Saajid, Dubai’s ‘Smallest Man,’ Who Can’t Be Enslaved

Deira is regarded as the centre of Dubai even though it’s been losing importance because of the development of other districts. One of the most prominent places in Deira is the gold market called Gold Souk (souk is used by the locals to refer to market in Arabic). The Gold Souk is a big gold […]

Deira is regarded as the centre of Dubai even though it’s been losing importance because of the development of other districts. One of the most prominent places in Deira is the gold market called Gold Souk (souk is used by the locals to refer to market in Arabic). The Gold Souk is a big gold and jewellery market with over 300 shops most of which trade exclusively in gold and diamond jewelleries. This gold market is a tax free zone which makes items relatively cheaper than anywhere gold is sold in the world.

Nakheel road is one of the areas in Deira. It probably should have been called a street instead of a road because its more of a settlement- has many clustered shops and hotels as well as few residential houses. May be in a few years, that name Nakheel may have to be changed to an Ibo word because that area is dominated by hundreds of Nigerian Ibos which is known to even Dubai authorities. It is difficult to walk for two minutes without seeing blacks and nine out of every ten are Nigerian Ibos. They toil day and night, packaging light and heavy goods for cargo shipment to Nigeria. Most of them are hustlers. They look physically strong with some having obvious muscular build ups. Most of them try to befriend any visiting Nigerian to establish business links in case the visitor is in Dubai to buy things they could help ship for a price. Virtually everyone of them looks over laboured, either walking on phone arguing over something, making enquiries or sometimes, they sit in a group along the road often around Diera park, one of the oldest hotels in Deira mostly patronised by Ibos or inside Golden Square, another hotel located a few meters away from Deira park which has since become more Nigerian than even some hotels in parts of Nigeria. This is because, Golden Square hotel has a Nigerian flag hosted amongst a few others outside, it has two African restaurants, of course managed by Ibos and a church also managed by a Nigeria and attended by Nigerians for worshiping. The Ibos hold meetings the second Friday of every month in the hotel in the case of Anambra indigenes, said to have the highest number of emigrants in the comity of Ibos in Dubai. They call themselves Anambrarians. Other Ibos from Enugu, Abia, Imo and Ebonyi states hold theirs in different locations. Fridays are used for such meetings because public holidays are only on Fridays in Dubai; theirs is six days of work- Saturdays to Thursdays. In their meetings, collaborative matters are discussed to help one another while members inform kinsmen of events like weddings, birthdays, naming ceremonies etc to offer invitations. New comers are welcome and registered while they meet those from their villages for help. Just for the records, the Golden Square hotel isn’t owned by a Nigerian. Arabs from Dubai own it. It was in this hotel that this writer stayed a few weeks ago in September, during a ten-day visit in company of a family member who was on medical examination at the American hospital in Dubai.

There is one interesting none Nigerian fellow in that hotel but he is a friend to many of the Ibos in Deira. He is named Saajid Mahmud. He is about 29 years old but he is small- just 46 inches in height and weighs 31 kilogrammes. Unofficially though, many residents who come across him in Deira describe him as the smallest man residing in Dubai.  Saajid, as everyone screams on sighting him, is from Kashmir in Pakistan. He has seven brothers, a mother and father. He is the fifth and smallest in his family, he said but then both his parents aren’t small. His eldest brother, Ayyub, is also small, he noted. Saajid got married a few months ago to a tall lady, Aameen, 14 years old, from Kashmir. “I am small but I like only tall ladies,” he said.

Saajid speaks some English with stress though, sometimes seeking clarifications to understand common English words but he communicates and understands easily in English. He works in Golden Square hotel and hence mixes with many Nigerian Ibos. His job is to open the door into the hotel’s entrance towards the reception, welcome the guest and close the door. He works for ten hours daily and earns 1, 500 Dirhams, about 70,000 naira per month. He is a smart man who takes advantage of visitors to introduce them to tourist companies for movements to areas of interest. Well, never mistake asking Saajid where to go as a tourist because he always has fliers in his pockets and quickly, he deeps his child like hands to bring them out to display to you. He is very assertive as small as he is; he takes firm charge of visitors once business is involved. He gets paid some Dirhams as commission on any trip by tourists to places with prices starting from 150 Dirhams, about eight thousand naira per person for pickups at the hotel to areas of interest while some places like a cruise on Arabian canoes with dinner and entertainment on water, cost twice that amount per person. The moment a visitor shows interest, Saajid puts pressure by making repeated calls and often demands a paltry sum to win the commitment of tourists. Free of charge this time, he also helps to guide visitors to the Deira market, located some five kilometres away from his work place to buy just about anything and he is good with eye signs to tell the visitor the price offered him or her by the Deira traders aren’t good bargains. But walking along to the market with Saajid is pretty tough because after every 3 to 5 minutes walk, he is stopped by groups of people who scream his name- ‘Saajid’ in high tones and rush to shake his hands. They like him, it seems and he never gets tired of stopping to shake hands with numerous people and exchange pleasantries. He is also popular with kids and female visitors also, who admire and touch his long hair- perhaps wondering how he and not they, should have female-like hair. Many Nigerian ladies also like the small man’s hair. Well, Saajid likes Nigerians too. One could see it on meeting him and he has many Ibo men as his friends. “I can’t count my friends in Deira. They are over 2,000 to say the least and many are Nigerians living here,” he told this writer.

There is however, a dividing line between Saajid and his Ibo friends and neighbours on Khaleel street. The Ibos are into physical jobs, dealing with heavy goods. One could see them sweating all over, tying and wrapping items for packaging to ships and airlines. Most of them who spoke into this writer said they are suffering for landlords as they pay as much as 1,000 dollars per (over 150,000 naira) month as rent for a single room with kitchen and toilet, without parlour. By that submission, they pay about two million naira per annum for a single room without parlour except for a kitchen and lavatory. “We came here because there is no job for us at home in Nigeria. Some of us are graduates from institutions in Nigeria. We came here to join our brothers to make ends meet. The fact that there are things to do here in terms of labour like the cargo shipment we do but we only work for landlords. Rooms are terribly expensive here. Living in Dubai is the most costly I think in the whole world. We pay about 1,000 dollars per month for a single room, no parlour. Aside that we pay for water and electricity some times 500 Dirhams (about 20,000 naira) or more per month,” Samuel Mefor, from Anambra state told this writer. Though all the Ibos, including Mefor, wouldn’t allow this writer to have their photographs, their submission was corroborated by other different sources including none Nigerians living in Dubai. Another problem they suffer is countertrends by security men. “Here is Dubai. There are thousands of police men in plainclothes as CIDs. They are everywhere so just like that they just surround us and raid us to detention but once you show your permits and prove you are not an illegal immigrant, they allow you to go but if you are not, they simply deport you from there but what is paining us is why the raid regardless of our permits and our embassy doesn’t care at all. They are in Abu Dhabi but they know all that is happening in Dubai to us. We live here in agony but it is better to have something doing than to be jobless back home,” Mefor, the leading respondents in a group of five Ibos, added with others in agreement.

But while the Ibos go through these hardships, their little friend, Saajid, struck a good deal for himself with golden square hotel where the Ibos mostly visit. Saajid has been given a room he lives inside the hotel, so he doesn’t pay rent. He doesn’t carry anything heavy, can only takeover light luggage from guests if he likes the visitor especially kids; he only opens the door which looks twice his size and closes it for ten hours daily and once its closing time, he disappears as if he is blown off by the breeze. It’s like the hotel management kept the little man as a sort of tourist attraction to guests and the strategy, if that is what it is, seems to be working because hardly any guests resists staring at Saajid. The little man on his part, changes dresses every day, wearing different child-size shoes to man the entrance that guests could easily access themselves. Though extremely friendly, Saajid has his own defence in case he is troubled. He stands firmly against any oppression. ‘You shout at him, he screams back, you greet, he cheers’. “I have never been arrested by anyone.Why should I be arrested, for what, when I am not a criminal? I hate crimes. Besides, I am a small man who can’t even carry a big hammer. I am a Muslim from an Islamic country, Pakistan where I was taught from birth that evil things lead one to hell fire. So I have nothing to do with crimes at all,” he told this writer.

Ironically, Saajid’s Ibo friends aren’t criminals either. Most of them, as some, including none Nigerians corroborated, don’t engage in criminalities in Dubai because the place is not even convenient for crimes since detectives live around while any one with criminal motive is afraid he could be easily caught. The Ibos, at least in Deira, are mostly cargo handlers while some buy goods like vehicle spare parts, furniture and house hold utensils, clothes and shoes to send to partners in Nigeria to sell and send them money. There are Ibos who have made money in Dubai, some own properties including hotels while there are those working with establishments but most of such are expatriates living in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. The UAE called Dawlat al-imrat al-‘Arabia by locals, emerged through the fusion of seven independent kingdoms, each headed by constitutional monarchs who inherited thrones, coming together to form a sort of confederation after a treaty about 50 years ago. The emirates are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras al-khaimah and Umm al- Quwain. Though Dubai is the largest city and most popular of the UAE due to its tourist destinations, Abu Dhabi is the richest with a high oil deposit discovered in the early 1960s. The UAE is ranked 6th in the world oil countries with Abu Dhabi which has the highest deposits of the seven kingdoms, is the capital of the union with its leader serving as president of the UAE even though each of the six other rulers have absolute control over their territories. Dubai’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rasheed Al Maktoun, is vice president of the UAE while Abu Dhabi’s ruler, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is UAE’s president.

The monarchy system in Dubai makes it rather impossible for Nigerian Ibos to protest exploitations by landlords in Deira and other parts of the kingdom. This means, some of the Ibos have flown out from what common saying in Nigeria describes as ‘from frying pan to fire’. Back home, kinsmen celebrate that one of them is abroad while the celebrant only does donkey work for a rich Arab man in Dubai.