Kano

Kano: Stuck in the Past!

Abdullah Musa

The past is embedded in each one of us, in so far as we have benefited from the socialization process of the community to which we were born. Some would even argue that the past may well be encoded in our genes. Were that to be so, it would really be extremely difficult to change the way we behave.

We are prompted to want to change the behavior of others where we perceive that there are elements of that behavior that are inimical to the attainment of a certain goal. Modern social scientists have come up with behavioral change disciplines with the hope that people would be influenced to change their mode of thinking, thus consequently, actions.

Just last week, a very important textile materials market in Kano was up in flames. Reports have it that over one thousand shops were burnt. A proper assessment of the amounts lost is not possible, because books of accounts are not maintained. Were they maintained, they would be kept in the shops, where they would also be lost to the fire.

Kano, like many parts of the Nigerian federation, had suffered many, if not innumerable infernos. Most devastating were those of the markets, and also those of government offices. The markets in Kano and in many states of the federation are run as they used to be run before technology became a way of life. The people will not change their ways.

It will be pertinent to understand the nature of the players in such markets, so that one may have sympathy for them when the same tragedy keeps happening to them, and they attribute it to the will of Allah. Were a hurricane to come our way, it will come without prior warning. In other societies, they developed systems that will not be able to stop hurricanes, but will inform them of its advent in order to give them time to lessen the casualty.

The majority of the operators in Kano markets did not attend western-type of schools. Many do not understand, neither do they respect the application of scientific knowledge to day-to-day living. They are the ones who would build their houses without recourse to the building authorities. They are the ones who can choose to live below high-tension cables. They will want to be given apparently vacant plots below which run the city’s major water supply pipes. They are so to speak still living in the past.

The nature of those who did not attend western-type of schools is that they will ultimately become traders. And the best attraction for them is to have a place in the market. Those without western education did not receive a formal education that geared them for life as employees either in the public or private sectors. When they go to the markets, they behave as they behave in their settlements: they do not have respect for well-ordered market streets and passages. In Kano markets, you cannot drive a car through the streets; they have all been taken over by petty traders. Many traders due to the ravages of falling sales, decided to sell the spaces in front of their shops; the result is more and more congestion.

As if that is not enough, they leave the inside of the markets, and display their ways on the pedestrian walking spaces outside the market. An illustration of this pathetic conduct is the Rimi market on the way to Murtala Muhammad hospital inside the city. They are a people who will not change their ways.

The race for 2011 is on. Kano State will have to join other states in producing a Governor, electing the members of the House of Assembly, members to represent the state at the National Assembly; and even the enfant terrible, the Chairmen of local government councils, if you would be generous enough to include them amongst those who are elected.

Of significance to our discourse is not that Kano people are participating. What is worthy of note is that amongst the contenders for Governorship position is one who once had the opportunity but behaved in such unbecoming manner that he could not get second term. Had he stayed long enough, he would have ensured that Kano became the only state without a civil service, because he had no need for one.

I would have wanted to recommend as panacea to Kano people’s self-inflicted tragedies that they embrace western education totally. But the above-mentioned candidate also went to school. But still yet that is the only remedy. Our problem is attitudinal. Someone knows that a fire can start in the market without his knowledge, but he keeps the proceeds of his sales inside the shop; and the fire pays him the tragedy he sought doubly!

This illiteracy that is predominant ensures the type of attitude that allows Kano people to even consider returning to their 1999 stage. Though it is sad, one cannot help but feel pity that a people can be so stuck in their past, and would not want to move forward by jettisoning their negative traits. Meanwhile, we can only commiserate with the victims of the fire incident, and pray the lame prayer that we hope such an incident will not happen again. We call our prayer lame because we did pray so many times in the past against one tragedy or the other, but yet they keep repeating themselves. We keep getting the same result because we will not change our attitude. Come 2011, if Kano people vote for the politics of thuggery, of privatizing government treasury, of lack of a coherent development strategy, they will not earn my scorn. Democracy, it seems, gives you the right to destroy yourself. But where politicians come to power poor, but leave rich, the illiterate peasants find it hard not to believe that ko wane gauta ja ne...!