The first law of human existence is survival,this entails the pursuit of happiness. Everyone of us is wired to be ambitious – the reason we keep striving to move up the ladder of life .
Hayatu ‘s story is a model of our existence as humans- give us a hand,we want a hug,a hug ,we want a whole. This is life in her metaphoric reality. We have seen couples going their separate ways after many years together. Stories are told of some wives abandoning their husbands when they move abroad. Critically, this may be morally wrong but it’s really nothing new- this human stretching the limits of their ambitious reality.
Idrisima wasn’t wrong wading in to address the plight of Hayatu,but he was too fast in trying to change the status of the young groundnut seller. Truth be told, Hayatu wasn’t helpless or poor , he was a lad eking a living selling his ware. He was hurried to a new life when some guys with itchy fingers grabbed their phones and decided to make a pitiable celebrity of him. They painted a picture of a boy who was wasting away selling ground on the street. And typical of a man with generous public heart, idrisima wasted no time in wading in to transform Hayatu ‘s life. First ,he got him registered for JAMB and then had him ferried to Abuja to begin mentoring under him. That was the beginning of the whole drama.
First, the lad was hurried into another world. He wasn’t given the time to gradually climb the ladder of life. From a child hawking on the street to a child cruising in air conditioned house with 24/7 electricity and eating very balanced diet. That was astronomical for Hayatu. That was when the entitled button was triggered. He wanted more, this time,not for himself but for his mother. This is the side I saw the boy as the hero of this whole drama. He wasn’t comfortable getting this new life all alone, he wanted some for his poor mother. That was a child with a trimmed conscience – a boy that remembers the sacrifice of a mother and can go all hog to make her happy. Hayatu is a true cultivated child.
Again, truth be told, the boy wasn’t lacking or poor . He had a trade and for many years that was what he and his mother lived on until our keypad warriors decided to make a story of Hayatu ‘s life. Let me ask, what is wrong with a lad selling groundnuts? A wrap of groundnut sells for N100-200 – imagine Hayatu selling 100 wraps a day- that is about N10,000 and N20,000 respectively. Multiply 20,000 by 30days , what you get is what this boy makes a month.
We have this habit of looking down on hawkers as poor people! What a lean disposition! You may not know, the petty hawkers you see may be making more money than you that is holed in an office waiting for take home pay at the end of the month. As a child, I hawked akamu, kerosene, and pushed wheelbarrow. This exposure baked the entrepreneur valour in me today. From a hawker to a guest of many nations including the United States as a fellow of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship. It was the success story of my child hustles that fetched me that recognition.
Idrisima can still help Hayatu grow without really relocating him to Abuja. He should help to expand his hawking business, get him books to read and prepare for JAMB. Make him a local entrepreneur, the boy had no place yet in the FCT- exposing him to Abuja luxury will distract his entrepreneurial rise. There is a market for every hustle anywhere, na we dey rush ourselves. What you are looking for in Kano may even be in Idah – if you are patient with life, you will find it.
Hayatu just like Idrisima was not wrong ,they were only acting from a hasty disposition. Mentoring can happen anyway, it is not usually physical. And those who take pictures of people hustling for their needs are the reason we have dreams cut short and entitled mentality taken to another level. Drop your phone , hawkers are not beggars, they are people working for their greatness .
Frankly musing
