The Sweep With Hassan Alhaji Hassan: Clichés in Lingua Franca that Destroyed the North

A cliché is originally fresh and appealing idiom, simile or metaphor that first sounds fresh and enticing, until they become too used overtime, such that their familiarity becomes a burden on our senses and begin to tear and wear the ear. When a cliché takes place in the use of language, it can be negative as much as the effect of its meaning tolls on the life of users.

Language is a cultural factor that forms

a larger part of a people’s life and can make or mar their path to life. Thefollowing are some of the phrases or sentences that we use every day fordecades now that tilt the pathway to progress of the collective fate that holdsthe fate of life in the north. Do we change them? Maybe yes; maybe no. Butmaybe we need to reduce the frequency of their use or avoid them even.

Take the following examples but do notmind my interpretations of all or some of the clichés, please.

1. Allahne ya qaddara:  That fatalistic phrase that gives excuse foreverything men do as coming from God, and rules out any form of attempt forscientific reasoning which can be a plause.
2. Kabar wa Allah:Leave everything to God, which discourages any form of individual or groupattempts of seeking any form of justice.
3. Ka dangana ga Allah:Depend on God and do not do anything to help yourself.
4. Waye yake haka yau/ ba’ahaka yanzu: the join the bandwagon effect thatdiscourages you from doing something different, and according to your believeand conviction about what is good or better. Also to discourage a good leaderfrom being what they are or what they want to be in office.
5. Zamani ne ya kawo/ yaabaci: the justification for the spoils torule out your effort at holdon to your good values and traditions and to passthem onto your child.
6. Kai/shi waye:who are you/is he, to rule out anyhuman thoughts, capacity or efforts for good, public good; for justice oragainst tyranny, unfairness or injustice.
7. Wa ya isa? Kana shugabadin kuma: the whisper into the ear of theleaders to summon courage to do wrong and to deny other subordinates rights andprivileges, especially when the Ali Ka fiGwamna does not like you or does not like something for you.
8. Duk abin da zai faru yafaru/ ba abinda zai faru: as above, doanything, let anything happen. Bad nothing will even happen, to assure the badleader and give them confidence to be bold and daring in doing bad.
9. Wa ya isa?:as above,  further assurance, who can?
10. Rabuda wasu: as above, forget them, to edgeindividuals or groups who want to give good, honest advice to correct wrongs inleadership.
11.  Bar mu da su:asabove,leave them to us, when the Alis are ready to lie to the victimor deceive them or when the Alis are ready, permit this other cliché, in worst case scenario, to die for thebad leader.
12.  Amarya bat a laifi:the honeymoon cliché that spoils and fixes the bride against every good valuein marriage and in the event of conflict, the marriage can only collapse. It isthe first and last stroke that is responsible for the break of the many camels’back
13.  Na miji ba zanin goyo ba ne:dillaliya, baaba or mama’s last advice to the bride who makes every effort toplease their husband by fulfilling their duties.
14.  So so ne amma son kai ya fi:to discourage you from thinking for others, for all and to take out your good senseof justice and selflessness.
15.  Ni ba akoya min haka ba agidanmu:when the bad bride makes excuses for her bad manners and refusal to do theright duty or escape them.
16.  Allah yasa mu dace:prayer or wish of the bad counsellor who wants one to do bad. They know Godgave every chance to do good, the open window for constant, many times,deliberate manners to ignore the right and the good, and to encourage bad inrecurring decimals of human errors.
17.  Gaya masa ya/ta ji:desperate stresses of the determined idea muter among family, friends orcolleagues when they gather to advice you against a good intended deed orproject with the hidden purpose of discouraging or stopping you from it.
18.  Allah ne yakeyi/yake bayarwaa;/Ko wa darabonsa: defend or justification for the bad inthe distribution of rights and privileges in the place of work, in order torule out the recurring decimal of humans’ purposive sampling of beneficiaries.

Those are just some,meant to open a dialogue for many more to flow in from you.

 Please write to send us yours so we caninclude in a compendium.  You can alsosuggest correction of form of any of the clichés used above.

We wait to hear fromyou in earnest.

Thank you.

Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.