By; ALI YAHAYA
Election has come and gone like plenty water gone under the bridge, but not without living a story to tell. Some stories come with mixed feelings of betrayal, while others are otherwise.
The echo of “sai mama za muyi” filled the air through out Azare, Bauchi State and it got me asking, is mama contesting an election. I thought it was political jobbers who had found castles trying to inhabit. No! This is not it, it was a patronage to a woman of valour, who’s time, power and social stratification never changed her originality.
Every soul she has ever touched directly or indirectly stood their grounds with her, all we hear is “mama za mu yi”. It literary means, we are with mama. Mama’s body language, utterances and actions were solely for Jagaban, a fact that is crystal clear and undisputed. I asked a friend how easy it is for people around here to get convinced by Ambassador Mariam Katagum. She does it with ease like a man under a spell, he replied in affirmation with a crippled voice and said, I don’t know how she does these things with ease, but one thing I know for sure is she is a people oriented personality.
I pushed further to know more because everyone can like people and people might never get to like them in return. He went on, “mama is an epitome of joy to everyone, mama has absolute regards for humanity. She visits and felicitates with the common, she is a listener, a hand of help when it seems no help is coming from no where. Widows, orphans, fathers who lost their livelihood, students, market women are her immediate concerns. Go round the state, the message is the same everywhere.
“The most interesting thing is she stoops low and humble always to the level of the common with phrases like I need your help, yes, you heard me right. She practically goes from house to house seeking to know household problems and rendering support were she can, this is not without letting them know that Asiwaju sent her.
To many, it was a pay back time, a reward period for all she has been doing for the people. Different speakers took turns to speak on her enormous contributions to the growth of her people and anyone who was lucky to have come in contact with her.
When an opportunity presented itself for her to speak, guess what tickles my fancy and what baffles me? She stood up elegantly simple looks with so much cheers from the crowd, She said, “I am only a messenger, an ally, a dependable daughter of yours that you have sent on errand and fortunate enough to have met a man in a complete league of extra ordinary school of politics and governance in the course of doing your bidding, I saw through his sincerity, his passion for humanity, his hunger to build people and his desire to help the needy endeared him to me, his name is Asiwaju”. She continued, “All you wish and want to do for me, please extend it to Asiwaju. He is one of the most dependable personalities I have ever run to outside the presidency to help my people and he has never disappointed me.”
The thought of describing her, looks complex in nature due, to the complexity that comes from the simplicity she waxes, owing to her status in a society where being evasive and arrogant is what comes with public office. Mummy, you are different.
A beacon of hope, an enigma of morality in the sociopolitical space of Nigeria, a kind-hearted humanitarian whose love for Asiwaju is like hybrid bees over honeycomb. She trascends time, space and has hypnotised the consciousness of those whose lives she touches and those of us who seek to meet her in our life time. Yes! You heard me right. I have never met her before. I have only seen her on the margins of social events.
God bless Mummy
Ali Yahaya writes from Kaduna and can be reached via blinksaliyu@yahoo.com or 08036979262, 08090880891
