By Murtala Abubakar
Convener Joint Action Committee of Northern Youth Associations
Before President Muhammadu Buhari came to power, prices of essential commodities were within the reach of a common man. However, as majority of Nigerians can attest to, the reverse is now the case occasioned by unprecedented hiked in fuel pump price and IMF inspired currency devaluation of the Naira.
Yusuf Buhari, the President’s Son wedding to Zahra a daughter to the Emir of Bichi on August, 20th, 2021, came with a lot of side attractions as we fear that some of the aftermath, may negatively shape ways Muslim weddings in the north will be conducted in the near future.
Not withstanding the huge uproar that greeted Zahra’s indecent dressing as she appeared like a Hollywood actress in what has now come to be known as pre- wedding pictures that went viral on social media, the increasing penchants by over pampered children of the super rich Northerners that studied abroad in displaying open contempt for our rich cultural values during such marriages, is not only worrisome, but an indictment that those who are supposed to serve as custodians of our rich cultural values have failed in inculcating values as minute as decent dressing even on their children at the immediate family level.
Anybody that still wonders how the Muslim North that was renowned for modesty, selflessness, accommodation and decency attributes that gave us comparative advantage in the Nigeria landscape vis a vis our current reality in today’s Nigeria need not look any further.
Our collective failure to hold with tenacity, our cherish customs and traditions, that stand us out as moral compass of Nigeria society in the immediate past, can be located within the contradiction that pervades our society where the elite class are not only relegating our cultural practices to the background, but are in actual facts, promoting alien culture in the name of modernisation, as we witnessed during weddings of their children and wards.
This is why today we have become a caricature of our old selves and laughing stock of others with attendant consequences on our society and the younger generation.
As I wish Yusuf Buhari and his wife marital success in their new home, it’s my fervent hope, while not insinuating that women are essential commodity like his father influenced hiked in prices of essential commodity, the payment of five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000, 00) dowry by Yusuf to his bride, may not mark the begging of hike in bride price or dowry, which until his wedding was within the range of hundred to hundred and fifty thousand naira only in the North.
