Nafisa, a friend, forwarded the following e-mail to me recently. It was one of those e-mails called junk that fly about on the Internet. While I merely chuckle after reading such mails, this one is so hautingly true and real that I felt strong enough about it as to reproduce it here as food for thought for my readers. We’ll conclude it next week and then I’ll answer the above question. Meanwhile, read. And think.
Happy 1430 Hijrah!
Happy? But the situation in the Muslim world is still sad as it was 500 years ago. Global influence and power have shifted to the Christian world - and have remained there ever since. The following figures speak for themselves. They are extracts of a speech delivered by Hafez A.B. Mohamed, Director-General of Al Baraka Bank.
Demographics:
o World Jewish population: 14 million
o Distribution: 7m in America
5m in Asia
2m in Europe
100 thousands in Africa
o World Muslim population: 1.5 billion
o Distribution: 1 billion in Asia/Mid-East
400m in Africa
44m in Europe
6m in the Americas
o Every fifth human being is a Muslim.
o For every single Hindu there are two Muslims
o For every Buddhist there are two Muslims
o For every Jew there are 107 Muslims
Yet the 14 million Jews are more powerful than the entire 1.5 billion Muslims...
Why..?
Here are some of the reasons.
Movers of Recent History
o Albert Einstein - Jewish
o Sigmund Freud - Jewish
o Karl Marx - Jewish
o Paul Samuelson - Jewish
o Milton Friedman - Jewish
Medical Milestones
o Vaccination needle: Benjamin Ruben - Jewish
o Polio vaccine: Jonas Salk - Jewish
o Leukaemia drug: Gertrude Elion - Jewish
o Hepatitis B: Baruch Blumberg - Jewish
o Syphilis drug: Paul Ehrlich - Jewish
o Neuro muscular: Elie Metchnikoff - Jewish
o Endocrinology: Andrew Schally - Jewish
o Cognitive therapy: Aaron Beck - Jewish
o Contraceptive pill: Gregory Pincus - Jewish
o Understanding of human eye: G. Wald - Jewish
o Embryology: Stanley Cohen - Jewish
o Kidney dialysis: Willem Kloffcame - Jewish
Nobel Prize Winners
In the past 105 years, the 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel prizes whilst the 1.5 billion Muslims have achieved only 3 Nobel winners.
Inventions that changed History
o Micro-processing chip: Stanley Mezor - Jewish
o Nuclear chain reactor: Leo Sziland - Jewish
o Optical fibre cable: Peter Schultz - Jewish
o Traffic lights: Charles Adler - Jewish
o Stainless steel: Benno Strauss - Jewish
o Sound movies: Isador Kisee - Jewish
o Telephone microphone: Emile Berliner - Jewish
o Video tape recorder: Charles Ginsburg - Jewish
Influential Global Businesses
o Polo: Ralph Lauren - Jewish
o Coca-Cola: - Jewish
o Levi’s: Levi Strauss - Jewish
o Starbuck’s: Howard Schultz - Jewish
o Google: Sergey Brin - Jewish
o Dell Computers: Michael Dell - Jewish
o Oracle Computers: Larry Ellison: - Jewish
o DKNY: Donna Karan - Jewish
o Baskin Robbins: Irv Robbins - Jewish
o Dunkin’ Donuts: Bill Rosenberg - Jewish
Influential Policy-makers/Politicians
o Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State - Jewish
o Richard Levin, President of Yale University - Jewish
o Alan Greenspan, Chairman of US Federal Reserve (i.e. Central Bank) - Jewish
o Joseph Lieberman, US Senator - Jewish
o Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State - Jewish
o CasperWeinberger, US Secretary of Defence - Jewish
o Maxim Litvinov, USSR Foreign Minister - Jewish
o David Marshal, Singapore Chief Minister - Jewish
o Isaac Isaacs, Governor-General of Australia - Jewish
o Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman - Jewish
o Yevgeny Primakov, Russian PM - Jewish
o Barry Goldwater, US politician - Jewish
o Jorge Sampaio, President of Portugal - Jewish
o Herb Gray, Canadian Deputy PM - Jewish
o Pierre Mendes, French PM - Jewish
o Michael Howard, British Home Secretary - Jewish
o Bruno Kriesky, Austrian Chancellor - Jewish
o Robert Rubin, US Secretary of Treasury - Jewish
Global Media Figures
o Wolf Blitzer, CNN - Jewish
o Barbara Walters, ABC News - Jewish
o Eugene Meyer, Washington Post - Jewish
o Henry Grunwald, Time magazine - Jewish
o Katherine Graham, Washington Post publisher - Jewish
o Joseph Lelyeld, New York Times - Jewish
o Max Frankel, New York Times - Jewish
Global Philanthropists
o George Soros - Jewish
o Walter Annenberg - Jewish
Education/Literacy
o In the entire Muslim world (57 Muslim countries) there are only 500 universities
o In USA alone, 5,758 universities
o In India alone, 8,407 universities
Not one university in the entire Islamic World features in the Top 500 Ranking Universities of the World.
o Literacy in the Christian world - 90%
o Literacy in the Muslim world - 40%
•15 Christian-majority countries’ literacy rate - 100%,
•Muslim-majority countries with 100% - None;
•98% in Christian countries completed primary education,
•Only 50% in Muslim countries completed primary education;
•40% in Christian countries attended university,
•In Muslim countries, a dismal 2% attended university;
•Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per million,
•The USA has 5,000 per million;
•The Christian world - 1,000 technicians per million,
•Entire Arab world - only 50 technicians per million;
•Muslim world spending on R&D - 0.2% of GDP,
•Christian world’s R&D - 5.0% of GDP.
Another way of testing the degree of knowledge is the degree of diffusing knowledge:•Pakistan: 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 citizens,
•Singapore: 460 per 1,000 citizens.
•UK book titles per million is 2,000.
•Egypt book titles per million is only 17.
The Muslim World is failing to diffuse knowledge.
Applying knowledge is another such test.
•Exports of high-tech products from Pakistan: 0.9%
•In Saudi Arabia: only 0.2%
•Kuwait, Morocco and Algeria: only 0.3%
•Tiny Singapore (4mil pop.): 68% ...!
...What I Think
Facts, it is said, do not lie. The above facts and figures, as well as the ones we published in this space last week, are proof enough that the 14 million Jews of this world have surpassed the Muslim (millions of whom are their cousins) in worldly accomplishments. From science to policy-making and politics, from inventions that changed history, to philanthropy, publishing and global business, the comparatively minority Jews have demonstrated greater clout than the Muslims (whose population is put at 1.5 billion). Here, the Jews may be seen in isolation, but their world has become part and parcel of the Christian world even though the duo have different faiths and cultural mores. From some of the reactions I received since last week, it seems that even Christians regard themselves as closer to the Jews than to the Muslims. It can, therefore, be argued that even though the focus of the above list is the Jews, the apparent competition for accomplishment in various human endeavours is strictly between the Judeo-Christian and the Muslim worlds. No doubt, the latter has been left far behind.
The list developed by Hafez A.B. Mohamed, Director-General of Al Baraka Bank, is not exhaustive, though. Many other prominent Jews have not been mentioned, such as CNN’s Larry King and French Prime Minister Sarcozy. Nor is the role being played by the Jews in the life of various countries, such as Nigeria where their companies have built bridges, roads and other structures, as well as their consulting in security matters.
The question then arises: Why are the Jews powerful and why are Muslims powerless? To answer the question, I must stress the fact that I’m not talking about spiritual superiority but achievements in mundane issues. Secondly, I am not saying Muslims did not achieve anything in history. After all, it is a known fact that Muslims had built one of the leading civilisations in world history, with Islam as the fastest growing religion in the largely Judeo-Christian Europe and America. And yes, many Judeo-Christian scientists that have etched their names in the annals of history used the seeds of knowledge and discoveries of early Muslim scientists and astronomers. Moreover, many scientific theories were found in Qur’anic verses.
But why are the Muslims less influential than the Jews and the Christians in the last 500 years? Why do the Muslim nations rely heavily on Western technology and other expertise for their comfort and security, as well as for developing their societies economically and socially? Is there anything like Muslim science and technology today?
Hafez A.B. Mohamed, in his speech, has given us reasons why Muslims are so backward compared to the Jews. In simple term, he summarised the problem thus: “The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.” This does not, I reckon, mean that the Muslims had never produced knowledge; otherwise the accomplishments of early Muslim scholars would not have been possible. The stark reality is that Muslims seem to have ceased producing knowledge. They have, in addition, failed to apply the knowledge that their ancestors had produced. Instead, they have embraced Western expertise, upgrading it to the status of universal knowledge. In contrast, the Chinese, for example, have been applying their pristine knowledge system even as they use the West’s in some respects.
In the e-mail I received last week, Hafez A.B. Mohamed was quoted to have advised Muslims (or was it the view of an e-mailer?) thus: “Please educate yourself and your children. Excuses like lack of money, ability or opening are nothing more than that - excuses. Always promote education, don’t compromise on it. We hate to be weak, illiterate and poor but are we too weak to give our children the opportunity to break the curse?
“Don’t ignore your children’s slightest misguidance from education... and please, for Allah’s sake, don’t use your personal contacts to promote your children in their education. If they fail, let them because it will make them learn the sweetness of success. Remember, if they can’t do it now, they can’t ever.
“With knowledge comes power, and with it even the small can rule over the big. We are world’s biggest but sadly NOT strongest nation... Our opportunity to save all humankind is best through knowledge, creativity, literacy... And nothing else.”
There are other reasons for the Muslims’ backwardness. Muslims are divided on most of the important issues. The ummah has lost its grip on the rope of unity which the Almighty decrees for it to hold fast. Islamic political and religious leaders have created the disunity and ensured that it remains so because they benefit from its fallouts.
Muslims are also averse to self-criticism. A self-reappraisal of Muslim society and attitude is misinterpreted by some as an attack on the religion. This dogma is promoted by some zealots who, in turn, derive benefits from it. The problem is global: from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia and from Canada to Nigeria.
Muslims have no reason to be overtaken by the Jews in human endeavour. We must break the psychological chains that hold us back. Five hundred years of Judeo-Christian ascendancy has created enough reasons to galvanise us to attain greater heights. This is the wake-up call of any serious-minded Muslim. Barack Obama has just announced a new dawn for America. When will the Muslims wake up to their own?
(THIS PIECE WAS PUBLISHED IN "LEADERSHIP" NEWSPAPER, ABUJA, RECENTLY. IT GENERATED A LOT OF RESPONSES FROM MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS ALIKE, MOST OF WHOM WERE UNITED ON THE FACT THAT MUSLIMS MUST WAKE UP IN ORDER TO TAKE THEIR RIGHTFUL POSITION IN GLOBAL ISSUES)
Monday, 9 February 2009
Tsare Iyan-Tama: Sabon Zubin Zalunci
BUD'AD'D'IYAR WASIK'A ZUWA GA MALAM IBRAHIM SHEKARAU
Daga IBRAHIM SHEME
Mai Girma Gwamna,
NA rubuto maka wannan bud'ad'd'iyar wasik'a ne saboda na yi amanna da cewa za ta fi saurin isa gare ka maimakon in bi hanyar da ku ka tsara, saboda ina da magana mai buk'atar sauri. Idan na mik'a wasik'ar a ofishin ka, za ta iya d'aukar kwanaki da yawa ko ma watanni kafin ta isa gare ka, kuma kafin lokacin ba za ka iya samun bayani na hak'ik'a ta kafa mai zaman kan ta ba kan tantagaryar zaluncin da wasu jami’an ka su ke aikatawa da sunan ka. Na biyu, tun tuni ma ake ta zancen a majalisun hira a tsawon watanni da su ka gabata. Yanzu akwai alamun an jingine maganar ta hanyar wata shari’a wadda ko kad'an ba ta da kan-gado, inda wasu masu fushi da fushin wani su ka yi amfani da ak'idar ka ta aiki bisa doka da oda, da tausayin talakawa, da rashin yaudara da kuma tanadodin Musulunci. Bugu da k'ari, buga wannan wasik'ar a bainar jama’a zai ba wa duk wani mai sha’awar sanin abin da ake ciki damar samun k'arin haske kan d'aya daga cikin muhimman al’amuran da ke gudana a gwamnatin ka.
Ran ka ya dad'e, ina da cikakkar masaniya kan wannan lamari, ba kawai don ina biye da maganar a kotun majistare ta Kano inda aka kai ta ba, a’a har ma saboda ni d'an cikin gida ne a al’amuran sana’ar finafinan Hausa. Ba sai na nanata maka ba cewa Kano ce cibiyar finafinan Hausa a sama da shekara goma da aka yi ana yin sana’ar.
Na tabbatar da cewa ba za ka rasa masaniya ba kan shari’ar da ake tafkawa tsakanin Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta Jihar Kano (KSCB) da wani furodusan fim ba mai suna Alhaji Hamisu Lamid'o Iyan-Tama. Ran ka ya dad'e, Iyan-Tama d'an asalin Kano ne wanda ya taka muhimmiyar rawa wajen ciyar da harkar finafinan Hausa gaba, sannan kuma d'an wasa ne d'an sahun gaba. Hasali ma dai shi ne shugaban farko da aka zab'a na K'ungiyar Masu Shirya Finafinai ta Arewa (AFPAN). Kowa ya san cewa bai tab'a shirya fim ko kuma ya fito a fim d'in da za a yi Allah-wadai da shi ba, wato wanda ya sab'a wa kyawawan al’adun jama’ar Kano ko addinin Musulunci. Duk rol d'in da zai yi a fim, za ka taras na manyantaka ne; ya kan nace kan lallai a yi fim da ya dace da al’adun mu, sannan shi mutum ne mai bin doka. Finafinan sa sun ci manyan kyaututtukan girmamawa.
Ran ka ya dad'e, idan har ka samu damar karanta wannan wasik'ar a yau, to Iyan-Tama ya kwana biyu a gidan yarin Kano, domin a ran Talata wata kotun majistare ta yanke masa hukunci kan abin da ta kira laifuffuka guda biyu, bayan an shafe watanni ana yawo da hankali a kes d'in. A hukuncin da kotun ta zartas, Iyan-Tama zai shafe wata uku a tsare ba tare da zab'in biyan tara ba. Haka kuma zai biya mak'udan kud'i na tara ko kuma ya yi zaman kaso na tsawon shekara d'aya.
Yawancin mu da ke sa ido kan lamarin ba za mu damu ba ko kad'an da hukuncin in da a ce da gaske Hamisu ya aikata laifuffukan. Ni d'in nan na yarda da bin doka da oda, domin hakan shi ne ginshik'in d'orewar mulkin dimokirad'iyya. Ba wanda ya fi k'arfin doka. In an yi amfani da wannan tsarin ne dimokirad'iyya za ta iya d'orewa kuma k'asa za ta samu zaman lafiya. To amma gaskiyar magana ita ce, Hukumar Tace Finafinai ce ta k'irk'iri laifukan da aka ce Iyan-Tama ya aikata, sannan wani alk'ali mai goyon bayan hukumar, wanda kuma ya yi k'aurin suna wajen d'aure duk wani wanda aka gurfanar a gaban sa, ko da bai da laifi, shi ne ya yanke masa wannan d'anyen hukuncin. Wani abin ban-damuwa shi ne ana tafka wannan aika-aikar ne da sunan tanadojin nan masu tsarki na Shari’ar Musulunci. Daga fahimta ta da abubuwan da ke fitowa daga bakin ka da ganin wasu abubuwan da ka aikata, har yanzu ban amince ba da cewa kai d'in nan za ka goyi bayan zalunci ta kowace fuska ko kuma ka bar wani ya na saka siyasa cikin shari’ar Musulunci don ya ci mutuncin jama’a cikin son rai.
’Yallab'ai, bari in d'an fad'a maka abin da ya faru. Jami’an Hukumar Tace Finafinai sun kama Iyan-Tama a ofishin sa a Kano, su ka kai shi kotun tafi-da-gidan- ka wadda aka kafa don yi wa ’yan fim da marubuta shari’a (aka fad'ad'a zuwa duk wani nau’i na rubutu). Abin mamaki, babu wata kotu irin ta; babu kotun ’yan acab'a ko ta karuwai ko ta ’yan caca ko ta ’yan luwad'i, da sauran su. An tuhumi Iyan-Tama da "laifuffuka" guda biyu:
1. Sakin fim d'in sa na ‘Tsintsiya’ a Kano ba tare da Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta amince da shi ba kamar yadda doka ta tanada;
2. Gudanar da kamfanin shirya fim mai suna Iyan-Tama Multimedia, ba tare da yin rajista da gwamnati ba.
To amma duk wad'annan tuhumar, k'arya ne, kuma lauyan sa ya yi k'ok'arin nuna wa alk'ali Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed hakan. An d'auki watanni kafin a yanke hukuncin, wanda ya yi matuk'ar girgiza yawancin mazaunan Kano da wajen ta.
Bari mu fara da tuhuma ta biyu. An yi wa kamfanin Iyan-Tama Multimedia rajista da gwamnati wato a Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), wadda ke da alhakin yi wa dukkan kamfanoni rajista a Nijeriya. Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta Kano ta ce wai Iyan-Tama bai sabunta rajistar sa ta shekara-shekara da ita ba. Wannan ma k'arya ce domin watanni kafin a kama shi, ya sayi fom d'in har an ba shi rasid'ai. To wanda ya yi wannan yunk'urin ai ya na kan hanyar yin rajistar ne kuma bai yi kama da wanda ke k'ok'arin karya dokar yin fim a Kano ba. Kuma ya na da amincewar gwamnatin tarayya.
Tuhuma ta farko ma ta fi ban-haushi. Ran ka ya dad'e, Iyan-Tama bai saki fim d'in ‘Tsintsiya’ a Kano ba. Hasali ma dai ya yi tallace-tallace da hirarraki a rediyo da jaridu kafin a k'addamar da fim d'in a Abuja, inda ya fito k'arara ya ce ba za a saki fim d'in a Jihar Kano ba.
A lokacin da Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta yanke shawarar "koya wa Iyan-Tama darasi," jami’an ta sun karya shagon saida finafinai na HRB da ke unguwar Tarauni a Kano, su ka samo faifan sidi na fim d'in, wanda wani d'an wasan fim ya b'oye cikin durowar teburi wanda ya ce a Kaduna ya sayo shi da nufin zai ba wa wata mai sha’awar finafinan sa. Ba wai an kasa sidi d'in don sayarwa ba. B'ullar sa a Kano bai da wata alak'a da Iyan-Tama. Idan ka karanta takardun kotu inda lauyoyi ke yi wa jami’an Hukumar Tace Finafinai su biyu tambayoyi a gaban alk'ali, za ka yarda d'ari bisa d'ari cewa ba a tabbatar da cewa Iyan-Tama ne ya kawo faifan sidi d'in wannan shagon ba.
A bayyane ya ke cewa shari’ar Iyan-Tama ramuwar gayya ce kurum. Wani b'angare ne na yunk'urin yak'i da wasu ’yan fim ko ta halin k'ak'a wanda Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta d'aura. A gajeren tunanin hukumar, ta hanyar yin haka ne za a iya share duk wani abu na sana’ar fim da harshen Hausa. Hukumar ta na amfani da bak'ar farfaganda, ta na ba da bayanan k'arya, tare da yin ragguwar fassarar Dokar Tace Finafinai ta 2001, sannan ta na amfani da sunan Musulunci ta hanyar da ba ta Musulunci ba wajen sauya alk'iblar hanyoyin nishad'i a Kano.
Mai Girma Gwamna, duk wannan ya sab'a wa furucin ka na tabbatar da adalci. Kuma hakan ya haifar da abubuwa marasa dad'i ga gwamnatin ka da kai kan ka, wad'anda zan fad'a maka su yanzu tare da duk girmamawa a gare ka.
Ya Girma Gwamna, yak'in da ake yi da sana’ar fim a Kano, ana yin sa ne da sunan Shari’ar Musulunci, to amma ko kad'an ba Musulunci ba ne. Wad'anda ke yin yak'in sun yi gangami ne su na furta kalaman Alk'ur’ani mai tsarki da Sunnar Manzo, to amma abubuwan da su ke aikatawa kai ka ce Hitla ne ya ce su aikata shi. Babu wani abu da su ka aikata kan ’yan fim da ya nuna cewa sun bi nasihohin Annabi Muhammadu (SAW). Kamar yadda na fad'a a sama, tsarin da su ke bi na halaka sana’ar fim ta na da illa matuk'a, ba wai kawai ga ’yan fim ba har ma ga gwamnatin Jihar Kano. Zan d'an bayyana wasu daga cikin illolin yanzu:
1. An jefa dubban matasa cikin rashin aikin yi bayan kuwa a da su ne su ke sama wa kan su hanyoyin abinci, wanda hakan ya shafe su tare da iyalan su. Ba a sama masu wasu hanyoyin na daban ba domin samun abinci. Mayak'an ka su kan ce, "Ina ruwan mu da su? Ai yawancin su ba ’yan Kano ba ne!" To amma hakan ya sab'a wa k'ok'arin gwamnatin ka na sama wa d'imbin matasan Kano da aikin yi.
2. Yak'in ya kawo koma-baya ga tattalin arzikin Kano wanda da ma ya na cikin garari. Da yake manyan kamfanonin Kano duk sun durk'ushe, kamata ya yi a gina harkar fim ta yadda za ta kasance mai dogaro da kan ta, kuma wadda ta dace da al’adun Kano da dokokin hukuma. Maimakon a yi hakan, sai aka koma ana kashe ta.
3. An haifar da fargaba da rashin sanin alk'iblar rayuwa a zukatan matasan, kuma da yawan su sun koma ’yan maula.
4. An haifar da k'in Shekarau a zukatan matasan. Hujja ita ce irin wak'ok'in b'atanci da ke ta bayyana daga situdiyoyin wak'ok'in finafinai a Kano, Zariya da Kaduna. Da fari, irin wad'annan wak'ok'in su na sukar Hukumar Tace Finafinai ne, to amma yanzu akalar su ta sauya har su na had'owa da gwamna da iyalin sa. Kai, wak'ar da ta fi yin fice a wannan fagen ma, an shirya ta ne a situdiyon da wani na hannun daman ka ya mallaka, to amma Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta kasa yin komai a kai saboda shi mai situdiyon ba ya tab'o a gare ta. Wannan tsanar da ake yi wa Shekarau ta na ta k'aruwa kuma za ta iya kasancewa bak'ar guguwa ga jam’iyyar ANPP a zab'en da za a yi a shekarar 2011 a Jihar Kano.
5. An fara yin shakku kan manufa da kuma alk'iblar yekuwar Shariar Musulunci, wadda miliyoyin jama’a su ka runguma. Duk shugaban da ke yin nasihar adalci da gyaran tarbiyya, bai kamata ya hana dubban matasa hanyoyin samun abincin su ba.
Ran ka ya dad'e, ina daga cikin masu goyon bayan shirin ka na gyaran zamantakewar jama’a ta yadda za su yi daidai da al’adu da tanadodin addinin da jama’ar mu ke bi. Shi ya sa na ke goyon bayan shirin gwamnatin ka na A Daidaita Sahu, wanda abokin mu Malam Bala Muhammad ke aiwatarwa cikin ban-sha’awa da kuma samun cikakkar nasara. To amma Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta na warware duk wata tufka da A Daidaita Sahu ta cimma nasarar yi. Gaba d'aya tsarin a baud'e ya ke, kuma ana aiwatar da shi a kan tafarkin mugunta da ramuwa da rashin jin k'ai. Ya kauce wa duk wani tsari na ya-kamata.
Mun yarda da cewa sana’ar finafinai ta shiga rud'u wanda ya kamata a gyara ta a cikin shekarun baya. Hakan ya k'ara bayyana ne bayan b'ullar majigin batsa na Hiyana. To amma akwai buk'atar a jawo shugabanni na sosai na industiri d'in don a samu nasara. Maimakon haka, sai Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta ture su gefe d'aya, ta jawo wasu ’yan koren ta, sannan ta na shirya tarurruka na yaudara da rainin wayo, har ma da shirya dina don magoya bayan ta su zo su ci abinci. Ba shakka, wannan tsarin na raba kan jama’a da farfaganda irin ta ’yan Nazi da hukumar ke yi ba abin da ya haifar sai bala’o’i, sannan an samu gazawa a wajen gyaran tarbiyyar industirin finafinan Hausa.
Har yanzu ana sayar da finafinai da fosta-fosta na batsa a Kano. Haka kuma, ’yan k'alilan d'in finafinan Hausa da magoya bayan Hukumar Tace Finafinan su ka shirya (tare da amincewar hukumar don a b'oye k'aryar cewa ba kashe sana’ar fim ake yi ba) ba su da wani bambanci da irin finafinan da hukumar ta ke ik'irarin cewa marasa inganci ne. Don Allah, finafinai masu inganci kuma "wad'anda sun dace da tarbiyya", guda nawa ne aka shirya a k'ark'ashin jagorancin Hukumar Tace Finafinan tun daga lokacin da majigin Hiyana ya fito?
Ran ka ya dad'e, za ka yarda da ni idan na ce maka ainihin dabarar shirin fim ba aba ce mai illa ba, don haka bai kamata a kashe ta ba. Za a iya shirya finafinai kan jigogin rayuwa iri-iri wad'anda su ka dace da al’adun mu. Kamata ya yi a yi wa ’yan fim jagora, ba wai a rik'a yi masu b'atanci ba ko kuma a yi masu korar kare daga gari.
Ran ka ya dad'e, Hamisu Iyan-Tama dai fursunan siyasa ne: ya yi adawa da kai lokacin zab'en 2007 ta hanyar fitowa takarar gwamna shi ma. Ai bai ma yi maka wata barazana ba. Kai aka k'ara zab'a. To amma saboda tsaurin idon da su ke ganin ya yi na yin takara da kai, jami’an ka su na hukunta shi. Sun ce wai shi mutum ne mai cika baki, mai surutu kuma wai ya na sukar gwamnatin ka. To mun ji, shin su d'in ba masu cika baki ba ne, su na yin abu sai ka ce sun fi kowa iko a duniya? Shin ba sa kallon duk wani wanda bai yarda da ra’ayin su ba a matsayin abokin gaba ko su kafirta shi, ko maras bin biyayya gare su, ko su ce ai ba d'an Kano ba ne ko kuma bai san ainihin abin da ake ciki ba? Shin wannan ba babbar d'agawa ba ce?
Kuma ma ko da a ce Iyan-Tama na da cika baki ko kuma abokin adawar ka ne na siyasa, shin hakan hujja ce ta hukunta shi da zaman gidan yari duk da yake bai karya doka ba? Shin ya yi maka illa a siyasance irin illar da masu surutan nan ke yi maka a gidan Rediyon Freedom? Shin a ina dimokirad'iyyar da ake ta magana ta ke? Shin ko Manzon Allah (SAW) ko wani daga cikin halifofin sa ko d'imbin tabi’an da su ka biyo bayan su za su bi irin wannan hanyar don hukunta abokin adawa?
Mai Girma Gwamna, ya kamata ka binciki wannan al’amari na Iyan-Tama, don Allah, musamman rawar da alk'alin da ya d'aure shi ya taka a shari’ar da sauran shari’un zalunci da ya yi wa masu sana’ar fim. Kuma don me za a ce kotu ta na yi wa wata hukumar gwamnati aiki? Don me alk'ali d'aya ne kad'ai zai rik'a yin duk wata shari’a da ta had'o da Hukumar Tace Finafinai bayan an ga sau da yawa ya nuna inda bakin sa ya karkata? Shin wannan mutum ne mai tsoron Allah ko kuwa d'an siyasa mai k'ullatar jama’a?
Ka yi amfani da k'arfin mulkin ka ka fitar da Iyan-Tama daga k'angin da aka saka shi a ciki ta hanyar janye k'arar da ku ke yi da shi a kotu. Na san ka na da zuciyar yin hakan domin ai ka tab'a yin irin haka a wasu al’amura da su ka had'o da kai, ciki kuwa har da wanda ya had'o da b'atancin da aka yi wa maid'akin ka. Kada ka bari wasu mutane ’yan d'oki wad'anda ka ba muk'amai su rik'a yak'ar abokan adawar ka ta hanyar zalunci domin kuwa Gobe K'iyama za ka amsa tambayoyin ka ne yayin da za su amsa nasu daban da naka.
’Yallab'ai, zan tsaya nan sai nan gaba za mu k'ara yin wannan magana da sauran maganganu a nan gaba. Ni ne mai biyayya a gare ka, kuma mai ba ka shawara tagari. Wassalam.
(Wannan fassara ce na sharhin Turanci da na yi kwanan baya. An wallafa wannan na Hausan a jaridar LEADERSHIP HAUSA ta ranar Juma'a da ta wuce)
Daga IBRAHIM SHEME
Mai Girma Gwamna,
NA rubuto maka wannan bud'ad'd'iyar wasik'a ne saboda na yi amanna da cewa za ta fi saurin isa gare ka maimakon in bi hanyar da ku ka tsara, saboda ina da magana mai buk'atar sauri. Idan na mik'a wasik'ar a ofishin ka, za ta iya d'aukar kwanaki da yawa ko ma watanni kafin ta isa gare ka, kuma kafin lokacin ba za ka iya samun bayani na hak'ik'a ta kafa mai zaman kan ta ba kan tantagaryar zaluncin da wasu jami’an ka su ke aikatawa da sunan ka. Na biyu, tun tuni ma ake ta zancen a majalisun hira a tsawon watanni da su ka gabata. Yanzu akwai alamun an jingine maganar ta hanyar wata shari’a wadda ko kad'an ba ta da kan-gado, inda wasu masu fushi da fushin wani su ka yi amfani da ak'idar ka ta aiki bisa doka da oda, da tausayin talakawa, da rashin yaudara da kuma tanadodin Musulunci. Bugu da k'ari, buga wannan wasik'ar a bainar jama’a zai ba wa duk wani mai sha’awar sanin abin da ake ciki damar samun k'arin haske kan d'aya daga cikin muhimman al’amuran da ke gudana a gwamnatin ka.
Ran ka ya dad'e, ina da cikakkar masaniya kan wannan lamari, ba kawai don ina biye da maganar a kotun majistare ta Kano inda aka kai ta ba, a’a har ma saboda ni d'an cikin gida ne a al’amuran sana’ar finafinan Hausa. Ba sai na nanata maka ba cewa Kano ce cibiyar finafinan Hausa a sama da shekara goma da aka yi ana yin sana’ar.
Na tabbatar da cewa ba za ka rasa masaniya ba kan shari’ar da ake tafkawa tsakanin Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta Jihar Kano (KSCB) da wani furodusan fim ba mai suna Alhaji Hamisu Lamid'o Iyan-Tama. Ran ka ya dad'e, Iyan-Tama d'an asalin Kano ne wanda ya taka muhimmiyar rawa wajen ciyar da harkar finafinan Hausa gaba, sannan kuma d'an wasa ne d'an sahun gaba. Hasali ma dai shi ne shugaban farko da aka zab'a na K'ungiyar Masu Shirya Finafinai ta Arewa (AFPAN). Kowa ya san cewa bai tab'a shirya fim ko kuma ya fito a fim d'in da za a yi Allah-wadai da shi ba, wato wanda ya sab'a wa kyawawan al’adun jama’ar Kano ko addinin Musulunci. Duk rol d'in da zai yi a fim, za ka taras na manyantaka ne; ya kan nace kan lallai a yi fim da ya dace da al’adun mu, sannan shi mutum ne mai bin doka. Finafinan sa sun ci manyan kyaututtukan girmamawa.
Ran ka ya dad'e, idan har ka samu damar karanta wannan wasik'ar a yau, to Iyan-Tama ya kwana biyu a gidan yarin Kano, domin a ran Talata wata kotun majistare ta yanke masa hukunci kan abin da ta kira laifuffuka guda biyu, bayan an shafe watanni ana yawo da hankali a kes d'in. A hukuncin da kotun ta zartas, Iyan-Tama zai shafe wata uku a tsare ba tare da zab'in biyan tara ba. Haka kuma zai biya mak'udan kud'i na tara ko kuma ya yi zaman kaso na tsawon shekara d'aya.
Yawancin mu da ke sa ido kan lamarin ba za mu damu ba ko kad'an da hukuncin in da a ce da gaske Hamisu ya aikata laifuffukan. Ni d'in nan na yarda da bin doka da oda, domin hakan shi ne ginshik'in d'orewar mulkin dimokirad'iyya. Ba wanda ya fi k'arfin doka. In an yi amfani da wannan tsarin ne dimokirad'iyya za ta iya d'orewa kuma k'asa za ta samu zaman lafiya. To amma gaskiyar magana ita ce, Hukumar Tace Finafinai ce ta k'irk'iri laifukan da aka ce Iyan-Tama ya aikata, sannan wani alk'ali mai goyon bayan hukumar, wanda kuma ya yi k'aurin suna wajen d'aure duk wani wanda aka gurfanar a gaban sa, ko da bai da laifi, shi ne ya yanke masa wannan d'anyen hukuncin. Wani abin ban-damuwa shi ne ana tafka wannan aika-aikar ne da sunan tanadojin nan masu tsarki na Shari’ar Musulunci. Daga fahimta ta da abubuwan da ke fitowa daga bakin ka da ganin wasu abubuwan da ka aikata, har yanzu ban amince ba da cewa kai d'in nan za ka goyi bayan zalunci ta kowace fuska ko kuma ka bar wani ya na saka siyasa cikin shari’ar Musulunci don ya ci mutuncin jama’a cikin son rai.
’Yallab'ai, bari in d'an fad'a maka abin da ya faru. Jami’an Hukumar Tace Finafinai sun kama Iyan-Tama a ofishin sa a Kano, su ka kai shi kotun tafi-da-gidan- ka wadda aka kafa don yi wa ’yan fim da marubuta shari’a (aka fad'ad'a zuwa duk wani nau’i na rubutu). Abin mamaki, babu wata kotu irin ta; babu kotun ’yan acab'a ko ta karuwai ko ta ’yan caca ko ta ’yan luwad'i, da sauran su. An tuhumi Iyan-Tama da "laifuffuka" guda biyu:
1. Sakin fim d'in sa na ‘Tsintsiya’ a Kano ba tare da Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta amince da shi ba kamar yadda doka ta tanada;
2. Gudanar da kamfanin shirya fim mai suna Iyan-Tama Multimedia, ba tare da yin rajista da gwamnati ba.
To amma duk wad'annan tuhumar, k'arya ne, kuma lauyan sa ya yi k'ok'arin nuna wa alk'ali Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed hakan. An d'auki watanni kafin a yanke hukuncin, wanda ya yi matuk'ar girgiza yawancin mazaunan Kano da wajen ta.
Bari mu fara da tuhuma ta biyu. An yi wa kamfanin Iyan-Tama Multimedia rajista da gwamnati wato a Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), wadda ke da alhakin yi wa dukkan kamfanoni rajista a Nijeriya. Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta Kano ta ce wai Iyan-Tama bai sabunta rajistar sa ta shekara-shekara da ita ba. Wannan ma k'arya ce domin watanni kafin a kama shi, ya sayi fom d'in har an ba shi rasid'ai. To wanda ya yi wannan yunk'urin ai ya na kan hanyar yin rajistar ne kuma bai yi kama da wanda ke k'ok'arin karya dokar yin fim a Kano ba. Kuma ya na da amincewar gwamnatin tarayya.
Tuhuma ta farko ma ta fi ban-haushi. Ran ka ya dad'e, Iyan-Tama bai saki fim d'in ‘Tsintsiya’ a Kano ba. Hasali ma dai ya yi tallace-tallace da hirarraki a rediyo da jaridu kafin a k'addamar da fim d'in a Abuja, inda ya fito k'arara ya ce ba za a saki fim d'in a Jihar Kano ba.
A lokacin da Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta yanke shawarar "koya wa Iyan-Tama darasi," jami’an ta sun karya shagon saida finafinai na HRB da ke unguwar Tarauni a Kano, su ka samo faifan sidi na fim d'in, wanda wani d'an wasan fim ya b'oye cikin durowar teburi wanda ya ce a Kaduna ya sayo shi da nufin zai ba wa wata mai sha’awar finafinan sa. Ba wai an kasa sidi d'in don sayarwa ba. B'ullar sa a Kano bai da wata alak'a da Iyan-Tama. Idan ka karanta takardun kotu inda lauyoyi ke yi wa jami’an Hukumar Tace Finafinai su biyu tambayoyi a gaban alk'ali, za ka yarda d'ari bisa d'ari cewa ba a tabbatar da cewa Iyan-Tama ne ya kawo faifan sidi d'in wannan shagon ba.
A bayyane ya ke cewa shari’ar Iyan-Tama ramuwar gayya ce kurum. Wani b'angare ne na yunk'urin yak'i da wasu ’yan fim ko ta halin k'ak'a wanda Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta d'aura. A gajeren tunanin hukumar, ta hanyar yin haka ne za a iya share duk wani abu na sana’ar fim da harshen Hausa. Hukumar ta na amfani da bak'ar farfaganda, ta na ba da bayanan k'arya, tare da yin ragguwar fassarar Dokar Tace Finafinai ta 2001, sannan ta na amfani da sunan Musulunci ta hanyar da ba ta Musulunci ba wajen sauya alk'iblar hanyoyin nishad'i a Kano.
Mai Girma Gwamna, duk wannan ya sab'a wa furucin ka na tabbatar da adalci. Kuma hakan ya haifar da abubuwa marasa dad'i ga gwamnatin ka da kai kan ka, wad'anda zan fad'a maka su yanzu tare da duk girmamawa a gare ka.
Ya Girma Gwamna, yak'in da ake yi da sana’ar fim a Kano, ana yin sa ne da sunan Shari’ar Musulunci, to amma ko kad'an ba Musulunci ba ne. Wad'anda ke yin yak'in sun yi gangami ne su na furta kalaman Alk'ur’ani mai tsarki da Sunnar Manzo, to amma abubuwan da su ke aikatawa kai ka ce Hitla ne ya ce su aikata shi. Babu wani abu da su ka aikata kan ’yan fim da ya nuna cewa sun bi nasihohin Annabi Muhammadu (SAW). Kamar yadda na fad'a a sama, tsarin da su ke bi na halaka sana’ar fim ta na da illa matuk'a, ba wai kawai ga ’yan fim ba har ma ga gwamnatin Jihar Kano. Zan d'an bayyana wasu daga cikin illolin yanzu:
1. An jefa dubban matasa cikin rashin aikin yi bayan kuwa a da su ne su ke sama wa kan su hanyoyin abinci, wanda hakan ya shafe su tare da iyalan su. Ba a sama masu wasu hanyoyin na daban ba domin samun abinci. Mayak'an ka su kan ce, "Ina ruwan mu da su? Ai yawancin su ba ’yan Kano ba ne!" To amma hakan ya sab'a wa k'ok'arin gwamnatin ka na sama wa d'imbin matasan Kano da aikin yi.
2. Yak'in ya kawo koma-baya ga tattalin arzikin Kano wanda da ma ya na cikin garari. Da yake manyan kamfanonin Kano duk sun durk'ushe, kamata ya yi a gina harkar fim ta yadda za ta kasance mai dogaro da kan ta, kuma wadda ta dace da al’adun Kano da dokokin hukuma. Maimakon a yi hakan, sai aka koma ana kashe ta.
3. An haifar da fargaba da rashin sanin alk'iblar rayuwa a zukatan matasan, kuma da yawan su sun koma ’yan maula.
4. An haifar da k'in Shekarau a zukatan matasan. Hujja ita ce irin wak'ok'in b'atanci da ke ta bayyana daga situdiyoyin wak'ok'in finafinai a Kano, Zariya da Kaduna. Da fari, irin wad'annan wak'ok'in su na sukar Hukumar Tace Finafinai ne, to amma yanzu akalar su ta sauya har su na had'owa da gwamna da iyalin sa. Kai, wak'ar da ta fi yin fice a wannan fagen ma, an shirya ta ne a situdiyon da wani na hannun daman ka ya mallaka, to amma Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta kasa yin komai a kai saboda shi mai situdiyon ba ya tab'o a gare ta. Wannan tsanar da ake yi wa Shekarau ta na ta k'aruwa kuma za ta iya kasancewa bak'ar guguwa ga jam’iyyar ANPP a zab'en da za a yi a shekarar 2011 a Jihar Kano.
5. An fara yin shakku kan manufa da kuma alk'iblar yekuwar Shariar Musulunci, wadda miliyoyin jama’a su ka runguma. Duk shugaban da ke yin nasihar adalci da gyaran tarbiyya, bai kamata ya hana dubban matasa hanyoyin samun abincin su ba.
Ran ka ya dad'e, ina daga cikin masu goyon bayan shirin ka na gyaran zamantakewar jama’a ta yadda za su yi daidai da al’adu da tanadodin addinin da jama’ar mu ke bi. Shi ya sa na ke goyon bayan shirin gwamnatin ka na A Daidaita Sahu, wanda abokin mu Malam Bala Muhammad ke aiwatarwa cikin ban-sha’awa da kuma samun cikakkar nasara. To amma Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta na warware duk wata tufka da A Daidaita Sahu ta cimma nasarar yi. Gaba d'aya tsarin a baud'e ya ke, kuma ana aiwatar da shi a kan tafarkin mugunta da ramuwa da rashin jin k'ai. Ya kauce wa duk wani tsari na ya-kamata.
Mun yarda da cewa sana’ar finafinai ta shiga rud'u wanda ya kamata a gyara ta a cikin shekarun baya. Hakan ya k'ara bayyana ne bayan b'ullar majigin batsa na Hiyana. To amma akwai buk'atar a jawo shugabanni na sosai na industiri d'in don a samu nasara. Maimakon haka, sai Hukumar Tace Finafinai ta ture su gefe d'aya, ta jawo wasu ’yan koren ta, sannan ta na shirya tarurruka na yaudara da rainin wayo, har ma da shirya dina don magoya bayan ta su zo su ci abinci. Ba shakka, wannan tsarin na raba kan jama’a da farfaganda irin ta ’yan Nazi da hukumar ke yi ba abin da ya haifar sai bala’o’i, sannan an samu gazawa a wajen gyaran tarbiyyar industirin finafinan Hausa.
Har yanzu ana sayar da finafinai da fosta-fosta na batsa a Kano. Haka kuma, ’yan k'alilan d'in finafinan Hausa da magoya bayan Hukumar Tace Finafinan su ka shirya (tare da amincewar hukumar don a b'oye k'aryar cewa ba kashe sana’ar fim ake yi ba) ba su da wani bambanci da irin finafinan da hukumar ta ke ik'irarin cewa marasa inganci ne. Don Allah, finafinai masu inganci kuma "wad'anda sun dace da tarbiyya", guda nawa ne aka shirya a k'ark'ashin jagorancin Hukumar Tace Finafinan tun daga lokacin da majigin Hiyana ya fito?
Ran ka ya dad'e, za ka yarda da ni idan na ce maka ainihin dabarar shirin fim ba aba ce mai illa ba, don haka bai kamata a kashe ta ba. Za a iya shirya finafinai kan jigogin rayuwa iri-iri wad'anda su ka dace da al’adun mu. Kamata ya yi a yi wa ’yan fim jagora, ba wai a rik'a yi masu b'atanci ba ko kuma a yi masu korar kare daga gari.
Ran ka ya dad'e, Hamisu Iyan-Tama dai fursunan siyasa ne: ya yi adawa da kai lokacin zab'en 2007 ta hanyar fitowa takarar gwamna shi ma. Ai bai ma yi maka wata barazana ba. Kai aka k'ara zab'a. To amma saboda tsaurin idon da su ke ganin ya yi na yin takara da kai, jami’an ka su na hukunta shi. Sun ce wai shi mutum ne mai cika baki, mai surutu kuma wai ya na sukar gwamnatin ka. To mun ji, shin su d'in ba masu cika baki ba ne, su na yin abu sai ka ce sun fi kowa iko a duniya? Shin ba sa kallon duk wani wanda bai yarda da ra’ayin su ba a matsayin abokin gaba ko su kafirta shi, ko maras bin biyayya gare su, ko su ce ai ba d'an Kano ba ne ko kuma bai san ainihin abin da ake ciki ba? Shin wannan ba babbar d'agawa ba ce?
Kuma ma ko da a ce Iyan-Tama na da cika baki ko kuma abokin adawar ka ne na siyasa, shin hakan hujja ce ta hukunta shi da zaman gidan yari duk da yake bai karya doka ba? Shin ya yi maka illa a siyasance irin illar da masu surutan nan ke yi maka a gidan Rediyon Freedom? Shin a ina dimokirad'iyyar da ake ta magana ta ke? Shin ko Manzon Allah (SAW) ko wani daga cikin halifofin sa ko d'imbin tabi’an da su ka biyo bayan su za su bi irin wannan hanyar don hukunta abokin adawa?
Mai Girma Gwamna, ya kamata ka binciki wannan al’amari na Iyan-Tama, don Allah, musamman rawar da alk'alin da ya d'aure shi ya taka a shari’ar da sauran shari’un zalunci da ya yi wa masu sana’ar fim. Kuma don me za a ce kotu ta na yi wa wata hukumar gwamnati aiki? Don me alk'ali d'aya ne kad'ai zai rik'a yin duk wata shari’a da ta had'o da Hukumar Tace Finafinai bayan an ga sau da yawa ya nuna inda bakin sa ya karkata? Shin wannan mutum ne mai tsoron Allah ko kuwa d'an siyasa mai k'ullatar jama’a?
Ka yi amfani da k'arfin mulkin ka ka fitar da Iyan-Tama daga k'angin da aka saka shi a ciki ta hanyar janye k'arar da ku ke yi da shi a kotu. Na san ka na da zuciyar yin hakan domin ai ka tab'a yin irin haka a wasu al’amura da su ka had'o da kai, ciki kuwa har da wanda ya had'o da b'atancin da aka yi wa maid'akin ka. Kada ka bari wasu mutane ’yan d'oki wad'anda ka ba muk'amai su rik'a yak'ar abokan adawar ka ta hanyar zalunci domin kuwa Gobe K'iyama za ka amsa tambayoyin ka ne yayin da za su amsa nasu daban da naka.
’Yallab'ai, zan tsaya nan sai nan gaba za mu k'ara yin wannan magana da sauran maganganu a nan gaba. Ni ne mai biyayya a gare ka, kuma mai ba ka shawara tagari. Wassalam.
(Wannan fassara ce na sharhin Turanci da na yi kwanan baya. An wallafa wannan na Hausan a jaridar LEADERSHIP HAUSA ta ranar Juma'a da ta wuce)
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Chinua Achebe's homecoming
The great Chinua Achebe arrived Abuja yesterday morning from the U.S. I was at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by 5:30am with other people from the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), led by its president Dr Wale Okediran, Imo and Anambra State governments, to receive him.
The 78-year-old author came to Nigeria to deliver the annual Ahajioku Lecture on the status of Igbo culture. The lecture, financed by the Imo State government, will hold tomorrow in Owerri. His last visit to Nigeria occurred nine years ago.
I had been phoned by Dr Okediran on Sunday night and got news of the visit. I was armed with my digital camera at the airport and was lucky to have shot several (award-winning!!) photographs of Prof. Achebe. (The one posted here is one of them).
This was the first time I saw the acclaimed author of the novel "Things Fall Apart," which I began translating into Hausa a long time ago.
Later in the evening in Abuja Achebe criticised Africa's flawed electoral system with the words: "Politics is not warfare."
Talking to journalists, he said: "I must express very profound disappointment with what is happening on the African continent concerning elections, concerning succession."
"The idea of a civilised society is one where power is transferred willingly because the law is there. But somehow in Africa, we still have not learnt that simple but profoundly important fact."
I couldn't agree more.
(In the photo above, Dr Okediran is seen directly behind Achebe, holding Achebe's wheelchair. Popular TV newscaster and author Eugenia Abu is beside Okediran, while Mrs Achebe smiles brightly, with a badge on her chest).
It was a great way to start a day.
Friday, 2 January 2009
Iyan-Tama: Another Case Of Injustice
AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR IBRAHIM SHEKARAU
Your Excellency,
I am sending this letter to you through an open forum because I believe it will get to you faster than through the formal ones, given the urgency the matter requires. If I had to submit the letter at your office it could take days, or even months, before it could reach you, and by that time you might not have been fully briefed by an independent source on the gargantuan injustice some of your appointees are committing on your behalf.
Secondly, the matter has since been in the public domain, generating such a storm of negative publicity in the last few months. Now it appears to have been settled through a dubious process of adjudication, which some self-serving zealots have pinned on the canvass of your administration’ s well publicized mantra of humanism, non-deceit and Islamic values. Moreover, writing publically would give anyone interested in the issue an insight into what is happening in a key aspect of your government.
Sir, I am very conversant with this case, not only because I have been following it up in the magistrate’s court in Kano where it was exhausted but also because I am an insider in the Hausa filmmaking business. I do not have to stress here that Kano has been the hub of Hausa filmmaking for the over 10 years since the trade began.
I am very certain that you are not totally unaware of the court case between the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) and a movie producer, Alhaji Hamisu Lamido Iyan-Tama. The latter, Your Excellency, is an indigene of your state who played a key role in the development of Hausa filmmaking, doubling as an A-list actor. Indeed, he was the first elected national president of Arewa Film Producers Association. It is a well known fact that he has never produced or acted in a movie that ran counter to the cultural and religious beliefs of Kano people. His roles have consistently been mature; he insists on quality of production, sensitivity in the representation of culture in the movies, and he is always law-abiding. His movies have won top awards.
Your Excellency, if you are opportune to read this letter today, Iyan-Tama has spent two days in Kano Prison so far, having been indicted on Tuesday on two offences by a magistrate court that had played adabracadbra with his case for the past few months. By the court’s ruling, he is going to spend three months in jail without an option of fine. In addition, he is to pay a huge fine or spend an additional year in jail.
Many of us observers would not have batted an eyelid over this verdict if the offences had truly been committed. I for one believe in the rule of law, knowing that it is the cardinal principle of any workable democracy. Nobody should be above the law. Observing this rule is one of the requirements for the survival of democracy and a guarantee for the well-being of the nation. The truth, however, is that the offences for which Iyan-Tama was “found guilty” were cooked up by the Censorship Board and the guilty verdict passed by a compromised judge best known for jailing anyone dragged before him even if innocent. The not-so-funny thing is that this atrocity is perpetrated under your name and the hallowed provisions of the Islamic Shari’ah law. From my reading of your pronouncements and personal attitude, I am yet to be convinced that you would support injustice in whichever mode or allow anyone to play politics with the Islamic law in order to settle some personal score.
Let me summarise the case for you, Sir. Iyan-Tama was arrested in his office in Kano by members of a task force from the KSCB and taken to the mobile court established to adjudicate on matters of filmmaking and book writing (widened to include all forms of publications) . Curiously, the court is the only one of its kind; there are no special courts for achaba, prostitution, gambling, homosexuality, etc. Iyan-Tama was charged on two “offences”:
1. Releasing his movie, “Tsintsiya” (meaning Broom) in Kano without having it vetted by the KSCB as required by law;
2. Operating a production company, Iyan-Tama Multimedia, without government registration.
Now all these counts are false and his attorney did work hard to convince the senior magistrate, Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed, to believe so. It took months before the verdict, which has shocked most residents of Kano State and beyond, was passed.
Let’s begin with the second charge. Iyan-Tama Multimedia was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which is vested with the responsibility of registering all companies in Nigeria. KSCB insists that Iyan-Tama did not renew his annual registration with the Board. Again, this was proved to be false as he had filed an application on that months before his arrest and obtained the relevant receipts. Having made that move while operating a federally approved business venture did not speak of a lawless business man eager to flout the provisions of running a filmmaking venture in Kano.
The first charge was even more absurd. Your Excellency, Iyan-Tama did not release the said movie in Kano State. He even ran advertorials and did radio and newspaper interviews prior to the movie’s premiere in Abuja, in which he stated unequivocally that “Tsintsiya” would not be distributed in Kano State.
When the KSCB decided to “deal with Iyan-Tama”, members of its task force broke a shop, HRB, in Tarauni quarters of Kano and obtained a CD of the movie, hidden inside a desk drawer by an actor who says he bought it in Kaduna and wanted to give it to a fan. The CD was not displayed for sale. Its presence in Kano was not linked to Hamisu Iyan-Tama. If you read the transcript of the cross-examination of the KSCB’s two witnesses (the task force members) in court, you will believe without any doubt that they could not link Hamisu to the presence of that CD in that shop.
Clearly, the case against Iyan-Tama was a vendetta. It was a part of the “get him at all cost” campaign which the KSCB seems to be running against some selected film industry operators. KSCB’s warped thinking is that through this campaign it could help wipe out the whole idea of movie -making in the Hausa language. It uses crude propaganda, trades in misinformation, unleashes a deliberate misinterpretation of the 2002 Censorship Law, and brandishes the name of Islam in its entirely unIslamic approach to reforming the entertainment arena in Kano. Your Excellency, all this is against your avowed commitment to social justice. And it comes with a high price, which I will, with all due respect, Sir, tell you.
Your Excellency,
The war against filmmaking in Kano is wearing the toga of Shariah, however it is anything but Islamic. Those waging it are fellow conspirators mouthing the words of the holy Qur’an and the Sunnah but acting the script of Hitler. There is nothing in their actions that proves a commitment to the hallowed blandishments of the holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). As I said last week, the systematic, violent strangulation of the movie industry is coming at great cost, not only to the industry’s operators but also to the Kano State government. I shall enumerate some of the high prices being paid:
1. Thousands of self-employed youths have been thrown out of work, with all the attendant difficulties faced by them and their families. They have not been provided with alternative means of earning a livelihood. “To hell with them,” your warriors would say, “half of them are not Kano indigenes!” But it goes against the grain of your administration’s stated commitment to providing jobs to the multitude of Kano youths.
2. The war is a drag on Kano’s already dismal economy. With the collapse of most of the manufacturing industries in the state, the movie industry should have been harnessed towards a viable, self-sustaining enterprise within acceptable moral and legal bounds. Instead, the strangled baby is being thrown out with the bath water.
3. A dark cloud of fear and uncertainty has enveloped the youths, with stakeholders turned into virtual beggars (’yan maula).
4. A rash of anti-Shekarau sentiment has been unleashed among the youths. This is visible in folk songs being produced in movie studios in Kano, Zaria and Kaduna. Initially the songs were targeted at the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) but they are now including the governor in their attacks. The most popular of such songs was written, composed to music and published in a studio owned by a very close political confidante of yours, yet the KSCB did not find it necessary to act on this because the sponsor of the studio is an ‘untouchable’.
This anti-Shekarau sentiment is gaining momentum and could well translate into a liability for ANPP in the 2011 general elections in the state.
5. Questions are being asked on the purpose and direction of your Shariah campaign, which millions embraced. A leader preaching equity and moral rebirth should not deny thousands of the young ones their means of earning a meal.
Your Excellency, I am a believer in sanitisation of society and inculcation of moral values in tandem with the beliefs and customs of the people. Hence my full support of your government’s Societal Reorientation Programme (A Daidaita Sahu), which our good friend Malam Bala Muhammad has been heading most admirably and with tremendous success. But the censorship regime in Kano is undoing what A Daidaita Sahu has accomplished. Reeling precariously on a wrong track, its approach is malicious and personalised. It has derailed from any moral, practical yardstick.
Granted that the Hausa movie industry has had some disturbing excesses that needed to be checked. This was even more expedient after the Hiyana Affair. But the involvement of the genuine leaders of the industry was a necessity if any success was to be achieved. Instead, they were excommunicated by the KSCB, which went ahead to create enclaves of fake loyalists, host diversionary dinners and organise purposeless talk-shows. No wonder the divide and rule tactics, the bitter carrots and stick method and the Nazi-style propaganda executed by the board have only created cataclysms and woeful failures in the task of sanitising the industry.
Pornographic movies and posters are still on sale in Kano. Also, most of the trickle Hausa movies produced by the so-called loyalists of KSCB and approved by the board (to hide the lie that filmmaking isn’t being killed) cannot pass an independent assessment, using the board’s own yardstick. Pray, how many qualitative, morally “acceptable” movies were produced under KSCB’s watch since the Hiyana Affair?
Sir, you will agree with me that the idea of filmmaking itself is not an anathema and should, therefore, not be killed. Movies can be made on all sorts of themes in line with cultural norms. Moviemakers should be guided, not denigrated or hounded out of town.
Sir, Hamisu Iyan-Tama is a political prisoner: he opposed you in the 2007 polls by contesting your gubernatorial seat. He didn’t pose any significant threat to you. You were re-elected. Yet for his effrontery, your appointees are punishing him. They say he is a braggart, pompous, talks too much and criticizes your administration. Fine and good, are they not bigger braggarts and even more pompous, acting as if they are almighty? Don’t they consider anyone who questions their decisions as an enemy or even an unbeliever, disloyal, or a non-indigene ignorant of all the issues involved? How more supercilious could one be?
And even if Iyan-Tama was a braggart or was your political opponent, was that enough basis to punish him with a jail term when he did not break any law? Is he as damaging to you as those angry talking heads on Freedom Radio? Where is the democracy we are talking about? Would the Prophet (SAW) or any of his rightly guided caliphs or the sundry righteous men that trod on their path treat an opponent that way?
Your Excellency, you should probe the Iyan-Tama case, please, especially the role of the magistrate that handled it and other cases of injustice. Why should a court be working for a prosecuting government agency? Why should a single magistrate who has shown his bias more times than can be counted remain the only judge on each and every case the KSCB is prosecuting? Is the man a God-fearing adjudicator or a mere grumpy politician?
You should also use your good offices to free Iyan-Tama by entering a nolle prosequi in the appeal case he filed before a higher court. I know you have such a big heart because you acted that way in similar cases, including the one in which your wife was maligned. You should not allow your zesty hirelings to fight your opponents unjustly because on the Day of Reckoning they will answer their own cases separately from yours.
Sir, till we talk on this and some other cases again, I remain your most humble observer and adviser.
ABOVE IS THE TEXT OF MY WEEKLY COLUMN PUBLISHED IN LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER, ABUJA, YESTERDAY (AND CONCLUDED THE FOLLOWING THURSDAY)
Your Excellency,
I am sending this letter to you through an open forum because I believe it will get to you faster than through the formal ones, given the urgency the matter requires. If I had to submit the letter at your office it could take days, or even months, before it could reach you, and by that time you might not have been fully briefed by an independent source on the gargantuan injustice some of your appointees are committing on your behalf.
Secondly, the matter has since been in the public domain, generating such a storm of negative publicity in the last few months. Now it appears to have been settled through a dubious process of adjudication, which some self-serving zealots have pinned on the canvass of your administration’ s well publicized mantra of humanism, non-deceit and Islamic values. Moreover, writing publically would give anyone interested in the issue an insight into what is happening in a key aspect of your government.
Sir, I am very conversant with this case, not only because I have been following it up in the magistrate’s court in Kano where it was exhausted but also because I am an insider in the Hausa filmmaking business. I do not have to stress here that Kano has been the hub of Hausa filmmaking for the over 10 years since the trade began.
I am very certain that you are not totally unaware of the court case between the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) and a movie producer, Alhaji Hamisu Lamido Iyan-Tama. The latter, Your Excellency, is an indigene of your state who played a key role in the development of Hausa filmmaking, doubling as an A-list actor. Indeed, he was the first elected national president of Arewa Film Producers Association. It is a well known fact that he has never produced or acted in a movie that ran counter to the cultural and religious beliefs of Kano people. His roles have consistently been mature; he insists on quality of production, sensitivity in the representation of culture in the movies, and he is always law-abiding. His movies have won top awards.
Your Excellency, if you are opportune to read this letter today, Iyan-Tama has spent two days in Kano Prison so far, having been indicted on Tuesday on two offences by a magistrate court that had played adabracadbra with his case for the past few months. By the court’s ruling, he is going to spend three months in jail without an option of fine. In addition, he is to pay a huge fine or spend an additional year in jail.
Many of us observers would not have batted an eyelid over this verdict if the offences had truly been committed. I for one believe in the rule of law, knowing that it is the cardinal principle of any workable democracy. Nobody should be above the law. Observing this rule is one of the requirements for the survival of democracy and a guarantee for the well-being of the nation. The truth, however, is that the offences for which Iyan-Tama was “found guilty” were cooked up by the Censorship Board and the guilty verdict passed by a compromised judge best known for jailing anyone dragged before him even if innocent. The not-so-funny thing is that this atrocity is perpetrated under your name and the hallowed provisions of the Islamic Shari’ah law. From my reading of your pronouncements and personal attitude, I am yet to be convinced that you would support injustice in whichever mode or allow anyone to play politics with the Islamic law in order to settle some personal score.
Let me summarise the case for you, Sir. Iyan-Tama was arrested in his office in Kano by members of a task force from the KSCB and taken to the mobile court established to adjudicate on matters of filmmaking and book writing (widened to include all forms of publications) . Curiously, the court is the only one of its kind; there are no special courts for achaba, prostitution, gambling, homosexuality, etc. Iyan-Tama was charged on two “offences”:
1. Releasing his movie, “Tsintsiya” (meaning Broom) in Kano without having it vetted by the KSCB as required by law;
2. Operating a production company, Iyan-Tama Multimedia, without government registration.
Now all these counts are false and his attorney did work hard to convince the senior magistrate, Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed, to believe so. It took months before the verdict, which has shocked most residents of Kano State and beyond, was passed.
Let’s begin with the second charge. Iyan-Tama Multimedia was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which is vested with the responsibility of registering all companies in Nigeria. KSCB insists that Iyan-Tama did not renew his annual registration with the Board. Again, this was proved to be false as he had filed an application on that months before his arrest and obtained the relevant receipts. Having made that move while operating a federally approved business venture did not speak of a lawless business man eager to flout the provisions of running a filmmaking venture in Kano.
The first charge was even more absurd. Your Excellency, Iyan-Tama did not release the said movie in Kano State. He even ran advertorials and did radio and newspaper interviews prior to the movie’s premiere in Abuja, in which he stated unequivocally that “Tsintsiya” would not be distributed in Kano State.
When the KSCB decided to “deal with Iyan-Tama”, members of its task force broke a shop, HRB, in Tarauni quarters of Kano and obtained a CD of the movie, hidden inside a desk drawer by an actor who says he bought it in Kaduna and wanted to give it to a fan. The CD was not displayed for sale. Its presence in Kano was not linked to Hamisu Iyan-Tama. If you read the transcript of the cross-examination of the KSCB’s two witnesses (the task force members) in court, you will believe without any doubt that they could not link Hamisu to the presence of that CD in that shop.
Clearly, the case against Iyan-Tama was a vendetta. It was a part of the “get him at all cost” campaign which the KSCB seems to be running against some selected film industry operators. KSCB’s warped thinking is that through this campaign it could help wipe out the whole idea of movie -making in the Hausa language. It uses crude propaganda, trades in misinformation, unleashes a deliberate misinterpretation of the 2002 Censorship Law, and brandishes the name of Islam in its entirely unIslamic approach to reforming the entertainment arena in Kano. Your Excellency, all this is against your avowed commitment to social justice. And it comes with a high price, which I will, with all due respect, Sir, tell you.
Your Excellency,
The war against filmmaking in Kano is wearing the toga of Shariah, however it is anything but Islamic. Those waging it are fellow conspirators mouthing the words of the holy Qur’an and the Sunnah but acting the script of Hitler. There is nothing in their actions that proves a commitment to the hallowed blandishments of the holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). As I said last week, the systematic, violent strangulation of the movie industry is coming at great cost, not only to the industry’s operators but also to the Kano State government. I shall enumerate some of the high prices being paid:
1. Thousands of self-employed youths have been thrown out of work, with all the attendant difficulties faced by them and their families. They have not been provided with alternative means of earning a livelihood. “To hell with them,” your warriors would say, “half of them are not Kano indigenes!” But it goes against the grain of your administration’s stated commitment to providing jobs to the multitude of Kano youths.
2. The war is a drag on Kano’s already dismal economy. With the collapse of most of the manufacturing industries in the state, the movie industry should have been harnessed towards a viable, self-sustaining enterprise within acceptable moral and legal bounds. Instead, the strangled baby is being thrown out with the bath water.
3. A dark cloud of fear and uncertainty has enveloped the youths, with stakeholders turned into virtual beggars (’yan maula).
4. A rash of anti-Shekarau sentiment has been unleashed among the youths. This is visible in folk songs being produced in movie studios in Kano, Zaria and Kaduna. Initially the songs were targeted at the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) but they are now including the governor in their attacks. The most popular of such songs was written, composed to music and published in a studio owned by a very close political confidante of yours, yet the KSCB did not find it necessary to act on this because the sponsor of the studio is an ‘untouchable’.
This anti-Shekarau sentiment is gaining momentum and could well translate into a liability for ANPP in the 2011 general elections in the state.
5. Questions are being asked on the purpose and direction of your Shariah campaign, which millions embraced. A leader preaching equity and moral rebirth should not deny thousands of the young ones their means of earning a meal.
Your Excellency, I am a believer in sanitisation of society and inculcation of moral values in tandem with the beliefs and customs of the people. Hence my full support of your government’s Societal Reorientation Programme (A Daidaita Sahu), which our good friend Malam Bala Muhammad has been heading most admirably and with tremendous success. But the censorship regime in Kano is undoing what A Daidaita Sahu has accomplished. Reeling precariously on a wrong track, its approach is malicious and personalised. It has derailed from any moral, practical yardstick.
Granted that the Hausa movie industry has had some disturbing excesses that needed to be checked. This was even more expedient after the Hiyana Affair. But the involvement of the genuine leaders of the industry was a necessity if any success was to be achieved. Instead, they were excommunicated by the KSCB, which went ahead to create enclaves of fake loyalists, host diversionary dinners and organise purposeless talk-shows. No wonder the divide and rule tactics, the bitter carrots and stick method and the Nazi-style propaganda executed by the board have only created cataclysms and woeful failures in the task of sanitising the industry.
Pornographic movies and posters are still on sale in Kano. Also, most of the trickle Hausa movies produced by the so-called loyalists of KSCB and approved by the board (to hide the lie that filmmaking isn’t being killed) cannot pass an independent assessment, using the board’s own yardstick. Pray, how many qualitative, morally “acceptable” movies were produced under KSCB’s watch since the Hiyana Affair?
Sir, you will agree with me that the idea of filmmaking itself is not an anathema and should, therefore, not be killed. Movies can be made on all sorts of themes in line with cultural norms. Moviemakers should be guided, not denigrated or hounded out of town.
Sir, Hamisu Iyan-Tama is a political prisoner: he opposed you in the 2007 polls by contesting your gubernatorial seat. He didn’t pose any significant threat to you. You were re-elected. Yet for his effrontery, your appointees are punishing him. They say he is a braggart, pompous, talks too much and criticizes your administration. Fine and good, are they not bigger braggarts and even more pompous, acting as if they are almighty? Don’t they consider anyone who questions their decisions as an enemy or even an unbeliever, disloyal, or a non-indigene ignorant of all the issues involved? How more supercilious could one be?
And even if Iyan-Tama was a braggart or was your political opponent, was that enough basis to punish him with a jail term when he did not break any law? Is he as damaging to you as those angry talking heads on Freedom Radio? Where is the democracy we are talking about? Would the Prophet (SAW) or any of his rightly guided caliphs or the sundry righteous men that trod on their path treat an opponent that way?
Your Excellency, you should probe the Iyan-Tama case, please, especially the role of the magistrate that handled it and other cases of injustice. Why should a court be working for a prosecuting government agency? Why should a single magistrate who has shown his bias more times than can be counted remain the only judge on each and every case the KSCB is prosecuting? Is the man a God-fearing adjudicator or a mere grumpy politician?
You should also use your good offices to free Iyan-Tama by entering a nolle prosequi in the appeal case he filed before a higher court. I know you have such a big heart because you acted that way in similar cases, including the one in which your wife was maligned. You should not allow your zesty hirelings to fight your opponents unjustly because on the Day of Reckoning they will answer their own cases separately from yours.
Sir, till we talk on this and some other cases again, I remain your most humble observer and adviser.
ABOVE IS THE TEXT OF MY WEEKLY COLUMN PUBLISHED IN LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER, ABUJA, YESTERDAY (AND CONCLUDED THE FOLLOWING THURSDAY)
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Is Watergate Possible Here?
This question was paraphrased from the piece by Leonard Downie Jr., who was executive editor of The Washington Post for 17 years, published in the same newspaper early this week. The piece, titled "Is Watergate Possible Now?", was an analysis of American journalism in the age of the Internet. It was a retrospection inspired by the death, last Thursday, of W. Mark Felt, the whistle-blower popularly known as Deep Throat in the scandal that blew President Richard Nixon out of office. Mark Felt was the anonymous source of most of the stories filed by the Post's reporter Bob Woodward after a break-in at the national headquarters of the opposition Democratic National Committee in Washington's Watergate hotel and office complex in June 1972.
Mr Felt, who was at that time the second-in-command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, craftily led Woodward in unraveling the cover-ups that were traced back to the Nixon Administration, eventually forcing the President to resign two years later in ignominy. The newspaper faithfully hid the identity of its source, merely calling him Deep Throat -- after a porn movie. Mr Felt, who died at the age of 97, revealed himself only in May 2005. The Sunday Times of London this week aptly described him as "the most famous anonymous source in the history of journalism."
The Watergate scandal, an unforgettable milestone, did spawn a plethora of investigative journalism not only in America but also across the world. The spirit lives in many journalists today. Many a journalist now treats the powers that be with caution, dreaming of fishing things out about them, nasty, smelly things that could help bring them into disrepute or even out of power. The feeling is apparently mutual. The powers that be -- people in government, in business, in crime, in sports or even in the service of God -- find journalists barely tolerable; in most cases they find them intolerable -- and treat them so. Whenever they talk of mutual cooperation, you will out that the benefit is also mutual. Sad.
In America, the fall of Nixon created a frenzy in newsrooms as many news organs tried to equal or surpass The Washington Post's prowess. Indeed, very big exposes were made by bigger and smaller media. The spirit liveth, no doubt. However, none has equaled the impact and glory of that newspaper's epoch-making feat, not least because no President was forced out of office again but due to the watershed nature of the first case. President Bill Clinton was boxed into a very tight corner during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but he was able to weather the storm.
The news media have become transformed worldwide since the '70s. The biggest change came with the Internet. Apart from making journalism 'more democratic' by turning anyone on a keyboard with a connectivity into a newshound and publisher, the Internet has made sources of information more readily available and also made information dissemination easier, instant and more widespread. Leonard Downie Jr's concern is with making journalism not simply a medium of holding Presidents (and other leaders) accountable to the people, which is equally important, but a way of improving the life of the people. Journalists might be called "sons of whores" by powerful figures as Nixon's character in the new movie, "Frost/Nixon," played by Frank Langella, did. But it is worthwhile to continue doing the good work because in the long run it would be in the interest of the nation.
So is a Wategate-like scenario possible here in Nigeria? First, we have to examine the motive of anyone wishing for such a scandal. W. Mark Felt was suspected of having resentments, hoping, as the Sunday Times of London editorialised this week, "to elevate himself in the bureaucracy." It noted, however, that "there was his sense that something was wrong and needed to be exposed." Any Nigerian who dreams of seeing a President, governor or Local Government chairman felled should, first, have a motive which, ideally, should be in the best interest of the community rather than self. The same goes to the potential whistle-blower.
There are too many willing whistle-blowers in this country. Unfortunately, however, many a Nigerian 'Deep Throat' would usually want to step forward when he is left out of the booty-sharing after, say, a theft from the public till. Which means that most of our people would rather keep quiet when corrupt practices are committed as long as they are involved in eating the cake.
If most Nigerians were a moral lot, there would have been more exposes about election and examination malpractices, thefts and break-ins, robberies, infidelity by spouses and sexual pervasions, murders and assassinations, pay-offs and rip-offs, counterfeiting of currency and documents, smuggling and numerous other vices. But because the moral souls in our midst are arguably smaller in number than their opposites, or are beaten into the background, such exposes are few and far between. The result is the erosion of morality in the society and the frantic pursuit of material things. Hence the retrogression in the quality of relationships, family values, service delivery, capital projects, and total lack of direction in statecraft.
To get a scandal of Watergate proportions in this kind of environment of moral aridity can be quite a pipe dream. Besides, there are other factors. Granted that since the end of the Civil War there have been a great number of exposes made by the public-spirited Nigerian media. In pursuing the cause of public interest, our journalists have shown immense courage, working mostly under conditions not known to their counterparts in America; military rule, for example. Nigerian journalists have exposed numerous cases of corruption and fought dictatorship.
Indeed, given the political climate in the last four decades, they could be regarded as a more fearless and dogged lot. Whereas the American system guarantees all sorts of liberties and protections to journalists, we in Nigeria have operated mostly under military decrees; where a sort of democracy exists, such as during the Shagari and the Obasanjo/Yar'Adua eras, journalists are hamstrung by remnants of military-era edicts and mentalities that were lobbed into the constitution and our daily life respectively. In the American democracy no television station would be shut down overnight by government agents because of a faulty story aired or a newspaper sued by the President because the paper had reported something about his ill-health.
In this kind of climate it is easy not to witness a Watergate -- a cyclone of a political embarrassment massive enough to force the Number 1 Citizen to throw in the towel. To the best of my knowledge, not even a Local Government chairman in this country has ever resigned because of a newspaper story. If anything, certain exposes have only helped steel the grip of some of our leaders, such as the state governors and the President, on power. In saner climes, Stella Obasanjo's tummy tuck scandal could force a president to quit. But it only made the President a hero to sympathise with, and the late Stella a celebrated martyr.
Clearly, we are not there yet. We don't even seem to know exactly where we are. The Washington Post and its two reporters were called all sorts of names in the early days of the Watergate scandal, but they held out till the end, refusing to be fazed by the loud grumblings of presidential aides and government contractors. That helped ease "all the president's (bad) men" out of power. It helped the cause of American democracy. And journalism the world over is the better for it. That, in fact, is the greatest lesson for Nigerian journalists from the Watergate scandal.
THIS IS THE TEXT OF MY COLUMN IN THE LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER (www.leadershipnigeria.com) TOMORROW (THURSDAY)
Mr Felt, who was at that time the second-in-command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, craftily led Woodward in unraveling the cover-ups that were traced back to the Nixon Administration, eventually forcing the President to resign two years later in ignominy. The newspaper faithfully hid the identity of its source, merely calling him Deep Throat -- after a porn movie. Mr Felt, who died at the age of 97, revealed himself only in May 2005. The Sunday Times of London this week aptly described him as "the most famous anonymous source in the history of journalism."
The Watergate scandal, an unforgettable milestone, did spawn a plethora of investigative journalism not only in America but also across the world. The spirit lives in many journalists today. Many a journalist now treats the powers that be with caution, dreaming of fishing things out about them, nasty, smelly things that could help bring them into disrepute or even out of power. The feeling is apparently mutual. The powers that be -- people in government, in business, in crime, in sports or even in the service of God -- find journalists barely tolerable; in most cases they find them intolerable -- and treat them so. Whenever they talk of mutual cooperation, you will out that the benefit is also mutual. Sad.
In America, the fall of Nixon created a frenzy in newsrooms as many news organs tried to equal or surpass The Washington Post's prowess. Indeed, very big exposes were made by bigger and smaller media. The spirit liveth, no doubt. However, none has equaled the impact and glory of that newspaper's epoch-making feat, not least because no President was forced out of office again but due to the watershed nature of the first case. President Bill Clinton was boxed into a very tight corner during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but he was able to weather the storm.
The news media have become transformed worldwide since the '70s. The biggest change came with the Internet. Apart from making journalism 'more democratic' by turning anyone on a keyboard with a connectivity into a newshound and publisher, the Internet has made sources of information more readily available and also made information dissemination easier, instant and more widespread. Leonard Downie Jr's concern is with making journalism not simply a medium of holding Presidents (and other leaders) accountable to the people, which is equally important, but a way of improving the life of the people. Journalists might be called "sons of whores" by powerful figures as Nixon's character in the new movie, "Frost/Nixon," played by Frank Langella, did. But it is worthwhile to continue doing the good work because in the long run it would be in the interest of the nation.
So is a Wategate-like scenario possible here in Nigeria? First, we have to examine the motive of anyone wishing for such a scandal. W. Mark Felt was suspected of having resentments, hoping, as the Sunday Times of London editorialised this week, "to elevate himself in the bureaucracy." It noted, however, that "there was his sense that something was wrong and needed to be exposed." Any Nigerian who dreams of seeing a President, governor or Local Government chairman felled should, first, have a motive which, ideally, should be in the best interest of the community rather than self. The same goes to the potential whistle-blower.
There are too many willing whistle-blowers in this country. Unfortunately, however, many a Nigerian 'Deep Throat' would usually want to step forward when he is left out of the booty-sharing after, say, a theft from the public till. Which means that most of our people would rather keep quiet when corrupt practices are committed as long as they are involved in eating the cake.
If most Nigerians were a moral lot, there would have been more exposes about election and examination malpractices, thefts and break-ins, robberies, infidelity by spouses and sexual pervasions, murders and assassinations, pay-offs and rip-offs, counterfeiting of currency and documents, smuggling and numerous other vices. But because the moral souls in our midst are arguably smaller in number than their opposites, or are beaten into the background, such exposes are few and far between. The result is the erosion of morality in the society and the frantic pursuit of material things. Hence the retrogression in the quality of relationships, family values, service delivery, capital projects, and total lack of direction in statecraft.
To get a scandal of Watergate proportions in this kind of environment of moral aridity can be quite a pipe dream. Besides, there are other factors. Granted that since the end of the Civil War there have been a great number of exposes made by the public-spirited Nigerian media. In pursuing the cause of public interest, our journalists have shown immense courage, working mostly under conditions not known to their counterparts in America; military rule, for example. Nigerian journalists have exposed numerous cases of corruption and fought dictatorship.
Indeed, given the political climate in the last four decades, they could be regarded as a more fearless and dogged lot. Whereas the American system guarantees all sorts of liberties and protections to journalists, we in Nigeria have operated mostly under military decrees; where a sort of democracy exists, such as during the Shagari and the Obasanjo/Yar'Adua eras, journalists are hamstrung by remnants of military-era edicts and mentalities that were lobbed into the constitution and our daily life respectively. In the American democracy no television station would be shut down overnight by government agents because of a faulty story aired or a newspaper sued by the President because the paper had reported something about his ill-health.
In this kind of climate it is easy not to witness a Watergate -- a cyclone of a political embarrassment massive enough to force the Number 1 Citizen to throw in the towel. To the best of my knowledge, not even a Local Government chairman in this country has ever resigned because of a newspaper story. If anything, certain exposes have only helped steel the grip of some of our leaders, such as the state governors and the President, on power. In saner climes, Stella Obasanjo's tummy tuck scandal could force a president to quit. But it only made the President a hero to sympathise with, and the late Stella a celebrated martyr.
Clearly, we are not there yet. We don't even seem to know exactly where we are. The Washington Post and its two reporters were called all sorts of names in the early days of the Watergate scandal, but they held out till the end, refusing to be fazed by the loud grumblings of presidential aides and government contractors. That helped ease "all the president's (bad) men" out of power. It helped the cause of American democracy. And journalism the world over is the better for it. That, in fact, is the greatest lesson for Nigerian journalists from the Watergate scandal.
THIS IS THE TEXT OF MY COLUMN IN THE LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER (www.leadershipnigeria.com) TOMORROW (THURSDAY)
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Mission Impossible, Possible!
The Hajj is over. Over the past week 8,308 pilgrims have been flown back to Nigeria. But 76,692 of us are still in the holy land, waiting to be transported. (Hundreds more should have returned to Nigeria by the time you are reading this). In my case, two journeys are ahead of me: one to Medina and the other to Nigeria. I do not know when either will take place. Out of the 85,000 pilgrims that came to Saudi Arabia for Hajj through the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), only 44,600 have been to Medina to pay homage to the Prophet's mosque and other interesting religious sites, prior to the start of Hajj proper. The rest are in Mecca, waiting. In the house where I stay, and in many other houses dotted across Mecca, there is a great deal of uncertainty about just when we will be moved to Medina, after which we will wait to be taken to Jeddah and then Nigeria. Though the Medina visit is not a pillar of Hajj, it is nonetheless a significant aspect of the pilgrimage. Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) has stressed, as reported in so many Ahadith, the importance of visiting his mosque where his grave and those of his companions are located. One Hadith of Muslim says Abu Hurairah (RA) reported the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) saying: "A prayer in my mosque is a thousand times more excellent than a prayer in any other mosque, except Masjid-al-Haram (Makkah)". So we wait.
The wait can be excruciatingly annoying, though. It tugs at one's patience. We "kill" time by going to the nearby mosque for congregational prayers or to the Haram for circumambulation of the holy Ka'aba (Tawaf), window-shopping, visiting other pilgrims' houses, or simply taking a siesta. Some even watch movies on potable DVD players. Rumours have it that our batch of pilgrims that has not been to Medina may be moved there tomorrow or the following day. Or the next day. Or, maybe, next week! Those lucky pilgrims that have been to the Prophet's city are the ones being flown back to Nigeria. The way things stand, with pilgrims being jetted to Nigeria in trickles, we fear that we are going to be marooned in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the next three or four weeks. The stay would have otherwise been of great spiritual value because it affords one the rare opportunity to pray in Islam's holiest site. But because every pilgrim wants to return home after the satisfyingly grueling rites of Hajj, most would rather just leave.
Lack of information from officials compounds the situation. It reflects the uncertainty and disorganization that dogged the preparation for Hajj months back. In normal societies it is possible for a pilgrim to plan his trip - from the date of his embarkation to the holy land to the date of his departure there-from - but in our country it seems that keeping the pilgrim in the dark about almost everything is one of the major pastimes of the Hajj officials.
A mid-level Nigerian official was here last night. When someone complained about the painful anxiety of waiting in the dark, he explained off the situation by saying that it was caused by the airlines. If the companies given the contract of transporting the pilgrims had done their job properly - by providing enough aircraft the way, say, the Pakistanis, the Indonesians, the Malays and other "more civilized" countries have done - there wouldn't have been this problem. From his explanation, and the incriminating evidence one sees everywhere, one got the distinctive impression that Nigerian Hajj administration is the worst on Planet Earth.
Due to the straight-jacketed culture of corruption and partiality that has been entrenched in the system across the years, one of your greatest nightmares begins as soon as you've decided to perform the Hajj from Nigeria. You would soon discover that it is a mission impossible that is made possible only by Him whose exhortation you have ventured out to fulfill - the Almighty Himself. There are many stumbling blocks on your way. While some of them are natural and are, therefore, bound to happen, most are man-made. For instance, natural problems can (and do) occur from the overcrowding, which creates other cataclysms. You cannot have over three million people in a small field like Mina or Arafat or squeezed into small embankments like the Jamrah and not expect to encounter mountains of problems, more so when those millions hail from diverse cultural backgrounds.
The man-made problems are the ones that pilgrims grapple with. Nigerian governments at all levels do spend incredible sums of money every year in order to overcome or at best minimize those problems, all to no avail. Right from the registration of intending pilgrims to transporting them back at the end, the hurdles seem to defy solution. Why? Answer: no realistic solutions are applied.
The buck stops at the table of Hajj officials. From what I see here in the holy land, the whole exercise is run by semi-literate undertakers, supposedly superintended by the senior, more educated officials. Many of the so-called senior officials do not even know why they are here, or pretend not to know. Many of them appear to think that they are in KSA for their personal pursuits – some picnic away from Nigeria. Tales of their alleged unholy exploits abound. The obvious one is the cat-and-mouse game they play with confused pilgrims, disappearing just when they are most needed. Once in a while you catch sight of them cruising around town in big American cars (their favourite is GMC) with their women: their parents, wives and or sisters, I suppose, though a friend of mine derisively said "girlfriends". They wear an air of "hard at work" when they catch your eye and promptly zoom off, lest you would ask for 'lift.' An exception here are members of the medical team, who stay at their desks attending to the needs of pilgrims. I doff my hat to them.
Our Hajj officials should stop behaving like privileged brats, thinking they are doing a favour to the pilgrims. They are in this country enjoying all those unnamable perks courtesy of the poor pilgrims. They should, therefore, dedicate all their time to the service of the pilgrims even if they must miss their own Hajj. (Note that they are not here to perform Hajj themselves). They should know that if they perform creditably well, their reward isn't just in the hefty estacode they receive, the choice accommodation and transport they enjoy, etc., but it is also in heaven because they would be contributing positively to a religious duty.It is very important for them to constantly provide relevant information to the pilgrims: when Hajj airlifts will begin, where to go in the holy land, how and when to get there, what to do there, the exact date and time for returning home, etc. Some of these tasks can be accomplished in liaison with other agencies, such as the airlines and local authorities.
Can they do these? From what is presently on the ground, my verdict is a grim one: the present officials are incapable of a change because they are the beneficiaries of the corrupt, decadent system they had helped create. The huge sums of money they milk from the system, as well as the privileges they enjoy, would vanish if the system is reformed. Expectedly, they would stand in the way of any change, insisting on maintaining the status quo. To kick them out would require a visionary, fearless leader who is unattached to the system, someone who would divorce the Hajj administration from politics. I suggest that the President of Nigeria should get involved actively, possibly by assuming the title of Amirul Hajj for at least four years. This way he would see things first-hand instead of relying on the annual report of an appointed so-called Amirul Hajj, who is (as happened this year) an absentee politico in the holy land. State governors and local government chairmen in Muslim-populous states should do likewise. The time to start the new system is now, not later, when the 2008 Hajj exercise is being wrapped up amidst ceaseless uncertainty and disappointment.
The wait can be excruciatingly annoying, though. It tugs at one's patience. We "kill" time by going to the nearby mosque for congregational prayers or to the Haram for circumambulation of the holy Ka'aba (Tawaf), window-shopping, visiting other pilgrims' houses, or simply taking a siesta. Some even watch movies on potable DVD players. Rumours have it that our batch of pilgrims that has not been to Medina may be moved there tomorrow or the following day. Or the next day. Or, maybe, next week! Those lucky pilgrims that have been to the Prophet's city are the ones being flown back to Nigeria. The way things stand, with pilgrims being jetted to Nigeria in trickles, we fear that we are going to be marooned in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the next three or four weeks. The stay would have otherwise been of great spiritual value because it affords one the rare opportunity to pray in Islam's holiest site. But because every pilgrim wants to return home after the satisfyingly grueling rites of Hajj, most would rather just leave.
Lack of information from officials compounds the situation. It reflects the uncertainty and disorganization that dogged the preparation for Hajj months back. In normal societies it is possible for a pilgrim to plan his trip - from the date of his embarkation to the holy land to the date of his departure there-from - but in our country it seems that keeping the pilgrim in the dark about almost everything is one of the major pastimes of the Hajj officials.
A mid-level Nigerian official was here last night. When someone complained about the painful anxiety of waiting in the dark, he explained off the situation by saying that it was caused by the airlines. If the companies given the contract of transporting the pilgrims had done their job properly - by providing enough aircraft the way, say, the Pakistanis, the Indonesians, the Malays and other "more civilized" countries have done - there wouldn't have been this problem. From his explanation, and the incriminating evidence one sees everywhere, one got the distinctive impression that Nigerian Hajj administration is the worst on Planet Earth.
Due to the straight-jacketed culture of corruption and partiality that has been entrenched in the system across the years, one of your greatest nightmares begins as soon as you've decided to perform the Hajj from Nigeria. You would soon discover that it is a mission impossible that is made possible only by Him whose exhortation you have ventured out to fulfill - the Almighty Himself. There are many stumbling blocks on your way. While some of them are natural and are, therefore, bound to happen, most are man-made. For instance, natural problems can (and do) occur from the overcrowding, which creates other cataclysms. You cannot have over three million people in a small field like Mina or Arafat or squeezed into small embankments like the Jamrah and not expect to encounter mountains of problems, more so when those millions hail from diverse cultural backgrounds.
The man-made problems are the ones that pilgrims grapple with. Nigerian governments at all levels do spend incredible sums of money every year in order to overcome or at best minimize those problems, all to no avail. Right from the registration of intending pilgrims to transporting them back at the end, the hurdles seem to defy solution. Why? Answer: no realistic solutions are applied.
The buck stops at the table of Hajj officials. From what I see here in the holy land, the whole exercise is run by semi-literate undertakers, supposedly superintended by the senior, more educated officials. Many of the so-called senior officials do not even know why they are here, or pretend not to know. Many of them appear to think that they are in KSA for their personal pursuits – some picnic away from Nigeria. Tales of their alleged unholy exploits abound. The obvious one is the cat-and-mouse game they play with confused pilgrims, disappearing just when they are most needed. Once in a while you catch sight of them cruising around town in big American cars (their favourite is GMC) with their women: their parents, wives and or sisters, I suppose, though a friend of mine derisively said "girlfriends". They wear an air of "hard at work" when they catch your eye and promptly zoom off, lest you would ask for 'lift.' An exception here are members of the medical team, who stay at their desks attending to the needs of pilgrims. I doff my hat to them.
Our Hajj officials should stop behaving like privileged brats, thinking they are doing a favour to the pilgrims. They are in this country enjoying all those unnamable perks courtesy of the poor pilgrims. They should, therefore, dedicate all their time to the service of the pilgrims even if they must miss their own Hajj. (Note that they are not here to perform Hajj themselves). They should know that if they perform creditably well, their reward isn't just in the hefty estacode they receive, the choice accommodation and transport they enjoy, etc., but it is also in heaven because they would be contributing positively to a religious duty.It is very important for them to constantly provide relevant information to the pilgrims: when Hajj airlifts will begin, where to go in the holy land, how and when to get there, what to do there, the exact date and time for returning home, etc. Some of these tasks can be accomplished in liaison with other agencies, such as the airlines and local authorities.
Can they do these? From what is presently on the ground, my verdict is a grim one: the present officials are incapable of a change because they are the beneficiaries of the corrupt, decadent system they had helped create. The huge sums of money they milk from the system, as well as the privileges they enjoy, would vanish if the system is reformed. Expectedly, they would stand in the way of any change, insisting on maintaining the status quo. To kick them out would require a visionary, fearless leader who is unattached to the system, someone who would divorce the Hajj administration from politics. I suggest that the President of Nigeria should get involved actively, possibly by assuming the title of Amirul Hajj for at least four years. This way he would see things first-hand instead of relying on the annual report of an appointed so-called Amirul Hajj, who is (as happened this year) an absentee politico in the holy land. State governors and local government chairmen in Muslim-populous states should do likewise. The time to start the new system is now, not later, when the 2008 Hajj exercise is being wrapped up amidst ceaseless uncertainty and disappointment.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
On Holy Ground
I am writing this piece from a house in Shahar 16 quarters of Mecca City, a walking distance from the Harami (Kaaba), Islam's holiest site. I am one of the millions of Muslim pilgrims taking part in one of the most personal journeys of all time -- the Hajj. So permit me if I sound personal, or even cocky, in this write-up. It's my personal one-off impression of life as I see it in the holy city, which I am visiting - together with my mother and wife - for the first time. Nothing original, of course, as many of you had seen it all before, in many cases several times over, across the years. But a writer always has an eye for unique things while in a strange place. And Mecca, the cradle of Islam, is unique in many tantalising, even if provocative, ways. For the first-time vcisitor, the attractions are doubly provocative.
Because of the unique things that abound, there is, ab initio, the problem of what to describe first. Is it the quietude which ushers in the break of day, punctuated by the occasional honking of vehicles, or the moving stream of human traffic? Or is it the multiparity of languages representing diverse cultures? Or is it the beauty of Arabic being spoken by almost everyone? Chances are you would find yourself rambling on and on, oscillating between a topic and another, and back again, until you are almost lost in the beehive of your emotions. I am a victim of that dilemma as I sit, here, by the window of my sixth floor room, watching the streets below coming back to life early on Wednesday morning. People -- the first spectacle of any adventurous writer -- have begun to walk by, clad in Islamic dress, with a majesty akin to that of the rulers of the land, whom I have not yet met (and can't possibly hope to).
Mecca is a city that bubbles and rumbles with life. A lugubrious quietude belies its surging energy. At night it is a city of lights; bright neons done in wonderful calligraphy; street lights that never go off; well-lit houses with their tiny, zig-zagging streets, and bazaars decked with expensive clothes and other (expensive) ornaments. In the daytime it throbs brilliantly with people and vehicles. And you can't help but marvel at the topography, which I see as "central" Middle Eastern even if it's needless for me to say so in the spirit of "Don't tell us there is water in the Atlantic Ocean." The buildings out there are stylish. Mosques dot the atmosphere, and readings from the holy Qur'an blare out at prayer times.
And talking about cosmopolitanism, the great influx of foreigners for the Hajj has made the city a place of diversity. It has always been that way because pilgrimage here is not necessarily an annual ritual but a round-the-year exercise: apart from Hajj, there is the Umra, or lesser pilgrimage, which one can embark on at any time of the year. Apart from the pilgrims, many nationals have made Mecca their home. Especially West Africans. Now, talking about West Africans is more or less talking about Nigerians. In Mecca, any black person is regarded as a Nigerian even if he/she has never been there. It's like the Northerner in the South, whom people see as a "Hausa" Muslim person. That is because of the role of Nigerians living here play -- good or bad. I have heard incredible tales about the mostly negative exploits my compatriots are credited with doing here -- stealing, touting, prostitution, drugs and other forms of vice. I am still searching for someone to tell me the good things that they do. On my part I know two, at least. First, there are many Islamic scholars teaching in big schools and professionals such as doctors, English teachers and oil engineers contributing to the Saudi economy and society. No one talks about these, of course. Second, Diaspora Nigerians in Mecca have created a "Little Nigeria" here, or a "Little Kano." Once you are in the "Little Kano" areas of the city (and I hear that the Saudis have ensured that your level of education determines whether you live in these parts or not), you are home. Hausa is widely spoken. Even some Arabs speak it. And you can eat "Hausa" food, including very pristine ones like tuwo, danwake, kunu, the ubiquitous shinkafa da kaza, and even fura da nono. All these are sold right at the door of our house. Indeed, some of these delicacies are harder to find in parts of northern Nigerian cities than in Mecca. Home sickness? It's non-existent, sir. The "Little Kano" residents, majority of whom live in Mecca illegally, playing a Tom & Jerry game with policemen and immigration officers, have nonetheless made the Arab citizens in these parts look like illegal aliens.
Am I comfortable in Meca? This question reminds me about the Hausa truism which says that once you have left home on a journey, it is the journey that "owns" you, and not the other way round. Which means that the nature of the journey determines your comfort or otherwise. The journey for Hajj is not designed to be a cozy one. About three million people converge in Saudi Arabia during Hajj. And they come from different nations of the world, forming the biggest melting pot of cultures on earth. It is obvious that the Saudi authorities have put in place stringent measures to deal with the situation, providing comfort and security. Their efforts are complemented by those of the authorities of various nations and states. Even so, it's impossible to create an atmosphere that could give each pilgrim 100% comfort.
I did not expect to find comfort even though I have heard on the radio about the wonderful preparations made by the various pilgrim boards to make everybody happy. Personal contacts with other been-tos and the reading of Hajj literatures prior to my departure, especially the book, "Getting the Best Out of Al-Hajj" by Abu Muneer Ismail Davids, have warned me never to expect too much. So my renown optimism has been tempered by a huge dose of expectant realism. So I am happy. I am not one of those Nigerians that moan about lack of this or that. Not yet, though. Thank God.
What of worship? That is why we are here. We, the tourists of God, are here to complete one of the five pillars of Islam, the Hajj. Hajj is a journey of renewal of faith, couched in the absolute belief in the oneness of God and obeisance to Him. It is also one of the greatest opportunities of all time, the chance to visit the holy sites, perform both the compulsory and the recommended rituals therein. Ultimately, one hopes to gain Allah's forgiveness and mercies. This hope is not vain, especially when you are performing the Hajj. Those who have accomplished Hajj should be grateful for the opportunity, and those who are here are excited, while those who have never been here should pray to be here. Hence our spending time in piety, going to the Kaaba every day to perform the Tawaaf (circumambulation of the Kaaba) and the five daily prayers.
I could write about this enchanting journey endlessly. The big comfort here is that this is a great lesson in piety, in the belief in the oneness and mortality of mankind, in the hope that life will change for the better, not only for oneself but also for all men and women seeking to do good in life, with the overall prayer that salvation will come through good deeds like this journey to Islam's very origin. If you can come next year, please do so.
THIS IS MY COLUMN IN LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER OF TOMORROW THURSDAY
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