abdulraheem
In 1995, I made a package for the BBC’s NETWORK AFRICA program on the problem of divorce in Kano. As part of my research, I spoke with intellectuals at Bayero University and had the epiphany that many women in Kano actually visited with Malams who also double as marriage consultants of a sort. I interviewed one somewhere off Zoo Road in the Hausawa Quarters of the city and was surprised that one of his clients was the wife of a leading political figure in Kano at the time. I knew the lady in question as a post graduate student at BUK. It was obvious to me, that there was a serious problem with matrimony in Kano, with its very high divorce rate! The 1995 episode came to my mind, when I read the report in SUNDAY TRUST of January 11, 2009, that Kano’s divorcees were planning a mass street protest by the end of this month. The plan was attributed to Hajiya Attine Abdullahi, who was described as the Executive Director of thelittle known National Addociation of Divorcees, Widows and the Orphans of Nigeria, to highlight the growing divorce rate and “insufficient husbands in Kano (that is a very serious matter!)”. hajiya Attine promised a “one million divorcee” march and promises that it will be “the biggest in the history of Nigeria”! And what a sight that would be on the Sharia-compliant streets of Kano! Hajiya Attine’s Association had addressed the press at the end of an emergency meeting, prompted among other reasons, by the incidences of divorce that have become “a growing social problem bedeviling the communities of Kano State”; and the fact that the Kano State House of Assembly has been unable to redeem a three years old pledge to initiate laws against the menace. The divorcees’ association wants the one-million-person street manifestation “to protest against the outrageous number of divorcees currently sent out of their matrimonial homes and of which no one is doing anything.”. and if they have forgotten, Hajiya Attine reminded the responsible officials of state, that society faces “a serious social problem that has the capacity to impact negatively on the social fabric of any society that has chosen to neglect it”. Furthermore, Hajiya Attine Underlined the raison of the anger of members of the National Association of Divorcees, Widows and the Orphans of Nigeria: neglect. “It is this seemingly neglect (SIC) that we will come out to protest and we hope the rally will equally create awareness on the plight of these mothers as well as draw the attention of the community to this serious social problem that is not viewed with the seriousness it deserves”. The divorcees are unhappy that their developmental roles in sority are not adequately recognized and the rally will raise such awareness amongst the leadership of the stat., but they also have a message for the offending husbands as well. “We hope (to)…also draw the attention of our husbands who should know one million divorcees that will be on the street on that day are their failure for keeping their home fronts”! This is a naming and shaming exercise of a very novel type in Nigeia in general, and Kano in particular! But if any reader thinks that this is a freak issue on the margins of a deformed democracy, you better think again, because our reporter said that last year, a committee of the state government in Kano, comprising of NGOs (was the National Association of Divorcees included?), the Ministry of Women Affairs and even Adaidaita Sahu (the morality enforcer in Kano) came out with a report which said that over 80% of Kano marriages were “unstable”! Again, that is very worrisome. The committee attributed the problem to the absence of sincerity during courtship; ignorance about the religious status of the marriage institution; economic downturn; working women phenomenor (whatever that meant!) and materialism in marriage! The truth is that marriages are endangered in Kano and it threatens the fabric of the family. I know a leading son of Northern Nigeria, who will not to allow his daughters to marry men from Kano, because he said they mistreat their wives and rush to divorce them! It is clear that we must think through this problem of divorce and find ways to help stem them. We cannot build a stable community on the very slippery foundation of divorce; children must have the stable ambience to grow in order to reproduce the future of our culture. In this construction of societal continuity, men have to assume responsibilities which help the survival of matrimony with its stresses and strains. We must also fight the culture of patriarchy and chauvinism which refuses to recognize the role of woman in a fast changing world. Similarly, education and liberation for women must also mean an added sense of responsibility and our nation.
Susane Wenger AND Femi Fatoba: Two artists lost from the firmament.
In 1989, I was involved in many art events around Nigeria during which I interviewed some of Nigeria’s leading writers, sculptors, poets and so on. It was in the course of that year, that I made a half hour feature on the Osogbo Art School for Radio Nederland’s. I spent two weeks in the Osun State capital, tracking artists like Twins Seven-Seven, Jimoh Buraimoh and of course Susane Wenger. Susane had been out of circulation for weeks because she was being initiated into one of the traditional cults of the Yoruba people at the time, and one of the essential elements of the initiation was that period of hibernation. Susane has an adopted daughter, a lovely lady called Doyin who facilitated my effort to get the interview which she consented to, soon after the initiation ceremony. I visited the Osun groves, which contained several artistic pieces from he New Sacred Art Movement and it was also obvious that she was the highly revered matriarch for all the Osogbo artists that I met in the course of my reporting assignment. Susane Wenger spoke English with a very heavy German accent, and her Yoruba was similarly heavily accented. She would lace her words with incantations and dirge as well as show profound respect for the different deities in the Yoruba pantheon of gods, showing that she was a sincere believer in the traditions of the Nigerian people that she adopted as her own. In Osogbo, there wasa genuine feeling of love for the woman, who became part of the cultural history of the town from the 1950s, first as the wife of Ulli Beier and much later, the wife of a traditional and local drummer! Because I spoke German, Wenger even toyed with the idea that I could travel with her to Austria that year, for an award ceremony that was to be held in her honour that year. Her death closed a major artistic chapter in recent Nigerian history, and her remarkable residence, which was made a national monument a couple of years ago, will be a place of visits for years to come as the place where an unusual European woman, who dedicated her life to the cultures of the Nigerian people spent the better part of her life. I was also informed this week, that Femi Fatoba, the poet and theatre art teacher died in a car accident a couple of weeks ago. I have always felt that Femi, a member of the second generation of Nigerian poets, like Funsho Ayejina, Tenure Ojaide, Femi Osaofisan, Odia Ofeimun and Niyi Osundre, wrote some of the most lucid, accessible, even pleasantly mischievous poems, I ever read! And you only needed to meet him to find that he was as deceptive lyctid, as he was funny and profound. Femi Fatoba kept a completely shaven head with a very bushy beard. he told me a story of a kid who once saw him in a market in Ibadan, and shouted: “Mummy! Mummy!! Why is this man’s head upside down”! Femi loved his country with passion and dedicated his life to the artistic expression of that passion as well as helping to train generations of students at the University of Ibadan. His death represents a major loss to the artistic community of our country.
N767.5 Million: Chicken feed for Mike Okiro’s dogs
Recently, Inspector General of Police, Mister Mike Okiro told members of the House of Representatives, that Nigeria might harvest a plethora of horse and dog ……………….. given the approval to spend the chicken change of seven hundred and sixty-seven point five million naira, as the feeding allowance for the dogs and horses that he keeps on behalf of all of us! Unfortunately, the media didn’t report just how many reps went for the handkerchiefs in their pocket to wipe the tears from their faces, as the nation’s chief cop made his plea, which should ordinarily win him an award from animal rights organizations for compassion. Unfortunately for Mister Okiro, his plea resembles a hastily buried corpse, with the unfortunate consequence that a foot is sticking out of the ground! In the 1970s and 1980s, it was true that the Nigerian police had well nurtured gods sections around the country as well as very well-kept horses. But like a lot of things in Nigeria, the gods sections gradually deteriorated and almost collapsed. I am not in possession of any information which showed that Mister Okiro gave an inventory of the number of dogs and horses that will need to be fed with the chicken change of N767.5 million. But given the not-too-pleasant reputation of the police in matters financial, it might be that those handling the gods and horses might also end up being fed along with their animals with the chicken change that Oga Okiro has passionately pleaded for. The main issue here is that he might just get the entire amount anyway and Okiro will then be able to shout DEO GRATIAS as many times as the number of dogs and horses there are in police pens around Nigeria! But not all of us believe these yarns about dogs and horses that need almost N800 million just to feed in one year (and the ridiculous threat that they risked death if that chicken change is not approved!), even they will be fed with diamonds, Oga Okiro
