Yesterday I had to drive through one of the States in core Northern Nigeria. Having been driving for some five hours, I stopped in a popular Hausa town to eat food and refresh. I ordered for Tuwon shinkafa with miyan kuka from one of the bukas. Before I settled down to eat, I was suddenly surrounded by dirty little kids in tattered clothes holding dirty plates in their hands. The owner of the place shooed them away and I proceeded to eat my food. I ate half way through my food and I ordered for a chilled bottle of Coca cola, but the woman was too busy attending to other customers who had just arrived by bus. I stood up, deciding to serve myself. I went to her refrigerator to pick a bottle of coke and behold, all those dirty boys rushed at my food. They picked it up amidst fights and then proceeded to share my food handful by handful amongst themselves. Some who couldnt get a morsel, so they were contented with licking the soup. There were over 10 of those boys. The owner of the buka was furious and kept shouting at them, shegu... Yayan banza over and over again. She begged me and offered to give me another plate. I refused but calmly asked her to give those boys N2000 worth of food to share. Thats ten plates because a plate is N200. I got some suya and armed with a bottle of coca cola, got into my car and sped away with different thoughts on my mind... I kept asking myself why this is only in found in states like Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe, Katsina, Zamfara and Zaria? Why is this spectacle not seen in Plateau, Benue, Nassarawa, Southern Kaduna etc? Couldnt these boys gladly follow Boko Haram as recruits for as little as N1000? I shudder.... And shed a tear for Northern Nigerian almajiris.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 07:16:58 +0000