Jibia: Why PMB should call Hameed Ali to order

Perhaps no Nigerian President has suffered to get to the number one seat of power like Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president. He campaigned and supposedly won. He was rigged out. He did that again and again and again. After his fourth attempt he won. As a Muslim, Buhari himself knows that Allah’s time is the best. He also knows that throughout his several attempts to get it, there were individuals, groups and communities that remained solidly behind him. He acknowledged the roles of individuals when he was justifying some of his appointments. And he was right. Even if there are (and surely there are plenty) people who are better than Babachir, Mustapha, Adamu, Malami, etc. they qualify to get political appointments because they remained with him throughout the period of his struggle. This is because in the art of Governance what is required is a minimum acceptable competence and an unquestionable loyalty which the Boss Mustaphas had for Mr. President.

But perhaps what Mr. President is yet to realize, or at least his actions have not acknowledged is the love and support some communities have shown to him since he joined politics. Jibia in Katsina state is one of such communities. In case Mr. President has forgotten, Jibia had been next only to Daura in supporting him and fighting against the PDP rigging machine throughout the period of his several attempts to get to the presidency. Many of our young people were arrested, tortured and incarcerated by PDP governments when they stood to fight against election rigging in those periods.

Despite all their contributions to the success of PMB, the first reward Jibia people got was the ban on sale of fuel to border communities. This effectively excised Jibia out of their own country as people began to have to travel the distance of 42 kilometers to Katsina to fill the tanks of their vehicles. Those who tried to bring a gallon of petrol from Katsina or Batsari for use in their generators were treated as smugglers and had their gallons confiscated in case they could not give a bribe that could be more than double the price of the gallon they were carrying. As the number of checkpoints from Katsina to Jibia continued to swell from the original seventeen before border closure, the ordeal of Jibia people is better imagined.

Now as if the hardship caused by the closure of their filling stations is not enough, the Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) decided to use his office to further punish the people of Jibia for reasons best known to him. For those who know the area very well, there is a big customs barracks and a border post in Magamar Jibia at which there are offices of NCS, NIS and others in charge of movements of people and goods between Nigeria and its neighbours. In addition to the Magama border post, those agencies have their men stationed on identified auxiliary routes along the border. Jibia community has no problem with any of these arrangements. We believe they are meant to ensure that evil people and their goods do not cross the border into our country. Whether or not that is being achieved is a discussion for another day.

Our problem is with the decision of the President’s right hand man, Col. Hameed Ali to ban the entry of Nigerian made goods into Jibia local Government, particularly Jibia town. For the past two months, additional checkpoints have been introduced including one at the point of entry into Jibia town, with the sole purpose of stopping any vehicle carrying goods into Jibia from any part of Nigeria.

The pretext used by the NCS high command is that whatever good enters Jibia town it will be smuggled into Niger Republic. This is faulty for two reasons. One.  Jibia is a Nigerian community of a population of more than a quarter million people. Like any other human community the people need food and other essentials of life which they are being deprived by shutting them out of both the country to which they supposedly belong and the neighbouring country with which they have strong cultural and historical links. Two. The border inlet/outlet routes mentioned earlier are well-known and manned by officials of NCS. If it is suspected that the security on those points is not enough, it is only logical that the patrol teams be reinforced instead punishing a law-abiding community that worked hard to see to the electoral success of Mr. President.

To make matters worse, the NCS high command is said to be working with some members of the opposition who are feeding it with very wrong information to make it move against Jibia people in order to spoil the image of Mr. President and his party. Col. Hameed Ali being a non-political actor has not come to terms with this and he and his team think they are being smart enough by using informants from the inside of Jibia community to give them intelligence information while in reality they are working with people who have the sole intent of destroying PMB’s government. Some of those ‘informants’ are said to report to the NCS headquarters any Customs officer who refuses to harass traders carrying foodstuff like maize and other essentials into Jibia township. If Col. Hameed Ali is not aware of all these, it is unfortunate. But this is an opportunity for him to be aware.

To sum it up, Jibia people are under siege. Only a few days ago Governor Masari told state house correspondents that nine local governments in Katsina state, including Jibia LGA, are controlled by bandits. What one would expect is that the Government will use it’s full force to rescue those local governments instead of subjecting their law-abiding citizens to avoidable hardships. As I am writing this piece, the prices of Nigerian made food and essential items have multiplied in Jibia LGA due to the draconian siege of the Nigerian Customs Service high command.

On a final note, I would like to remind Mr. President that power is transient. He now has the opportunity to make up for the damages done to the people who supported him to power. He should be reminded that APC is only in power in Katsina state because of him. Despite their long support for his Government, Jibia people are not asking for special projects or political appointments at the centre which some traditionally-PDP LGAs have gotten under him. We are saying please leave us alone. Call your men to order to stop harassing us so that we can live like human beings. Secure our rural areas so that we can go to farm.

Mr. President, can you hear me?

Katsina bombing: More questions than answers

In September 2019 after series of renewed attacks by bandits in local government areas adjacent to Zamfara state, the Government of Katsina State on the instruction of President Buhari engaged the criminals who are mainly of Fulani extraction in peace talks. Many of us who are victims of their violence opposed the decision of both the state and Federal Governments for reasons widely discussed. The peace agreement meetings took place in different locations and in front of press cameras inside or near the forest from which most of the bandits operate.

 The bandit leaders who sealed those agreements with Katsina State Governor are well known. Some of them are Saleh Dangote, Abdulazeez Magware, Dan Karami, Dogo Gide, among others. The implication of the agreement is that the Government knows their capabilities and locations. They also know the numerical strengths of their bands, for as the Secretary to the state Government put it much later, “some of them have up to 300 men under them”. In other words, Katsina state Government did not go into peace agreement with the criminals without adequate intelligence on them.

 In May 2020, after continuous breaches of the agreement by the bandits, the State Government publicly withdrew from the agreement with all the bandits and promised not to sit and discuss with any of them. While declaring the end of his agreement with the bandits, Governor Masari described them as “worse than wild animals”. He added, “What we see here is that the bandits come to town, spray bullets, kill indiscriminately for no purpose and no reasons. How can a human being behave the way that an animal cannot even behave? That is why I say that they are worse than the animals in the forest. For me, there are no longer innocent persons in the forests”.

 About the time Masari was ending peace accord with the marauding criminals, the Federal Government said it was sending its specialized Air and Ground operatives to fight bandits in Katsina. And it did. The people in the frontline local government areas immediately saw the number of soldiers and their armoured vehicles that they never witnessed before. In the air over their communities hovered military aircrafts that even the elderly among them did not see earlier in their lives. Later, the Chief of Army staff himself moved to Katsina to lead the fight.

 With the intelligence about bandits the State Government had, many people thought that sweeping them off by the military was a matter of bread and butter. They were disappointed. As I m writing this, almost two months after the military operations started, none of the bandit kingpins mentioned above has been killed or arrested. Again, the only camps destroyed were those they had already abandoned.

 But has the presence of the Army Chief, his officers and men, Police and their Air colleagues deterred the criminals from their attacks on the communities? The answer is No. The attacks continued and they were many and devastating, with Batsari LGA being the worst hit. Faskari, Kankara, Jibia and other local Governments had their own share of those attacks.

 

Here, one would be tempted to ask, does the military truly want to end this violence? Many people would want to say no, for strong reasons. For example, the Army Chief was in Katsina when a prominent businessman/politician accused the state of Government of giving the General a ‘cash gift’ of N250m in addition to other unaccounted hundreds of millions said to be given to other security outfits including Police and DSS. Neither General Brutai nor the Army high command responded to the allegation, suggesting that there may be some truth in the claim.

 Now, if not for the insecurity ravaging the state, what would make the state Government give even one percent of what was allegedly given to those agencies and/or their chiefs? If the violence is ended, where would they get extra money out of their salaries and allowances?  Assuming the money said to be given to the security chiefs were not even given to them but stolen by state government officials, what would have made that happen if there were no insecurity? Again even if the claim of the businessman were not true in the first place, what would have made him lie if not the insecurity in the state?

 And as people were watching events unfold, one Major General John Enenche of Defence headquarters claimed to the astonishment of all of us that Boko Haram was migrating to the Northwest “with more sophisticated weapons to flee military onslaught in the Northeast which they have terrorized for over a decade”. The first question I asked is where the military was when those people are migrating across the country to the Northwest if at all that is true. Are our intelligence agencies on leave? To which location in the Northwest are they relocating? Or is this a strategy to prolong the solution to the crisis in the Northwest?

 Everyone knows that the bandits who operate in the Northwest and parts of North Central are not the same as Boko Haram in their ideology and methods. While Boko Haram claims to be fighting to establish an Islamic state and even chant Islamic slogans when they launch attacks, the bandits in the Northwest are completely ignorant of Religion, do not claim it and have no ideology but stealing, killing, maiming, raping and destruction. They were never reported, even once, to chant any religious slogan while attacking their victims.

 When Boko Haram started over a decade ago, their primary targets were military and Police and their structures. The bandits in the Northwest, on the other hand, started as cattle rustlers because most of them were said to be Fulani herders who no longer own cattle.

 The methods used for attacks by the bandits are rifles and machetes whereas Boko Haram use bombs and rifles. A Boko Haram fighter can carry out a suicide bombing because they have been made to believe it would take them to heaven while bandits in the Northwest run for their lives in the presence of superior fire power.

 The two criminal types are therefore different.  I always disagree with armchair analysts who sit in their rooms and draw conclusions that the Boko Haram operating in the Northeast are the same bandits in the Northwest. But here is our defence headquarters giving it another dimension.

 On Saturday July 18 a bomb was planted in the farm of one Alhaji Hussaini Maikwai around ‘Yarmama in Malumfashi Local government area of Katsina state. It killed five children and injured six.  “Boko Haram is in Katsina”, a Facebook friend wrote. While laughing at his naivety I added, “And they have integrated with the bandits”.  Is that what we are expected to believe? Haba!

 But even as we continue to ask other questions, the big one is, where is Mr. President, the last hope of the common man when all these are taking place? Is he overwhelmed and cannot do anything about all these things that do not add up? Why must he continue to retain lieutenants that cannot perform? Is it possible that it is his detractors using his state to show that he is incapable? Why can’t he at least launch an investigation? OMG!

Release of Katsina bandits: why the Chief Judge should come clean

It was an evening of 1987 and I stood alone at Kabuga junction on my way to Bayero University new campus (New site as it has always been called). The number of students living on that campus then was very small as there were only two faculties and a department housed there. There was a single male hostel and female students in the Faculty of Law and Department of Mass communication who wanted to live on campus had to stay in the old campus and transport themselves every morning to the new site. There was no female student in my own Faculty of Technology. In sum, there were not so many students running up and down between the two campuses as we have it now.

Thus students like me who went to town and could not catch the last bus from the old campus had to come to Kabuga and join the Rimin Gado bus to alight at the new site. Janguza and Rijiyar zaki were not popular at the time and Jan bulo was just a set of some isolated red houses on one side of the road. As I waited patiently for a bus, a car stopped and the man inside bent his head enough to look at my face and ask me where I was going. I told him and he asked me to come it. There was no fear of kidnapping at that time and every person seemed to trust every other person. I thus entered the car. I was twenty years old and the man inside must be either in his late twenties or early thirties, I thought after looking at him very well.

The journey to the new site did not take long as there was no traffic as we have it now. During that time he asked me where I came from and what I was studying. He asked a few other questions I cannot remember now. On arrival at the BUK main gate he introduced himself as Musa Danladi. He lived in Funtua, he told me. He then gave me five Naira and his card. “You can see me when you have any problem” he said. I thanked him and he drove off to Funtua as I struggled to reach the hostel from the main gate.

I examined his card. His full name was Musa Danladi Abubakar. He worked in the court as a Registrar. I then thought over his two offers. Five Naira was not a large sum of money but it was not too small for a student. Five Naira could buy for me five square meals in a student standard restaurant. It could also pay for ten taxi drops in Kano. A taxi fare was between 40 and 50 Kobo then. But what kind of problem could I see him for? The concern of a student in most cases is the little money that will keep him going. But I could not see anyone on that except my parents. If I could avoid a wealthy uncle so as not to be mistaken for a beggar how can I go to an unknown person to request for a financial favour?

Later someone told me that a court staff could also assist you when you are in trouble. But many years later after a very unpleasant experience of a friend of mine who signed as a bank account referee for an unknown person I resolved to, insha Allah never take anyone to court or even a Police station unless it is absolutely necessary. It doesn’t matter whether the court is a Shariah court or an unIslamic one. On reaching the hostel I told the story to my friend who was from Bakori. “Musa Danladi is very popular in Funtua. He is a very nice person”, he said.

That was the end of my story with my new found senior friend. I was not from Funtua area in which case I could pay a visit to greet him and I did not take up an appointment with Katsina state civil service after my graduation in which case we might have had some accidental meetings, at least. The next time I set Musa Danladi in my eyes was nineteen years later.

In 2006 I accompanied a friend to see a very senior member of Governor Yaradua’s administration in Katsina. With him we met two other persons who were not part of the discussion that took us there and so there was no need to introduce them. After we came out my friend told me that the two other people were a relation of the Governor’s wife and Justice Musa Danladi. My mind immediately went back to the ‘lift’ I got from Kabuga to new site nearly two decades before. It was exactly him, I thought. He must have forgotten that moment but I did not. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said it all. Hearts have been created to like those who are kind to them and dislike those who are unkind to them. I still liked Justice Danladi for that little kindness in our only meeting in the lives of both of us.

Things have drastically changed since then. The trust that characterized our relationship in this part of the country especially in Katsina state is gone. The story is that of killings and disappointments. One of those people who disappointed me most in the whole saga is Mr. President himself. It was because of Buhari, for example, that I decided to obtain permanent voters cards for myself and my family after my long term decision not to take part in voting. One of those things we liked and elected Buhari for was the security of our lives and property. As at 2015 when he won election the number of bandits in Katsina state was so small that they could be arrested by local Police. But both he and his Governor who won election on the goodwill of the masses turned a blind eye and allowed it to become what it is today.

Our disappointment reached its peak last year when Governor Masari told Nigerians that it was Mr. President who asked him to negotiate with the criminals. May Allah save this country. So who else could be trusted? Is it the executive arm of Katsina state Government under Masari or the judiciary now being led by my own Musa Danladi?

It thus did not come to me as a surprise when a friend of mine told me some weeks ago that the criminals who kidnapped Mallam Ahmad Sulaiman last year have been released. The details of their release however came later. It was based on a forged bail document signed by the Katsina state Chief Judge. Haba! How can a very experienced person like Justice Danladi not be able to distinguish between a genuine and a forged document? Will he be able to convict anyone tomorrow for signing a similar document? Those were my thoughts. But another untold reason might be a high pressure from above. There are unconfirmed rumours that some of the leaders of the bandits who signed the peace deal with Katsina state Government have a direct contact with Abuja. Could it be an instruction from Abuja to the Chief Judge to sign the document but he was only being smarter than the Governor by not announcing it? Allah knows best.

I, however, kept listening and reading comments from people. So far, as far as I know, no one has pointed an accusing finger at the Chief Judge. People have incredible confidence in him due to his track record of honesty and trust. Mistakes are human and everyone both within and outside Katsina state believes that the signing of that document by Justice Abubakar is a mistake. And he has acted swiftly too by setting up a committee of investigation. My candid advice to the Chief Judge and indeed Katsina state Governor is that maximum punishment should be meted on the culprits. This is even more so as it has been reported that the released criminals have committed other very serious acts of crime after their release.

Qur’anic schools: What Yobe and Borno should do

I have deliberately avoided the word almajirci because of what it connotes. When it is mentioned what comes to the mind of many people is that dirty, poor, underaged child who is abandoned by his parents to a distant place to go and beg in the name of learning the Qur’an. But many children are daily being ‘abandoned’ to go to distant schools in the name of western education. I was 12 years old when I went to a boarding secondary school many years ago. So what is the difference between me and the conventional almajiri?

 There are two major differences.

 One. I was sent to go to what is considered a school by the Government. As far as Government of Nigeria especially under the present leadership is concerned any school that is not the type I attended is not a school. So any child that is not going to the type of school I went is an out of school child.

 Two.  Because I went to a school owned and recognized by the Government, I was fed, accommodated and given uniform free of charge. I recall that from my Primary school up to the end of my secondary school my father did not buy a single textbook for me. I was given all the textbooks I needed by the school. The almajiri, even then, was on his own. 

If I didn’t go to that school, I, like many other Muslim children, might have become an Islamic scholar. But anyone who was taken to such a school like mine had by more than 90 percent lost the chance of becoming an Islamic scholar, the same way a modernist would feel anyone who has gone to a Qur’anic school misses the chance of becoming an Engineer or a Lawyer.

But it should not be like that. The sky should be the limit of every child. If my child has the potentials of becoming a medical doctor the opportunity should be there and if he would be better as a scholar of Hadith ample opportunity should be available for him. Those Governors who are saying every child must go to the kind of school I attended did either not consider this or they are blindly looking for ways to qualify for the World Bank grant for out of school children.

 Few days ago I posed a question about two hypothetical children to my social media audience. One of the children has completed a very good primary school with a promising potential of being a scientist. Naturally, the opportunities are there for him to move to any secondary school be it Federal, state or private where he will be prepared to pursue a career in Engineering, Medicine, etc. The universities are also there. He is very lucky people like me have been fighting for him on the platform of ASUU for free tuition to be maintained in Federal universities without compromising quality.

The other child has completed his Islamiyya school and has a promise of being a great Islamic scholar. I then asked my Muslim audience to advise me on the opportunities available for him. Few people got the message and acknowledged that there are no formal opportunities for such a child in Nigeria and very few informal are available. Others started mentioning some schools they obviously know very little about. Some of the Islamic schools mentioned are actually conventional schools with a tinge of Islamic studies.

Organizations like Izala are only lucky to have graduates of Madinah University. Otherwise Izala would have remained the same organization of the early eighties with semi-learned preachers ready to pass kufr verdict on the slightest disagreement. But for how long should we continue to rely on Arab countries to train scholars for us?

Fortunately all hope is not lost. I got it from the news the other day that Yobe state is not sending almajirai back to their states of origin. Instead, the Government intends to regulate Qur’anic schools. The reason given is that the state has a long history of Islamic scholarship and must not be seen to kill that history. Borno state Government has also taken a similar position.

 This position of Borno and Yobe state Governments has falsified the claim that deportation of almajirai is a unanimous decision of Northern Governors forum. At best we can say some overzealous Governor(s) might have dominated discussion on the issue and are claiming that the unconstitutional decision is that of all of the Governors.

However, one thing that the two North Eastern states should note is that Qur’anic schools as we have them today need drastic reform if they are to make their products take their rightful position in the present day society. The two state Governments can put heads together to come up with a model that would see a child going through Basic Qur’an to Hifz, to ilm, etc. Once there is a policy in place, we can have Public and private arrangements just like we have in the conventional school model.

The two Governments have to do a lot of campaign and even use their might to get people to accept changes. It is a pity that a great deal of research has been conducted on Qur’anic schools in our universities but the results end up in journals and conference proceedings used only for promotion purposes by lecturers of Education and Islamic studies. Once Borno and Yobe succeed they can sell the idea to other Northern Governors, most of whom are reluctant to kill Qur’anic schools.

But under no circumstances should child begging be allowed.

Almajiri: Moving forward

On the 22^nd of April this year I received two Whatsapp messages from a classmate who is in politics. The first is a press release by one Abdullahi Yaradua who identified himself as the Director of press to the secretary to Katsina state Government. It said the SSG Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa had reiterated the readiness of Katsina State Government to work closely with her neighbours to fight covid-19. The release further said the SSG made this remarks while receiving 419 almajirai who are indigenes of Katsina state ‘returned home’ from Kano.

The statement went further to say, “Katsina State Government had already closed down both Islamiyya and Local Quranic Schools and  returned all Almajiris to their parents including those from Niger republic”.

 The aspect of the press statement that finally put me off is when the SSG “admonished for continuous synergy between the Government of the States with which, he said all issues hindering the progress of the Zone are surmountable”. I noted that there is nothing hindering the progress of the Northwest zone and indeed Katsina state more than insecurity which the SSG has been put in charge for the past five years and the situation has only deteriorated from where he met it. In a saner clime he will resign.

 

As events unfolded in the coming days, I realized that there was a decision of Northern Governors to stop what they called almajirci in their states and they are using the Covid19 pandemic to do it. But come, where are the Islamic scholars? It is based on their fatwa that Friday prayers were banned by politicians. They derived their reasons from authentic sayings and traditions of The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) who asked believers not to go to an area where there is an epidemic or leave it after an epidemic started. This is to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. But is movement of almajirai from one state to another not against the teaching of this Hadith? Why are the scholars silent? Where is the NSCIA which quoted 1001 reasons from Quran and Sunnah to convince us to comply with social distancing and lockdown? Have we been compromised or are we afraid of some failed politicians?

 Again, I watched the way these almajirai are being moved. There is no social distancing. In some cases they are packed together in one vehicle and transported like goats. In others like the case of those moved from Nasarawa state to Taraba they were rejected by Taraba state government because, according to them, “they were not accompanied by Health officials as agreed by Northern Governors” and that “Taraba state is not a dumping ground for almajiris” as if the children are not indigenes of Taraba state. What did the Northern Governors agree? Is it backed by law? These people are taking us for granted.

Now look at this. Even before Covid-19 there has been other more deadly communicable diseases like the HIV/AIDS. Prostitutes are known to be the worst agents of transmitting HIV/AIDS for which no cure is known yet. If the Governors were truly serious about protecting their people from contacting deadly diseases, they would have banned prostitution and moved prostitutes to their home states.

 Of all the Northern Governors, the one who seems to take this fight to the extreme is my brother, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai.  It was his idea to ban ‘almajirci’, at least according to his Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development who disclosed much earlier that he was to present a memo to Northern Governors on how to ban the “time bomb”.

As far as Mallam is concerned the only definition of a school is the western education type which he said it is better for a child to attend even if there will be 200 of them in a class than to go to the traditional Qur’anic school. I don’t blame him because he is not a teacher and none of his children has attended a school where there are 200 children in a classroom. The other time he told gullible Nigerians that he was taking his child to a public school but he took him to Capital School instead of LEA primary school Badiko which is the nearest to Government house.

Mallam Nasiru was even saying that they are ready to “confront anybody”. And I say, you will face your maker. Power is transient. In three years time you will join the list of former Governors of Kaduna state. Sooner or later, just like any of us, you will be in some grave beneath the mother earth. So take it easy.

Now, the second message from my politician friend. He advised me to, if I intend to make any comment on this to fear Allah and tell the truth so that I will not regret in future. I was encouraged by this. But perhaps what he considers the truth is what he wants to hear. I know I wrote several times in the past on almajirci and I have never lied. My position on almajirci has always been very clear. Almajirci is Qur’anic. Without almajirci there will be no knowledge. Most of those who think a person can be an Islamic scholar by remaining in their village have at one point or another left their localities in search of western education and have never argued that there should be a university in every street so that students should not leave their parents to become Engineers and doctors or even sociologists or political scientists.

Begging, whether done by adults or children is unIslamic except in exceptional circumstances. Prohibition of begging in Islam is fundamental. What Nigerian Muslim leaders have failed to do is developing a model that will work in our time. At it is, the Nigerian Muslim Ummah with all her Emirs and Islamic scholars have no plan of producing and certifying Islamic scholars. The best I know is when a person is to be recruited to teach in some Islamiyya school they are interviewed mainly to know if their views are in consonance with those of the owners of the school.

It is high time our Islamic organizations woke up and faced the challenges. Waiting for “shariah” politicians to solve problems bedeviling Muslim Ummah has been our bane. Political office holders in the Muslim North are not elected based on their knowledge of Islam or even the love for it. The prevailing method of leadership recruitment in the North does not allow for devout Muslims to be at the helm of affairs. Unfortunately some of our Islamic scholars are too naïve to understand this and are often carried away by deceptive Islamic postures of political office holders. When these postures are accompanied by occasional gifts, the non-enterprising Islamic scholar is often lost in the struggle to maintain the patronage of the politician.

But it is not over. The decision of the Governors is irreversible only to the extent that Islamic scholars insist on child begging and/or fail to provide an alternative practical model of Qur’anic Education.

What is in pronunciation?

In 1989, then an undergraduate in Bayero University Kano, I joined a night J5 bus from Lagos to Kano. Most of the passengers were Yoruba. There were two of us who were vividly Northerners, a more elderly person and I. As the journey progressed, the Yoruba were discussing on National issues and I decided to comment. As I began to speak, they started clapping and laughing, “Mallam ya ji turanshi, Mallam ya ji turanshi!”. I had no option but to keep quiet and bear it. Those southerners were not speaking better English or following any rule of grammar or phonetics better than me. What was wrong with me was being a mallam who spoke with mallam’s accent.

What took me to Lagos was associated with a Chevron’s scholarship I enjoyed at that time. The advert for the scholarship was placed in the New Nigerian and Daily Times newspapers in March 1987 when I was in my first year of Electrical Engineering programme. Many of us applied from across Nigerian universities. There was an aptitude test that sieved away others and qualified us for the interview.

When he learned about the interview, a cousin who had already graduated lectured me about dealing with southerners who were controlling the oil companies. That I should dress corporate and as much as possible appear like them. He gave me a suit which he advised me to put on the interview date. I must say up to that point in my life I had never worn a suit. All my clothes were traditional. I thus felt very uncomfortable with his coat and decided to leave it in Kano while travelling to Lagos for the interview. My name is Abdussamad Umar. That was the name on the letter of invitation. That was also exactly me. If they liked they take me. If they liked they leave me. It was up to them. But no pretence, no change of dress and no change of accent.

That is how I appeared in my traditional kaftan when I entered the interview room in the Company’s building in Tinubu square. I had no doubt in my mind that I was well dressed, young and handsome. I looked every inch a Fulani boy even though I spoke no word of Fulfulde. I was told that we are Sullubawa, a special clan of Fulani people who do not speak the language. But when it comes to filling a form where tribe is required I always put Hausa which I speak. The Fulani can go home with their language. As far as I am concerned no human being is more special than another simply by belonging to a particular tribal group.

“Asshalamu alaikum”. That is what the chairman of the panel said to me as soon as I entered and even before he asked me to sit down. He was clad in his traditional Yoruba dress. Could he be a Muslim? I asked myself even as I replied, “Wa alaikumussalam warahmatullahi wa barakatuh”. He bore a Christian name, I understood that when he introduced himself. So there would be no religious solidarity.

The first part of the interview was introduction and it took more time than normal. Katsina state had just been created and there were many documentaries on it and its sister Akwa Ibom state created on the same day by Babangida administration. Kaduna state had 14 local governments, seven from the old Zazzau province and the other seven from the old Katsina province. The old Katsina province was made the new Katsina state while the other province was the new Kaduna state. The seven local governments were Katsina, Daura, Mani, Dutsinma, Kankia, Funtua and Malumfashi. Katsina local government was made up of what later became the six local governments of Katsina, Jibia, Kaita, Batagarawa, Rimi and Charanchi. “Are you from Dutsinma?” one of the panelists asked. “No sir. I am from Jibia”, I replied. “Is Jibia in Daura local Government?” another asked. “No sir. It is in Katsina Local Government”. They asked about the state and my feeling about its creation, etc.

With introduction over, technical questions followed. Somehow, all the questions asked were from my Ordinary level Physics and I answered them accurately. Thus, by the time I came out of that room I was sure that unless there was a mischief which is characteristic of some humans, I had passed the interview. I achieved two things. I earned respect for presenting myself as myself and answered the examinations questions correctly. Two months later, I received the award letter with the first cheque of first year.  Twenty five successful names were later published in the New Nigerian and Daily Times by the company. I was the only one from Bayero University and the only one from the new state of Katsina.

This journey in which Yoruba youth mocked at me was in connection with a cheque I missed. They sent it by a registered mail but because I missed the slip the cheque was returned. They later wrote another letter requesting me to come to Lagos and collect it. The journey from Kano to Lagos and back would cost me sixty Naira and the money to be collected was two thousand naira. So it was okay.

This is how we have been tolerating southerners in our country. Once you are a Northerner, you have no right to speak English. The only sin of Dr. M. T. Liman, Abatcha’s minister of Education, for example, was speaking with Northern accent. Of course he said many unsavory things about Lecturers but his predecessor Prof. Nwabueze did worse. At the end of the day M. T. Liman was nicknamed, “empty–lay-man” by some Southerners and some Northerners foolishly echoed.

With my experiences I have since decided not to worry about the way a person speaks and whether or not they speak good English. The Chinese we rely upon today to produce cheap products for us do not speak good English when they speak it. Most of us in Northern Nigeria speak English the way we hear the Southerners speak it. Do southerners speak with Queen’s accent?

President Buhari has been in power for five years now and many people have decided to mock him at every point he speaks in his natural way. They expect him to speak like a Yoruba or Igbo man. Sadly, some of the mockery comes from his supposed children and grandchildren in the North. What the young Northerners mocking at him do not know is that southerners would do same to any of their favourite Northern politicians be it Kwankwaso, Bafarawa, Zulum or any other.

Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia

Nothing should happen to the Kebbi young man

Thursday, the 12^th of March 2020 could have passed like any other day in my life except for some social media posts that I saw in the very early hours of the day. There was a bandits’ attack in Magama-Jibia the previous night. Magama was a village five kilometers out of Jibia before Jibia town expanded and made it a suburb. It is also a place where Nigeria-Niger border post is located. There is a big customs barracks in Magama that has proven to be of no use to the people since the current banditry started.

The news of bandits’ attack made me to make very early morning calls to relatives and friends living in both Magama and Jibia main town. After a few calls, I came to realize that the bandits’ attacks were still on in other villages around Jibia. At the end of it all, eight people were killed in Tsamben tsauni in addition to the one killed in Kwari and another in Kaga. But Police and Army? They, just like the state Governor, were informed in the very early hours of the night when the bandits were seen coming on their motorcycles, according to my reliable sources. But no help came until it was over. In fact, it was said that some very few soldiers on the ground went into hiding in Magama when the mayhem was taking place, obviously because they were outnumbered by the heavily armed bandits who came in their tens.

That was the situation I found myself on Thursday. Due to my parental background, there is no ward in Jibia LGA where I do not have a relation, near or far, an acquaintance or a friend. So I have every reason to be worried when such attacks take place. Fulani banditry has claimed lives and property of some of my closest relations since it started. Some of my female relations in the rural areas were raped in past attacks. I thus spent the rest of the day commiserating with myself and my people.

In the evening I switched on to view the news on my television set. My main interest was to know what is happening about the ongoing ASUU strike in which I am participating. The NTA news is no news as it mainly tells you about the Government of the day. The President was shown making a speech at one festival in Kebbi in which I had no interest. He was raising his voice in order to be heard and you would not expect me to make sense out of what he was saying, at least given the happenings in my local government in the day. Ten people would be murdered in a nation and the president is vividly unaware much less send any condolences. That is the very low level to which Nigeria has descended under this Government. Yet, as a Northerner I am expected to continue to blindly give my support.

This morning when I switched the data of my handphone the first thing I saw was a clarification from Femi Adesina on some ‘contorsionists’ who are passing a video clip on social media to give an impression that the President was attacked in Kebbi. I know contorsionist is a player of some sort. But I checked the dictionary on my handphone to make sure. It says, “an acrobat able to twist into unusual positions”. I was not satisfied. I then googled the word. I saw the same meaning. I now dropped the phone and picked my old Oxford dictionary. Okay, there is a figurative meaning. ‘We had to go through all the usual contortions to get a ticket (= a difficult series of actions)’. This means the people Femi Adesina was referring to must have suffered a little to arrive at a conclusion that the action of the said young man was an attempt to attack the President.

I now decided to check other sources to know what happened. I know if no one else, the opposition will look for that video and paste it on Facebook. But just as I was going through my Facebook posts I saw a comment by one Aminu Bello who claimed he was there when it happened. He said, “The man tried to fish out then-Gov Adamu Aleiro and now Senator of Kebbi Central. When asked, the man said thief can’t be close to the Mr. President before him….”. I said this man loves the President but he is giving a different explanation which he claimed is an eye-witness one. However, when I saw the video there was no question and answer session which would have confirmed who, between Adesina and Bello was telling the truth.

My greatest shock came when I read in the Daily Trust newspaper that the man was shot in the foot. From the footage I saw, there was no sound of gunshot. So, what could have happened? Does it mean that this man was later shot after he was removed from the scene and the Daily Trust story sponsored so that when his death is announced later we would be told that he died from the gunshot he received?

My advice to Mr. President is that he should personally investigate this matter and come clean on it. Even if this young man attempted to attack him, he does not deserve death as long as the attack did not take place. He should remember that Kebbi, just like other Northern states is one of the states that was 100 per cent behind him. If it has now reached a level that his people are booing him and even attempting to attack him, all he has to do is looking inwards and correcting his mistakes.

Mr. President should understand that people are not happy with the level of carnage taking place under the watch of a man many of them loved even more than they loved themselves. People are not happy about the level of hunger in the land. Dead people cannot go to farm. So the campaign of his Government about farming does not make sense to his people in rural areas. Or are we no longer his people?