Northern youths as horrible neighbours

 

Without any doubt, I am not a tribalistic.

All the same, it is important that I began this write-up with the notification above, just so my reader would realise that I am actually being as objective as possible.

In any case and as a preacher of the unity of every tribe and tongue in Nigeria, I still live daily, trying to convince my brain of the genuineness of the ‘One Nigeria’ slogan.

But unfortunately, the practices and manners at which youths from the Northern part of the country parades themselves has left me with no other option, than to believe us as incompatible tribe that was only irrationally merged by Governor Fredrick Luggard.

Because, why and how tongues so extreme and mentally-opposed as the Northern and the Southern protectorate would be merged together as a nation, still baffles me.

Truth be told, apart from the highly exposed and educated Northerner that is either a Southerner by birth or by resident, not a few other Northerners, (especially the uneducated one, whom are even in the majority) are habitual terrible neighbours.

Starting out with the abokis (common name used to describe lanky Northern men) that abides in most South Western neighborhood, they’re mentally wired to forcefully take whatever it is they desire, even if it is at the detriment of the peace of others, hausa man no just send you!!! (They do not care).

And if the aboki in your neighbourhood is yet to exhibit such an awful trait, he’s probably the only one and only waiting on having more of his brothers around before evolving into the unimaginable.

They would stop at nothing to be so mean, reckless and unreasonable the moment they realise that they are in the majority.

Needless to say, the uneducated Northern youth feed on numbers to ultimately exhibit the evil in him.

And in my locality by the way, we have over a hundred of them, co-habiting in a vast expanse of land that was purchased by their affluent Lead.

You’ll always see them lay down at night in overwhelming numbers, straightened-up like a sardine in a geisha tin at dusk and after night prayers.

First and foremost, they launched their presence with petty stealing of items carelessly placed around any unfenced apartment. And in no time, they ‘graduated’ to threatening those of us residents at the slightest provocation.

On the other hand, I sometimes take caution with generalising, stereotyping a type of attribute to certain sects or cultures. I also take caution about making my political, religious or cultural perception known on a public space like this one, but on the recent happenings in the North where a Christian young woman was killed by Northern fanatics, I am forced to blurt out on my perception on our Northern Nigerian brothers.

Is the Quaran that they read, not the same as that of other peaceful Islamic faithfuls from other tribes?

My first encounter with the disobliging attitude of this sect was as a Corp Member in the North.

I was initially posted to Shinkafi, Zamfara State and after 6 months, I got me a redeployment to Oyo State.

Before this day that I was to relocate back to the South West, I had always walked in droves and in company of other Corp members. But on this day, I was billed to journey alone since I was singly redeployed as applied.

My peers saw me off to the motor park that was to convey me to Gusau (the state capital) where I was expected to journey down South.

I arrived at Gusau and then the scenario was after alighting on a bike that conveyed me and my luggage.

I had visited Gusau from Shinkafi a couple of times and so privy to the cost of this particular route.

I offered him same price, and in his highly restricted knowledge of the lingua franca, he insisted on an amount that’s three times more than the normal fare. Then I objected, bringing him to the realisation that I am not totally new in this metropolis and so aware of the normal price.

In sheer contempt (I later got to know my objection as a female was an irritant) he hurriedly parked his bike and angrily rose his voice, uttering God knows what, in his language. And in few minutes, more than enough men of his age bracket began to gather, hauling abuses at me as they approached.

I was shocked and scared. Who listens to a one sided story on the planet?

Then I retreated, sobbing.

My call for help in Yoruba language must have attracted a group of mechanics in a nearby workshop, and they appeared like a rescuer to save me in their large numbers too.

A very harmless haggling between me and a bike rider escalated so quickly, and it could have landed in a mini riot, and most probably a loss of life. You never can tell.

It happened that these young Yoruba men were from ogbomoso, but they understood Hausa language and that was my saving grace.

Meanwhile, the rate of illiteracy and lack of exposure largely accounts for the low rate of comprehension of most of these youths.

And unfortunately, the elites amongst them are not doing the needful by dutifully enlightening, just so they could continue to exploit and to take advantage of the ignorance of the unschooled amongst them for their own selfishness gains, albeit politically and economically.

I have seen Yoruba people be at loggerheads on matters that concerns the other tribes in Nigeria, and I smell sensibility and fairness in most cases. And I have equally been privy to Easterners locally fight their brothers when the truth needs to be told.

But trust me, an average hausa man would rather kill you over a brother of his that is even at fault, than try to be anyway objective.

And I’ll boldly say it that, Northerners have only two enemies, every-other tribe apart from theirs and all Christians too. Including their own christian kinsmen.

However, I remain very open to other opinions, but in all of my years living with Northerners, they have always been terrible neighbors as soon as they are in the majority. They tend to appear nicer when in the minority by the way.

Not to disregard the over a hundred Northern men that shelters in my neighborhood that would stop at nothing to show their hostility.

And about the only two northerners that had shown themselves to me as reasonable was first of all one Mustapha, a love interest by the way, and then a female that’s married to a friend.

Unfortunately still, I’d refer to these two as semi-Southerners. This is because, while the former had lived all of his life in Lagos, the latter was a Lagos born and bred,and these two are even educated and exposed, so you get the point?

Show me an hospitable Nigerian Northerner that is uneducated, and I’ll tell you he or she has a Southern influence.

Therefore, until an average Hausa man stop to be a stinking nepotist and start to lovingly embrace other tribe as they do to themselves, we aren’t a One Nigeria but a divided one in so many parts.

Northern youths needs to really do better.