By Usama Dandare
I never wanted to join issues with the hate-mongers, the promoters of ethnic/religious sentiments and agents of disunity in our Nigeria of today, but for the emphasis of learning and record, i deem it expedient to shed more light on the above caption and clear the air about this bias blackmail aimed at tarnishing the credible image of General Muhammadu Buhari.
In this piece, i set to shatter the glass houses most Nigerians especially supporters of President Jonathan and PDP lives in. I set to dismiss their baseless cheap blackmail and quash out the myth sold to the general public by the hate-mongers and agents of ethnic bias, in defense of the people’s general.
While addressing members of the CPC from Niger State, who paid him a courtesy visit in Kaduna on May 14, 2012, General Buhari, who spoke in Hausa was quoted as saying “Ko dai a yi zabe na gaskiya da adalci a dubu biyu da sha biyar, ko kuwa ayi kare jini biri jini.” meaning “Either there should be a free and fair election in 2015, or… There will be a fierce challenge.”
As expected, the Buhari Phobics wasted no time and briskly jumped out like a bat out of hell without capturing the proper context and real scenario of the proverb, they deliberately gave a different satanic meaning to Buhari’s statement, translating the General’s words as “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” what a cheap blackmail.
Without pausing to capture the context of the proverb, they foolishly occupied all the medias telling the world that “General Buhari promised bloodbath if Jonathan wins in 2015” while they failed to cautioned themselves about the inherent dangers associated with inciting remarks.
I don’t in anyway blame them (Buhari Phobics) for failing to understand the real terminology and substance in proverbs, this reminds me of an African saying; “When the fool is told a proverb, its meaning has to be explained to him” and this is exactly what i set to do, to explain the meaning and context of “Kare jini biri jini” to the haramites of unity.
“Proverbs are the horses of words and words are that of proverbs; when words are lost, it is proverbs that we use to find them.” Proverbs play many roles in our societies. Possibly, most common role that a proverb plays is to educate. Most often tossed around as expert advice in conversation, the innate role to educate people on what might happen if they do something.
To understand the meaning of proverbs, it requires wisdom and sense of understanding, it requires knowledge and sense of reasoning which i think are all lacking in the hate-mongers. The Buhari Phobics lacks wisdom of understanding and the holy Bible taught us who they are; in the book of Proverb 18:2, Solomon the wise man says: “A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind.” and again in Proverb 23:9, he said: “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.” is King Solomon speaking directly about the Buhari phobics?
The expression “Kare jini biri” was wrongly translated as “the dogs and the baboons would all be soaked in blood.” this is a very counterfactual translation of the Hausa proverb which simply connotes a situation where the fight for something is intense, where you give your challenger a tough fight, and in a nutshell, when you tell your opponent “za a yi kare jini biri jini”, it simply means you will challenge him to the end and will never let him go freely over an action or inaction.
In Buhari’s case, the people’s general was promising his supporters from Niger State and same time sending a warning to election manipulators that; “2015 elections will be a tough fight and he will never let them go with it if the electoral irregularities done during the 2011 election were repeated in 2015, they wouldn’t find it easy or went away with it.” Simple.
The adage “kare jini biri jini” has been in use among Hausa speaking communities for several centuries and see no reason why the people’s general should be an exception, it’s absolutely disgusting to put such a widely accepted maxim under bias scrutiny for some selfish political reasons and whoever translated “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood” to reflect the real meaning of “kare jini biri jini” must have done it deliberately to confuse the public and further blackmail general Buhari in the eyes of his supporters and the society at large.
For anyone who speaks or understands Hausa language, there is nothing wrong with the phrase “kare jini biri jini” rather than a warning message sent to someone notorious or naughty. The phrase is derived from old human activities of hunting, which was one of the ancestral occupation of the Hausas in the antediluvian days. Giving that dogs are used for hunting, and whenever dog chases a monkey, both the dog and monkey won’t find it easy, it will be a fierce fight for self defence which surely must left both the former and the latter bleeding. Then the dog has two options, either to allow for peace or go for the unusual fight which surely will be tense.
Over the past few years, General Buhari has became a threat among corrupt Nigerians, especially politicians and their cronies at the corridors of power due to his zero-tolerance for corruption and uncompromising principle and the massive support he enjoyed from Nigerians all over the nation. These sets of Nigerians whom are enormously benefiting from the corrupt proceedings of the present day regime and ethnic/religious division nurtured by the government have over time orchestrated deceptive brainwashing against the people’s general to dent his popularity among voters especially now that he is out to contest against them.
They birthed all sorts of concocted lies about him, they sold fabricated hogwash to the public. They have persistently concocted so many ridiculous lies against him with worrisome devilish recklessness all to present him bad and tarnish his credibility before the public which they viewed as a serious danger to their corrupt proceedings.
With this, I hope my fellow Nigerians will show a better sense of reasoning and understanding by welcoming corrections and embracing the truth, they should use their brains while thinking not their anus. Our politicians on both sides of the divide, should also abstain from any inciting remarks with tendencies of violence or deceit no matter what the outcome will be.
I rest my case.
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