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The Extinction of Kunya Tales are repeatedly told of how shame or a sense of it sustains discipline in Hausa society. Any form of misbehaviour sends a person to the condemned world of shame. One feels ashamed when he or she commits a sin that denigrates the image of his or her family. An emir cannot dare commit abin kunya unless if he wants to abdicate his throne and leave behind a family that will never think of aspiring for a leadership position. A house wife guards the bonds of her marriage to avoid things that will affect the integrity of her family. A young lady guards her virginity till marriage because it will be a shame on her family if her husband found her deflowered. Thieves are stigmatized and the morally bankrupt pay the price of their waywardness at every instance in life. Parents give their children good upbringing so that they may grow up to represent their ideals. In those days, inability to pay a debt taken from even a neighbour is such a shameful thing that can prompt one to desert home by going into what is called yawon duniya (wander lust). A father insist that, his daughter marry a morally upright person, no matter his station in life. Wives see marriage as a commitment and question their husbands when they spend much more than they legitimately earn. Ladies love not because of money. People go to school to learn not to get a certificate. Traditional institutions bestow titles on only those who deserve them not the highest bidder. Crooks today parade all sorts of obscure traditional titles, many of which are meaningless. Emirs now never shy away from turbaning thieves with titles, to meet the demands of capricious greed. Serving in government means servicing your pocket by stealing blindly and using the money in building exotic houses and setting up businesses poised to legitimize the illicit funds.
A nations future depends on the quality of its system of education and youths. Going by these, Nigeria has no future at all. Our universities have became dens of rearing morally loose and desperate youths with eyes on amassing wealth by all means. A graduate of a Nigerian university is a confused person who hovers five or more years of his life between decay and hopeless lecturers who were trained entirely at the expense of the state, yet they exploit their students in all sorts of ways.
Was it not shameful that our big men always rush to London or Germany for medical care and display indifference to the terrible state of our hospitals. A government official can steal all the money meant for a hospital and still walk tall in the society. At the same time some people are so poor that they cannot even afford the plain yard for the burial of their dead. Religion has provided a new dimension to the lack of shame in man's modern world. Mosques record huge turn out during prayers by those who live as if they did never believe that there will be a day of judgement. Politicians shout God's name whenever they want to cow people into helping them to realize their personal whimsical ambitions. They normally build small mosques in their mansions, and still sponsor prostitutes to Hajj. Where religion could not see them through their greed they use the North or Arewa to fool the people.
Politicians go to polls after promising so many people so many things and end their tenures only acquiring more wealth. The promises were meant not to be fulfilled. They take oath of office swearing with Qur'an even though they later live as if they have not sworn to anything. Motivation to power is to amass wealth by stealing. The society , after all , is so shameless that it values you depending on the volume of money you were able to steal, the amount of trust you were able to breach and the level you can go to cheat in whatever you are involved.
The holy Prophet (SAW) was said to have said that, he who has no sense of shame, can go ahead and do whatever he likes. People are now doing whatever they like as fathers sleep with their daughters while wives sleep with other men. Rape especially of small girls by old men is no longer a news.
These times are times of shamelessness and indeed times of hopelessness. Samuel Beckett is beginning to be vindicated in his definition of the world as a theatre of the absurd. Everything loses meaning and bearing. Only a few people stand for something, while the rest stand for nothing. here we are. . . and how far can we go. . . . . ? Isa Sanusi lives in Abuja, Nigeria.
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