hajia

Killer worms have invaded KT in millions. On contact with skin these worms makes one to itch and serious rashes soon develop in the area as a result of scratching. Worst of all however is when they are swallowed or eaten by mistake: death follows. And that is what makes the worms killers.
No one knows from where they came but speculations are rife that they were blown by breeze from neighbouring Niger republic. After all similar invasions by queela birds and locusts all originate from that area. But how could these hairy little worms travel the distance? Did they crawl the distance or flew?
Lucky for us in the town these worms preferred the suburbs where they could feed on vegetation. When stories started filtering about them I went out to Poly to see for myself. And I saw them: on the back of leaves, hanging from trees on silky threads and crawling on the ground. Hairy little worms that move with twitches. Very energetic and can swing from trees using their silky thread like spider.

Students of Poly and KSU have refused to move to their hostels because of these worms. They do attend lectures but most of them are wary of these worms. It would be wise of them to start using turtle neck sweaters in order to avoid stray worms that fly to the neck.
Above picture shows two worms busy devouring leaves on the shrub beside one classroom at KSU. Click on the picture to enlarge so as to see them properly.

When the former British rock star, Cat Stevens, converted to Islam he changed his name to Yusuf Islam and auctioned his guitar. But his love for music apparently remained intact.

The tunes never dried up because just a few months into his new life as a Muslim, Yusuf Islam the singer celebrated the birth of his son by recording a song; A Is for Allah. He also sung several Islamic nursery rhymes. He did not sing before crowds as his public appearances were mostly restricted to talks in which he explained to other London Muslims the reasons why his old life had left him unfulfilled. The last time he performed in front of an audience was in 1979 at the Unicef Year of the Child Concert at Wembley.
Well Yusuf may have auctioned is guitar then but he is back with it again as the above picture shows. He is planning a new Islamic cultural center for which the Brent Council had recently granted approval. The building was controversial as it will be on the grounds of an old church.
He is also planning to go to South Africa, where he will record his parts for a forthcoming children’s album. This not to mention the parts he recorded for the Live Earth.
This is wishing Yusuf Islam success for all his musical endeavours. And by the way, I posted a piece on Yusuf Islam a long time ago on this blog. You may scroll down to see it.

Today marks the first anniversary of hajia, the blogspot. One year is probably not such a long time, especially when you consider some blogs that have been there for long. There are many who have been blogging for the past ten years or more like Dave Winer and Jason Kottke. But for someone like me who started blogging as a kind of experiment it is a big deal. I never expected myself to keep on doing it for this long. Surprisingly, I still enjoy writing on this blog and I truly believe this is the main reason why I keep on maintaining it. Of course, it is not always easy to even decide on what to write. It takes a helluva of an effort to write and it is certainly discouraging when you realize that very few read what you write. Much less appreciate it. At any rate I can say that I am somewhat satisfied with the experience so far.

However there are a few topics I would have loved to write on but somehow could not. Here are some of them:

1. Soludo’s CBN- I mauled over writing something on the Central Bank of Nigeria under Soludo’s stewardship but could not just put pen to paper and get it done with. I wanted to write about his failure and the failure of his so-called banking reform. The mega-banks he created are still lying in the shadows of the old ones they replaced. Nothing, repeat, nothing has changed with regard to their behaviour towards customers and in the way they conduct business generally. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has concurred with me on this when they said in a newspaper report that “…a year after bank’s consolidation SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are yet to reap any benefits from it”. This story was on the front page of the Daily Trust of Wednesday 14 March 2007.
   Again I wanted to write on the systematic way and manner Soludo eased out Northern interests in all the banks thereby tightening the poverty-knot on all of us living on this side of the Niger. I wanted to also examine the staff distribution by states of the bank since he took over. Likewise the consultancy firms he gave jobs to during his tenure.

2. Dikko dynasty (1906-2006)- I wanted to write a congratulatory piece on this topic back in March, but always got taken away by million dollar questions regarding the events leading to the change of sarauta baton in Katsina. That is from Dallazawa who reigned since the Jihad (1804-1906) to Sullubawa. Of course the Sullubawas had always been around holding the title of Durbi up to 1893. But the jump to full emir by Dikko (in 1906) within a fourteen year period was phenomenal to say the least. And it appeared Dikko went after the title solo. As a student of history I am interested in what happened in those days. For example, how did Dikko manage to carry out the coup? Who helped him in the process? And what qualities in his possession helped him along?

Well my preliminary investigations revealed that several people helped him along. And they included a powerful prince and heir apparent, members of the emir’s household and majority of those holding various sarauta offices. This is not mentioning the then Emir himself, Abubakr Boyi, for doing and not doing things that somehow seemed to have encouraged Dikko tremendously.
However the whole saga appear to hinge on the relationship that existed then between Yarima Abdu, the crown pronce, and Dikko. They were about the same age which begs the question: were they bosom friends? It looked so if we recall that when Dikko advised Yarima not to go and buy camels for the colonial masters, he (Yarima) agreed and told the Europeans he was not going. But when they asked Dikko to go and buy, he willingly went and bought the camels. What did Yarima do after that? Apparently nothing, but why? Was Dikko having a hold on him?

And what about special qualities Dikko posessed that enabled him to swing the sarauta baton to his side? Well fore one Dikko was obviuosly a loyalist not only to Abubkr but also to the colonial masters. Perhaps too loyal beacause even Abubkr preferred dealing and confiding in him than in his own son.

Other questions that are reeling in my head include: who killed Sani, and ba-Dallaza? Sani was the first son and ba-Dallaza, the first daughter of Abubakr. Both were killed in mysterious circumstances and the killer or killers were never found. It looked like an insider job executed with the knowledge of a high ranking person or persons. Who could that person be? Again why did Abubakr Boyi appoint Dikko to be his intercessor with the Europeans? Was he trying to punish Yarima in the process? Why did he, Abubakr, also turban Dikko with his own head gear? But most important of all, what crime did Yarima Abdu commit to deserve all these seeming acts that were in breach with the norm?

All these questions have challenged me in a way that makes me feel like writing a book that will fill this void in the history of Katsina.

3. ICT palaver in Nigeria- This is another area I wanted to write on but always got bogged down with the sheer amount of research that is required. The provision of internet services for offices and schools have now become a goldmine for senior civil servants in Nigeria. Every year fat budgetary allocations are made for ICT but ordinary connectivity to the internet remains a mirage for such offices and schools. From federal to state, ministries and institutions squander money in the name of ICT but little or nothing is seen on the ground. The same thing occurs in our schools, polytechnics and universities. No office or school in Nigeria today can boast of having had internet connectivity 24/7 on a continuous basis. But huge amounts continue to be spent every year with little or nothing to show for it. Still on the broad definition of ICT, I wish to put on record that our GSM companies are performing below standard. Lack of connectivity, call drops and voice lss are the order of the day. Which reminds one of the old days when the ineptitude of NITEL ruled the communication industry. Are we back to those days?
   

3. You can dig in the archives at the end of this page to follow the evolution of this blog over the one year period. I want to thank you all my dear readers, and I want also to thank all those who helped me with my endeavors on the web. I will also mention Saudi female bloggers, especially Farah Sowaleef, for initiating me into the wonderful world of blogging.

Whenever my friends click through my collection of Miss World 2007 pictures they make comments about Isiomah Daniels. The name Isiomah (pronounced eye-sore-mar) belongs to one girl who was at one time a cub reporter at This Day newspaper. Their comments border on a kind of resemblance between Miss Tanzania, Flaviana Matata, pictured left and Isiomah Daniels. I really find that odd. This is because the picture of Isiomah which has been in my head since her careless remarks about the Prophet, is of a pygmy-short, pitch black girl with a typical African nose and frizzy hair. In my mind Isiomah is a far cry from the tall, slim beauty we see in Flaviana. Also as far as Isiomah is concerned, beauty pageants are only there to write about.

Here is a little recap: Isiomah's article in This Day newspaper sparked off unnecessary bloody riots across the North by mostly rogues and vagrants. She was, of course, wrong in mentioning the prophet in an article on beauty pageant that involved nudity, but to go on rampage for that beats my imagination. All the same I believe that if she had equally mentioned Jesus in the same article, tempers might have been doused somewhat.
At any rate the deed had been done but the handling of the event by Obasanjo and Jerry Gana left much to be desired. They quickly relocated Isiomah to the USA thereby sweeping everything under the carpet. That was a dumb thing to do. Unfortunately that strategy appears now to be the standard response to all similar cases where Muslims are slighted.

But do we really see any resemblance between the two or are my friends just pulling my leg in order to bring back the issue?

I can hear voices inside me saying, " writing on this topic is abominable". I was only encouraged after visiting MuslimsWakeUp blogsite which among other things, has an interesting column with the above title. The column, written by mostly women, talks about relationships between men and women within the Umma. Inside and outside wedlock. They are fictional stories that ring true in any society. But such relationships, as we all know, mostly border on hypocrisy, cheating and lust. Certainly not love. And I am talking about the Nigerian Muslim context.

Governor Shema is a lawyer who knows more than many people what the rule of law stands for. It is for this reason that I don't envy him in his new job as the governor of Katsina state. Since the day he was sworn-in, the new governor has come across tons of incidences of injustices, undemocratic practices, human right abuses and outright cases of mis-carriage of justice across the state. If you are a lawyer this can bring tears of sadness to your eyes and Shema's training as a lawyer abhors this kind of situation.
Take the issue of the motley crowd of youths (known as Kauraye boys) who collect five thousand naira every month but do nothing for it. Muttaka Rabe coordinated these payments when he was commissioner in the hey days of Yar'Adua's tenure. Shema stopped the payments straight away. Little wonder these youths rained abuses at the governor last Saturday after the wedding fatiha of the president's daughter. Instead of bowing to their cheap blackmail Shema announced a committee that will identify areas where these youths will be helped to establish small businesses throughout the state. This sounds good to me. It would be interesting to see how YarAdua will arbitrate on this issue.

Look at the issue of local governments caretaker committees. Again Shema found fault in the appointment of twenty councillors for each LGC instead of the five as stated in the constitution. Likewise the appointment of LG administrators who will later contest for the chairmanship without resigning from their positions as was the understanding at the party secretariat. Would Shema allow this travesty of justice continue or would YarAdua again prevail on him for the party to continue?
But the mother of all is in the area of elected representatives who did not follow the dictates of the constitution before winning. Several local government chairmen contested for elections while in office and are now in the the state assembly. It is good the opposition parties have gone to court on this and we shall see what happens soon. At the federal level some representatives were screened with mere secondary school certificates but on reaching the house submitted what amounts to fake diploma certificates. I am surprized this story is not picked by any national daily because it is a replay of what happened in 1999 and people want to hear it. the courts are however the best avenue to solve these misdeeds and set a precedent for the future.

Shema's training in business will also be at odds with what he sees on the ground: wastage of government resources left right and center. Extreme inertia by civil servants in all the ministries and parastatals. Imagine KUPDA being more interested in new building start-ups than how roads are misused for example. Dual carriage ways reduced to single lane roads and KUPDA is doing nothing about it. Or the Zonal offices of Ministry of Education showing no concern at the large number of pupils in private primary and secondary schools.
What about the rumoured missing two billion from the treasury? Garba Aminchi and the former SSG are said to coughing out the money now? Would that be all? People need to hear about these stories.

Shema has promised to give education its rightful place and doing this alone can go along way in helping the state by entrenching qualified people not only in the state assembly but also elsewhere. This too is part of the rule of law. Dim witted secondary school leavers should not be allowed to partake in the running of the state. These people are essentially a bunch of ignoramuses. They should not be allowed to be LG chairmen, members of state assembly, federal reps or senators.