Banning Mingling of Heterogeneous Sexes on Commercial Vehicles in Kano
By

Abdul’Aziz Ahmad

bnahmadfagge85@yahoo.co.uk

IT was on Monday, December 12, 2005 that Kano state Hisbah Board started implementing a law against conveying women on motorcycles, especially by the commercial motorcyclists otherwise called "Achaba" or "Okada".

However the law accepts a terrible welcome from some people, especially the most concerned--the Okada men and even some enigmatic women.

I was returning home from school on Tuesday, the following day that I came about a scene of Hisbah guards and some men probably from Kofar Nassarawa area – around the Silver Jubilee Round About trying to enforce the order of banning the mingling. I reliably gathered at the place that there was a feud between the Hisbah men and the Okada operators earlier, which I too can dicipher from the atmosphere of the place which attracted many spectators.

The Achaba men were said to ha ve protested violently at the place against the implementation of that particular law which they cursed and abused the Hisbah guards and also conferred their anger upon the A Daidaita Sahu buses and tricycle drivers which consequently led to the demolition of some of the carriages. However, when those men from around Kofar Nassarawa deluged into the place carrying sticks, petrol tubes and other local weapons, the Okada men escaped from the scene higgledy-piggledy in what can be described as ‘gaba-da-gabanta’.

I remained at the place looking excitedly on how the exercise was taking place. I observed that when dan Achaba is stopped and asked, the passenger to stop down by the Hisbah corps and those men, he will just ride on cursing the duo. While others managed to escape despite the huge crowd of the enforcers, to my greatest surprise, when I catched a bus to ‘Yan Kura, I found almost all the people inside were discussing on the same issue and were busy lambasting government a nd Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of the state. This act really annoyed me. Initially, I intended to remain quite, but I later joined them rather insignificantly considering their number and they were all against me. I insisted on my argument until one woman among the accusers asked me "how about if the rider happened to be the husband of the passenger?

I became quite for a while thinking of a suitable answer that will suss her, but unfortunately I did not get such an answer. This necessitated me to keep quite and calm till the time when they dropped down. Then the discussion rejuvenated between me, especially the driver and the driver’s mate, (conductor).

It was here that I won the battle at last. I cited the conductor as a case study and asked him what will be his feeling by seeing somebody sitting very close to his wife or mother as the case may be, even in a sitting arrangement like that of the bus talkless of sitting at the back of a motorcyclist. He gazed at me speechless, I then proceeded by substantiating my argument by citing a prophetic tradition in which the prophet of Islam is reported to have said "whoever shows unconcerned to his wife will not enter paradise." I added him with one question which appeared rhetorical to him when I said, "is it love or care upon your wife to allow her to be conveyed on Achaba?" he then gave up his argument and I continued on the issue until I alighted from the bus.

I narrated all the aforementioned saga in order to provide a clear image on how some people see this exercise. From the above experienced we can know that there are few people who are in support of the exercise. Considering its opponents, the question here is why?

Contrary to what the Achaba riders use to say that this law will retard their means of them livelihood, to my own perception this law will have no effect on them, because beside women, there are many men who patronise Achaba. Also, it is totally not in line with the Islamic teaching to be thinking that if your are forbidden from taking females you will miss something or you will lose a passenger or something of this nature. This is surely a kind of minor shirk, hence Allah says in the Qur’an: "There is no creature on earth until her wealth is from Allah." Therefore if Allah did not wish you to convey a person, even if you are the only Okada man you will not do so. Likewise, if Allah wanted you to convey a person, wherever that person is on the globe, he must surely come to where God has prescribed for you to take him to where Allah wishes.

Regrettably, those that the law was enacted for their own sake – women (some) – also see the order as hostile to them. Many of them are very angry with the state government’s decision, as they grumble that some places are far from the main roads and others are not wide enough to allow the undisturbed movement of buses. Therefore if Achaba usage is banned, they will suffer much. On this also we all know tha t Achaba itself said to be a new means of transportation as it was only discovered in the early 90s. Thus, before its coming, our mothers were tracking to everywhere so far it was not a "bus-worthy" place. So how can for certain, nowadays, women say they can’t do so?

I believe that the banning of mingling of men and women is a pleasure and honour to women as it has been instituted in Islam. Islam has really esteemized females contrary to the Western world, which proclaims a "false" women right nowadays. Even-though they did not take women as esteemed as they are, hence they have little or actually no penalty for women disgraces or acts like adultery, fornication, rape and so on talkless of prohibiting acts like displaying erotic organs of women or exposing their charms. While in Islam marriage is the only sine quinon that gives room for somebody to even see the charms of a woman, as all these acts like sitting on the back of Achaba will draw one near to adultery or fornication whic h Islam has strongly prohibited as Allah says in the Glorious Qur’an. "Do not come near adultery or fornication as it is a great sinful act…".

All in all, implementation of this law in Kano is a very nice job which many people have been waiting to see and it is worthy of emulation to other Shariah states in the country. Many people, including the writer, thought that this will be on frontline of the Shekarau’s administration duties which will be an a hallmark of Shariah, for which purpose Governor Shekarau came to power. Honestly speaking, the previous delay in implementing this order made me to dislike this administration a little bit before – despite that I voted Malam in the April 19, 2003 elections. I also convinced many to vote him – and in spite of the fact that he annulled the payment of school fees for us (Science students) but to me to execute the former is better than the latter.Therefore I am happy for realising such an achievement.

However, I want to make some suggestion on what I consider as the shortcomings of the implementation of this law. My advice is that Hisbah corps have to be investigating or asking before expelling a woman from the motorcycle because it may happen that the cyclist may be a husband to that particular woman.

Nevertheless, I know how people are, some may not be true to themselves on the woman passenger they convey. They can even claim her to be a wife, while is not true. But as far as a trained law enforcing officer is concerned, he supposed to distinguish between truth and falsehood via observation, which I believe they have been trained on that and they can do it strategically.

I would also like to call on Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and the Kano state Hisbah Board to carry on with this hard but rewardful work. They should forget all forms of threats and face the challenges squarely. A verse in the Qur’an where God Almighty says: "Do you think you can say ‘we believe in Allah’ and then we will leave you w ithout testing your belief…?"

So Malam, consider this as a test from Allah as reformers must face such challenges like enmity, boycott and so on. Secondly I want the Hisbah guards to be rigid in their assignment. Also, I want Governor Shekarau to bear in mind one phrase from Alhaji Musa Dan Kwairo’s song to the Emir of Daura which I think it will be of utmost importance to him. Thus: writes from "Rike talakkawan ka da kyawu kai masu hairi, ka sa su hanyoyin Musulunci, In sun tankware ka hambarosu in ko sun kiya a basu kashi. Sai an gyara masu hali talakka bai san talaka ne ba".

Abdul’Aziz Ahmad Abdul’Aziz, writes from Fagge, Kano and is a member of the A Daidaita Sahu Internet Forum.