Adeleke Gbenga
It sounds like an entertainment story from Nollywood, a Nigerian film industry that produces make-believe entertainments to thrill people, or like a tale in a moonlight that a blind man builds or built a house. This is a story of a blind man who is a beggar and lives at Gambari area of Ilorin, precisely within the precincts of the Imam Gambari quarter.
Adeleke Gbenga
He is Seriki Markafi otherwise known as ”Oba Afoju” around Gambari area. He is Mohammed Sani, Oba Afoju, a 75 years old blind beggar from Zamfara State. His quarter is what is popularly known as ”Koro Afoju” or quarters of blind beggars.
It is generally an Hausa community but quite a large number of blind beggars live there.
How he reportedly singlehandedly built a house, both the bricklaying or construction aspects and roofing and nailing aspects which are carpenters’ works have become a myth flying about the town.
From grapevine sources,
This writer got wind of a story that a blind beggar at Koro Afoju builds a house from the foundation to roofing level by himself. This is speculated information that has been flying around the town for quite some time. People weave myth around this man to make him look extraordinary, a blind beggar building a house by himself?. He was said to do all the works by himself from beginning to end with little help from others around him.
This sounds unbelievable and incredible. How did he do it? Building construction of whatever size, smaller or bigger is a skill work. Artisans who are bricklayers learn the skill as an apprentice for some years before they become proficient and certified as experts. More so, building construction before it stands firm on the land as a completed project, also requires the inputs of other artisans like carpenters among others. So it is an intricate work that requires inputs of different specialized artisans or professionals as the case may be. How did the blind beggar achieve this feat since he is not a bricklayer or carpenter? More so, he is without sight, how then did he achieve it?
Upon arrival at the Imam Gambari quarters at Gambari area of Ilorin Metropolis last Thursday, it was not difficult to get to the house of the blind beggar as little children who often accompany the blind beggars around town in the course of their trade took the reporter to his house. The mini-community is populated with Hausas with Balogun Gambari as the head. Other settlements of Hausas apart from that area are Ojagbooro along Ipata and Sanngo area. Other leaders of Hausa communities are Balogun Bare Imam Gambari and Seriki Sango. Blind beggars also live at Ojagbooro and Sango in large numbers but they seem to live most at Gambari quarters.
This writer met the Mohammed Sani, Seriki Markafi, or Oba Afoju Ilu Ilorin with one of his children Mohammed Masuru who acted as an interpreter in his room around 8:35 am last Thursday. He became the leader of blind beggars 13years ago and he is the 16th Seriki Markafi otherwise known as Oba Afoju Ilu Ilorin.
His predecessors are Oba Afoju Abdullahi Audu who acted as Seriki Markafi for 29years before he died. He was perhaps the one to whom the famed house of blind beggars was given by the first Emir of Ilorin, Abdulsalam(18-1868). It was a thatched mud ancient house presented as a gift to blind beggars by the first Emir, Abdulsalam when for the first time a leader was appointed for them i.e blind beggars from ”Arewa” after the storm of Islam overtook the then ancient Ilorin Afonja. Does this have any meaning or message? Why?.
Other Seriki Markafi or Oba Afoju that followed Abdullahi Audu who acted as Seriki for 29years was one Mohammed who acted as Seriki for 31years followed by Aliyu who acted as Seriki for 42years followed by Muhammad Tambuwal who acted as Seriki for 12years followed by Muhammad Abdulrahman who acted as Seriki for just 1year before he died. The current Seriki, Mohammed Sani is the 6th one.
This shows that he is not the one who reconstructed the house from a thatched mud ancient building to a modern one. This was done by one of the Serikis mentioned above before him, a clarification he himself confirmed to this reporter during an interview with him in his house at Gambari last Thursday.
He refuted the speculation that he built the house, stressing however that one of the blind Serikis singlehandedly reconstructed the house from a thatched mud ancient one to a modern one, replaced the thatched roofing with modern corrugated iron sheets.
He also confirmed that he did all the carpenter’s aspects of the works including other aspects of the construction. He noted that what matters most is the fact that a blind man singlehandedly built a house by himself. He regretted that it has escaped history despite the myth woven around it. Another myth woven around the house is the fact that the first Emir who gave the blind beggars the house as a gift warned them not to give the house as an inheritance to any of their children if such children are not born blind.
They should rather go out of the compound and look for their own house, meaning they must not live in the house. Since blind people hardly give birth to the blind as children or children, none of the children of the previous blind Seriki inherited or lived in the house. Children of the present Seriki Markafi, Mohammed Sani are also not living with him.
Mohammed Masuru, the last born of Mohammed Sani, the present Seriki Markafi, who interpreted the conversation the reporter had with his father in Hausa language confirmed this. He lives in another part of the community with his own family while he only visits his father from time to time. And they must not sell the house. It should remain as Museum and reference to history. What did Emir mean by this? Well, it may have to do with some crucial moments or events of history whose times and dates were very significant to the Emir during that early part of the 19th century? The Seriki Markafi didn’t know and he didn’t bother to verify from his predecessors before they were called to the other side of the divide by Allah.
He said He became blind in Zamfara a few months after the Premier of defunct Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello was assassinated in 1966. This was due to the severe sand storms of the North, a weather condition that was hostile to the region because of its contiguity to the Sahara desert. This was believed to be the major cause of many blindness in the north. He came to Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital from Zamfara in 1967 when General Yakubu Gowon clocked a year in office as the national head of state then.
He praised past administrations started from late Mohammed Lawal’s administration to the present one, the administration of Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq for generously assisting the handicapped in the State. He was even given a good vehicle befitting his office as Seriki Markafi of Ilorin by one of the previous administrations. The vehicle was said to have been recently stolen. He is married with children and grandchildren.
When he was asked by the reporter to sum up his opinion about Kwara State’s with regard to living conditions of beggars whom society generally sees as a nuisance, he said Kwara, particularly Ilorin has been generous to beggars from the Arewa i.e from Northern parts of Nigeria.
Many of them have been flushed out of strategic parts of some State Capitals and other important towns in some states of the Federation. He commended the Kwara State government for fair and generous treatments given to street beggars especially the physically changed ones like the blind beggars.
He solicited for an empowerment such as tricycle or Keke Marwa and Okada and other forms of empowerment for their children, the majority of whom are not blind and with no skills and education.
