By Ismail Auwal
There is growing concern among Kano residents over the rise in number of nightclubs, otherwise called joints, in the state.
The residents lamented about how the clubs expose underage girls to prostitution and encourage truancy among pupils and young students.
They emphasized that these clubs allegedly owned by a Senator from Jigawa State, encourage immoral behaviors and substance abuse among youths that patronize them.
A kano based teacher and multimedia journalist, Misbahu L. Hamza in an interview with Sahelian Times questioned how these clubs came to be part of local Hausa setting. “A curious mind would ask, aren’t these types of joints only known to be existing in a specific place and run by a specific group of people in Kano in the past?,” asked Hamza.
“What is behind the expansion of these joints into different parts of Kano running in the name of “businesses” recently?”
Hamza added that, “One certain thing is that these places have become centres of debauchery where young people engage in shisha smoking and other iniquities.”
“This shisha, experts disclosed, contain almost the same amount of nicotine as cigarette which may lead to heart diseases. And this alone should be of concern to the Kano state government if it truly cares about the future of its teeming youth, ” he said.
Some of the joints visited by our reporter include Picollo in Tukur road, 360 in Hadejia road, and KSA in Lamido Crescent.
All of the three joints allegedly “owned by a serving Senator from Jigawa State” have armed mobile policemen guarding the entrance, despite shortages of police officers in strategic places where there is growing insecurity in the state.
The joints open from Monday- Sunday around 4:00 pm and closed at midnight.
Mubarak Ibrahim Lawal, who is a university don, opined that indeed these new eateries, joints, nightclubs and partying centres being opened everywhere in Kano are destroying our youths.”
“With big speakers stationed at the entrance and inside, one could hear music blaring out from miles away. Girls in scanty dresses trooping at the entrance and, when inside, eating and dancing “kerewa” alongside shameless guys as in Ekwensi’s Lagos of “People of the City”. Some are puffing on Shisha and romancing in dark corners.”
“That’s how many youths spend nights today in Kano,” he lamented
“There’s this boy who should have graduated from Al-Qalam University Katsina last year but could not due to his frequenting of such joints.”
“He absconds from school and his home for days but is always seen at one joint here in Kano. His mother cried bitterly when she asked me to help her. I sympathized with her more especially after finding him there with bad boys around.”
“So I believe that something should be done before we are completely destroyed!,” Mubarak sounded a caution to the Kano leadership.
Our reporter observed that patronizers of these clubs pay N1000 at the gate after which the gatekeeper would stamp an ink on their hands as evidence of payment.
The joints are divided into segments according to the taste of the patronizers, but it was largely occupied by Shisha joints where young boys and girls indulge.
“These joints have introduced our children to weird lifestyles which are contrary to our culture and religion,” a tenant who seeks anonymity said.
“For all of us living close to these joints, it is no more news when one’s daughter would sneak into these joints. It has become a distasteful practice that is turning into a norm,” he cried.
In an interview with SAHELIAN TIMES, the spokesperson of the Kano State Tourism Board, Umar Isa, said that Kano State governor on October 3rd signed into law a document that banned the sale of Shisha in both public and private spaces.
“Boys and girls under the age of 18 were also banned from visiting places like that, and we are moving to the implementation stage,” he said.
Sahelian Times gathered that not fewer than two armed police officers are seen in several of those joints every day.
A regular visitor to one of the joints exclusively told Sahelian Times that, ” The police officers stand at the gate from 5:30 pm till daybreak.”
He added that, “We patronize joints and clubs that have police with guns as their gate.”
