By Ahmed Tanimu
Let’s meet you
I am Hon Sunday Egubono.
You are with the Hausa community in Ogun State. Tell us more about you and the community.
We the Yorubas have been living peacefully with the Hausas. We have a cordial relationship with them and they are a wonderful set of people. We have never encountered any problem with them especially when we established this Kara community which is inhabited by the Hausas community who are 95 percent of the inhabitants. We have been here for the past 30 years.
This is the only community populated by the Hausas in which we have never recorded any communal clash and we are proud of that. There’s an agreement between us and so we don’t have problems. We have been co-existing.
How is the relationship between you, the Seriki, and the members of the Arewa community?
Yes, it has been fantastic. I need to commend the Seriki Hausa, who has been like a father to me. The notion from the Yorubas is that the Hausas are not good but with the behaviour of Mr Dayaro he has proven them wrong. He is a man of peace and someone you can trust your life with and all his council members are friendly. They’re people you will like to relate with, associate with, and live with and our relationship with them is very cordial. We have a very symbiotic relationship.
What of the issue of cholera outbreak among the Hausa community because of their unhygienic environment?
This is a misconception you people are having. Cholera is a global issue and it can happen anywhere. There’s never been any reported case of the outbreak of cholera in this area. This is my house, I am living close to them and we have never witnessed any cholera issue. Health officials from Owede came last week to fumigate this area. Cholera is a global issue and it can happen anywhere even where the Hausas are not living.
Imagine somewhere in Ebutte Emeta where you don’t have Hausas and it happened. In Kara, there has never been any reported outbreak of cholera here. They recorded in Lagos where the elites are living. When you get to a market some of these things will be there because you cannot rule out people being dirty. But, as far as I am concerned in Kara here in Ibafo, we don’t have cases of cholera.
What do you want to say about the hardship in the country?
Well, I don’t want to be sentimental or deny that there’s hardship in the country, there’s no doubt about that. Looking at the previous governments, a lot of things happened. Again, when you’re in a consuming country you are bound to experience hardship. Nigeria is a consuming country, we are not a production country and with that even when there’s an economic meltdown globally; Nigeria is not an exception. We should also know that it’s too early for us to begin to judge this government, they’re just one year and you can see that the man is tackling the issues headlong. He is putting a lot of policies in place that will whittle down this hardship.
I think we should give him credit, he is doing a lot to ensure the country gets out of this hardship. I think we should encourage the man. I can tell you in the next six months with the policy on the ground, Nigerians will laugh.
What of insecurity?
Insecurity didn’t start today. For the past 20 years, Nigeria has been experiencing insecurity and it’s not only in Nigeria but the whole of West Africa. The Nigerian government has been doing a lot on its own to ensure that the country is secured. Look at the weapon the government has been buying to ensure that we tackle the situation.
My advice is that the citizens should support the security with the necessary information. The security personnel are humans and they also depend on you and me to make their jobs simple. We should be able to give information to the security in anything you find suspicious.
We should be able to give information to security agencies whenever we see suspicious things.
The insecurity in the land is the main reason why there is hunger in the land. What’s your opinion on that?
Yes, that’s true because I cannot because I am a Yoruba deny that the North is not the food basket of the country. They’re in terms of population and land mass and whenever they cannot farm there there will be crises everywhere. Insecurity in the North most especially the North East where the food production is seriously hindered, is seriously affecting the whole country and not only the North but the South. There are not enough products for animals because people have not been allowed to go to their farms. Imagine farmers paying levies to them just to be allowed to access their farms because they will not be able to pay the ransom of maybe ₦20m if they are kidnapped. So, if the government does not do something urgently Nigeria will be in more problems.
What’s your advise to the government now?
My advice is that they should give more allocation to security. They should procure better security equipment for the security agencies. The bad ones among the security agencies should be flushed especially those aiding the kidnappers. Also, helps the security of information.
We learn that some of the security are giving information to the bandits.
That’s the issue, the bandits have infiltrated the military and the government needs to look inward and flush out those bad elements. The military needs serious re-organization.
What’s your advice to the youths in the area of drug abuse and other social vices?
Nigerian youths need to come back to their senses because they are the leaders of tomorrow. Where are the ones that want to become the leaders? Is it the youths that are involved in drugs? Go to our psychiatric hospital, you will see many of them there because of drugs. Some of them don’t even want to work again because of drugs. They are concerned about internet fraud. The parents also share the blame for this because they don’t care for their children anymore. Imagine a parent that will go to work 6:am and come back 11 pm, when will such parent have time to monitor their children?
I want to advise that the youths need to be properly guided and trained so that they can be the leaders of tomorrow.
Your advice for Hausas living in Ibafo and other parts of Ogun State and South West.
Yorubas and Hausas have always had strong relationships. They intermarry and this relationship must be maintained. They should also respect their host Community and work with them to engender security. They should tow the part of their host Community. Be friendly and join in the security of the South West.
