ONE RIYAL EQUALLED TWENTY KOBO

 In elementary economics, it is an understandable fact that currencies do rise and fall, or what they call depreciate and appreciate. However, from the time of the infamous IMF Conditionalities of around 1986, the Naira has so depreciated that today, twenty three years later, one Riyal (the Saudi currency) which used to be worth only […]

 In elementary economics, it is an understandable fact that currencies do rise and fall, or what they call depreciate and appreciate. However, from the time of the infamous IMF Conditionalities of around 1986, the Naira has so depreciated that today, twenty three years later, one Riyal (the Saudi currency) which used to be worth only Twenty Kobo (or a fifth of one Nigerian Naira) now costs Forty Naira.

 Like many others, I have always been intrigued when Hausa-speaking Saudis call the 100 Saudi Riyal note in Hausa as ‘Fam Goma’ (i.e. Ten Pounds). What is actually meant is that, as the Riyal was originally worth Twenty Kobo, Ten Saudi Riyals would have been equivalent to Two Hundred Kobo, or Two Naira. As the Hausa never left the concept of the Pound (Fam), that would be One Pound. So 100 Riyals would always be ‘Fam Goma’, even though its actual value today is N4,000, or ‘Two Thousand Pounds.’ From ten pounds to two thousand: nothing illustrates better the misfortune of the Naira.

 THREE BULLS

And yes, nothing illustrates the misfortunes of our national currency than the decades-old Fulani herdsmen’s method of determining the cost of a bull (bajimi) in relation to the cost of passage to the Pilgrimage (Hajj) in Mecca. When air travel began more than half a century ago, the average Fulani maniyyaci (Hajj ‘intender’) realised that, to pay passage, he had to sell Bajimai Uku (Three Bulls).

 From then on, the cost of Hajj was roughly equivalent to the market price of three bulls. The only caveat to market forces in this was that the Fulani had (still have) a near monopoly in determining the price of cattle. It then followed that, in every subsequent year when the Hajj fare was marginally increased, the Fulani would also marginally increase the bull-price to be able to maintain the age-old three-bulls-equal-one-Mecca maxim.

 So, for example, in the early 1980s the Federal Government asked for one thousand naira as Hajj fare. The Fulani man would calculate a third of one thousand naira to be the year’s going price for a bajimi. As the Hajj season is also the Babbar Sallah (Eid el Kabir) season when cattle and other animals are coveted for layya (ritual slaughter), it was a given that bulls would sell.

 Again for example, for the 2005/2006 Hajj, the Federal Government asked for about N260,000 for a karamar kujera. That was why, for those who bought really big bulls for the layya of January 10, 2006 (Zul Hijja 10, 1426), they have had to pay round about Eighty Seven Thousand Naira each, to ensure three bulls equal one Mecca.

 This year, the NAHCON asking price for a karamar kujera was about N450,000. To ensure that the maxim still functions, I asked an Alhaji tent-mate of mine in Muna whether he had bought a bajimi for this year’s layya before he departed for Hajj, and for how much. Wallahi he told me he sent for a bajimi in Maigatari, the Jigawa State border market near Niger Republic and, incredibly, it cost N150,000! (Times three of that would give you karamar kujera!)

 Fulani herders may live in the bush, and may act and appear worldly unwise, but this single maxim of theirs (ours, if my ancestors had stayed with their herds and eschewed city-living) confirms their (our) ingenuity.

 The economic implication of this three-bull maxim is that the price of beef is directly related to the cost of a Hajj passage (perhaps unknown to most economics professors). The danger of inflation in its multiplier effect, as seen in the increase in the price of fuel, can also be studied from the three-bulls perspective.

 Now back to our three-bulls (not cock-and-bull) story. It is said that one Ardo (Fulani chief) thought he was more ‘chiefly’ than the Ardo of a neighbouring ruga (Fulani habitation). So when Ardo One heard that Ardo Two had sold three bulls to pay for a karamar kujera, Ardo One sold four bulls to pay for a babbar kujera. On board the airplane on the day of departure, Ardo One was coincidentally assigned a seat next to Ardo Two. Ardo One pointedly refused to take his seat, insisting “How can our chairs be of the same size, when I had sold four bulls to get a babbar kujera, while he only sold three bulls?”

It took time to explain to Ardo One that a babbar kujera was not in the size of the plane seat, it was in the amount of BTA.

 JABAL OMAR PROJECT

Right behind the Holy Mosque in Mecca, there is (or used to be) a huge rock called Jabal Omar (Omar’s Rock). Today, an ambitious construction project has all but decimated the rock to pave the way for what is now called Jabal Omar Development Project. Designed and constructed by Malaysians, the project involves the construction of two five-star hotels with 935 rooms and six three-star hotels consisting of 1,255 rooms.

 It also includes the construction of 20-storey residential buildings to accommodate 100,000 people, 4,360 commercial and retail units and 520 restaurants. The project will also include a car-parking facility for more than 10,000 vehicles, covered air-conditioned plazas for 100,000 worshippers and open courtyards for 120,000 persons. A significant evidence of the Malaysian touch in the construction is a Twin-Tower 50-storey high rise building as part of the project.

Other features of the project include well-laid-out roads, open areas, gardens, fire and police stations, schools, medical centres and public toilets for men and women. In tandem with these developments, the road infrastructure is being expanded. A new road scheme known as Western Gate Project will be built parallel to the Umm Al-Qura Road which is heavily congested during the pilgrimage seasons. The Umm Al-Qura Road is currently the main arterial link to the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

When I checked the Time Countdown to the completion of the project last Monday, it read “405 days remaining.” Today, therefore, there are exactly 400 days remaining for the project to be completed. Though the Saudi Ruling House is, to say the least, worse than the British in being America’s lap dog, in this kind of development project they are a much more serious people that the Nigerian Ruling Houses (Villa, Senate, House of Reps) who could not even agree where the Numero Uno would present a year’s budget, for 365 days. And yes, we all prayed so fervently at all the Holy Sites for Allah to heal the Budgeter-in-Chief.

 O WONDROUS SIGHT!

O wondrous sight!

The Holy Ka’aba is

As I sit beholding it

I am with awe fully fill’d

Ibrahim was here

And so was Isma’il

Abraha and his elephants…

Came 1483 years today

Destroyed by Tair Ababil

 

So on Muhammad the Nabiy

May Allah peace bestow

O wondrous sight!

As I sit watching it

Watching the tawafers too

Allah’s guests we are all

O what wondrous sight

The Holy Ka’aba certainly is!