For those following the trend of events in Nigeria, they would attest to the fact that since last week, the attention of the country had temporarily shifted from politics to pageantry, as an 18 year old Kano state indigene, Shatu Garko, was crowned the 44th Miss Nigeria, and the first Hijab wearing winner, since the contest began in 1957. Although I had interest on the issue, but I chose to keep quiet for a number of reasons, the first of which is in order to avoid going into any conflict with those that are very versed in the Islamic jurisprudence. It’s a case of once beaten, twice shy.
However, perhaps pursuant to the confusion and controversy created by the statement that was credited to the Hisbah commandant in Kano, to the effect that he is going to invite the parents of Shatu Garko to come and explain why they allowed their daughter to participate in a beauty pageant, knowing fully that such an act runs contrary to the tenets of Islam, although there are denials by the Hisbah, alongside the various comments coming from different people, condemning the girl and her parents, a friend of mine sent me a WhatsApp message thus:
“Presido say something about this incidence. Our religion is not a primitive stage for lopsided justice. They should leave this girl alone. Why on earth should anyone harass her parents when blind eyes were turned at incidences that had clearly crossed the religious red line???”
Well, I would say something, but I would limit my self to the condemnation of Shatu, based on what others perceived as the violation of culture and costumes of Hausa, because they argue that, by going into a beauty pageant in costumes that are traditionally the style of the Hausa culture, she has violated the people’s etiquette, the people’s tradition and the people’s history.
In condemning Shatu, they call her all sort of things, including the allegation that her mother is non native. The mother they say, is from Kogi or Edo, married to an indigene of Garko, in Kano State.
And precisely that’s the area I found most disgusting. When has maternal lineage become the yardstick for Ambassadorial appointments in Kano? For a state that has two Emirs with similar circumstances of maternal lineage, to condescend to the level of questioning the desirability of a girl winning ambassadorship, simply because her mother is allegedly a non indigene, is to me the height of hypocrisy.
Shatu Garko emerged the winner of the contest after beating 17 other finalists at the beauty pageant in Lagos. And she is not the first from the North in the history of such beauty contests, as she succeeded Etsanyi Tukura, a native of Taraba State, who won the 2019 contest.
In winning the contest, Shatu Garko was awarded a cash prize of N10 million, a luxury apartment, a car and an ambassadorship. The organizers of the pageantry said the vision was to create national empowerment and a role model that would serve as an inspiration for the girl child in Nigeria.
Much as I don’t want to delve into the religious aspect of Shatu’s mode of dressing, and whether or not it has violated the rules of decency in Islam, I make haste to condemn the pretext of some of our people, especially on issues they are not very knowledgeable on, and the speed with which they rush to arrive at a justification, using religion as the cover of their misdeed. Sometimes, we condemn without knowing what the issue is all about.
A long time ago, while working as a reporter for the BBC in Kano, I had cause to do a story on the attitude of some Muslims violating the traffic rules on Friday, under the pretext of rushing to the mosque. My story touched on the practice of some motorists taking one way, or driving against the traffic, at the rush hour to the Friday mosque, threatening on-coming vehicles with a head-on collision.
Their reason is, they are in a hurry to serve Allah, and because of that, they have the spiritual prerogative to violate the traffic, regardless of the position of the other road users. My story involved the voices of some victims of such mishaps, including one that said he was hospitalized, after a head on collision with an unruly driver, that left him with a broken leg. I also spoke with a senior Islamic cleric, who condemned the practice in all ramifications.
The material was aired by the BBC on a Friday morning and by coincidence, I had my Friday prayers at a mosque in which the Imam centered his sermon on that story. He lampooned me to the extreme of contempt. In fact, he referred to me as an infidel, that is an agent of the West. But unknown to him, the infidel in question, was listening to the sermon and ready to follow him in congregation, for the worship of the same Allah he believed in.
The attack on me was so fierce and harsh, that the friend with whom I went to the mosque with, and who was seated next to me, began to shiver in panic, for fear of a possible backlash. I cooled him down, after all, no one knows me here, I said.
After the prayers, I rushed to meet the senior cleric that I interviewed in my story, and together we went to meet the Imam. He confessed to not hearing the story as aired by the BBC. Rather, he was informed by someone who said he heard it. In the end, he apologized to me in private, after castigating me in public, and from the pulpit. A case of acting without hearing first hand, or understanding the real subject.
Many of us are sinners, even more sinful than Shatu and her parents, but because we want to play the populist, we over look our shortcomings, and castigate others selectively, without checking the circumstances.
In the light of Shatu’s cultural condemnation, two questions have arisen: 1. Why wasn’t Ganduje and his family condemned, when their daughter got married and dressed at total variance with the Hausa costumes? 2. Why weren’t PMB and his in-laws condemned, when his son got married to the Bichi monarch, and the wife dressed in costumes that are at variance with the Hausa culture? Haven’t they contaminated the Hausa culture?
I think the time has arrived, for people to stop talking without checking the circumstances, and resist the selective condemnation on any matter, including that which is connected with the contamination of culture.
