hajia

Today will go down in the annals of Nigerian history as the day a civilian government handed over to another civilian government at the federal level. And this is no mean task considering how rotten leadership has always been in the country. I salute Obj for accepting defeat at his third term bid and finally handing over to Umar Yar'adua.
In Katsina the deputy governor handed over to Ibrahim Shema in a colourful ceremony at Polo ground. Everything went on smoothly.
However Barristers or shall I say lawyers appear to have taken over the reigns of power in KT. The governor is a lawyer and so is his deputy, Damari. As if that is not enough you also have the senate seat for KT central going to another lawyer, one Ibrahim Ida.
I call this the reign of lawyers after the title of a book by Sven Hassel: The reign of Terror. The book is about world war 11 and the author has many titles on the same theme. Excellent books all.
Now the question on everybody's lips is whether these learned trio will actually perform or not. What are we going to witness in KT in the next four years? A reign of terror or reign of improved freedom and more protection of rights ( human and all)?
It is on record that the governor has promised to give education top priority. This is good but we live to see. I hate to see an encore of Bola Ige's six months promise to provide power 24/7.

Believe it or not Maulud is now a big deal in KT. Bigger than the two Eids (Sallahs) combined. Yes, bigger, much bigger. What might be the cause of this? A little history is necessary here.

About two decades ago Izala (aka JIBWIS) came into being and it wasted no time in knocking off several activities and practices they deem un-Islamic. The list of such things is long and includes Wazifa, lehe, music, bowing down to greet parents, and of course celebrating the Maulud. Note that in Daura, Maulud had always been celebrated by way of Sallar Gani. In Katsina, Izala held sway somehow and people stuck to what they pontificated. Things broke loose however when the ban on music was scuttled by none other than the governor. Music was allowed during the marriage ceremony of his daughter. Many heaved a sigh of relief and quickly reverted to the old ways with vengeance. Musicians came out of hiding as invitations for performances tripled for all occasions.

But in no area was the response as massive as in Maulud celebrations. It started imperceptibly wth a few Islamic schools controlled by local Darika sect in Katsina but quickly spread to similar schools like a wild fire. Soon enough the Islamiyyas in rural areas were also brought to the fold. The celebration was carried out in sallah fashion and followed particular routes that converged at the central Mosque. Some were said to have converged at Kangiwa square.

This year’s main Maulud celebration took place on Sunday, April 8 and was essentially a long march by men, women, boys and girls from Polo ground. These people carried all sorts of musical instruments and chanted religious songs as they walked the odd 5 or so kilometres. They were organised in contingents based on their respective schools. And they wore different colourful costumes and displayed different musical insruments. I was amazed by the commitment of these people considering the fact that none of them received payment for the effort. Compare this with sallah for which millions are spent on the logistics and sundry payments to horsemen, musicians, performers, etc.

No doubt there is an organisation behind this even if it is not all that efficient in planning the marches. This adequately explains the different dates of the marches or celebrations. It also explains the different routes and different convergence points. And the biggest of all is the absence of a personality to greet the different contingents at the end of the march.

Without doubt Maulud is a crowd puller and in this regard it rivals Sallah in all respects. The sheer crowd and the entertaining marchers all combine to provide a carnival-like atmosphere. And people of all shades of religious beliefs loved that. The crowd that lined the routes looked happy and eagerly waited to see more and more groups passing by with their unique displays.

The state government must have been surprised at the popularity of the Maulud celebrations. The emirate council on the other hand must be sore at this new development and they may be thinking of ways to get a piece of the action. In a few years time we shall see what happens: whether the government comes in to regulate these Maulud marches for the good of everybody or the emirate council hijacks the celebrations in order to consolidate their hold on the people.

Here is a fresh twist to the horrendous tales of heinous crimes that Nigerians are getting used to. Stories of child abductions, mutilated corpses with removed body parts and activities of hired assassins are stale news in Nigeria today. This is something new.

Last week media houses were agog with the story of a house wife in Rafin Dadi quarters, Katsina, who murdered her junior sister on the grounds that her husband was having an affair with the girl. Or rather, the girl was having an affair with the husband. Good Lord where are we heading to in this age of promiscuity and polygamy? Why didn’t she confront the husband or better still asked the girl to check out? I just can’t understand why some women go to extremes in these matters at all.

This junior sister was putting up in the house and some how the woman of the house noticed the amorous advances her husband was making towards the girl. Or was it the reverse, i.e. the girl was making the amorous advances to the husband. Two and two were quickly added and decision reached to end everything at the speed of light. The house wife closed the house one day and dealt with the junior sister by beating her silly with a pestle and then suffocating her to death. Neighbours broke into the house when they smelled something fishy had happened inside. What they discovered shook them to the bones and the Police were invited.

I think someone had just got herself a place in the slammer for the rest of her life. Now how about the husband? I don’t want to speculate on the behaviour of a dead person but the husband should be investigated. And if it’s found that he actually played some hanky-panky, he should also be jailed.

The Story of Jessica Lynch could have been yanked from a Ludlum novel. The American defence department (the Pentagon) had been looking for a handful of soldiers whose macho deeds could embolden American support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For long they had search everywhere on the two battle fronts without coming up with a genuine case of some heroic deed by one of their soldiers. Soon enough two candidates landed straight on the laps of the generals at the Pentagon. Not exactly good cases, but the Pentagon thought it could turn them around to serve its purpose. And using their powerful PR machinery and the global media at their disposal, the whole world was bombarded with the “heroic deeds” of two soldiers: Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman.

Well Jessica, pictured above right, was a US female army private, who probably needs a refresher course on how to clean guns. This is judging by her admission of her jammed gun during a gun battle with Iraqi insurgents. That’s the worst nightmare a soldier can ever face. She was badly injured in the exchange of fire with the Iraqis during an ambush and when her gun jammed Jessica lied down and began to pray. She was picked by the Iraqis and taken to hospital. Much later she was found at the hospital by another platoon of American soldiers.

The pentagon turned this story upside down by saying that Jessica fought the Iraqis until she was captured. They also said American soldiers organised a dare devil rescue mission that gallantly freed Jessica.

Well that was the story back in 2003. In 2004 Pat Tillman was shot by friendly fire ( read: a fellow American fired the shot) but the Pentagon hid the facts and turned the story up side down so as to portray him as a hero.

The US Congress got a hint of these lies and is now investigating the issue under the eagle eyes of Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. His committee has accused US government of inventing sensational details and stories regarding the two soldiers. Of course Jessica Lynch had let the cat out in her testimony during the congressional hearings and had distanced herself from the attempt by Pentagon to portray her as a war hero.

Check out this Aljazeera page for the whole story.