The Jagaba of…

Over a discussion some time back, someone I used to know noted how countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa, once upon a time prosperous diamonds in the crude rough, are now shadows of their former selves. Rot and misery have since replaced the prosperity of those two countries. 

It was one of those discussions that are tactful and very diplomatic. Some arguments I have heard from people I suppose could be called racist reference the different dynamics of black and white societies. And this could be summarised thus: some cultures build civilisation from rocks and some other cultures turn civilization into rocks. 

To many, this is a good explanation of the outcome of democratisation in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The black majorities in these countries have basically run them aground after taking them over from the capable and competent white minorities that made Zimbabwe a first world country back when it was Rhodesia, and South Africa a significant world power when it was ruled by apartheid. It was all the more confounding that these countries did not have to start from scratch like the rest of the continent – they already have something that was already on a strong footing.

A few decades down the line after “Africanisation”, both have been thoroughly Africanised: Increasingly on par with misery and squalour of sister African countries. They were once first world countries surrounded by failures, so much they looked down on economic refugees trying to escape those neighbouring failures and wanted them gone, now they are basically on par.

One thing we came to agree with, given the aura and spirit of the discussion, was that African countries, and individual black people too, are not too high strung about things. That they could let the “little things” go. And the white guy who made this conclusion passed it off as a good thing, to be polite, I guess. That is why we don’t get as many cancer cases in Africa, and that is why we will win the race. The race of the races. It was so awkward, that he was trying so hard not to offend, not to condescend that the implication of the points he was trying to make were so very offensive, even if they were true – that a change of topic came as a pleasant relief.  

This is something that has bothered me since the rise of the “JagabaN” phenomenon. Our new president, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has been a staple in the political arena of this country for a very long while. I do not know exactly when he received the premier royal title he uses these days – “the Jagaban” but I understand that it was given to him by the Emir of Borgu, which means that he is the “Jagaban Borgu”, which loosely translates to the “Pathfinder of Borgu”. 

Eventually, this title became very popular and it featured very prominently during his successful presidential campaign. His immediate circle was of course not Hausa-speaking, being a south-western political chieftain but his intercourse with the northern political establishment goes back to the ending of the Obasanjo years when he first set his sights on national politics.

He became a household name in the run-up to the 2015 elections, and his circle being non-Hausa-speaking, chose to go to town with this elite Northern title to further enhance his appeal to the Northern proletariat. They called him the “Jagaban”, and as his ties to the Northern establishment grew, he gained a substantial foothold in the social life here too. 

I was in Kano almost throughout election season – and when it was time for banners to go up, they went up with the same title of “Jagaban”. That’s right – in Kano, where even the donkeys are sages in spoken Hausa!

What was so strange to me was how and why all his Hausa-speaking allies and lieutenants never thought it expedient to correct this translation error. He was the “Jagaban Borgu” – the Pathfinder of Borgu. So, if the root word jagaba translates to pathfinder, and Borgu being the name of a prestigious kingdom – what ties the two together? In English, this is affected by the word “of”. But in Hausa, the possessive tense is qualified by the addition of an “n” to the noun or pronoun. This means that the “n” at the end of any word renders it into a possessive tense. This then means that you can only pronounce the “n” at the end of the root word “jagaba” if you are also going to include the domain it relates to, which is Borgu – because if you do not and just go with “jagaban”, what you say translates into the “Jagaba of”. 

Jagaba of what, of where? Imagine the president being introduced at a stage as “Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the Jagaba of…” and it ends there. How do you think the audience would feel? 

Now, why is this so important to warrant this much “dogon turanci”? 

By now, the angels are probably getting tired of trucking all the prayers coming out of Nigeria to God and that is a good thing. We are as obsessed with the promised land as the Israelites were after 39 years in the desert, and we invoked the favour of God day and night for this expedition. But beyond prayers we have to do our part. 

What we want is a society that works, a country that is truly great and capable. Human Civilisation is animated by complex societies, and complex systems DEMAND thorough and utter circumspection. 

The moment we overlook something that seems negligible, and we do it repeatedly – it snowballs from there and we end up with the type of half-assed sloppiness that is just deadly to premium sophistication. There are going to be great many parts, with plenty of nuts and bolts and every last one of them needs to be in exactly the right place. The slightest lapse, or slip will spell doom. 

So, Jagaba of where again?