Perspective on northern Nigeria: A tribute to Mallam Sa’adu Zungur

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By Furere Bagel, PhD.

“I have tried not to write this letter. I have tried to absorb myself in my condition of chronic ill health. I have tried to put the thoughts of the destiny of Northern Nigeria behind me and tend to my own immediate personal affairs. And I cannot. I go to bed with these thoughts; I get up with them. They are there when I experience ghastly attacks of my neurotic conditions. The same thoughts are there when I say my prayers, or sit to converse with a friend or read a local daily.”

 

These are words of the great Northern Nigerian poet and philosopher mallam Sa’adu Zungur, which he wrote more than 65 years ago and unfortunately none of these issues which distressed him have been resolved throughout the years since his demise,  rather, the problems have intensified.

 

So what were the issues giving him sleepless nights?  Despite agonies mentioned by same Mallam Sa’adu zungur almost 70 years ago in his most popular poem, Arewa Jamhuriya Ko Mulukiya, where he cited some of the ills bedevilling Arewa, which if not corrected will make the southerners to prevail over them.

 

Not in any order or magnitude, he mentioned the problem of commercial sex work or prostitution, the impunity and aggression of the rich elite class using their wealth for the fulfilment of whims or other vain caprices to get whatever they wanted. Alcoholism was also a problem he foresighted and the related social ills of drunkness. Unfortunately we are now faced with a more lethal twin evil of Substance abuse in youths nationwide. The severity of decadence is evident in practically every culture, tribe or faith.

 

Furthermore, Zungur also dwelled on issues of street begging and almajiranci, which as it is now, has not only gotten worse but has become perversive.  He also lamented about Marabouts who disguise as Mallams or Islamic scholars engaged in sorcery, witchcraft and superstitions which are all un-Islamic practices that still enjoy high patronage from the populace regardless of faith affiliations.

 

Mallam Sa’adu spoke about the loss of kinship among relations, about falsehood in testimonies and aimless gallivanting amongst the people, which still exists today. 

We have northerners on often futile and useless soujourn around the country without any focus or direction beyond quick monetary gains.  An example of this is the case if able-bodied northern youths who leave their fertile lands untilled to travel across the southern parts of the country on top trucks or cargo trailers with no clear goal of what they wanted to achieve at their destinations except for the desire to wander around under the guise of cirani, a popular rural-urban migration of labour in the dry season due to absence of agricultural hired farm labour. Sadly, rather than engage in irrigation which could be done all year round, they waste valuable youth in petty servitude in a continuous rat race for survival.

 

These are youths who end up engaging in menial occupation like informal residential or market security guards, Tea selling (mai shayi), itinerant manicurists and pedicurists, shoe shining and other similar menial jobs. Most don’t make enough to rent houses and live nicely, instead they live in under squalor in slums and dumps which further fuels the stereotyping of the northerner by southerners as laidback and unambitious. This attitude is one of the reasons a typical northerner is looked down upon and insulted.

 

Mallam Sa’adu also lamented the typical northern attitude of belittlement of others based on their tribe, religion, background or social position, which unfortunately is still the norm today. Some people still think they are more northerners than others due to the language they speak, religion they practice, states they come from or even the wealth they possess or the social capital and influence they can wield in rentier mentality.

 

The Poet bemoaned the high level of ignorance in the north and how in his own words, it has chained the legs, cuffed the hands and locked the witless mouths of the people. Sadly almost 70 years later the north remains the most backward region educationally. We still have people who believe it is a sin to have western education therefore prohibited and have taken arms against the whole country to enforce their belief.  We have seen what this ignorance many years of ignorance has brought upon the region. We now have ignorant bandits without any proper education; kidnapping people for ransom and killing them in cold blood when there demands are not met, and even sometimes when they are met 

 

The philosopher finished his poem by asking, “what do such people have to offer in the affairs of the world?   ….It is our duty to tell you all these, and it is your choice to heed the warning or laugh. Though your laugh may turn to a wail later on, and the regrets of he who despise the truth.”  Indeed we are wailing now Malam Sa,adu! 

 

Why didn’t our leaders listen and heed to Sa’adu’s warning in the 50’s? Why wasn’t any action taken to eradicate all those misfortunes?  Shouldn’t this poem have become a call to action, an introspective blueprint for addressing northern problems? How can the same troubles continue to persist for almost 70 years with nobody taking a serious stand to see it eliminated? Did anyone take him serious or did they just laugh at him? 

 

The truth of the matter is, until we face our troubles from the root and try to solve each issue the right way, we will continue to run in circle and the problems will still remain for the next 70 years until we do the right thing. 

 

May we heed to the warning and not laugh or wail later.

 

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