Northern Nigeria

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

I was rummaging through my travel pictures when I came across a picture that I am sure has not been published anywhere. I saw it in a glass case at a ‘corridor museum’ at Universität Hamburg, Germany, on 2nd December 2008. I was excited because of its rarity. It was the picture that I am sure has not seen the light of day almost anywhere. I had vaguely heard about the man from my father, a writer, but did not pay attention then. Now he was there, smiling in all glory and right before me. I decided I would take the picture to show it to my father.

Edit: The man was Muhammad Ƙoƙi, the son of Alhaji Mahmud Ƙoƙi, the Kano Malam. His picture triggered my excitement about his father, Malam Mahmudu Ƙoƙi.

Malam Mahmudu was perhaps one of the most unsung and unknown critical literary figures in Hausa history. You can Google all you can. You won’t find him or his picture. Instead, you will be taken to Neil Skinner’s book, “Alhaji Mahmudu Ƙoƙi: Kano Malam” (ABU Press, 1977). I very much doubt if ABU Press itself has a copy. My copy is in excellent condition (except for a slightly scratched cover) since it was printed on shiny bond paper – and can therefore scan very well. I hesitate to do this for fear of copyright violation. I do wish ABU Press would consider retrieving a copy somewhere and reprinting it.

On return from Hamburg, I started looking for the book – and I was lucky to grab a copy at then ₦550 in January 2009. Now, some 14 years later, you can get a second-hand copy from the online store Abe Books for just $99 (cheap at ₦74,000 in 2023). At the moment, I don’t have any ‘kebura’ around me (since the ASUU strike was suspended!). Otherwise, I would offer mine for ₦50,000 for my copy!

Quite simply, it is a brilliant slice of Hausa history. Most significantly, it detailed the fieldwork done in the collection of data for Bargery’s Hausa Dictionary, whose full title is “A Hausa-English dictionary and English-Hausa vocabulary”.

Although mainly attributed to Rev. George Percy Bargery (1876-1966), an English missionary and linguist, the dictionary had significant input from Diedrich Hermann Westermann (1875-1956), a German missionary, Africanist, and linguist. The dictionary was published in 1934. The printed copy used to be available at ABU Bookshop, where a colleague of mine gifted me one he bought at the huge sum of ₦2,000 in ancient days, almost breaking his bank account!

The book was written/edited by Neil Skinner (1921-2015) at the request of Bargery’s son, Kenneth, to collect recollections of the elder Bargery while in northern Nigeria. Alhaji Mahmudu Ƙoƙi (1894–1976) was Bargery’s Chief Assistant in the preparation of the Dictionary and was the first choice to ask in 1967. As Skinner recollected, “I began recording some of his memories of Bargery. Listening to his vivid accounts of Kano in the first of the century, I formed the idea of putting together from Mahmudu’s lips some account of his own life.”

And what a fascinating life it was. Skinner continued, “As a son of the largest city of northern Nigeria, who had been born into the civil war of Aliyu and Tukur, M. Mahmudu saw the coming of the British, knew Waziri Giɗaɗo and Resident Temple, lived to see the end of the British rule and the Nigerian Civil War and, above all, had close contact with rulers and innovators, both Nigerian and British. He, therefore, seemed likely to have a tale worth recording for younger generation of Nigerians and those with an interest in Nigeria as it was and is. Mahmudu was a spectator of many great events and participant in not a few.”

And what a whirlwind tour of northern Nigeria it was in the early 20th century. Reading the book is like going back in a time machine. Everything was covered: economy, society, governance, culture, everything. As Neil Skinner stated, the book was told by Mahmudu himself – Skinner just edited it. It contained both fascinating and often disturbing details of days gone by. For me, for instance, I was traumatized by his account of the slave trade in Kano. As Mahmudu recalled,

“I used to see slaves being sold – with my own eyes! At Ƴan Bai, on the west of the [Kurmi] market. That was where they used to line them up and sit them down, with their feet sticking out, like this. Then it would be, ‘You there! Get up!’ And he would get up, and we would look him over well from top to bottom and say, ‘Walk a little!’ then he would do so until we told him to come back. He would do so, and we would say, ‘Right, go and sit down’ and put hand to pocket and take out a little money, perhaps a score of cowries or fifteen and give them to him. You would do this, whether you bought him or not. Then, if he saw someone selling groundnuts, he would call her over to get some saying he had been given the price for getting up to be inspected. That is how we have a proverb which says, ‘Tashi in gan ka ma na da ladanta’.”

Based on this disturbing account – in the heart of Africa – I wonder how many of our other proverbs have such creepy and dark origins? If you go to Ƴan Bai in Kurmi market in Kano, now you will only see mats, books and assorted goods.

Alhaji Mahmudu Ƙoƙi provides a rich tapestry of ethnographic details about how the Dictionary was compiled and the fact that the team of Bargery and his assistants insisted on seeing actual objects and their names before recording them. One wished they had an artist with them to sketch out many of the cultural artefacts that have all but disappeared now. It is good that the Bargery dictionary has been digitized and is available free online, thanks to the efforts of Hirokazu Nakamura of the Faculty of Human Science, Department of Human Sciences, Bunkyo University, Japan.

“Alhaji Mahmudu Ƙoƙi: Kano Malam” is comparable to “Baba of Karo” by Mary F Smith (wife of M.G. Smith, author of “Government in Kano, 1350 to 1950” amongst others, and which is available FREE online!). Published in 1954, “Baba of Kano” is an anthropological record of the Hausa people, partly compiled from an oral account given by Baba (1877-1951), the daughter of a Hausa farmer and a Koranic teacher. Baba’s reports were translated by Smith.

Books like these encourage us to seek out our own cultural history – visit those places mentioned, savour their historical aroma and note them as centres of excellence in discovering our past. By the way, Ƙoƙi is a ward in the city of Kano and right on the edge of the Kurmi market. If you are from the area, perhaps you may have heard of Alhaji Mahmudu from his grandchildren.

Don’t forget; this is not a review of the book but a memory jog on the old man, Alhaji Mahmudu Ƙoƙi, whose picture was honoured at a foreign university.

There is a composite collage of the picture I snapped in the Hamburg university museum of the son, the book and the father! as the latter appeared in the book.

Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.

By Mahmud A. Zukogi

This much-awaited, much-talked-about and star-studded film series, which incidentally will hit your screens today, Saturday, February 11, 2023, at nine o’clock this evening on Arewa 24, was premiered on February 4 at the Film House, Ado Bayero Mall, Kano.

The event, which was graced by the invited guests and Kannywood’s veteran, reigning and emerging stars, was full of the usual fanfare, excitement and expectations associated with the premiere of any new film. The red carpet was lit with beautiful lighting and stars, and guests took turns to pose to the beauty and demand of the evening.

The industry is gradually exploiting the opportunities that film serialisation provides, no thanks to the exciting marketing platform made available by the leading entertainment television, Arewa 24. It is to the eternal credit of the television that such films as Dadin Kowa, Gidan Badamasi, Labarina, Kwana Casa’in, Gidan Danger, etc., have become popular and a must-watch by the teeming audience of the industry. It is obvious, therefore, that the art of film serialisation has gained currency in the industry, and Manyan Mata is coming to compete for space and attention. How it is able to do this will depend largely on the techniques and the staying power of the crew, especially the producer and the director.

Manyan Mata is produced and directed by two of the industry’s iconic duo, Abdul Amart (Maikwashewa) and Sadiq Mafia. What the film brings to the table can be summarised into three: innovation, diversity and topicality of motif. Abnur Entertainment is known in the industry for innovations that have opened a window of opportunities to the core stakeholders, from the producer down to the end of the ladder in the entertainment chain.

The film is highly diverse because of the array of stars it could gather under one roof. As far as the Kannywood industry is concerned, it takes great power, confidence and directing abilities to handle these stars, each with his/her ideals and idiosyncrasies. Thus, if any outstanding star is left out of the film, it could be a result of unavoidable oversight or a logistical glitch. But getting Ali Nuhu and Adam Zango, the northern and the southern poles of the industry, in one set is no doubt speaks of the commendable effort of the producers. Talk of the leading female stars of the industry; name them, and they are all there.

What, then, are the central motifs of the film and which has made it outstanding and a must-watch? The Almajirci question, the girl-child abuse/prostitution and the male overload of the women under the guise of marriage have been juxtaposed to educate, entertain and, most of all, draw public empathy to the raging social issues putting us down as a people.

The premiere opens with electrifying scenes of these social motifs, and this drew great excitement from the audience, who expressed individual understanding and appreciation of the representations in the film and its many expectations.

Veterans of the industry were well represented, ranging from Kabiru Maikaba, Shehu Hassan Kano, Hajiya Saratu Gidado Daso and the like. No less represented were the leading directors in the industry who came to support one of their own. There were expressions of appreciation and critique of the film, which was well received by the directing crew.

Overall, the premiere evening was full of life, excitement, and encomiums for the head of Abnur Entertainment, Abdul Amart, for his creativity and vision.

The greatest oversight is the industry’s inability to tap into the opportunities provided by the university which is next door. As far as the industry is concerned, there has not been a concerted effort to establish the needed relationship between and gown, a beneficial relationship that would help to grow the industry and take it to a whole new level of growth and worldwide visibility.

Strong institutional linkage is desperately needed to grow the art and economy of this under-tapped multibillion-dollar industry. I’m aware that scholars such as the respected Professor have invested so much energy in intellectual research that would have propelled the industry to the worldwide heights it ought to be. Same for Professor Yusuf Adamu, Ibrahim Malumfashi and, lately, Dr Muhsin Ibrahim, who has published widely and recently completed his PhD on a topic related to the industry at the University of Cologne.

Yours sincerely and his colleagues were only there in their individual capacity and not on institutional representation, which shouldn’t be the case.

It is thus necessary and about time that this costly oversight is remedied. The industry needs to open up and embrace change, and the best way to do this is to key into the opportunities they stand to gain by establishing a solid relationship with the university to improve its art and human capacity. I also believe this should be a two-way process, so the university should take the industry into confidence and dispel its image of unapproachability.

Mahmud Zukogi can be reached via mabuzukogi78@gmail.com.

Muhammad Ubale Kiru

Adam A. Zango, for those of you who don’t know him, is a Kannywood Film actor who is popularly known as Adamu Usher for his spectacular dance steps. He appeared in more than 100 Hausa films over the years.

While lamenting why his marriage is in chaos, Adam identified that his wife committed a number of mistakes that may probably lead to their divorce. One of the mistakes mentioned was that she posted a video of herself taken at a beauty parlour while having henna (kunshi) done on her and at the same time dancing.

He indicated that such action was something he prohibited all his wives from doing, and he was devastated by the action. Hence, he stated it as one of the things she did. Now, the irony is this – these people have no shame in picking young girls to act in their movies. They have no shame in displaying these young girls on TV dancing and sometimes even touching them. However, they know quite well that it is wrong, yet they lure young girls into it.

Adam felt so bad that he is thinking about divorcing her because of what he himself is doing with other women and yet posting on the internet.

Dear ladies: You see, most of you are not smart. Men can do things and run away with it, but can you? Adam can spend 50-60 years of his life acting, but for you, the maximum is 40-45. This means what you are doing is not really a good business because, in the end, they will use you and then dump you. They know so well that it is not right, yet, they get you involved because they don’t care about your life or future.

In an interview with Hadiza Gabon, she was asked about when she would be getting married or if she had a fiancee. In her response, she said, “yes, I have a fiancee. As for when I will marry, that I don’t know because I can’t marry off myself”. They have plenty of suitors, but will they be ready to commit to marriage? The answer is NO. because Film is a bad business for women. It doesn’t matter whether it is Kannywood or Hollywood. The majority of them spend their lives pursuing lusty men and, in the end, commit suicide or die in nursing homes helplessly and full of regrets.

By Ibraheem A.Waziri

Every election season in Nigeria comes with its provoking premises and issues! This time around, apart from the usual North and South, Muslim and Christian divides that are often most prominent than party affiliations; a new dynamic which has not yet caught public attention has been added up to the mix. The struggle to maintain relevance between two different categories of Northern eldership or leadership. These two categories, in the realm, are separated primarily by order of generational cohort (GC) in age!

Falling back to the scholars in anthropology, we learn that a GC is usually pegged at 15-20 years. All persons born within such intervals are regarded to, more or less, belong to the same groupings defined by the same circumstances; social, economic, and cultural events and would likely share some core elements in perspectives, tastes and life preferences.

Since the completion of the taking over of Northern Nigeria by the British in 1903, a generation who will eventually become Nigerians from the territory began to be given birth to that same year. Therefore the first generational cohorts (GC) of Northern Nigerians can be said to be those born between 1903 and 1919. That is if the mode at which boys usually reach puberty is considered as the norm to be 16 years!

The second GC came between 1919-35. The third was between 1936-51. This GC is the one that did the 1967 military counter-coup and prosecuted the then Nigerian civil war from the Northern Nigerian side led by 2nd GC member, General Yakubu Gowon, as Head of the Nigerian state.

One can be right to say that the 3rd GC of Northern Nigerians has been influencing politics and government policy not only in the North but in Nigeria from that time until now! The politicians among them, intellectuals and business owners, have been holding the region at its nape!

After the 2019 elections, some pundits among us have been harping about the fate of the North come 2023, as it was obvious that the 3rd GC are threatened by senesces and, therefore, very weak. The assumption is that they will reach a consensus among themselves to identify an able group of successors to hand over the affairs of the North and fade themselves into retirement, having put in their best for about 57 years now! The longest any GC have been there and probably will ever be.

None of us thought that the successor cohort, the 4th GC, born between 1952-67, would need to necessarily put up a fight to dislodge the 3rd GC from the power circle and forcefully take over like what is happening now in the ruling party.

However, since the statement made in Abeokuta on the 25th of January, 2023, in a campaign rally, by Asiwàju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) party presidential candidate; to the effect that there are saboteurs in the Presidency – which ironically is occupied by his party – who are against his emergence as winner of the 2023 presidential Elections slated to hold 25th of February, 2023.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, though a Southerner, enjoys the support of 14 of the 19 Northern Governors, who are from the ruling party. 11 of them also belong to the 4th GC. 1 belongs (Borno State) to the 5th GC. 

Kaduna State Governor, an outspoken element among them, has granted a series of interviews on the 1st and 2nd of February 2023. To a number of media Houses, including BBC and TVC, in both Hausa and English, implying that some 3rd GC Northern influencers around President Muhammadu Buhari (who is himself a member of the same cohort) are plotting to work against their candidate! By following other means, they do that to ensure a member of the 3rd GC, Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People Democratic Party (PDP), and a Northerner emerge as the winner of the 2023 presidential Elections!

The ultimate question now, apparently, is whether the people in the North will agree to prolong the tenure of leadership and eldership of the 3rd GC Northerners, adding another eight years to their 57 years, making it 65 long years. Or, in the alternative, they want to hand over the realms of their leadership and eldership to the 4th GC Northerners; to bring their own uniqueness to the table early enough.

It is obvious that the 4th GC Northerners, born during the years building up to the civil war to its end, have different perspectives and arguments about how Northerners should see themselves and live with their neighbours in Nigeria. They don’t view Southerners with the kind of suspicion the 3rd GC Northerners think of them. It is why in the first place, they would resolve to fulfil the unwritten agreement of power shift to the South in 2023.

Some members of the 5th GC of Northerners, either those born between 1968-83, would appreciate seeing a new perspective taking control of the space and atmosphere of Northern Nigeria come 25th February 2023. It will guarantee an experiment with fresher perspectives that are sure catalysts to positive change and comprehensive progress, not the same old perspective that has dominated the space for 57 years. 

Also, it is only when the 4th GC Northerners move a little higher on the ladder that the 5th GC Northerners, the post-civil war generation, will enjoy a certain degree of influence at some social plane. The same thing with the 6th GC Northerners, born between 1984-1998, the military rule generation. Also, the 7th GC Northerners, born between 1999 – 2015, Fourth Republic, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule generation. Each movement on the ladder creates opportunities for growth and stability for others to play their role and display their God-given talent for the benefit of all.

These can be among the reasons why most Northern Nigerians would consider lending their support to the 4th GC Northern leaders in their bid to take control now. Politicians and bureaucrats like Nasir El-Rufai, intellectuals and opinion leaders like Dr Aliyu Tilde, Mahmud Jega; Abdulaziz Abdulaziz of the 5th GC and a host of other businessmen and religious leaders deserve this chance to move us to another level of life-changing perspective with Asiwàju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Nigerian leadership come 25th February 2023!

Ibraheem A. Waziri wrote from Zaria, Kaduna State. He can be reached via iawaziri@gmail.com.

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

Muhsin Ibrahim had started a very interesting thread on his Facebook wall about language usage in northern Nigeria. Basically, the argument is about whether predominantly Hausa (his publics) should intensify their use of English in public discourse, especially now that things are getting more virtual. There has been a lot of resistance in using English among the Hausa because of the belief that using English (or other languages, except Arabic) leads to the erosion of identity. Muhsin urges the Hausa to embrace or at least immerse themselves as much as they can in the English language to gain a competitive advantage. I agree with him.

The arguments against the use of English are predicated upon language and identity. Generally, language symbolizes our identity and conveys identities to those who speak them. But how true is this in an interconnected world? I have a friend whose children were born in Hong Kong. They are adults now. They hardly speak Hausa. Does that make them Chinese? Imagine an Urdu-speaking Pakistani immigrant whose children were born in Wales and do not speak Urdu. Does that make the children Welsh?

In South Africa, the apartheid regime used language as one of the yardsticks, besides skin colour, to develop its divide-and-rule ideology against the black population. If a Black South African somehow was able to speak fluent Afrikaans, does that shifts his identity and make him White? I have encountered Hausa merchants in the Deira section of Dubai’s textile market speaking fluent Hindi – are they then Indians?

I once encountered a Yoruba mechanic in Gusau – born and bred there, but could only speak the Sokoto dialect of Hausa, not my absolutely wonderful Kano dialect, and informed me that although his parents were Yoruba, he does not speak the language. So, what was he? Bayarabe or Bazamfare? The Kano Hausa even created sociolinguistic categories for his situation: ‘Ɗan Kasa’ (‘son of the soil’), ‘Muna Kano’ (immigrant non-Hausa, Hausa-speaking), ‘Muna Hausa’ (immigrant, non-Hausa, retaining immigrant language identity). The two ‘outsider’ categories are easily recognized by Kanawa, who describe their Hausa as ‘wata iri’/strange. Oh, they will interact freely with you – until you come to marry one of their daughters!

So, does merely speaking a particular language confer on the speaker the identity of the originators of the language? We learn English and Arabic. Become fluent in them. Does that make us English or Arabs? Thus, if we speak other languages besides our mother tongue, does that shift the specific gravity of our identity? I have three adult children (an oxymoron, I know, but there you are!). We always address each other in Hausa, but we always write to each other in English! Does that alter our identity?

Then the big one. Any DNA test on me will reveal that I am genetically Fulbe (Silsilɓe/Torodbe mix). I don’t speak Pulaar. I tried to convince myself that I should speak Pulaar as a form of anchor to an identity. When I asked Aliyu U. Tilde about the easiest way to learn the language of my genetic ancestors, he suggested marrying a Fulɓe woman! Not on the cards – I am a single-wife person for life.

So, I moved into the anthropology of cultural preservation. At one stage, I was even the Grand Patron of the Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (FULDAN) Kano Branch. During one or two erratic meetings, I was the only one who could not speak Pulaar – and I was the Chairman! We set up an evening class school at Gidan Makama school in Kano to teach Pulaar. Not many people came – despite the usual posturing of many Kanawa that they are Fulɓe.

Next, with some funding from Maison des Cultures du Monde in Paris, I produced two CDs of Pulaar children’s songs (Surbajo, Short Round Crew), and with the help of the British Council in Kano, held a Pulaar music festival, Voices from the Desert, and included a Pulaar rap song (Wazobia Waru). I have no clue what the artists were singing! I next personally sponsored a series of video lessons on how to speak the language and paid lots to make the finished product sleek and professional. I planned to upload the lot on YouTube. That was four years ago. I never got around to it. If I could, somehow, learn Pulaar, what, exactly, would I do with it – none of my publics speaks it; so, with whom will I converse this new form of lost-and-found language identity?

I stopped all that and quit deceiving myself on the issue. Not even my great-grandparents from both sides of the genetic pool spoke it. At all. Only lovely, glorious, wonderful Hausa. In this, I stand with The Nigerian Bahaushe, where I belong. Gregor Mendel, the father of the modern study of Genetics, rest in peace.

So where do I find the intersection of my identity – at the junction of Hausa and Pulaar languages? And please, don’t say ‘Hausa Fulani’. There is absolutely nothing like that. The fact that the ‘Hausa’ was written before the ‘Fulani’ suggests a linguistic dominance, at the very least, not a genetic chiasma.

Yes, there is often a particularly strong link between language and a sense of belonging to a national group, a sense of national identity. Further, although fears are voiced in some countries about the loss of national identity caused by learning foreign languages, especially English, there is little, if any, research evidence to justify this fear. Studies of language and identity have traditionally focused on how individuals or groups maintain, construct, project or negotiate their social identities in and through linguistic practices. Speaking English, however, does not make you English (not to talk of being Welsh, Irish, or Scottish), even if you are British.

It is believed that languages become endangered when they are not passed on to children or when a metropolitan language dominates over others. The tenacity of the Hausa language and its speakers will only endanger those who come in contact with Hausa, not the other way around. No matter how much immersion in English the Hausa have, I doubt if they are in danger of losing their language and identity. After all, what is identity?

Broken down to the interpersonal level, identity is a person’s sense of self, established by their unique characteristics, affiliations, and social roles. We must therefore see identity as a shifting focus on multiple planes – cultural identity, professional identity, ethnic and national identity, religious identity, gender identity, etc. Language can bind but not suppress them.

Thus, acquiring the English language gives the Hausa a competitive advantage in any international communication while, at the same time, tenaciously retaining their identity. I know. I am one of them!

Prof. Adamu can be contacted via auadamu@yahoo.com.

By Maimuna Abubakar

People’s opinions of others have always psychologically impacted their social relationships and behaviours without considering an individual’s mental state and capacities. Many people say things to each other that are more painful than some physical injuries. Often that has detrimental effects on the psychological well-being of the parties involved. The issue of body shaming often results in self-loathing and even compels people to yearn for people’s validation.

Body Shaming is the act of humiliating a person by mocking, making jest, or making critical comments about their physical appearance in the form of the person’s body size, shape or weight.

Often, those who body-shame others claim to be just joking. However, the negative impacts of body shaming are numerous; it makes victims self-conscious, brings about issues of low self-esteem and poor self-confidence, and makes victims question their self-worth. Mentally, it creates the feeling of self-disgust or shame in the victims, while some feel like they have some biological defects like something is wrong with their biological makeup.

The media, especially social media and some product marketers, have succeeded in projecting what an “ideal body type” should look like, which is where most body type critics derive their inspiration. They believe that one has to be at least close to those “ideal body types” or that such a person is lacking in their physical structure.

Although fat shaming is the most common form of body shaming, people must understand that ‘skinny shaming’ is just as hurtful as fat shaming. Because some people are naturally thin or fat, it is in their genetics. Therefore, they can’t just gain weight or lose it simply because people say they should.

Body shaming has led many people to develop eating disorders that can be fatal to their general health, such as Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa.

Bulimia or Bulimia Nervosa is a serious disorder that occurs chiefly in females, characterised by compulsive overeating usually followed by self-induced vomiting and is often accompanied by guilt and depression.

Anorexia or Anorexia Nervosa, on the other hand, is another serious disorder in eating behaviour characterised by a pathological fear of weight gain leading to faulty eating patterns such as prolonged starvation.

Eating disorders are currently the mental conditions with the highest mortality rates, as research statistics show in Japan, the USA and other cities worldwide (BMC Psychiatry: 2020).

Body shaming has led to so many attempted suicide. Victims of body shaming, over time, begin to hate themselves as they view themselves through the lenses their critics see them. So many potentials are not discovered because victims of body shaming dread people’s criticism about their physique and, as a result, prefer to keep themselves hidden.

When I opened up a discussion about body shaming with some of my friends and classmates, it surprised me how many of us have, at one point in life, suffered at the hands of body type critics, and some are still suffering.

One of such friends, who is chubby, told me that when she was in her second year at the university, her roommate pleaded with her not to conceal her beauty by putting on the hijab over her well-tailored dress. When she refused to oblige, her roommate accused her of being insecure about her body weight and diagnosed her with an inferiority complex. She said that comment made her see herself differently and that throughout that academic session, she questioned her every action, constantly assessing herself until she deliberately learned to love herself for who she is.

Another close friend recounted how her close friends, immediate and extended relatives, would say things like: “Ina zaki kai wannan jiki haka?”, “Da dai kin rage cin abinci ya fi ye maki saboda maza bã sã son mace mai qiba“, “Wacce ko kyau ba ki yi ba. Wannan qiba haka wazai kwasa?” Her friends will joke about her body size, “me kike ci ne haka, muma a san ma na mu ci mu yi qiba“.

They possibly may not intend to hurt her feelings, but little did they know that such comments shatter their friends’ and families’ self-esteem.

Another said that her professor kept addressing her as a married woman, always asking her about her husband and children in class. Her classmates would laugh about it, and she would laugh too. Still, it hurt her every time he made such comments because she believed he assumed she was married simply due to her plus size.

A very close friend said that when she was a teenager, she hated herself so much that she always had suicidal thoughts because people kept telling her that she was too thin, too skinny, too bonny, shapeless etc. “Don’t put on tight-fitting jeans; it’ll expose your thinness”, “Put on baggy dresses to conceal your shapelessness”, “You look more like a boy than a girl”, “You’re ugly and unattractive, please eat some fatty foods to help you gain weight so that you’ll look presentable”, etc.

Although females get more body shamed, men, too, are victims on several occasions. A cousin has refused meals several times because anytime he sits to eat, his parents remind him how fat he is growing and how he needs to watch his weight. They will always compare his size to his friends and other cousins. These are his very own parents!

Another 20-year-old I met recently told me she wished God hadn’t created her because when she was in secondary school, some of her classmates and neighbours always complained about how thin and unattractive she was. It made making friends difficult for her because she couldn’t discern who liked her for real and who was just tolerating her. She, therefore, grew up in solitude, always alone. But now she finds herself in the university and realises she can’t continue her solitary life, yet she doesn’t know how to approach people. She was literally scared of even talking to me.

So, to the parents who see fault in their children’s biologically inherited physical structure, I hope you remember your role in bringing such a child to life. If you find their body size, shape or weight repulsive, remember that your genetics created them.

To friends ( or so-called), relatives ( immediate and extended ) and other members of society, please DO NOT verbally abuse people with your judgemental, unsolicited opinions of them. There’s no nice way of body shaming; “I was just joking” is only an excuse to humiliate people whose daily struggles your feeble mind may not be able to contain.

Finally and most importantly, to the victims of people’s insensitive, inhumane criticism about how you look and why you look that way, know that YOU DO NOT need anyone’s validation to be whom you want to be. Work on yourself, eat healthy, exercise to avoid illness, and keep a healthy head space.

Maimuna Abubakar is a Sociology student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She sent this article via maimunaabubakar200@gmail.com.

By Musa Kalim Gambo

Around this time in 2015, the most populous black nation on earth was on the eve of casting her protest votes in favour of a highly populist politician. A politician who has by then taken blows from three different rounds of defeats at the polls. The very politician who has promised to end our perennial problems of corruption, insecurity, and economic instability once he emerged as the Grand Commander of our beloved nation. This promise was well accepted with the only collateral of a previous track record and a much-touted reputation of integrity. A dim lamp of hope was hoisted so high that the septuagenarian holding would sweep away all our troubles. He would lead us to prosperity and make life so easily affordable to even the almajiri on the streets.

When this Messianic politician finally defeated a sitting president with the free votes of the talakawa, it was a precedence that many of us have never imagined would ever occur in our part of the world or lifetime – in an atmosphere so chaotic and toxic, where powerful politicians could easily use instruments of the state and streets to hijack the God-given democratic will of the people.

When this occurred, there was celebration all over the nation – many patriots either slaughtered animals or lost their lives at the climax of the celebration of this ‘change’, the infamous slogan of the political party of the Messiah. So life was supposed to change for the better. Now we have one of us at the Rock, one who deeply cares about our woes. Almost eight years later, life continues to get bitter at an exponential rate.

The very people who would throw heavy rocks at anyone who dares criticise the Messiah now despise his name. Some of them were reported to have thrown rocks in the air last week as a form of protest against the new developments that have emerged out of his determination to leave a ‘legacy’ of a better nation. A state governor almost withdrew an invitation extended to the Messiah to commission some of the good works that have been done for the benefit talakawa of his state. With this turn of events, one wonders, are we living a mass national nightmare? Life could only have so changed in a nightmare – someone has to wake us up – the dream of buying a liter of PMS at the rate of ₦50 must not metamorphose into ₦185, or is it ₦350? Please wake me up. No one should remember that ASUU has been on strike for cumulatively over two years in the past eight years. This was not part of our dreams when we set out to vote for a Messiah in 2015. Let us only remember that events at the international scenes shaped our local reality, even if our dream is obviously a nightmare now.

It is certainly true that it is now safe to travel on the highways of the Northeast, even at night, unlike before and in the early days of 2015. But how safe is it to travel in the North-west even at midday today? How safe is it for the talaka in Birnin Gwari to go to his farm? Anyway, the road was safe for the presidential candidate of the ruling party to have travelled for several hours recently.

So much has been anticipated about the coming this year. At some point, I thought of boarding the Abuja – Kaduna train to escape from the uncertainties leading to this year of hikes in fuel price and scary increases in the price of basic food items that keep the talaka alive, like the maize.

As this much-awaited year began, I have so much concern, especially over this maize. There are contending issues surrounding the new elite status that our maize has acquired – the cost of fertiliser, which would still not have prevented farmers from producing this food item, and the devils who have now taken control of the farmlands. These devils, the kidnappers, I hear, are gradually being neutralised by the gallant men of the Nigerian armed forces.

Being an election year, we will now be out in search of a new Messiah – one who will save us from the turbulent realities that we have endured. We forget that politicians would not save us. If they would, by now, we would have been across the Red Sea like the people of Moses on our march towards the Promised Land.

In the end, we must now learn to be weary of those politicians who stand at the centre of the market square to lay claim that they have a silver bullet to all our troubles. Of course, we cannot stop them from making promises of turning the hell we are facing into an earthly paradise, but we must not forget to subject them to serious interrogation. We must not forget to seek a clear understanding of the nature of the policies they intend to implement.

If Nigeria has proven so difficult, so challenging, so complex, for even the finest leader of the millennium, the Messiah who has presumably done all the best he could, who do you think would have the stamina to step into this giant pair of shoes now stuck in the thick mud of economic instability, uncertainty on major highways, the prohibitive cost of living, and the rise of non-state actors preventing the talaka from going to his farm in the bush? February 25^th would be the day to cast our answers down into the ballot box.

Gambo writes from Zaria and can be reached at gmkalim@hotmail.com

By Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad

I was thinking of a befitting title for this short tribute when I stumbled upon the adage above. It loosely translates to ‘character is a life companion’ and aptly summarises the thoughts running through my mind seeing the pool of praises resulting from the death of His Highness Sarkin Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Muhammad Sanusi.

The life and times of great men teach subsequent generations about the true essence of life. Eulogies and tributes from equally great people are a testament of honour and moral eminence. The late Sarkin Dutse is a quintessence of nobility and magnanimity, a monarch with so much panache yet full of humility.

If the most beautiful ones amongst us would stay longer or forever, death would never have approached this epitome of scholarship and royalty. But immortality remains a characteristic of our Creator, the Lord of the worlds and to whom we shall all return.

I recently learnt that purpose and passion mean different things. Purpose revolves around using your passion for impacting the lives of others. The life of the late Sarkin Dutse exemplifies this to a great extent. He used his passion for philanthropy to create a rather better world far and wide. His life and leadership are true symbols of purpose, benevolence and contentment.

Late last year, I received a generous gift of his book (autographed by himself), which captures his experience growing up and memoirs from his several travels and encounters. I could not contain the joy of seeing my name handwritten by the Emir himself. I was meant to meet him after finishing the book, but as God would have it, it was never destined to be.

The second page of this book carries the following, which is also a summary of how he lived his life: “When you were born, you cried, and the whole world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice”. Sarkin Dutse truly lived up to these words. We can hear cries from beyond Dutse. The world has yet again lost one of its finest.

The praises and prayers we hear give us hope that the reward of the beauty he created in this world is awaiting him in his afterlife. Navigating through the pain of the lost, we can only hope and pray that God almighty will count him among those He has bestowed His favours upon from amongst the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. May all the good he has done forebear him from every torment of the afterlife.

Allah Ya jikan Sarki!

Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad wrote from Kano, Nigeria.

By Mubarak Shu’aib

Portrayed as a fraud. Painted as a failed leader by others, there’s more to President Muhammad Buhari’s tenure than meets the eye. Charged with the titanic assignment of bringing Nigeria back and on track, his ascension to the Number One seat in 2015 highlighted the arrival of a new era. 

No living politician enjoyed the overwhelming support, love, care, concern etc., like Buhari. However, the time he spent in power has proven to be anticlimactic. Rightly so? 

President Buhari’s biggest flaw, his Achilles heel, can be summarised in one word. Narrow-mindedness.

His failure to recognise, acknowledge or accept ideas other than his own, even when reasons suggested, proved to be his greatest weakness. In addition, he’s a staunch critic who sees no good in his political rivals, except for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), who later handed him power on a silver platter. From labelling fuel subsidy as “Fraud”  and blabbing Jonathan’s efforts in his fight against the Boko Haram insurgency to touting the ASUU strike as something that could be resolved in a blink of an eye.

When he was declared the winner of the 2015 Presidential election, nothing but the second return of Jesus could elicit such a nationwide reaction. 

The Good:

From his inaugural speech, Nigerians, both at home and in the diaspora, were swept in joy. More interesting was his (in) famous line, which rekindled our hope, “I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody.”  He further added, “My appeal for unity is predicated on the seriousness of the legacy we are getting into. With depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts, the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble and will require careful management to bring it around and to tackle the immediate challenges confronting us, namely; Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages and unemployment especially among young people. In the longer term, we have to improve the standards of our education. We have to look at the whole field of medicare. We have to upgrade our dilapidated physical infrastructure.”

“The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces, but victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”

Throughout the inaugural speech, President Buhari was full of himself, firing shots across his bow, which almost suffocated the guilty minds. 

The Bad:

The first signs of bad were Buhari’s procrastination, complacency, blame game and failure to take responsibility. His greatest strength, which is the use of rhetoric to scare and naturally bully the guilty minds, slowly grew to become one of the biggest reasons for his fall. Initially, he has established himself as someone strategic, prowess and predatory. However, it later became clear that he was devoid of such qualities, even more obvious after it took him over six months to appoint his ministers. When he eventually did, some dead people made the list of the appointees. Concerns began to leak out around his leadership’s identity as an undefined style. Doubts began to set in. His lackadaisical approach continued to grow, but to doubt Buhari at that material time, was a heinous sin. Nigerians continue to play the sport of attacking ringworms while leprosy festers. Blaming the Sarakis, Dogaras etc., on the NASS floor as saboteurs of his government. This threw the re-election bid of Saraki, Dino, and Isah Hamma under the bus in the 2019 election to pave a clear pathway for Buhari. 

The ugly:

Nigeria’s Jekyll and Hyde performances under Buhari grew out of control. While Buhari struggled to explain the abnormal nature behind his government’s inconsistent performances, his puzzled supporters appeared equally as confused. 

His record in infrastructural development is good without being impressive. And, better not to visit the issue of insecurity, which assumed many dimensions (banditry, kidnapping, etc.), corruption/looting in billions, high unemployment rate, the exorbitant cost of living, fuel scarcity, the marathon ASUU strike, 8 months old. Cutting a long story short, the most anticipated “Jarmiya” and the aspirations to see Nigeria back and on track during “Mai Gaskiya” went up in flames. 

There were a series of decisions that had repercussions. Such as the border closure, adopting the economy of ‘borrow-and-spend’, unaccounted CBN loans, etc. A disturbing reflection of his tenure was the gruesome murder of innocent souls by the bandits, rampant ransom demand by kidnappers, attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, Abuja Central Prison, and the Presidential convoy. 

Is Buhari Unfortunate? 

The economic recession, the coronavirus pandemic, oil doom,  etc., could all be attributed to his below-par performance. However, even at that, with good economic policies, and shrewd investment in the critical areas, he can do more. Even better, had he accepted responsibilities and moved on?

Final Days:

To borrow a word from the intimidating Mike Tyson in Dark Trade, “The leader’s always by himself in a time of doom.” As is Muhammadu Buhari. 

As Nigerians started counting down to just some days to the General Election, the frustration of the “talakawas“, like a rolling ball, is just getting bigger and bigger. First, it was in his home State, Katsina and later, Kano, where he was jeered and stoned. An incident which summarised how everything had turned ugly for him. Uglier still was his inability to understand the frustration of Nigerians. The love and support he enjoyed in those days have ebbed away. 

Conclusion

Nigeria had deteriorated in and around Goodluck Jonathan’s final years as a President, which Buhari recognised. 

He did fairly well in the security sector during his first tenure, but his second tenure spiralled into chaos once more, as he was eventually unable to liberate the country from turmoil. 

Although it didn’t sit well with my spirit that he was jeered and or stoned, Buhari of the masses failed to love them. He dropped the most critical ball that saw him claim victory against a sitting president. And it hurts to love and not be loved in return.

Mubarak Shu’aib write from Hardawa. Misau LGA Bauchi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via naisabur83@gmail.com.

 By Zayyad I. Muhammad

Outspoken northern politician and a former Presidential Campaign Council Director for the Civil Society Organization of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Naja’atu Bala Muhammad, has said that the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not have a blueprint for the North’s development.

Naja’atu was quoted to have said, “I met with Tinubu in London, and he told me he doesn’t have a blueprint for the North”. In short, Naja’atu implied that Tinubu didn’t know what to offer to the north.

In its response to Naja’atu, APC Presidential Campaign Council, through a statement by Mahmud Jega, its adviser in public affairs, said, Naja’atu was sacked for incompetence, quarrelsomeness, and after being uncovered to be a mole planted in APC’s winning campaign.

To many people in the north, Naja’atu’s accusations were ‘heavy’ and ‘Tinubu does have any agenda for the North’s progress’. However, Naja’atu’s accusation became ‘weightless because, less than 48 hours after, she resigned from the APC and quit partisan politics, and accused Tinubu of having no blueprint for the north, she was seen at Atiku Abubakar’s residence and joined the Atiku’s campaign train.

Political pundits are of the view that no serious presidential candidate, whose candidature was 75%-made possible by the Northern APC Governors Forum, will carelessly open his mouth and say he doesn’t have a blueprint for a particular region, especially the north with its massive attractive votes.

Naja’atu Mohammed was just playing politics. Nevertheless. Let’s ‘keep’ Naja’atu aside; the big questions are: does Tinubu have any blueprint for the north?  If yes, is it what the north needs after 8 years of being in power at the centre?

The basic issue facing the north is insecurity- banditry, farmers-herders conflict, and poverty. To be fair to President Buhari and the APC, they did some well-done jobs in the agricultural sector, restoration of security in communities in the northeast, provision of new infrastructure, and the rehabilitation of the old ones, including the successes in the social intervention programs; especially petty cash distribution to the masses.

On October 17, 2022, Tinubu, at Arewa House, told the north his blueprint for the region. He said he would fight bandits and terrorists with technology which Buhari just started in 2022. Tinubu said he would turn the North’s fertile land into grain fields, and the North would become the hub of agriculture. The dairy economy and agro-allied industries will be promoted.  He said he would accelerate the Mambila Project and rejuvenate the existing power Stations. He assured to exploit of the gold in Zamfara and iron ore in Kogi State.

Tinubu also promised to bring back to school the millions of North’s out-of-school children through incentives. He further promised to create a special commission for Almajiri education, including employing Almajiri’s teachers.

Are Tinubu’s promises to the north enough and in line with the region’s needs and wants? Some political pundits believe that the promises are good, but development experts say the north needs more and a new approach, thoughts that resonate with this writer. Apart from these promises, the north extremely needs some strong-willed approach to the current monster of banditry in the northwest – a calculated crime that is as complex as Nigeria. A deployment of massive force and technology against the bandits in the villages where they operate is compulsory.

The North also needs a special economic recovery program in the area of youth empowerment, poverty reduction, and the uplift of business people.

President Buhari, in his own intuition, tried to tackle these issues by appointing many seasoned northerners into various positions of authority. But this has not worked. in fact, this political patronage strategy has failed. Most of the president’s appointees from the north have not served as a link between the president and his support base nor effectively reached the poor, who formed Buhari’s 12 million supporters, which APC is still banking-on.

As part of the agenda for the North, Tinubu, in his campaign, promises the region should also promise the north that- he will identify 50-100 business people and business enthusiasts in the north and assist them directly in their area of competence or choice. Imagine the impact new billionaires would have in the business sector, like new industries in the manufacturing and agricultural value chain, ICT, media, trading, etc.

Tinubu’s promise to North’s youth is still hazy. Since the North’s young people have lost in their quest to clinch the APC Vice Presidential candidate ticket, though, few young people have benefited from the APC Youth Wing appointments,  but most of the positions were not influential and direct, like the appointment of Abdulrasheed Bawa as EFCC Chairman, which got massive commendation throughout the country, with young northerners feeling well-recognized. Tinubu should directly ‘talk’ to the North’s youth via important and strategic appointments in his campaign council; bringing on more youngsters from the north would be a joker card in the north.

Most people support Tinubu in the north on the belief that he is a ‘builder’ of people. So the north expects from Tinubu three more things on his blueprint for the north- a promise to  ‘build’ some people who can as well build thousands of others and new businesses, to have direct contact with the youth – meaning using his today for their tomorrow; lastly, to confront head-on the senseless insecurity in the northwest, which is not just mere banditry.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja via zaymohd@yahoo.com.