TEACHERS ARE NOT HEARTLESS AND MARONICS.

02/07/08 12:39

Teachers Are Not Heartless and Moronic: A Rejoinder to Abdullah Musa
By
Khalid Imam
khalidimam2002@yahoo.co.uk
Culled from www.gamji.com
By
Sani Bala Shehu
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Abdullah Musa’s captivating title: “Talaka: A Mosochist of Some Sort” could catch, in a spectacular, yet deceptive way the attention of any serious reader. The piece published in the Daily Triumph of Monday, May 26, 2008 made an interesting reading. Even though I share some of the brilliant and bravura comments and fundamental observations he made, I still find it expedient to react to some of the uninformed, potty, unreflective and uncritical views he canvassed in the said article.

Let me say that, though I do not subscribe to Abdullah Musa’s weak concept of who a poor person (Takala) is, as he postulated in his piece, despite his copious references to dictionary to support his faint argument; yet, the poor could mean an ignorant, as Musa put it. Again, it is true to say poverty could be material or considered as “tuwo” and “miya” issue as he forcefully argued, but what Abdullahi Musa fails to reckon with is the fact that penury is in the mind, not necessarily based on material abundance. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of Indian nation and the Aminu Kanos of Nigeria were not rich in gold and silver sense, but the question to ask is: were they poor? In Musa’s view, only those who are educated are rich. Yes, education is one of richest gifts from God to man, but what Musa carelessly failed to fathom is the aphorism: knowledge without strong belief in God is like a sharp knife in the hand of a lunatic. Then if the truth must be told, the real masochist among us today are the privileged, the so- called Western educated elites like Abdullah Musa who are prepared to play the masters, while the rest of us lick their boots as their loyal servants, as if God ordains it in that debased, degrading way. That is why the pests they keep, in their gigantic houses, are more human in their eyes, than the rest of us. Shame!

Now to the main thrust of this riposte. True, it is sad to read dilettante writers like Abdullah Musa who proudly posit: “I am not poor, neither is the reader” which alludes to the fact that he was taught and educated by teachers. Yet his vitriolic pen carelessly discarded decorum and civility to the dogs to call our respected teachers “heartless” and moronic”, in his muddled piece. His words: “Public schools are meant to kill the potentials of the pupils. The teachers are heartless, possibly moronic.” For a supposedly, product of public school like Abdullahi Musa to recklessly rewards