The Independence We Seek -By Ahmad Isah Sabo

Today, 1st October, marks the most waited-in-curiosity day, I have been closely noticing apparent curiosity in Nigerian youths, especially on social media, fullest to the brim of intoxication by curiosity, to celebrate the National Day, some of which could not even wait but celebrated in advance, which I wondered what they celebrated. There was nothing bad in that.

Early yesterday morning, I woke up to the wailing of an Almajiri kid lamenting of hunger, with frailty in his voice, begging for even a morsel or a crust of bread. A while after, I joined my friends at tea and bread business centre to have a breakfast and we indulged into discussion of political matters, amidst of it, broke another voice begging for tea and bread, this time it wasn’t an Almajiri, it was a man, seemingly responsible man. Luckily for him, someone voluntarily paid for his breakfast, from his deep gentleness and silence, one could tell that this man had no other alternative but to beg. Maybe he must have given all he had to his family so he decided to look out for help, I thought. After I finished sipping my tea, I made my way to go but suddenly got pushed by a boy, they were fighting over a leftover of food given to them.

I passed a group of elders furiously discussing the level of hardship in farming bred by the increase in price of fertilizer. I heard someone among them coming to the decision that he would rather stop farming and instantly one replied: “What would you eat, we farm for survival!” It hit me hard and I kept repeating it in my mind: “We farm for survival! We farm for survival!” It suddenly dawned on me that there were people in Katsina who also farmed for survival but could no longer survive on farming because of banditry. Somewhere in Kaduna people who survive on farming are NOT FREE to go to their farms because they fear to be kidnapped, and how could a farmer who could not buy a bag fertilizer could afford a huge amount of ransom?

After a short walk, I reached home and met my brother, a graduate with second class (upper division) who couldn’t secure a job because he could not afford the huge amount of bribery to buy an offer of employment. We discussed bitterly over his encounters in the quest for job which ended to the heap of nothing because he doesn’t know any god from the gods of a Mother Nation neither was he born to the family of one.

Short talk on this and that, we came across and deliberated over the tension and fear consumed by people who spend sleepless nights in the awe of kidnapper’s gunshots. We extended the conversation on the fear and tension of those who lose their loved ones over the illness they couldn’t fund its treatment, the tension and fear of students who are NOT FREE to pass their exams simply because they won’t submit their bodies for sex or because of their lecturer’s hatred towards them for showcasing intellectuality.

Also, we talked on the Fulani herdsmen who live in dread of losing their cattle to bandits, on the victims of flood caused by the lack of good waterways, on the victims of accident caused by our bad roads and the dread of passengers who travel on the fear of armed robbers.

After our conversation, I thought of a writer friend who was arrested simply because he exposed the wrong deeds of a government. This ignited the thought in me that there are many writers out there who are afraid to write something against the government, even if they did, which media space do they have to air it out meanwhile all the renowned media spaces are NOT FREE to speak or write against the government?

We no longer talk of our social amenities because we are NOT FREE to know what it’s all about. All we need now is the Independence of living in peace, Independence of hustling in peace, Independence of farming in peace and atop all, Independence of living in Harmony.

AIS – 01102020