In Loving Memory of Maijidda: A Champion of Equity, Fairness, Love, and Loyalty

 On this solemn day, we

gather to pay tribute to an extraordinary woman, Maijidda, Hajia left an indelible mark on our hearts and souls. Although it has been 16 years since she departed from this world on the 7th of August 2007, her legacy of passion for equity and fairness, love for children, and unwavering loyalty to her husband continues to inspire and guide us.

Hajia was a beacon of hope and a tireless advocate for equity and fairness. Her unwavering belief that every individual, regardless of their background or circumstances, deserved the same opportunities and rights was truly remarkable. She passionately fought for this cause, whether it be in the workplace, community, or any aspect of life where inequality reared its head. Her strength and determination in championing justice and fairness for all serve as an enduring testament to her character and values.

What truly set Hajia apart was her boundless love for the people around her. Her heart overflowed with compassion, and she dedicated herself to nurturing and supporting the young ones around her. Be it her own children, nieces, nephews, or any child in need, Hajia's love knew no bounds. Her nurturing nature and ability to connect with children on a deep level left an everlasting impact on their lives, shaping them into kind and compassionate individuals.

Family was the cornerstone of Hajia's life, and her commitment to my dad was unwavering. She believed in the power of a strong and united family, and her commitment to him was an embodiment of that belief. Through thick and thin, she stood faithfully by his side, offering unwavering support and love. Her dedication to her marriage was an inspiration to all, reminding us of the profound strength of love and commitment.

As we reflect on Maijidda's life, we are reminded of the incredible woman she was and the values she held dear. Her passion for equity, love for children, and commitment to her family continue to resonate within us, urging us to make a positive impact in our own lives and the lives of others.

Though she may no longer be with us physically, Maijidda's spirit lives on in our hearts. We honor her memory by carrying forward her legacy of compassion, fairness, and loyalty. May her soul rest in eternal peace, knowing that her life was a shining example of love, strength, and unwavering dedication.

In loving memory of Hajia (Maijidda),

Forever missed, forever loved.

TRIBUTE TO MY HAJIA

They say “Life goes on” and “It gets easier with time” well, I can tell you life doesn’t go on, nothing is ever and will ever be the same again. Its been twelve years since she left us, twelve good years of not having my phone ring at sundown asking about my whereabouts, twelve solid years of not been asked if i’ve eaten or not, all these are gone with her demise.

Hajia was a daughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin, an aunt, a mother and a grandmother to the grandkids she never met. We all love and appreciate her in our lives, many times the appreciation comes after meeting and interacting with other mothers. Hajia’s outstanding qualities are ever glaring even to those who doesn’t have any, She’ll never tell you that Black is White just because she doesn’t want Black, she’ll rather say, this is Black, but i’d prefer White. Hajia was vocal, she stood up for the voiceless and was always in support of whatever my dad supports even if it wasn’t what she wanted, as long as its the right thing, i know Hajia wasn’t alone, there are countless mothers out there built with the same impenetrable principles, even when the conditioning system momentarily demands otherwise.

  There are a few things more difficult than saying goodbye to your mother knowing its the last time you’ll be seeing her, but i’m glad i had the opportunity. Not a single day passes without me remembering what it used to be to have my mother around, the good thing about that subtle reminder is that i always pray for her, I always carry with me the precious memories i had with her. Our trips together was more of an adventure, while many saw her as my sibling because of her smallish nature wherever we go, little did they know that she gave birth to me and my siblings, one of which is six years older than me.

  Hajia has given me countless of gifts while she was alive, one of which is about forgiveness. I was, she says, an earnest little boy who was disinclined to forgive when wronged, and she worked overtime to teach me how to forgive and to let go, a lesson that i like to think i’m still learning, given the myriad absurdities of this world. I will never forget how funny and loving she was, her beautiful smile and laughter, i will miss out a relationship with my mother, a relationship i once took for granted.

The day after we buried her was the loneliest day of my life, as i had to take the long flight back home alone. Hajia was self disciplined and she made sure she raised us on that same path, she instilled in us the ability to choose to do what we know we should do, rather than what we want to do, and this gave us the strength to withstand hardships and difficulties, both physically, emotionally and mentally. One of the greatest gifts my Dad gave us, was choosing a Mother for us in Hajia. 

Hajia might be far away from reach, but she forever lives in Us. Rest in peace my Hajia❤️, till we meet to part no more.

Age Is Not Just A Number

At Middlesex University, i attended classes with boys who are 10 years younger than me, some even 11 & 12 years respectively. I hanged out with a close buddy who is 14 years younger than me, i went on picnics with them, concerts and even site seeing. But the person in me always reminds me of my purpose in the school, and that given our age differences, our age has to reflect on our Certificates, i’m glad mine did. I graduated among the top of my class with a FIRST CLASS honors, i was the only Northerner of Hausa origin from Nigeria with  a First Class honors in my set. So talking about age, age is not just a number, age is your ability see what others couldn’t see in you, age is ur ability to unlock the lock🔒 that caged you with some peers, age is your intuition, experience and how far you’ve come in life coupled together as one. Age doesn’t limit your capabilities as a person, age implores you to find and unlock your hidden potentials. So dont let age stop you from growing and achieving your desired goals. Age is just a key🔑 to a vast opportunities, but only if u know the lock.

BUHARI: This isn’t the CHANGE we voted for.

BUHARI: This isn’t the CHANGE we voted for.

Double standard is a harsher and stricter attitude one has against an individual or organization as against what he has for himself. Double standards normally occur when there is a difference in political affiliations of a lack of total forgiveness. Today I’m writing about the Federal Government, high profile political and public figures and our adherence to equity, fairness and justice.

  Yakubu Dogara is the present speaker 8^th National assembly, allegations has been made and submitted to the relevant anti graft agencies about his handling of running costs of the national assembly or let me be specific; the fraud in the name of running costs as alleged by a suspended member of the national assembly (who’s on the run for fear of his life) running into hundreds of millions of our tax payers money. If these allegations are true and the relevant authorities tasked with handling fraudulent issues as such, are looking the other way for fear of stepping on the feet of the power and mighty, then I’ll be ashamed as a citizen of this country who stood under the sun and followed long queues just to bring the desired change needed to steer this country to the right path. As I am writing this piece, no single invitation has been sent to the Speaker formally requesting him to clarify on the alleged issues.

  A verbal allegation was labeled against a two term former governor of Kano state and the immediate past minister of Education Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, that the sum of N950 million arms money was shared in his house, when has it become a crime to share money in someone’s house? All of sudden the anti graft agencies woke up from their sleep and swooped on the former governor, interrogated and detained him for 72 hours. While the person who implicated him verbally was granted bail based on self-recognition as a former minister of foreign affairs, Mallam Shekarau was denied bail. What kind of recognition does a two term former governor of a state like Kano and the immediate past minister of Education of the Federal republic needs that a former minister of foreign affairs of the same country doesn’t? Or is it that Mallam is the bigger fish, as such they are after the subject and not the crime? Such double standard brings disrepute to this administration and to our democracy in general.

  As it stands today a lot of the National assembly members are facing corruption charges either in their states or at the federal level. Let me narrow it down to my state; Kano state, a lot of bodies have written petitions to the relevant authorities about the immediate past governor of the state and the senator representing Kano central about the mismanagement of our state funds and the debt in which he plunged our state running into hundreds of billions with nothing to show for it, save for one completed flyover bridge and an uncompleted one. But what happened to the petitions? Today the senator is yet to be served with a formal invitation by the authorities, maybe the venom of the tsetse fly is still in their system. One thing I don’t understand is, was he left out because he belongs to the same political party with the president and even more in the president’s good books?

  This administration sang a mantra of change during their campaign and if I am not mistaken, Change means doing things differently, but are things  now being done differently from the past?

  Before the online stray dogs and the political E-rats descend on me in defense of their pay masters, let me set the record straight; I am and still am an ardent supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, but my love and support for him doesn’t mean to be silent when the President’s un-looking game is becoming evident on things that on a normal day are supposed to be addressed. I am a voluntary surrogate of his campaign team, I waited for hours on the long queue under the sun to cast my vote for him and convinced those I can to do the same, but honestly this isn’t the change i voted for.

                                                 

Mustapha Garko writes from Kano

mustaphagarko@yahoo.com

@mr_garko

Betrayed by a FRIEND.

I remember the time not long ago when we laughed and shared it all, when we were the very best of friends or at least that's what I thought. He has been my best friend since childhood, attended the same primary and secondary schools, we all stood together through the tears and laughter, today the tears are mutual, they're just in my eyes. It has since become my past to get walked over by you. For the first time I've moved so far from you. You can stand there and laugh or sit there and smile, you can't trick me again, I know its a mask, you're trying to lie to me and everyone else. The relationship we had as friends is more than one can hold in the hand, it feels like it could never break, then suddenly like the break of dawn it did. You think you can control my mood, guess you were wrong, we said we'll be friends till the end, but you stabbed me in the back and took what was mine. Now what we had, we can't get back. Do you remember when we trusted each other with everything? The bad times came but we went through them strong. When I said friends, I don't mean Facebook buddies or Twitter followers, I mean REAL friends. People I could/would call if I was down to my last dime and needed a pint of milk or received a very bad news and needed a strong shoulder to lean on. Best friends anchor us, cheer us up from the sidelines and listen to our problems without judgement. They know everything about our personalities that Facebook buddies and Twitter followers will never know. I can recall when you and apologised personally and promised never to repeat it again only to go back and do something worst than what you did before. Initially I was engulfed in doubt, trying hard to figure who you really are, alas you shed more light on who you really are, not to me alone but to the whole world. That was when I realised we've gone far apart since you brought personal sentiment into our friendship when you aided one of your own to take what was mine. The thing that you did for your brother, its Impressive. I trusted you but now your words mean nothing because your actions justifies who you are. I can recall when in school you've been telling me lies about my I.D Card that got lost though you sent a strong signal about your betrayal but I was too blinded to see, hence I entrusted you with almost everything mine, never for a second did I think a thing would go wrong with my right hand man but go wrong, it did. I won't go into the details because it'll only bore you and so I made the most painful and at the same time wisest decision that regardless of any rethink or comebacks, our friendship is definitely over! Something happened to me when our relationship died, something happened to me when we said goodbye and that thing is Strength. I had the strength to walk away and dissolve the relationship we had as friends since childhood. Despite the urge to lambest him to anyone who would listen, I refrained, internalised the process and decide to alchemise the experience into a lesson in loss. Although the whole betrayal came into light in august last year and you were unmasked somewhere between april and march this year. I can honestly say its only now that I've felt suitably recovered to discuss and reflect on it objectively, I also realised that I'm not the only one in this world that has been betrayed by a close friend and so I decide to write it down.

A word is enough for the wise

When I look at a person, I don't see a name, class, title, personality or age, just a person. One would think salihu or @dawisu as he refers to himself on twitter is an advocate of change, the voice of the youths, someone who would call a spade by its very own name, someone who is not afraid to say the truth and fact regardless of whose ox is gored. Too bad Salihu isn't who we thought he is even though he thinks he's a messiah.
 Recently when the nigerian political parties defection window was opened, those who defected from the Ruling party (PDP) and ported into the so-called change party (APC), Salihu called them heroes who are interested and ready to change Nigeria for the better. While at the same time labeling those who jumped from the APC to the ruling party (PDP) as long as they are Northerners, as hypocrites!
 When the then Minister of aviation's bullet proof car scandal was known to the public, @dawisu was very active in criticizing both she and the president for shielding away her corrupt activities from the light of the day, when Hon. Farouk Lawan was caught red handed in the bribery scandal involving oil tycoon Otedola, Salihu lambasted him, when Sunusi Lamido was in support of the federal government withdrawing fuel subsidies, he called him a Munafiki, when the federal government couldn't contain the insurgency in the north-eastern part of country, Salihu also voiced out the lapses in the organizations assigned to tackle and eliminate the insurgency in the affected areas. Not forgetting the mass protest during the occupy Nigeria in january 2012 where Salihu was very helpful in his tweets with details and updates. All these were some of the good works of Salihu Tanko Yakasai, but where did he go wrong?
 However, before I answer that, I remain undaunted in my bid to make this sensitive disclosure to you that Salihu's passion for hating the immediate past governor of Kano state Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is without doubt very strong even though we still don't know whether it is personal or just business as usual.
  Permit me to cast the reader's mind back to when the APC was first hatched. Salihu openly condemned Mallam Shekarau because he (Mallam) fell out with Gen Buhari which subsequently led to Salihu openly saying he can sacrifice a thousand shekarau just to have one kwankwaso on board. But how can you sacrifice what you never had? For months Salihu has been busy telling his twitter followers and article readers about the hypocrisy of Mallam Shekarau.
Going back to where Salihu went wrong and what people haven't realized about him is that, has he thought for once about telling the public his own father is a pro-jonathan even if he hasn't labeled him a hypocrite yet? When mallam shekarau pitched tent with the ruling party, salihu was quick to label him an anti-north hypocrite. While Salihu was out lambasting Mallam shekarau, Little did he know that his own father and a one time presidential adviser to president shehu shagari, Alh Tanko Yakasai a northerner will endorse president Goodluck Jonathan a southerner for a second term in office. Salihu or his article about hypocrisy of his father were and still are nowhere to be found. Perhaps the most hypocritical argument that should come from salihu is why he concealed from the world his genuine hatred for the former governor.
 While I have no doubt in branding salihu's hatred for Shekarau as ENVY, its hard to believe that salihu won't be a Pro-Jonathan if he is being invited to have a taste of the national cake by the President. Salihu must never have heard the one about people living in glass houses to never throw stones, if he had, he wouldn't have made the hypocrisy-laced criticism of the former governor. Salihu's ploy obviously is aimed at defaming the former governor whose political pundits view as a possible political godfather in the whole of the northwestern Nigeria talk less of kano to be specific. But this gambit oozes insincerity coming from a man who couldn't instill any change in his household but yet is trying so hard to do such in the social media where he thinks he's a kingpin.
 Its not surprising how Salihu hid under the mantle of Gen voices (an NGO, a growing global movement of young Nigerians) so he can call any body working for or a part of the ruling party(PDP) a hypocrite! You should know that while you expose the hypocrisy of others a little too much, see to it that your kinsmen are not becoming one.
indeed we've began to have second thoughts about Salihu's Modus operandi going by the practice of his injustice, nepotism and self centredness.
  With this, the reader will believe me that salihu's love for his newly registered party and his passion for a better Nigeria is without doubt a hoax, for if he's really committed to being part of a new Nigeria, he would have started from home. When I say from home, I really mean from his home.
 If I were salihu, I would still condemn Tanko's actions openly on every social media because its better late than never. He should also retire from Social media politicking as he won't know which of his kinsmen will do the contrary again.
 Lastly I'm personally advising Salihu to seek forgiveness from people he has been witch hunting with his write ups because it pointedly shows he's wrong, since his father is caught up in-between his so-called war for a better Nigeria. There's a proverb in hausa that says "in zaka gina ramun mugunta, ka gina daidai kai" salihu built it and forgot that he might find himself in it someday. And here we are, barely two weeks since salihu called the former governor a hypocrite for exercising his right and freedom of association, his own father did the same or even worse by being a northerner endorsing the president for 2015 since endorsing the shoe less boy is allegedly considered a taboo in the north. And a word, they say, is enough for the wise.

Break Up Anniversary

  No way to sugar-coat it, breaking up sucks. The one I alluded to above was my recent, and no doubt it hurts. Everyone here will tell you time heals all wounds - and this is 100% true.
I think it was about 3 weeks post-break up before I was able to start to function properly again. It takes time. Don't push it, and it will come.
   3 months post-break up, I finally had my epiphany that I needed to move on. My biggest regret was spending the first 2 months thinking we would get back together. I think it's only natural to hope for that, but Since i can, I set those thoughts aside and gave myself time to heal before thinking about any sort of reconciliation.
   One of the musicians I know, Sam Roberts, has a line in a song that says "stay true to your friends, cause they'll save you in the end". He's right. Don't sit in your room feeling sorry for yourself. Go out with your friends and go to the movies, shows, or the mall or anything. Don't be by yourself. Use your family as a similar resource coz that's what I did.
   A friend of mine, An Air force Officer used to come down to Kano from his base in Kaduna then, just to cheer me up and help me come out of the break-up, even though he sometimes mock me about it. I do watch some Indian and American series on TV so as to help me get off my Ex and to even crack a smile. That's a big deal post-break up!
   EVERYONE goes through this. Our parents did, our friends have, and same goes for our future soul mate. I felt like crap then, but it faded. So don't feel like you're alone, because you're not.
  I used music to my advantage. There are inevitably songs that reminds me of my ex. I deleted them then. I put them back on my MMC later. I listened to those songs that i can relate to in my current state. Quite frankly, they aren't hard to find! I did go for a walk by myself with my music gathering my thoughts.
   There is no rule that says you need to have contact or remain friends with your ex. I don't care how tight-knit your mutual circle of friends is. My ex and I had a ton of mutual friends. Things will work themselves out. You may lose contact with a couple of friends, but that's just the nature of life. Your true friends will stick to you, I'm glad mine did.
   In the same vein, I don't need to try to remain friends with the friends of my ex. Those who wanted to leave, I let them go coz they're going to be looking out for my ex before me, and i don't need to put up with that.
   Also I didn't make my friends choose sides. I don't wanna be like that. If my friends wants to stay in touch with both of us, I let them. Again, over time, it will work itself out and they'll likely drift away from one of us and closer to the other, which some did. I allowed the chips to fall where they may.
   If you must gather up all the love letters, pictures and gifts your ex gave you during your relationship and throw them away, then so be it. I put mine in a shoebox and have it under my bed. I don't ever look in it, but I figure I might want to look back on those memories years or decades from now. When I'm old and grey, I think that box might be fun to look through again.
   Some may disagree with this point, and I'll respect that, but a genuine hate for my ex is what got me over the hump and pushed me to move on. I won't go into details of what happened, but I went from wanting to get back together to never wanting to see her again. It helped immensely.
   No need to jump into another relationship to prove something to yourself or your ex or anyone else. I took as much time to mentally heal before even considering another relationship.
I'm only now at a place where I feel comfortable getting into another relationship. This is exactly 1 year post-break up. Everyone is different, but I took as much time as I needed . I sometimes slowly remember the perks of being single, not answering to anyone. Being able to check out girls who walk by without getting grief, doing what I want, when I want it.
   Every day, the pain becomes less and less. It took time, but at the end, i eventually bounced back stronger than ever.
I found some of my own songs that gets me through the break-up. One of mine is a song by Enrique Iglesias called "I will survive" here are my favourite lines:

"You like to think
That you'll be only one who understands me with it
And you tell everyone
That I can't live without you even for one day
But who gave you the right
To talk about the way I feel so deep inside

Now I realize, you were never mine, we were never right
Baby, you will find

I will survive
I'm gonna make it through
Just give me time
I will get over you

I will survive
No matter what you do
Just need to see
I will get over you

'Cause baby, we'll survive
'Cause baby, we'll survive

What makes you think
That I don't see the way you made a fool of me
To laugh behind my back
'Cause what goes around I promise you goes back