By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi
There used to be no love lost between Alhaji Dauda Kahutu and myself. Better known as Rarara across the nation, especially among the rich political class, Dauda Kahutu (second name is his home town) is very popular for his powerful Hausa political songs, some of which were sung at political gatherings of his political party.
He was introduced to me by a mutual friend, who was no less gifted and talented in the same genre, in the first few weeks of the administration that yours sincerely served as a spokesman. The mutual friend is now late. Rarara had brought a political song he composed for my principal, asking for what I considered to be a ‘meagre’ amount of money, to enable him reproduce the song into 1,000 copies on compact disks (CDs). That came to pass.
But as a little time passed on, and Rarara realised that I was not among the favourites of the ‘Oga at the top’, and his ‘worth’ has tremendously increased in the eyes of the boss, as well as his stature as a political singer of note in the eyes of the world, he abandoned the mutual friend and me completely. He was then in the habit of derivatively referring to me as ‘our media’. He never mentioned ‘our media’ in all the political songs he rendered for the boss. But he never forgot to mention all the ‘yes people’
who surrounded the boss.
One day, one of his then four giants of minders met me in a hotel where he and his three colleagues were lodged, and I was there to book some rooms for my guests. That time Rarara had long started to move in a convoy of many Toyota Land Cruisers. The huge body guard approached and introduced himself to me as one of the minders of Rarara. He arrogantly expected me to know who was Rarara. I disappointed him by pretending not to know the person he was talking about. Tried as he did, I remained adamant that I did not know who was Rarara.
Anyway, at the end of the ‘lively’ conversation, I gave him some amount of money and told him that it was simply a gift from me NOT because of the RARARA, his employer. The reminiscence was for the purpose of telling the readers how well this writer knows the singer, who however, makes out to know very little about me, if at all.
But when his mother was abducted some weeks ago for a huge ransom payment from him, I joined millions on the social media to pray for her well being and safe return to her family.
I have waited for the euphoria of her safe return home to come down a little before penning this massage of congratulations to him. I did not want an early congratulatory message and reassuring pleasantries to be delivered together with the maddening crowd’s. They could not be appreciated enough. But it would be better HEARD, when done along with fewer others.
No sane person would ever wish for someone the harrowing experience that the mother of Rarara went through. Abduction, even that of a lower animal is painful, not to talk of a human being, a loved mother for that matter.
I hope that the criminals, those who assisted them in perpetrating the crime and their hidden backers, sponsors and supporters are decisively dealt for good by the authorities.
May there be an end to all forms of security challenges in Nigeria.
Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.