It doesn’t take long for a foreigner to tell who we are but it’s taking forever for us to accept the truth about us. In my journey across the nation and most recently from Kano to katsina and onwards to Kaduna I noticed and realised that given the day and time, opportunity and circumstance a Yoruba man could just as well be an hausa man.
The Ibo man has proven that he can do business and survive anywhere on earth. In fact the Ibo man is a testimony that business and life can thrive where two or three are gathered.
I had arrived Kano on a flight from Lagos on a Friday afternoon, my cab man picked me in a tinted Toyota Corolla and we stopped briefly at a nearby food stall similar to the type in my old secondary school, Molusi College, Ijebu Igbo. The atmosphere was devoid of any air of sophistication despite it being an International airport.
The last bowl of rice just got sold to a lady who recognised my presence and was surprised a celebrity could come to a Buka. To this, I retorted that hunger knows no status. I was lucky to get some Semo and Egusi soup. Same Egusi dish as I usually get at The Calabar canteen of Mr B inside the former NN24 premises beside Eleganza/opposite Unilever in Oregun, Ikeja.
We push on to Katsina and to my utmost surprise, my driver ‘Lawan’ is playing me assorted sounds from a flash stick. From P-Square to Bob Marley to Indian sounds, (which he wanted to change to a more familiar tune but was surprised when I told him to retain the Indian vibes that I love listening to such).
Then Tupac’s “Me and My Girlfriend” came on and I stood up in shock from my laying down position in the back seat, then “Live and Die in LA” to which my driver was bumping his head. I had to ask this over 50 year old Hausa man if he understood the music and he answered in the affirmative.
Later at night enroute my event, Prince Uche (Twin brother to Mc Tagwaye who acts as President Buhari) blasts a series of songs including Lil kesh and the cover of ‘IF’ by the little boy from Mushin, ‘Destiny Boy’ in the cool red Benz. All of these amazes me especially when I discover that he’s an Ibo man born and bred in the North yet he’s blasting Yoruba songs.
No flights out for me through Kano so I had no choice but to do four hours by road on Sunday to catch a flight back to Lagos. I am grateful this happened because the road experience was a real eye opener. I saw Nigeria for what it is. A people genuine and real. The politics mascaras the true reflection of the indigenous people.
A beggar came to me at the motor park and begged to pick the ‘Akara’ I threw out of the commercial bus I boarded. This broke my heart to see that in 2017 such was still happening as I had last seen in Ibadan in 1996. We journeyed on for a bit and I saw massive arable lands with farms upon farms of human back bones tilling the ground unlike the mechanised version I saw whilst driving across the countryside from New Jersey to Florida in USA.
Mud houses were spread all over these landscape similar to the ones in my grandma’s villa in Togo.
These parts have remained as they were in the earliest form of civilisation. They are aware of the new age but care less. Their Looting Lords in politics are aware of their simple nature and contented lifestyle hence the need not to improve it.
You should see the campaign headquarters of most of the political parties. I thought I was in the remote villages of Oshogbo. From kafur (Which perhaps is the biggest local government area, for it stretched like Ajah to Epe) in katsina we entered Kudan in Kaduna. For the first time, I saw a home video kiosk at Basawa junction looking towards Funtua.
In Zaria, our bus driver quickly puts on his seat belt, a sign to show that we were approaching civiliSation. We drive through Sabo Ngari, and I noticed that the Wusasa stretch of the road appears like shagamu/Ijebu ode landscape. Mud houses pop up once in a while by the side of the expressway but you can see the predominance of Zinc sheets fresh atop brick houses rubbing shoulders with ancient mud homes whose owners are not in the bit bothered or envious of each other.
Just like you see when travelling from Lagos to Ekiti, the numerous fuel stations with names you can’t comprehend attack your eyes everywhere. Mashlaha oil, Mun-in oil, Garba Ali and sons, Sufus, Hassan Nagogo, Affas, Jiba lai. At the sight of Rural dwellers Oil I burst into laughter. Mutafco, Fatir, Fatawa, Mamu oil, Bushara, Sul oil, Safasni, Bulasawa, even the Japanese put a foot in our oil well with Songhai power. Amongst several includes Gajere, Kwiwa, Tahir investment, Awsco, Abukhalifa, Shanono vent, Aim sadi, Ibako oil, Sidi Global, Kubarachi, AJ maikogi, Fauzee, Marnazah, Shema, and then a few familiar Brands like Total, Forte, Conoil, MRS, NNPC mega stations.
The post Who we are (1) appeared first on Independent News Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
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