Kano Market Literature

Banning And Burning Of Kano Market Literature:
Another View
I was surprised by the hues and cries that followed the recent banning and burning of ‘literatue’ books popularly known as the Kano Market Literature by the Kano State Government. Although politics affected the credibility of the whole exercise, but Hausawa and lovers of indigenous literature will agree with me that these handouts that come in form of books are doing more harm than good to the social and moral live of our innocent young boys and girls. However, the problem with Nigeria is that, we tend to easily ban a programme or system without duly providing an option for it. The nation is so disorganised that we hardly find a working system either in the academics or otherwise; a system that will ensure the protection of our culture and history. Recently, the Daily Trust on its editorial (120808), titled Safe Guarding Our Treasures, cried about the sad episode of how our museums are looted daily by the very people responsible for safe guarding them.
The issue of poor and substandard literatures which filled our markets today is the consequences of general decay that hit our educational system as a result of poor economic policies of the military era, especially in the late ‘80s. Secondly, our scholars laziness in terms of writing qualitative literature; most books you find in our markets are these Kano Market Literature that are written in poor language that cannot pass as a serious academic standard, and government is not ready to support serious publishers.
On the other hand, our economy is in shambles that printing business becomes very expensive. Coupled with poor reading culture of our people, you find this Kano Market Literature a thriving business. With one hundred and fifty naira, one can easily get a book to read, not minding the quality of the books or its conformity to standard literature.
Therefore, the argument whether Rabo is right or not does not arise at all. The issue is very much more connected to the socio-politico cum economic situation in the country. Some of the writers may not like order to be brought to the system because they are benefiting from the disorder. Hajiya Maryam, while condemning the Kano State Government of using religion to kill Hausa literature and films, it is better to sit down both with the government and the writers to bring about a working solution to the whole problem.
While nobody will support the behaviour of the Kano State government for unduly clamming down on innocent writers in their effort to earn a decent living, it is equally important to consider the implication of these so called literatures to our societal moral values.
Kabiru Danladi,
Lawanti Village’ km25,
Gombe to Bauchi Road ,
Akko LGA,
Gombe State.