Meet Salami, President, Porto Novo Chapter of Nigerians in Diaspora

‘I prefer Porto Novo ... For peanut, I treat prostrate enlargement, asthma and ulcer of all kinds’

Given Cotonou’s galloping growth and the presence of virtually every government office, including the local State House, here; countless people have come to mistake this city for the capital of neighbouring Benin Republic. Truly, Cotonou often tends to dwarf Porto Novo; but, the reality is that the latter remains the official political capital of Benin, formerly known as Dahomey.

Porto Novo may not boast the glamorous marble and glass post-modern architectural edifices that now dot many areas of Cotonou, but this capital city throws up alluring pieces of heritage at every turn. Never mind the intimidating and imposing Nouveau Assemblee National (New National Assembly) complex as you approach Porto Novo crossing the bridge from Djeregbe, most other structures, beginning with Musee da Silva (Da Silva Museum); are antique and quiant and steep in history here.

Porto Novo may not boast the hustle and bustle atmosphere of a city and the commercial opportunities thrown up by Cotonou; but, there are countless people, who prefer the pace of life here. The President, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), Porto Novo Chapter; Alhaji Yusuf Salami is one of those, who would rather live in this city; and, we had to travel there to speak with him.

At 65 years old, Alhaji Yusuf Salami looks nothing of his age. Going by his sprightly gait, one could easily mistake him for someone in the 30-40 years age bracket. A herbalist, Alhaji Salami is one example of a prophet, who can heal himself; and, speaking to Travels, he said he had no problem marketing his products.

One look at him and; patients are already confident of being cured after ingesting Salami’s herbal remedies. Interestingly, Ekiti State-born Salami during a chat with him at his office in the Kokoye neighbourhood of Porto Novo; enthusiastically told us how, by God’s grace, he has been able to help countless people find their feet again, health wise. He said patients suffering from prostrate enlargement, all kinds of ulcer, asthma and haemorrhoids, have been treated by him at comparatively next to nothing.

Despite the famed efficacy of his drugs, he said the prices are relatively low; and, what’s more, they are not fixed. Although some of his drugs cost as much as N15,000, he said he was not really swimming in money. “I derive more joy from seeing formerly very ill people regain good health again”, he said. He further explained that, given the many people he has helped to cure of some life-threatening afflictions, he should be a money bag; but, he said he is not because very often, he has to bring down the price to enable even the poor buy. “God revealed the secrets of producing these remedies to me free, He did not charge me one kobo; so, my conscience would really trouble me, if someone died simply because the patient lacked enough money to pay for a cure from me”, he mused.

“If anyone would pay me one-third of all the money they spend going for surgery, I would administer my drugs and challenge the patient to tell me, if he didn’t feel better within a few hours. And, I can boast that anyone I treat never needs to go for surgery again, for life.

Apparently seeking to extricate his drugs’ potency from magic, Salami stressed: “There is nothing spiritual about my drugs: they are all from herbs, which are processed without any chemical additives or preservatives”.

Resident in Porto Novo since 2003, Salami insisted the local Nigerian community there was still strong, even though the impression one had been given was that the number of our compatriots living in the Benin Republic official capital has been dwindling over the years. He agreed that, truly; some have relocated. “Once”, he told me, “we even had an Archibong here”. But, the man; who was a restauranteur, had apparently left for greener pastures.

For many Nigerians, Cotonou is where the greener pastures could be found; but, Alhaji Salami prefers Porto Novo, which is fondly called Haute-kponou. Haute-kponou roughly translates as Chief City, and is an allusion to the fact that Porto Novo is still Benin Republic’s political capital. However, Salami prefers Porto Novo because, as he put it: “This city is for me more peaceful. I like it because of its calmness, and the cost of living is more affordable for me”. 

Returning to the issue of Nigerians in Porto Novo, Salami insisted: “There is a very large number of Nigerians here. But, only a fraction is registered with us (NIDO, Porto Novo). In fact, we would also think that very few Nigerians live in Porto Novo but for the fact that, I get called out so often because a Nigerian has run into one problem or another”.

After assuming office, Salami was eager to establish an office for the local Nigerian community; that, in a nutshell; is how the outpost in Kokoye came to be. “Now, at least; we have a place we can meet, instead of holding meetings inside an eatery or a bar”.

Almost on daily basis, Salami has to interrupt his herbal medicine trading business to attend to some distressed Nigerian. He said it is sacrifice he had agreed to make, when he accepted to hold the office of president of NIDO in Porto Novo. Nonetheless, he lamented the task was taking an enervating toll on his finances since there was no money to run the office. This probably explains the man’s plan to surrender the “cross” to a successor as soon as his term expires in 2012.

With regard to what he believes President Goodluck Jonathan should do urgently to ameliorate the sufferings of ordinary Nigerians, Alhaji Salami said everyone knows that epileptic electricity supply was killing the nation: manufacturers can’t produce, small-scale industries have packed up leading to job losses and increase in crime. It came as no surprise, therefore, when Salami suggested that President Jonathan should address Nigeria’s energy crisis once and for all. “If that is the only thing he can do during his tenure, Nigerians will forever be grateful to President Jonathan; because, uninterrupted electricity supply will naturally lead to solution of many other problems”, Alhaji Salami concluded.

-         By MAURICE ARCHIBONG

mauricearchibongtravels: Photosplash from Potiskum

mauricearchibongtravels: Photosplash from Potiskum

Photosplash from Potiskum

Mai Pataskum, Alhaji Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya I. 

PHOTOS: MAURICE ARCHIBONG

Pataskum Palace Museum Curator, Babayo.

Gangan Jmagauru.

Kanjau.

Some wind instruments on display at the museum.

Pataskum Emirate Council Palace in Potiskum.

mauricearchibongtravels: Some charms from Potiskum

mauricearchibongtravels: Some charms from Potiskum

Some charms from Potiskum

In Potiskum, musical instruments are drugs

Welcome to Potiskum, an ancient aboriginal Ngizim settlement in Yobe State. Yobe is part of Nigeria’s North Eastern geopolitical zone, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years before pharmacists were born and they began to produce drugs; the Ngizim had ways of treating certain ailments.

How they arrested microbial infections remains unclear, but Ngizim ethnics had cure for many kinds of aches and pains; stress, and even heartbreak. Centuries before the earliest of Western apothecaries landed with analgesics, anaesthetics and what have you; Ngizim had their locally made emollients, tranquilizers and sedatives et cetera.

In ancient Potiskum, being a barber automatically made one a pharmacist as well. Interestingly, this local druggist’s store neither held tablet nor capsule; and, the treatment did not come from shavers, clippers or scissors, either. Instead, this particular dispenser’s power lay in a musical instrument, a drum to be precise. In any case, everyone believed in the efficacy of this instrument as medicament; this is why Ganga-kuriya must have been a widely used drug in ancient Potiskum.

Duru-duru, the local barber, was the only “pharmacist” permitted to dispense ganga-kuriya, which served as an emollient. The mellow sounds of this drum was exploited to mollify an infant and to discourage the child from crying during circumcision or when the baby was being given tribal marks.

To date, the sound of ganga-kuriya is still employed to attract onlookers, who; as custom demands, subsequently make donations to the child as witnesses to the baby’s rite of passage. Ganga-kuriya is also beaten during a baby’s naming ceremony, which; in Ngizim tradition, takes place seven days after the child was born.

Out with ganga-kuriya and in comes another special drum called Tamba: The natives of Dadlawa, one of the many clans of the Ngizim nation, are the only custodians of Tamba (also pronounced Tambari). Tamba can only be beaten, when a chief is to be turbaned or to rally warriors as announcement of outbreak of war.

Currently, Baba Adamu of Garubawa is the only Ngizim native, authorised to pound tamba. He is one of this instrument’s custodians and upon his death the honour of beating the drum must be bequeathed to someone else from his clan. In the same vein, the sound of Ganga-jmagauru served to announce the death of a “Big man” or a senior citizen, male or female, to the community and surrounding villages.

Through his dexterity, the drummer rendered special rhythms that clued listeners in; thus helping the community to identify the deceased without the mention of any name. On the other hand, Kanjau is a fits-all, a sort of Jack-of-all-trades; which can be drummed at every ceremony. While kanjau, the general-purpose instrument, was being drummed, young men used that opportunity to put up energy-sapping dances; flaunting their vigour and stamina, and ultimately, announcing their fitness to go to war should the need arise.

Across Ngizim land, the people obviously set great store by sound, which explains the plenitude of musical instruments in their culture. To this day, some of these instruments are still used as drugs of another kind. For example, a jilted lover does not have to resort to suicide; the desolate one has a livelier option: the distraught person simply grabbed a wind instrument; put it to the mouth and start to blow his/her sorrows away.

Moreover, if one was going on a very long and enervating journey, another kind of oboe came in handy. The traveller simply made the necessary first step, after which he or she switched into reflex gear; kept on walking and ceaselessly blowing his or her flute. Before knowing it, literally, the wayfarer would have arrived at his/her destination, however distant it was.

Apart from wind instruments that make time fly away, thus reducing the pains of a broken heart in the case of a deserted lover or bereavement or the pangs of a tedious trip; Ngizim also produced traditional instruments that served as lullaby tools or anaesthetic. Ngizim drugs were not limited to drums and wind instruments: Just as today’s pharmacists have churned out aspirin, paracetamol, panadol and what have you; the melodious drugs invented by the ancient inhabitants of Potiskum include cordophones, vibraphones and so on.

Welcome displays in a museum

All of these instruments and various other objects, such as agricultural tools, wedding ceremony items, domestic utensils as well as various weapons of war; are on display inside Pataskum (Potiskum) Emirate Council Palace Museum, which was launched on 8 May, 2007. Housed in a room and an adjacent cubicle inside the palace, this repository is one of the youngest palace museums as well as one of the most compact repositories in Nigeria. But, what this mini house of heritage lacks by way of age or space, it more than makes up for in terms of its collection.

Mallam Usman Garba Pataskum alias Babayo is Curator of Pataskum Emirate Council Palace Museum. Throughout our encounter, the man was effervescent with passion. Babayo trained as a teacher and actually worked as one for many years until he came down with a stress-related affliction.

On a more cheery note, however, this curator said he believed that his recovery had been facilitated by his interest in, and passion for, museum work. Any time a visitor arrived and he was summoned to the palace to guide the tourist, Babayo had always risen to the occasion. Such demands required him to move, and being on the move has proven a most rewarding exercise for this once very ill man. “Now, I walk with greater ease and I can speak very well again. Also, my mouth; which was once twisted, is back to normal,” he mused.

What inspired palace museum

Alhaji Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya I is Mai Pataskum or traditional ruler of this community. An Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), this Mai Pataskum is a retired Controller of Prisons. He said he decided to open a museum inside his palace to preserve invaluable antique objects and, consequently, his people’s heritage.

Hear him: “I did it to preserve the historic relics of the community, which is fast fading away. If we left them in individual hands, they would disappear. I am quite sure that ‘civilization’ may consume these relics, which our people have lived with for centuries. Therefore, without the move to collect and preserve these objects, ancient treasures would be lost. So, we felt it is better to collect them and take care of them”.

From glory unto glory

The fame and fortunes of Potiskum Palace Museum has galloped astronomically since our first report on this repository in 2008. Two subsequent stories had attracted more visitors to this palace museum, revealed the curator, who named HRH Litaussou Makaini Makkadallah, Limido of the Cameroonian town of Yagoua; among eminent personalities that have toured his museum after our reports.

Apart from Mr. Nath Mayo Adediran, Nigeria’s Director of Museums; who has severally visited Pataskum Palace Museum and other parts of Yobe State, where he incidentally spent his National Service year; other top functionaries of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) had also been at this palace repository. Furthermore, the people of Massa paid a two-day call on the Mai Pataskum on the 3^rd and 4^th of February, 2011; the curator concluded on an enthusiastic note.

  

Admission

Admission to Pataskum Emirate Council Palace Museum is free-of-charge, but donation is always welcome. According to the curator, apart from cash presents, visitors sometimes make donations in kind.

-         By MAURICE ARCHIBONG

mauricearchibongtravels: Ekpo Eyo's Transition update

mauricearchibongtravels: Ekpo Eyo's Transition update

Ekpo Eyo's Transition update

Body arrives 15 June, burial in Lagos, 1 July

The body of Prof Ekpo Eyo, who passed on at his home in Maryland, USA; on Sunday, 29 May, 2011; will arrive in Nigeria on 15 June. Ekpo Eyo was, until 2006, a Professor of Archaeology at University of Maryland in the US. He had earlier, from 1967 to 1986, served as Nigeria’s museum chief for a record 18 uninterrupted years.

Although official announcement is still being awaited from his family, it has been gathered that burial will take place in Lagos on 1 July. The interment will be preceded, the previous day (30 June), by other activities, including a Service of Songs at Presbyterian Church Tinubu.

The late Prof Eyo, the first Nigerian-born head of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM); hailed from Adak-uko in Creek Town, Western Calabar; but, he lived and worked for decades in Lagos. Before relocating to Ikoyi, his home used to be at a perpendicular, where Ibidun Street makes a junction with Cole Street, off Western Avenue, in Surulere. He is survived by his Yoruba-born widow, Augusta; and, their children.

Prof Ekpo Eyo had his primary education at a Presbyterian elementary school in Creek Town, before enrolling for secondary education at Duke Town Secondary School both in Calabar. He later proceeded to Cambridge University for further studies, and after returning home worked at the then Department of Antiquities, later renamed National Commission for Museums and Monuments; until his retirement in 1986.

Reacting to Prof Eyo’s passage, Mrs. Anthonia Kehinde Fatunsin, Nigeria’s first female archaeologist, rued: “Nigeria has lost a highly dedicated and foremost archaeologist and museologist; and, the vacuum would be hard to fill”. Mrs. Fatunsin, who retired from the NCMM in 2006, added: “He lived a much fulfilled life; but, it is sad that he is no more”. All the same, she declared; “thank God for Prof Ekpo Eyo’s life. May his soul rest in peace”.

-         By MAURICE ARCHIBONG