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It was
horror show on Thursday May 9, 2020 in Maidalla, a small bubbling town by the
Zuba-Kaduna highway. The town is busy all year round and it’s known for its
rowdiness. The market-popular for all sort of activities -is located by the
roadside and regardless of the huge trucks that ply the road almost now and
then, the crowd of buyers and sellers move about, perhaps oblivious of the
dangers that lurk around. A few years back, there was a report of a trailer that
veered off the road-possibly-as a result of brake failure and crushed some
innocent souls. But the threat continues to this day, since no one, including
federal authorities have found the will to shift the market inwards and save
future disasters that is sure to happen given our penchant for carelessness. On
this day, however, the sun was high and the heat intense; we were trapped in
the brutal traffic caused by policemen who were said to be as usual, enforcing
the “no movement” order. The air was stiff and because of the intense heat we
had to open our car doors to allow more air to flow in. It was in that
condition that my driver drew my attention to the trailer right before us
carrying 40ft container. “Oga do you know
there are human beings inside this container he told me?” “Which container?
I asked, visibly shocked. Just then, I saw some dirty looking street urchins
squeezing themselves out one after the other from the slightly open door of the
container. For five minutes I witnessed the grotesque spectacle of humans,
drenched in sweat, wearing scraggy singlet’s on torn shorts or “danshiki” struggle out from the dark,
smelly recess of the evil looking container! They looked hungry, dazed and
confused. I could count nearly 40 of them. They must have been without food for
hours perhaps coming from possibly Kano State or somewhere. The gruelling evil
sight was so traumatic, after a while I couldn’t stand it anymore; I alighted
from the car and walked off trying not to think that what I had seen was real.
Was this human trafficking? The answer is no. These were northern youths
obviously depraved with no destination in sight but loaded inside this
container to go through gruelling task. As they dropped on the ground, they just
stared into the hot skies, maybe seeing nothing with their brains empty with
apparently no idea where they are going –or what they are going to do. This is
so embarrassing that with all the years that the northern oligarchs have held
power, this is what they can produce. These are human beings evidently stripped
of all decencies of life. No formal education, no handwork or skilled
enterprise. How could they allow this to happen to their kids? Out of these
street urchins could have produced future doctors, lawyers, technicians and
whatever? Now, here they are, left to rot in the hellish side of life. What
wickedness, what dastardly management decisions. There is simply no rational
excuse for this. The nation provides for basic education in the national
budget, why then would the so called northern governors deprive these people of
their rights? What are they doing with their northern governor’s forum? Maybe
to discuss sharing of federal allocations and play politics? This is sheer
wickedness. Whatever inspires these inhuman decisions should be discarded. Ahead of me, when the shock cooled, I reported
the matter to the police at the security checkpoint. But as we climbed the Zuba
by-pass, from my vantage position high up on the bridge, I looked down and saw
the trailer had been passed! That’s us-Nigerians. That’s the way we live. So
much for those boys and many others caught in the same cauldron.
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