Mikail Barau
“When beggars die, there are no coments seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes” -William Shakespeare.
In September, we had the Emir of Bungudu kidnapped and kept by the criminals for a month. We went through the period with a lot of trauma in hope and despair. The Emir of Bungudu was a Secretary to Zamfara State Government before his coronation some ten years back and one of the most development driven figures around.
In November, we lost Alh. Sagir Hamida, Sarkin Rafin Gusau, who was a gubernatorial aspirant from Zamfara State. Prior to the murderous hit which we still mourn, Alh. Sagir Hamida was the proprietor of FAMAKS British School in Abuja and was praised by many for his mentorship and generosity. Until November 2021, my only engagements with Alh. Sagir was sitting in meetings of some twenty people together about three times. After one of the meetings in the first week of November this year, Alh. Sagir held me by the hand and asked about my opinions on certain modalities and resolutions. We stood in the drizzle outside the venue of the meeting for about 30 minutes until I pleaded with him to take his leave in deference to his age assuring that I would make deliberate effort to meet him. Since that meeting, I mentioned Alh. Sagir in about three serious discussions as a strategic thinker of reckon.
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Just after the same meeting, one of the participants whom I highly respect told me that he didn’t use the train patronised by many elite around on Kaduna-Abuja express. It was a shock for me with all the apparent audacity -until this year, I did recklessly take the road and encourage others to do so arguing that we only hear about those who didn’t arrive safely. The reality dawned on me with the frequent incidents from the horror of those who found themselves in the den of the kidnappers.
While the train is just one option for all people of means flying the dreaded Kaduna-Abuja road, it is perhaps the only option for the people from Zamfara State being the only state we know in Nigeria without an airport. Even the option of flying through Sokoto doesn’t seem to be any better because the road to Gusau from Sokoto via my hometown of Talata Mafara is as dreadful. It is the same road that essentially makes people of means traveling to Kano to choose to take flights to Abuja, often pass the night, then fly to Kano for what could have been some five to six hours drive.
Why is it important to be concerned since all lives matter. This counter argumentative part of the write up is important because I hold the view in private discussions that perhaps suspending the options of train, and in extreme instances the flights, may make things better because the elite who use them will work to make the roads safe when they happen to be their only options. The case, or the bad situation rather, for Zamfara elite that I attempt to make here holds water when options to elite from other parts of the country have other options open and theirs constricted by one.
The life of our elite matters as that of all other people. In a society where governments have abdicated their responsibilities, people of certain means take a lot of responsibilities of the larger society as they also shoulder the responsibilities of their immediate family. With a person like Alh. Sagir Hamidu lost to the useless hands and guns of the kidnappers, the livelihood of many must have gone with it -food, healthcare, school fees, security etc.
My experience is that even the “most useless” members of our elite (Maras amfani as they are called in Hausa) have some value of public good that transcends their families.
