In 1929 pipe borne water was introduced in Kano. At that time, many other parts of Northern Nigeria were large swathe of bush. According to historical records from Alkali Hussaini Sufi’s book “Musan Kammu”, after network of water supply were connected in the city pipes, colonial administrators noticed that people still patronise unhygienic water from wells and ponds. People show no interest in using water from taps. Subtle public enlightenment was carried out – but nothing changed. More public enlightenment was rigorously carried out. People across Kano city started making up a lot bizarre stories about the dangers of drinking pipe borne water “ruwan famfo.” Conspiracy theories kept flying around mosques, homes and markets.
One, the theories was that drinking or using pipe borne water reduces one’s faith in Allah. Some even said that patronising pipe borne water can get one into a tangle with ‘aljanu.’ Colonial administrators kept pushing – and went further by connecting homes with pipe borne water free of charge. Despite that, the suspicion towards pipe borne water spread across the ancient city. Again, colonial administrators went a step further by sand-filling wells in neighbourhoods and homes where pipe borne water was connected. For us, in this age, this may sound strange. After all, everywhere you go now people are yearning for pipe borne water, but it is nowhere to be found. Taps have been dry for decades in many cities and towns.
In education, the suspicion was even steeper. Western education was greeted with rejection and deadly conspiracy theories ranging from tendency to render one from a believer to a disbeliever. Some even claimed that ‘ilimin Boko’ (western education) is the shortest route to hellfire. While some emirs sent their sons to western education schools, others sent sons of slaves and concubines to such schools – perhaps to test the waters. In many cases, they only started enrolling their own children when they found out sons of slaves with education are acquiring power and influence. Here we are now, in the age that parents go extra miles to educate their children. Many want their children to be educated but there are not enough schools, or the cost of education is ridiculously unaffordable for many families. Where there are schools available, they are dilapidated, classes are crowded, with teachers that have no capacity to impart knowledge or shape character. In fact, the teachers themselves, in many cases, need education not jobs in the education sector.
The point here is, every society and people as individuals tend to resist change. It is human. There are so many reasons for this. New things always generate questions that turn into suspicion. People, as human beings always want to conform – to stick with the familiar. We want to do things as our ancestors did. We want to stay within the realm of society’s expectations, culture and traditions, often to the detriment of existence. People are still afraid and suspicious of people who are not from their tribes or their geographical origin. People are still suspicious of people of different faith. They trust only their own. They are afraid of many things, including new faces. People still want to look at issues and interpret them according to the endorsement of the society. People are scared to ask questions.
‘Fear’ is at the centre of it all. Not many people can take the risk of being different. Not many want to chart new path. In societies like this, a year comes and go in the same way. As the writer VS Naipaul puts it; “…the year ends as it begins…” Every year, as far as memory can recall, cholera kills dozens of men, women and children. The number of deaths every year as a result of cholera suggest that there was no concrete plan to mitigate its risks. No lasting solution or even new approach of addressing poor sanitation and the lack of portable water supply that cause outbreak of cholera every year – yes, it is like an annual festival of death. Whenever the hottest season is here from around March, April to May there will be outbreak of meningitis – every year. Hundreds of children will die – they die every year – since before the age of vaccines. This year too meningitis killed many children. These diseases have a strong relationship with poverty. Above all, these diseases continue to kill children annually. We just helplessly wait for the bad news to come and go. Critical thinking or research can minimise these painful deaths of children. Strategic public enlightenment on hygiene and then enough vaccines can make a lot of difference. At least, with proactive measures the risks of deaths of children can be minimised every year.
The world is changing at a speed. Those who could not catch up are those who could not change.
Isa Sanusi is a writer based in Abuja
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