By HASHIM MUHAMMED SULEIMAN
Do you eat, at least, three times a day? Is there aroma of cooking still coming out of your house, at least, twice a day? Do you still wear washed and ironed clothes almost everyday? Do you still drive a car while attending to your daily needs?
If yes to the above posers, not all, or even some, then I have bad news for you and for me. The dangers are coming. Asides the usual dangers of bandits, kidnappers and insurgents, the new danger coming to town is danger from below.
What does ‘danger from below’ signify? Simply put, it means dangers from unexpected places and from unexpected persons.
Well, why do I become advocate of telling you and me that dangers are real and are coming?
Simple.
The hunger in town is unprecedented and has reached unpredictable levels. The hunger has become so pervasive that ordinary poor people are beginning to exhibit criminogenic tendencies. After all, a hungry, poor and angry man has already crossed the threshold of criminality. Particularly where the three vices of poverty, hunger and anger are third person induced. According to them, ‘third person’ here are those in the real positions of power and also indirectly the ones that belong to the aforementioned category in terms of discharging daily needs, perhaps as working class or being privilege to have a particular smooth-runnig business.
The danger that’s real and is coming is the fact that these victims of third person induced hunger, poverty and anger cannot and do not differentiate between the third person that induced the vices on them from you and me. Once you look relatively ok and contented with life, they assume you are one of those people that brought the three vices on them. Hence, you’re at the mercy of their scornful looks and words for now, pending when they’ll explode their mob mentality on you and me, even though we are also victims like them.
In fact, out of the many anecdotal evidences denoting and painting a bad scenario becoming worst, I’ll use only four recurrences to justify my assertion that dangers from below are coming fast upon us.
- Recently, I was looking for a place to park my car and to attend to some urgent things. I sighted a place by the road, near where motorcycle chaps were trading their business. I put on my right trafficking light, signalling I’ll park by my right. That single action became a trigger of unsavoury action by one of the motorcycle taxi riders. The man quickly began to push his motorcycle towards my car. I quickly dodged him by the whiskers. He wasn’t done with me. On top of his voice, he began to shout: “Kun sace kuɗin ƙasar, kun saka mu cikin bala’in yunwa, ɗan inda muke samu muyi achaɓar ma, mu samu na abinci cikin wahala, sai kunzo kun hana mu cin abinci.” That: “You people have stolen the country dry; you people have subjected us to extreme hunger such that even this small space that we used to source for the little we eat, you want to come and stop us from eating.”
I didn’t respond to any of his invectives but instead, I simply drove off and find another place to park, a place far from them. - Some days ago, I managed to muster courage to go and buy few litres of petrol for my old Tokunbo car. The petrol station was swarming with people, young and old, not buying petrol but waiting for any buyer to saunter in and they descend on that unlucky buyer with begging for alms. After I bought the few litres I could afford, to enter my car became a struggle because the beggars were between me and the car, begging. I silently ignored them and found my way inside the car. Then, a very old woman stood in front of the car until the petrol attendant shouted on her.
Indeed, rather than to leave the front of my car, the old woman walked towards the driver side. On reaching my window, in cold voice, she said: “Kun kwashe kuɗin ƙasar, kun bar mu da yunwa, yanzu muna roƙon ku abun da zamu ci amma kun hana mu. Wallahi, idan muka mutu da yunwa, sai Allah ya kama ku.” That: “You people have stolen the nation’s money and left us in hunger, now we are begging you for what to eat but you won’t give us. If we die of hunger, I swear God will never allow you free.” I refused to respond because I too was and is a victim of public embezzlement.
- Recently, a case of a man that used to visit the neighbourhood of some averagely well-to-do people to cut their nails came to light. Normally, the services of the man hardly pass ₦200 per individual. However, the neighbourhood took liking unto the man and we’re lavishing him with money, clothes, food and gifts. Not long after, members of the neighbourhood began to receive calls from bandits demanding for large sum of money or they and their families suffer. After delicate security operations, that nail cutter was apprehended as the one giving scoops to the bandits as far away as in Kogi and Zamfara states.
- Yesterday, a waybill was given to a driver from Jos to bring to me in Zaria. By our calculations, the driver was supposed to be in Zaria around 5PM. However, the driver only got in touch with me close to 10PM. I reluctantly went out for the goods. When I met the driver, he lamented that there were no passengers, hence he had to wait to get some appreciable passengers before embarking on the journey. Well, I wanted to pick the goods from his car to mine but some young guys quickly picked the two bags and dropped them into the boot of my car and the painful drama started. “Ai sai ka sallame mu mu je mu ci abinci.” “Pay us for the services so that we’ll go and eat food.” In fact, it took the intervention of the driver to calm things down from the side of the young chaps because one of them quickly stationed himself in front of my car, one at the back while the third was with me. Meanwhile, I went out to collect the waybill with nothing on me, not even my wallet.
I just used the four stated anecdotes to explain why I am telling you that dangers, dangers from below are real and are coming faster than you and me have ever thought. In as much as you look different from those hungry, angry and poverty stricken laps, the danger is real and is coming.
Allah dai ya yi mana maganin wannan bala’in.
•Hashim Muhammad Suleiman, PhD, wrote in from Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria
