever. But, to curtail this problem of insecurity, Jigawa has a long way to go and has a lot to do.

Amir Muhammad Harbo writes from Jigawa state. He can be reached via ameerharbo@gmail.com.

By Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan

“At least 1,126 villagers killed by bandits from January to June 2020”, reported Amnesty International on 24th August 2020. And only God knows how many people so far killed from that time to date. JUST LAST MONTH as reported by different papers, remember that many are not reported, they killed 48 people in Danko/Wasagu Local Government area of Kebbi State; 93 people in Kadawa village of Zurmi, Zamfara State; 20 people at Zungeru, Niger State; 4 and 11 people in Southern Kaduna; 7 persons including police inspector in Zandam Village, Jibia Local Government of Katsina State; 12 people at Maikujera in Rabah Local Government of Sokoto state, etc. And, how many kidnappings and Boko Haram killings? Still, only God Knows!

So as every sensible Northerner grieves over these killings, banditry and kidnappings in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi Niger and Borno, our leaders celebrate Governor Matawalle’s defection from PDP to APC and throw parties in Zamfara against the background of bloodbath in the State. Comparatively, great leaders mourn fewer deaths in their country, resign their position for such tragedies that outsmart them or show doubtless commitment to resolving the mystery behind the deaths, but ours turn a blind eye. I worry that their inhumane unconcernedness is diffusively affecting us as we become less and less shocked by the deaths and savagery of the human beasts around us.

Notwithstanding attacks on traditional rulers and the politicians themselves, like the attack on Ganduje’s convoy on their way back home from the Zamfara party, that particular nonchalant behaviour of the leaders is making us believe that there’s no way out of the “new normal” because of two possible reasons: (1) the ungovernability of those criminals, or, in other words, they are more powerful than the nation and, (2) the nation has decided to relinquish control of their places silently. When the army or police complain, indirectly, of being ill-equipped to win the wars with the criminals; that they are overstretched, and their number is insignificant to address the herculean task, I agree that the second hypothesis above is true, because the nation can do better.

On the inadequacy of the Nigerian army, Samuel Ogundipe of Premium Times wrote, on August 4, 2016, that “Nigeria has one of the lowest military-to-civilian ratio of nine personnel to every 10,000 people, a situation it said was alarming for the country’s security framework.” Still, as of then, Ogundipe asserted that “Nigerian military personnel can be found on active deployment in no fewer than 30 states of the federation, tackling internal security threats that ordinarily should have been left to the police and paramilitary agencies to contain.”

Then there is no need for us to know exactly how many military personnel we have today in the country. But it is good to know that from about 10,000 strong in 1966, General Yakubu Gowon then expanded Nigeria Armed Forces to about 256,000 strong before he was overthrown in 1975. So more than 40 years after, we still have a similar or less number of Armed forces strength.

After continuous retirements, deaths and below-par recruitments in years after Gowon, Buhari, in 2015, met about 205,000 strong and now expanded them to about 220,000. But, unfortunately, military politics and these years of democracy have politically bastardised the military through favouritism, nepotism, corruption, poor salary and allowances, inferior weaponry and morale.  So with the spate of incessant violence from 2010 to date, the Nigeria Army has been made the scapegoat for leaders’ failures.

Nigeria police face similar or worse political bastardisation. We have 371,800 strong in a country of about 200 million people. Still, the governments waste resources on recruiting Hizba, KAROTA, KASTELIA, Amotekun, Civil Defense and the like. If these youths were to be absorbed into the police force, no bandit and kidnapper could wander freely. But, I see the accurate picture of our chaotic country these days when, on lockdown days, I encounter people on roadblocks with different uniforms working for unnecessary organisations. I pity us!

We really need thoughtfully progressive leaders who could reduce nomenclatures, harmonise, expand and sanitise ministries, commissions, boards, services and what have you! We, “the leaders of tomorrow”, should make this a measure for picking a political candidate if he presents us with sound plans, especially on security services. Most police and military personnel are left without seminars, courses, workshops and training that would bring out their best. So we need leaders who will make that possible.

Mubarak Ibrahim writes from the Department of English, Al-Qalam University Katsina.

By Salisu Yusuf

There’s an established cultural practice of female social exclusion in the Muslim North that’s partly patriarchal and partly a cultural construct fuelled by religious misinterpretation, especially on business transaction issues. 

Many people wrongly and unfairly assume that women must not participate in business dealings because men cater for their needs. However, instances from Islamic history and established ahadith corroborate women’s active role in market-oriented activities, especially during the caliphate of Sayyid Umar bn Khattab (RA). I have a story to tell which will convince you that our women should, or even must, be allowed to transact.

A close, affluent friend of mine died two years ago. He left behind four wives, children and millions of naira. Fortunately or not, the deceased’s male relatives could not handle the proceeds of the orphans properly. And even if they could handle the wealth well, most people nowadays are morally lax in handling trusts, especially inheritance. Only a few handle it sincerely, while many others betray the trust given to them. So, the widows became carers and guardians; in other words, the bulk of wealth is handed over to them.

Those who had never transacted (only two out of the four) became businesswomen in their life. They are both fathering and mothering the young orphans. Although single parenting is a difficult task, the women brace up, take care of the children efficiently, conduct business aspects, get profits, provide daily bread, support the children’s education, and other basics such as clothing. I am deeply impressed by the women’s resolve to forget their differences, shun their rivalries, burry their wounds, pick up the pieces and continue to survive in the absence of the best husband and father. 

Two years after their husband’s death, the entire house fares very well, managing to survive despite the harsh realities of the Nigerian socio-economic milieu. When last I visited the family, they told me of the difficulty in combining business dealings with parenting and guidance. One widow told me how lucky they were to learn to trade even before their husband’s death because he had numerously given them startups to learn to earn a living. She said if they had not been this fortunate – under a caring husband who had so much empathy and understanding, they would have been left in the cold, would have devoured the money and would have been left at the mercy of a hostile public as beggars.

Two years since their breadwinner’s death, the women turned men survive because they can hold their heads, transact, guard and guide the young orphans.

Salisu can be reached via salisuyusuf111@gmail.com.

By Adamu Tilde, PhD.

For a while now, Nigeria has been witnessing exponential growth in the rise of certificate-awarding institutions and massive production of holders of certificates of all kinds: diplomas, NCEs, degrees, masters, PGDs, etc. Ordinarily, this should be a welcome development. But, unfortunately, this phenomenon comes at the expense of acquiring quality skills, thus resulting in the production of certificate holders with no skills at all or with some skills that are not in demand and/or have no economic value whatsoever.

One comes to realise the effects of this phenomenon when one does a simple close-proximity analysis—for example, over sixty registered and unregistered colleges of education award NCE certificates in Bauchi state alone. Most of the courses offered in these colleges are combinations of English/Hausa, Social Studies/English, Arabic/Fulfulde, etc. The questions to ask are: what are the specific skills that an average NCE holder acquires in the three years they spend in college? Do these skills, if any, have any economic value? If yes, how many NCE holders, for example, does Bauchi state need at any given time?

Again, in Toro, one out of the twenty local government areas of Bauchi state, there are six colleges of health technology and counting. Most of the courses offered in these colleges are diplomas in Medical Records, Environmental Health, Community Health, Laboratory Technology, etc. I may sound so dismissive of these courses, but don’t get me wrong. These are significant courses and, perhaps, with valuable skills to offer, but we already have enough to go around. And, trust economics, its laws are no respecters of irrational decisions: the higher the supply, the lower the demand and invariably the price. So the need to rethink why we do certain things instead of other things could not be more urgent.

Way Forward

To be very clear, I am not presenting anything novel. Our pioneer leaders had envisaged the inevitable need for technical skills for economic growth and development, and that’s why they established monotechnics, polytechnics, and technical colleges across the country. No thanks to unimaginative leadership and penchant for mass production of certificates-wielding graduates that had led to having polytechnics with more students studying mass communication, theatre arts than engineering, computer science, statistics, etc. Nothing can be more ironic.

In the following subheadings, I will argue on why we should pay more attention to technical skills and invest more in establishing technical colleges:

Guaranteed employment

Rest assured that employers lined up waiting for you once you possess skills like plumbing, welding, woodwork, carpentry, masonry, tiling, electric wiring, programming, website and apps development, etc. With an increase in population comes corresponding demands for housing, food, and services. So these skills will forever be in need, so long as we breathe. And in the event you don’t want to be on the payroll of anybody, you can monetise the skills by employing yourself. For example, a diploma holder in animal health and production can engage in the private practice of visiting farms and local markets to provide first aid treatment. There are too many farms to go around. We can say the same about a plumber, tiler, painter, etc.

Less time than conventional schooling

Most technical skills can be acquired in a record time, probably in a year or two, and then you are good to go. The most interesting thing about a given skill is that the more you practice it, the more you master it. Moreover, it is more difficult for a person to forget a set of skills than the paper-based theories learned in school. Very unlike typical schooling (a diploma or a degree), where you would spend 2 or 4 years with no specific skills to show and then sooner you would forget the little theoretical knowledge you have acquired since you are not practising.

High return on investment

Compared to the money spent to acquire NCE certificates, diplomas in health-related courses, and some instances, degree courses, you are better off having any of the aforementioned technical skills. NCE holders and, in some cases, degree holders hardly make up to ₦30,000 per month in many private schools. In fact, even in public service, NCE holders fetch ₦36,000 per month in Bauchi state. When you analyse the time, money and energy expended to acquire the certificate and the monetary reward after that, you will struggle to make economic sense of the decision. So many Keke Napep guys make more than that amount in a month. So much for a heap of certificates!

Again, as a private investor, you are better off establishing a technical college, especially if you would engage in vertical integration by employing your products (graduates). For example, you can set a company that specialises in finishing and look for contracts. Trust me; we have a paucity of skilled workforce in the building industry. We do import tilers, plumbers, welders from outside. That’s how bad things are, and that’s how vast the opportunities are.

And for those who want to ‘japa‘ (to go abroad), your chance of securing a visa and employment abroad is greatly enhanced if you have any technical skills. This is for non-medical professionals and exceptionally brilliant computer wizards.

Note

The argument here is not whether an NCE certificate or health technology diploma or even degree certificate, for that matter, is good or not. No! The idea here is that we should go to colleges and universities to acquire skills that we can use to improve our financial situation. If the so-called certificate(s) you have obtained cannot fetch you a job or equip you with skills that people can pay for, you need to rethink why you were in school in the first place. We have tonnes of graduates and varying certificate-holders roaming the street for jobs that are not there and crying for lack of employment; meanwhile, they have no skills worth employing. We are massively producing what we do not need and under-producing what we urgently need. Something is wrong.

We have to appreciate the dynamics of time. Long ago, all it takes to climb the mythical social ladder and join the much-vaunted middle-class is a certificate of any kind. Whatever or not you studied in the university is immaterial; public jobs were waiting for you. But that was then. Those years of yore have passed for good. There are no more public jobs for everyone. Internalise this and know peace. As for private companies, well, first of all, they are not charity organisations. Secondly, they are profit-driven, so they don’t employ people to fill any underrepresented state’s quota. Thirdly, they reward value— what you have to offer is what counts. You need much more than a certificate to survive. You need skills, not just any skills, but skills that have economic value.

You need to wake up and smell the coffee. Hello!

Dr Tilde can be reached via adamtilde@gmail.com.

Nazifi Umar Alaramma,

This year, 2021, had experienced a late onset of rainfall in Kano and surrounding. Therefore, the onset of rain in Kano and surrounding was computed to be five days with 83 millimetres of rain fall.

83mm is equivalent to 9.2% of the mean annual rainfall of Kano state. However, the duration of the rainy season in Kano is between mid-May to early October. Nevertheless, the rain may delay until June. This means the rainy season could not begin before mid-May in Kano and surrounding. Likewise, it will not extend to November.

As per the climate of Kano, the region falls within 100 rainy days in West Africa. Therefore, rain may fall earliest in mid-May, never before. However, it could delay up to July.

In 2021 the rain had delayed to very late June due to natural and anthropogenic factors. The natural characteristics are the routine of delay rainy seasons that happen to entire Sudano-Sahelian environments, some every five years, like parts of Mali and Ethiopia and some for many years like Kano in Nigeria.

This year could have followed the suit of those who predate it to bring rainy season late. However, it is significant to note that delaying the rainy season and frequency of drought in Kano and surrounding had reduced following the construction of Tiga, Challawa and other more than 30 dams in the state. These dams increased the recharging of clouds. Hence, no frequent drought in Kano and surrounding since the 1970s. However, a delay of the rainy season has not been totally hampered yet. 

The human factor in delaying the rainy season this year may be human-induced climate change. We believe it originates from outside Nigeria. It is linked to the general circulation of the atmosphere, which alters Africa’s condition even if the major polluters are from Europe, America, and Asia.

Nazifi Alaramma is a lecturer at the Department of Geography Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. He can be reached via alaramma12@gmail.com or nazifiumar@nwu.edu.ng.

By Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan

With the trendy disrespectful behaviour of the youth; with public pre-wedding pictures of grooms almost kissing their brides passionately and their hands resting on each other’s bosom and hip; with the loud silence of some religious leaders about the trend; with some liberals jeering the righteous people publicly when they criticise such issues, morality is mortally blown to pieces. Similarly, the surprising official claim that the children voters seen on the viral videos of the Kano local government election were Kenyans; that the good performance of APC is the reason why Zamfara State governor and others are defecting to APC, these and hundreds more nationally official lies authorise public lying and teach the behaviour to the already morally dented youths.

Today we have few elders among the aged, political elites. They are only seen as the aged with grey hair, hoarse voices and gowns but commanding no respect. They traded their respect. They hide their kleptomania in robes only to be revealed when elected. The same aged elites bring public shames mounting to international ones on us. These include the rats’ daring of the president’s office, snake’s incredible swallow of 36 million nairas in the JAMB office, the president’s U-turn on fuel subsidy, his medical trips overseas, his sagas with the lawmakers, his silence on rampant killings and kidnappings in the country. These, among others, vie with one another to damage our image more and hatch more shameless leaders. And with this trend, the future could not be bleaker.

We are politically lost, socially derailed, and hence lost bearing as a nation and as northerners significantly for reasons like that. But those who ruled before were highly principled, morally sound and well-meaning. They were worthy of emulation. They did their best to build the nation and the image that our present leaders ruin recklessly. If this trend of lying and misgovernance goes on, how would our future look like? My fear intensifies more whenever I interact with the youths. Whatever idiot-proof explanation of the country you give to them they barely understand as they are only concerned with football, music, fashion, sex and other stuff of the 21st century. Although my hopes are dashed day in day out, I think we should prepare our youths for they are indeed the leaders of tomorrow.

On the insolent behaviour of the youth, a colleague sees no wrong about that. He says that we could not crawl out of this abyss of retrogression unless we let go of our anti-social culture. But I think we do not even have such a uniform culture to go out of today. Instead, we have a confused phantasm of a life born out of our frantic effort to “glocalise” the global so that we fit in the modern world. Yet, we end up in social chaos, identity crisis and moral bankruptcy because of a change in our worldview or ideological foundation orchestrated by flamboyantly thieving politicians and morally bankrupt artists.

Our worldview is warped. Hence this man sees no wrong in being at daggers drawn with his next-door neighbour, who reprimands his child for wrongdoing. He sees no wrong in allowing his daughter to dress scantily for a friend’s wedding ceremony or being taken for a “visitation” by a boyfriend. If a family friend or brother frowns on that, the mother would be the first to attack him for attempting to sabotage her daughter’s chance of getting a husband.

Our worldview is also being warped by the abject poverty we are living in. This man confessed to having allowed his daughters to prostitute themselves to bring bread for the family. He admitted that at a community gathering organised to warn him of his daughters’ illicit business in the neighbourhood. People cried as he narrated his tragedy. The man’s ideological foundation or worldview fails to make him see the rights from wrongs. The knowledge available to him, the political, social and economic awareness are only what the masters want him to have so that the masters exploit our resources to the fullest.

We often find it difficult, for poverty reasons, to control our boys who, subsequently, lead a carefree life. They become truant; they watch uncensored movies, access the Internet, wander off our radar, take drugs; and in ghettos, smoke all smokeable things, thieve and snatch people’s valuables, especially their phones. In comparison, my father once told me that they birthed more children than us. Yet, they were able to control their movement, educate them and feed them. I told him that that was when “to eat was not a problem”.

Similarly, our worldview is warped by the government’s nonchalant attitude towards our lives. We no more look up to the government schools, hospitals, electricity and all other basic life necessities. So we live a beggarly life. Frustration kills one when they or a member of their family is sick—no hospital in Nigeria. Even the president goes abroad for medical treatment. We buy everything here. He who has nothing dies untimely.

Still, “the government can not take all the blame”, they say! Instead, their body language blames the poor for producing “too many children that the government cannot cater for”. So they leave us to fend for ourselves while they serve themselves from the nation’s treasury. Unless we speak against injustice, fight for good governance and virtues, our future and that of our children is lost.

Mubarak is a lecturer at the Department of English, Al-Qalam University Katsina. He can be reached via abusfyy@gmail.com.

By Bashir Shu’aibu Jammaje

In 2016, Mr Shodunke Oludotun alleged that many candidates failed because the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) used the wrong software to mark the exam. From insiders’ finding in JAMB, they realized the 2015/2016 software interfered with 2016/2017 results, which led to the massive failure of the students. Fortunately, JAMB did nothing about it. What can you say about that?

Take the case of using the CBT, for instance, I’m not against using the Computer Based Test (CBT), but it’s full of irregularities that led to candidates’ mass failure. I sat for my JAMB in 2015, just after finishing my diploma – because I wouldn’t want to wait for a year to further my study. My computer was so bad; it would shut itself down and then come back on. That, I couldn’t finish answering the whole questions. Allah is the Greatest; I got 260.

Ever since the inception of JAMB in 1978, it has been many people’s Achilles hill as they can’t dance to the tune of the exams, thereby leading to mass examination failure. To worsen the whole case, then boom, the CBT came in.

To a certain extent, you are correct; no one can deny that more than 70% of the students don’t study in line with the syllabus. But, there are numberless students, who read like mad, amongst them, those who sat for it more than thrice.

It’s high time you stopped placing the blame only on the students and turning a blind eye to the system’s failure. The government should bring about another body, as a JAMB competitor, so they act their ages when they realize they don’t have a monopoly over the test.

It is appalling that many candidates still cannot operate the computer system during the exam, thereby failing. I can hear you saying why can’t they join some extramural centres? How about the abject failure of the government to provide a way to help them with the training? Do you think of the parents who can’t afford that? The critics of these candidates should get themselves some more time to think this issue over. Please, do not worsen their misery.

Bashir Shu’aibu Jammaje can be reached via bashjam90@gmail.com

By Dr Ibrahim Siraj Adhama

News is often assumed to be a factual and objective account of happenings at global or local stages. Yet, news has always been a function of gatekeeping and, therefore, selective. Much is included or omitted through a selection process that is not entirely devoid of subjectivity and intrusion of personal judgement. Stories are framed to convey certain interpretations or promote certain ideologies. Facts are skewed to confer advantages on some individuals or groups who happen to be the news media owners and put the “others” at a disadvantage or cast them in a bad light. Globally, the media are being used, albeit cleverly, to promote their funders’ political ideology and protect their economic and other personal interests in a manner that is beyond what a layperson can see and understand. As the saying goes, no news is value-free.

Since its inception in Nigeria, one crucial feature of the media has been its religious, ethnic and regional configuration. Since independence, the Nigerian media have not only been highly politicized but were also found to be regional and ethnic in orientation and patronage. They seem to have fallen into and accepted the sad characterization of being ethnically and regionally oriented to the extent that issues of regional or ethnic significance are hardly treated objectively and professionally.

Northern Nigeria has always been a victim of media misrepresentation. Often, the media amplify the region’s challenges and, grossly, underreport its potentials. Of course, the North is battling serious developmental challenges, yet its vast mineral, agricultural and human resource potentials are entirely overlooked. The impression one gets is that of a region that is gradually turning into an epicentre of everything terrible or backward about Nigeria, bereft of any meaningful contribution to the country’s socio-economic development. It took the recent protests by food and animal suppliers to remind Nigerians that the key to the country’s food security lies in the hands of the North, a region portrayed by some as worthless.

True, the North has its more than fair share of challenges. It has a higher number of poor people. It also leads in other negative indices such as illiteracy, diseases, child mortality, hunger, and out-of-school children, especially if the available local and international statistics are anything to go by. This is not to mention the high level of insecurity that has continued to bedevil the region and is threatening to turn it into the largest killing field in the world.

The Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast is more than a decade old. Unfortunately, it does not show any sign of ending anytime soon. Bandits and kidnappers are on the prowl in the Northwest and the North-Central, killing and maiming at will. The kidnapping of school children is assuming a worryingly disturbing rate. The region similarly witnesses social and political upheavals with secessionist agitations re-emerging from East to West ostensibly to counter phantom Northern domination, domination about which an average Northerner knows close to nothing. Essentially looked upon through a parasitic lens, the North has disappointingly continued to be projected as the “sick man of Nigeria”.

To make things worse, the North appears not to have a voice of its own. Unlike what obtained in the past, the North has given up on the race to establish media outlets (especially news channels) to cater to the region’s information needs and ward off negative media campaigns from other regions. It was the late Ahmadu Bello Sardauna (of blessed memory) who said at the opening of New Nigerian in 1966 (shortly before his assassination) that “if you don’t blow your trumpet, nobody will blow it for you for the simple reason that they are too busy blowing theirs”.

Owing to good leadership, the North in those days was able to compete favourably against other regions in the media arena – from newspaper to radio and television. However, this is no longer the case, especially with regards to private news channels.

Since the deregulation of broadcasting in 1992 to allow for private ownership of radio and television in Nigeria, all the North can boast of are private FM radio stations and a handful of entertainment TV channels. In Kano, for instance, there are over twenty such radion stations and counting.

What the North actually needs at the moment are news channels in the form of TVC and Channels Television that will broadcast news and analysis of significant events to the world from a perspective that represents the average thinking of Northern people or at least does not misrepresent them. Enough of these avenues for “talking to ourselves” that these FM stations represent. There is the need to channel concerted efforts and resources towards achieving this in the nearest future if we are interested in changing the narrative about our region and what it stands for.

To better appreciate the need for this, one has to watch AIT, TVC or Channels Television coverage of such issues like restructuring, resource control, farmers-herders conflict or any of those issues that are so dear to the South but about which the North feels differently. The North is effectively turned into a punching bag of some sort by annoyingly ignorant noisemakers posing as analysts or barely informed ethnic bigots parading themselves as advocates for justice. Neither the right of self-defence nor the ethical prerequisite of fairness and balance could guarantee hearing from the other side. This has to be countered!

Dr Ibrahim wrote from the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano.

By Muhsin Ibrahim

The year 2020 is unlike any other in recent history. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. We now have lockdown in countries; we have to keep social distancing, wear a facemask, among other protocols. The virus batters the entertainment industries from Los Angeles to Lagos, Mumbai to Mombasa, Cairo to Kano, forcing several cinemas to shut down. Thus, shooting and showing film had to stop. Nevertheless, that boosts TV and video on demand (VoD) contents and opens a gate for new ‘genres’ of YouTube series and serials. In northern Nigeria, these include Kwana Casa’in, Gidan Badamasi, Labarina, Izzar So, A Duniya, Na Ladidi, among many others.

Kannywood began the year auspiciously with a box-office hit, Mati A Zazzau. Therefore, the audience expected to see many more similar or better films. Although producers made only a few (movies) eventually, these include the excellent, the good, the bad and the ugly. Evidently, the pandemic disrupted or ruined several plans in Kannywood, too. Anyway, the following are some I consider above their peers. Please note that the numbering is, in no way, hierarchical.

1. Wutar Kara
   The film, shown briefly in cinemas in 2019 and released in 2020, deals with a thorny yet unexplored topic of inheritance in Hausa land. Alhaji (Ibrahim Mandawari) is a wealthy family man with multiple wives and several children. As is often the case in such a house, there is disunity among the family members, some of whom are wayward. He unexpectedly dies in a car crash. Serious rancour ensues over the wealth he left behind. Finally, everyone gets their share. Unfortunately, most of them embezzle the inheritance, worth several millions of naira in cash and property, so quickly. Yaseen Auwal directed the movie while Bashir Maishadda is the producer. The performance of Ali Nuhu, Sadiq Sani Sadiq, Aminu Sharif Momoh, Maryam Yahaya, among others, is notable and praiseworthy. Dare I say the film is one of the best to have ever been made in Kannywood.
2. Mati a Zazzau
   As a sequel to Mati da Lado, the film starts from where Mati (Sadiq Sani Sadiq) wanders in an unknown village following his escape from Rimau. He and his brother-accomplice, Lado (Tahir I. Tahir) duped Rimau village people for years by pretending to be Islamic scholars. The townspeople chased them away when they discovered their identity. Mati finds himself in Zazzau, where, coincidentally, his late, rich father had lived and left a substantial treasure in the hands of a confidant. The rest of the story mainly revolves around Mati’s effort, if not trickery, to get the wealth. Yaseen Auwal directed it while Rahama Sadau & Sadiq Sani Sadiq take the credit for its production. The film is doubtlessly successful as per Kannywood’s box-office record. Thanks to well-calibrated publicity and promotion by Rahama Sadau and her team, it reportedly pulled out a record audience. Fans of the Mati franchise love the film.
3. Matar Mutum
   The film, also shown in cinemas in late 2019 and released to the broader public in 2020, exposes indiscriminate marriages among Hausa people. Malam Idi (Rabi’u Rikadawa) is a guardsman who marries and divorces women at will. As a result, he has lost count of his children, whose mothers are mostly no longer living with them. Two of his oldest children are thieves and drug addicts; another is married to a stingy husband while the other wed her heartthrob, who, quite weirdly, maltreats her after the marriage. Despite all this, Idi uses his daughter’s bride price to marry a widower, Ladidi (Halima Atete). He eventually gets sick, thanks to his countless marriages, after which everyone abandons him. Yaseen Auwal directed and produced this movie. The topic and the action stand out. Daddy Hikima’s role is outstanding. Besides, Idi’s daughters deserve better treatment from their husbands, for, after all, their father’s fault is not theirs.
4. Dafin So
   Bashir (Adam A. Zango) is raised by an overprotective mother who spoils him, leading him to drug addiction. He runs away from home and, eventually, becomes somewhat insane. One day, a posh Nabila (Aisha Tsamiya) brings her car for repair close to the refuse site Bashir and his friends live on the heap to smoke and consume drugs. He comes to the garage to beg the mechanics for food, as he usually does. When they chase him away to protect their customer, she feels sorry – or more – for him. Against the odds, she follows him until she finally gets him fully rehabilitated. Typical of such a film, she falls in love with him and asks him to marry her, a choice her father furiously rejects. Her betrothed dumps her after an accident left her wheelchair-bound. Then, the father realises that only a true lover can marry his daughter, and Bashir is one. Though the story is not very novel, its execution is laudable. It’s directed by Sadiq N. Mafia and produced by Abdul Amart. The Zango vs Tsamiya chemistry is indisputable; likewise, their acting flair.

5. Kazamin Shiri
   Alhaji Sammani (Rabi’u Rikadawa) is a wealthy man with a beautiful, happy family. He weirdly falls in love with a married woman, Karima (Bilkisu Shema), who is contented with her low- income husband, Badamasi (Ali Nuhu). She rejects Sammani’s absurd love overture. After a series of pressure coming from her bosom friend, mother and eventually her husband, she recapitulates. The film is full of intrigue and is also well directed and acted. Nonetheless, the ending may encourage such behaviour in a society known for its cherished socio-moral and religious values. It’s directed and produced by Sunusi Oscar 442 and Alhaji Sheshe, respectively. Aminu Sharif and Fati Washa did very well. Mr Rikadawa displays his exceptional talent in this drama.
6. Fati
   This film, supposedly, comes with a difference in storytelling in Kannywood. It tells the story of a bipolar Umar (Umar M. Sharif) on a psychiatric medical trial. The film’s first frame shows him in a relationship with Fati (Fatima Kinal), who eventually dies. Heartbroken, he struggles to forget her and forge ahead with his life. He continues schooling until he graduates. As an NYSC corps member in Jigawa, he sees the same Fati who, however, like everyone there, have no earthly clue of his identity. He does all he could to remind her of their past life, and so on. Many audiences criticise the plot concept; showing two separate, yet connected, stories from Umar’s psychotic state is, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, incredible. Part of the story also resembles another film, Hafeez, which is also by the same producer and similar casts. Kamal S. Alkali is the director, while Bashir Maishadda is the producer.
7. Voiceless
   Voiceless is one of the emergent Boko Haram-inspired movies set on the dreadful insurgents’ abduction of Chibok schoolgirls. The romantic thriller tells the story of Goni (Adam Garba) and Salma (Asabe Madaki) – two victims kidnapped by “Sojojin Aljanna” [The Army of Paradise]. Although that moves the plot, their love life is not the main focus. It’s, instead, the insurgency and its attendant consequences. The movie receives critical acclaim from Muslim and Christian viewers for its ‘fair’ treatment of the sensitive topic. Even though the title is in English, the film’s dialogue track is in the Hausa language. Moreover, while the actors are primarily ethnic Hausa, the filmmakers are not. Robert O. Peters directed it while Rogers Ofime is the producer. Overall, the film is a big challenge to the mainstream Kannywood folks who rely mostly on Bollywood-esque themes at the expense of abundant others in their immediate surroundings.
8. The Milkmaid
   The Milkmaid was also inspired by Boko Haram and the iconic photo of Fulani milkmaids on the back of Nigeria’s 10 naira note. Nigeria submitted it as its entry for the 2021 Oscars in the Best International Feature Film category. The film is the second to have reached that height after Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, which was, quite sadly, rejected in 2019. As the title suggests, set in Taraba state, the movie tells the story of a milkmaid (Maryam Booth) whose sister is abducted by Boko Haram terrorists. Though I have yet to watch it, that nomination is a testimony that it more than qualifies to be here. Although non-Hausa filmmakers made it, its dialogue track is in the language (Hausa). From the trailer, the film’s cinematography is impeccable. It is yet another, perhaps more significant, challenge to the mainstream Kannywood film practitioners.
   It’s written, directed and produced by Desmond Ovbiagele.
9. Jalil
   The eponymous movie tells the story of a couple, Yusuf (Yakubu Mohammed) and Zahra (Maryam Booth), whose only child, Jalil, gets sick, and the hospital demands 33 million nairas for his operation. The couple does not have that much money even after an online fundraising campaign. Yusuf also refuses to procure the funds via any illegal means, a decision that angers his mother. Zahra is a TV host and has a friend, Jazzy (Sadi Sawaba), who is desperately looking for money to pay a debt. Therefore, Jazzy, his friend and Zahra’s mother-in-law, fake abduction of the latter to extort money from the couple and Yusuf’s wealthy brother, who earlier refused to assist them due to a family feud. The film has some issues, such as an implausible friendship between Zahra and Jazzy, an unexplained motive for Jazzy’s desperation for money, and a lack of continuity in some scenes. It’s, nonetheless, a good film. It’s yet another movie made by non-Hausa producers in the Hausa language, which also features the majority of Hausa actors. It’s directed by Leslie Dapwatda and produced by Kelly D. Lenka

10. Gidan Kashe Ahu
    Yaseen Auwal and Umar S. K/Mazugal as director and producer, came with another very topical social drama titled Gidan Kashe Ahu. It exposes the consequences of poor parenting through the stories of Hafsat (Maryam Yahaya) and Indo (Amal Umar). Both belong to low-income families where the former suffers at the hands of a cruel stepmother while the latter faces a forced marriage to an elderly, harsh man who divorces women at will. They eventually flee and end up in a brothel. The movie is one of the best in the history of Kannywood for several reasons, such as the subject matter, the almost-accurate depiction of its 1980s setting, directorial work, performance, among others. It also contains many lessons for parents, girls, prostitutes and the rest. I highly recommend it.