Jagaliya: New face of Kano political thuggery

The term Jagaliya is popularly and mockingly used to refer to these young men who are mostly unemployed. In many instances they are drug addicts, who see no bright future in going back to school or even creating for themselves a means of livelihood. What befits them is to move from one government establishment to […]

The term Jagaliya is popularly and mockingly used to refer to these young men who are mostly unemployed. In many instances they are drug addicts, who see no bright future in going back to school or even creating for themselves a means of livelihood. What befits them is to move from one government establishment to another and, or agencies seeking the little tips given out to them by political office holders to ward them off. Sometimes, they pretend to organize some useful ventures which has the purported intention of making easy money.

They become thugs, the most common sight in public places like the state secretariat, the Government House, the House of Assembly and other agencies where they feel politicians would patronize them. Even though, more often than ever, they become a nuisance to the politicians, they cannot be ignored, maybe, for the political leaders fear of being assaulted or intimidated in public, or being ridiculed during elections.

 The Kano state government established the Directorate for Youth Development with the objectives of addressing these issues, and the Director–General of the Directorate, Malam Gambo Ado, on the genesis of this problem, blamed the patronage given by politicians to the thugs. He explained that the young men were in the habit of visiting prominent politicians in their homes and, in most situations, would not have the means to entertain their needs, therefore would channel them to their offices. They eventually make them `godfathers (the politicians) and try frequenting them.

The Director-General further said the youth are curious about whereabouts of politicians and usually go to interrupt the public work there. When the directorate realized that they were preventing public work, it called them and tried to give them a kind of re-orientation.

He noted that agency devised a means whereby these `Yan Jagaaliya” are brought to a learning forum for them to be self-occupied, and the directorate keeps them with useful sermons, in addition to giving them transport allowance. They are trained on how to keep the five daily prayers and to be busy with the re-orientation exercise, he added.

Aminu Mayga, who is one of such young men found loitering in the State Assembly, is of the opinion that the Jagaliya market will still boom in as much as many politicians are aspiring to either retain their positions for a second term or even third term, or wish to go for higher positions.

“We keep their vanguard, and during elections, they cannot do without our intervention. There are places they cannot penetrate if we are not around,” he boasted. When asked when he hoped to retire from Jagaliya, he said it depended on what he gets out of it.  

He emphasized that if he could regain his lost capital, he could consider a better option, after all he was once into the sales of recharge cards.

This was the view of Ibrahim Kurna who thought he would not easily abandon the ‘venture’ as he had seen a lot of people “making it” by associating with the politicians. He said they were living witnesses to people visiting the Holy Land, courtesy of the politicians.

But the government insists that it is striving to make them more productive than being professional beggars, as Malam Ado puts it. The government has realized that the whole problem has to do with unemployment, which also leads to drug abuse among other vices. Vocational training was introduced and the Kano State government, through its directorate, has graduated over 500 youths and their data readily available. He also said that they had spent over N60 million on the programmes.

But he also showed concern over the non-compliance of the youth to the various schemes, noting that after the much resources and time spent, about 100 youths had continued with the businesses for which they had been trained.

He said some of them had abandoned that thuggery and are engaged in economic activities, such as fisheries and trading in second hand clothes. He also expressed concern over the garrulous nature of the Yan Jagaliya, citing an incidence where, being impatient, some of them attacked offices designed to cater for their needs.

The Director-General also feels that coercion cannot be employed on the youth to get the maximum goal of rehabilitating them. He said much can be achieved through the involvement of the society, from the family up to the wider society. He opined that a person who is into drug can easily resort to any form of atrocities. “So, if you stop giving them money, or ask the politicians to shun them completely, the issue will not be resolved, as they can be vulnerable still,” he argued.  

The problem of political thuggery has been an issue of concern to the electorate and many are of the opinion that it is among the many things that make competent and reasonable members of the society to avoid politics. There is the belief that for anyone to be actively involved in politics he has to associate with thugs.

A civil servant who wishes to remain anonymous  said that when he thinks of delving into politics he could not imagine himself getting these youth as henchmen even if he is not related to them. He was of the view that if the parties would expand their horizons and see ways to keep the thugs resourceful, then maybe the level of the menace could be down-sized.