GOVERNOR NASIR EL-RUFA’I AND STREETS BEGGARS: AN OPEN LETTER TO MALAM DAN- HAUSA WITH SOME HOME TRUTH!
GOVERNOR NASIR EL-RUFA’I AND STREETS BEGGARS: AN OPEN LETTER TO MALAM DAN- HAUSA WITH SOME HOME TRUTH!
BY:
Nurudeen Dauda
May 1st, 2016
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it” (Martin Luther King Jr.). “He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it”(Martin Luther King Jr.).” Every on looker is either a coward or a traitor” (Franz Fanon).
Please! Malam Dan-Hausa read all,I have suggested four (4) ways as solutions to the menace! To begin with, I am a Hausa man; I thank God for being a Hausa man! No one chooses to be born as Yoruba or Igbo or Kanuri or Nupe or Tiv! I am proud to be a Hausa man! But it baffles me to note that, 90% of beggars in Nigeria are Hausas. Why? Some people even thought that begging is part of “Hausa culture”. Far from that! It is not all Hausas that believe in begging! I feel pain to note that majority of beggars are Hausas! After all ethnic groups have their shortcomings! 99% of Hausas are Muslims as such some people thought that begging is part of “Islamic culture”. Never! We have over 360 ethnic groups in Nigeria! Why is it that, it is only the Hausa people that regard begging as a profession?
We go to “Brothels” and beg from “prostitutes”! “Abu Masud Al Ansari reported that the messenger of Allah forbade the price of dogs, earnings of prostitute and foretelling of a soothsayer” (Bukhari,Muslim).We go to “Bars” and beg from the “bear sellers”!We go to gamblers and beg from them!“Abdullah-bin-Amr reported that the messenger of Allah prohibited intoxicants, games of chance, card-playing and Gobairah and he said: Every intoxicant is unlawful”(Abu Daud). We go to churches on Sundays and beg the church goers!
Is it only Hausa people that have blind, leprous, deaf and dumb people? Why are those blind, leprous, deaf, and dumb people who are Yorubas or Igbos or kanuris or Tivs etc not begging on the streets? It is only a dwarf or deaf and dumb man of Hausa origin that begs! Why? Why is it that, it is only Hausa people that use poverty or dwarfism or widow-ship or blindness or deafness or dumbness etc., as an excuse for begging? Why do dwarfs or widows or blind or deaf or dumb or poor people among the Yorubas, Igbos, kanuris, Tivs etc., who are not beggars do not die of hunger? If blind or cripples among Yorubas or Igbos are not begging then what are they doing for survival? How are they surviving? Why can’t we adopt the same measures?
We travel all the way from Sokoto to Lagos as beggars! If you must beg, why don’t you beg, in your neighborhood? We move from Zamfara state to Rivers state and beg! We move from Kano to Enugu as beggars! Among the Hausas simple disability is a “capital” to start up the business of begging. The begging industry in the Hausa land has become a “big industry” that makes people abandoned “farming” and move to the city for begging. Let’s think twice!
We have the richest man in African in our mix; his great grandfather was the richest man in West Africa during his lifetime. The descendants of this man, the “Alasawa family” are in our mix; “Dogo Baban Naira” is in our mix. We have the “Magalawa family” in our mix.
“Hausa” and “Swahili” languages are the two most widely spoken languages in Africa. “Swahili” is widely spoken among the East African countries while Hausa language is widely spoken in West Africa and beyond. Hausa language is being spoken in about 32 countries out of the 54 Independent African countries. Hausa language is being thought as course in universities in Germany, England, United States of America, Belgium, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Russian, Sweden, Switzerland and many other African Universities. A lot of white people study Hausa Language in order to make their research work easier especially in West Africa and other parts of Africa. We have many Europeans that are professors in Hausa Language.
Hausa Language has international recognition with British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC), broadcast news in over 30 different world languages daily and from 1957 to date(59 years) it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language four(4) times daily(in total 2 hours) You can also watch them on “Capital TV” Ghana. United states of America’s Voice of America (VOA) Hausa service was established in 1979(37 years) and it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language four (4) times daily. In Germany Deutech welle Radio was established in 1953 it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language three (3) times daily. A French Radio, Radio France International (RFI) has been broadcasting news in Hausa language from 2010 to date three (3) times daily. Radio Moscos World service, Hausa 1961; Radio Sin(China) International, Hausa, 1941; Radio Libya, Hausa; Radio Tehran(Iran)IRIB, Hausa ;Radio TRT Hausa and Radio Muryan Alkahira, Egypt etc.
We are kanawas, Hadejawas, Katsinawas, Daurawas, Sakkwatawas, Gobirawas, Kebbawas, Zamfarawas, Zazzagawas, and Jasawas etc. Hausa Language is being spoken in Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Togo, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Gambia, Central Africa Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Ethiopia, Eretria, Sudan, Libya and Egypt etc. We have newspapers that published in Hausa language such as Leadership Hausa, Aminiya and Rariya etc. Hausa language can be adopted as a lingua Franca in West Africa with little or no hitches.
We have had a situation in the recent past whereby beggars from “Lagos state” were packed and dumped in “Kano” and “Kaduna states”. In many occasions in the past beggars were packed from “Saudi Arabia” and dumped in Kano. So many of our beggars have reasons to beg! Our beggars do not even do “Tasbihi” neither allow others to do theirs, immediately after “Sallam” they start begging left-right and centre. People call us beggars! Are we not? We are! The former governor of Kano state who once banned streets begging in Kano said: The discovered that 70% of the beggars in Kano state are not from Kano state but from the neighboring states. If truth be told among us the Hausas, most of our beggars are the Sakkwatawas, Gobirawas, Kebbawas, Zamfarawas. What are the governments of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states do concerning begging? Begging is killing farming activities because it seems to be more lucrative.
WHAT ISLAM SAYS ABOUT BEGGING:
1. (Alms are) for the poor who are straitened for the cause of Allah, who cannot travel in the land (for trade). The unthinking men accounteth them wealthy because of their restraint. Thou shalt know them by their mark: They do not beg of men with importunity. And whatsoever good thing ye spend, Lo! Allah knoweth it. -(Al-Quran 2:273)
2. Zubair-b-Awam reported that the Messenger of Allah said: That one of you takes his rope and then comes with a load of wood upon his back and sells it is better than to beg of men whether they give or reject him. -(Bukhari)
3. Qabisah-bin-Maknareq reported : I became surety for a debt and came to the Messenger of Allah to ask him about it. He said: Wait till Zakat comes to us, and then we shall order something therefrom for you. Then he said: O dear Qabisah! Surely begging is not lawful except for one of these three (reasons)-a man who becomes surety for a debt, it then becomes lawful for him to beg till he gets it, after which he shall withhold; a man having met with a misfortune which has ruined his property-it is lawful for him to beg till it enables him to get livelihood (or he said means of livelihood); and a man who meets with dire necessity, till three men of understanding of his tribe stand up (and say): Dire necessity afflicted such one-it is lawful for him to beg till he finds means for livelihood. O Qabisah ! What is besides these in begging is unlawful and its owner eats unlawful things. -(Muslim).
4. Abdullah-bin-Omar reported that the Messenger of Allah said: Man will continue to beg of men till he will come on the Resurrection Day without any piece of flesh in his face. -(Bukhari, Muslim).
5.Ibn Omar reported that the Holy Prophet said while he was on the pulpit speaking about charity and refraining from begging. The upper hand is better than the lower, and the upper hand is that which gives and the lower is that which begs. -(Bukhari, Muslim).
6. Samorah-bin-Jundub reported that the Messenger of Allah said: Begging are scratches with which a man scratches his own face. So whoever likes may make them permanent upon his face, and whoever likes may avoid them-except a man’s begging to a man of power or in an affair from which there is no escape. -(Abu Daud, Tirmizi, Nisai).
SUGGESTIONS/SOLUTIONS TO BEGGING: (1) Every Hausa family should take care of their blind or deaf or dumb or cripple or dwarf or widow men/women; all beggars did not fall from the “sky” they have families!, (2) There should be a foundation by all Hausa people world-wide to raise funds for skills acquisitions to our beggars in form teaching them weaving, netting, tailoring, and petty trading etc.,(3) let the Dangotes, Dantatas, Mutallabs, Yar’aduas, and Mangals direct their Zakat to those people and (4) let all Northern Governors rehabilitate their disable houses and settle them.
May God guide us!