The Hero Called Umar Muda

Anthony Kila is concerned about what inspired the federal lawmaker from Bauchi, Hon. Umar Muda to canvass a piece of  legislation that will deal with crossdressers

Dear Readers We are generally taught and we indeed agree that outlier is something that is situated away or classified differently from a main or related body. Statisticians see the outlier as a value markedly different from other values of a sample. When it comes to human beings, the general consensus is to consider outliers as people who do things or act in ways that are out of the norm. We tend to see outliers as achievers of feat that most of us can only dream of attempting. Outliers, we believe have skills, strength, imagination or a vision that most of us lack. Students and graduates of CIAPS know my knack for pointing out that what the first and the last in a class ranking have in common and different from the rest of us is that they are both outliers. To that extent, it is us compared to them: We in the middle, they at the margins.Recent events in the country have thrown up a new outlier who I think should not be allowed to fall in oblivion. Rather, I think we should make deliberate steps and conscious efforts to make sure that his name is inscribed in stone so that we all today and posterity tomorrow can learn a lot from his tale. Our hero of the moment is called Umar Muda, his claim to national and I suspect global fame stems from his idea of prohibiting crossdressing and jailing crossdressers. Umar Muda must have had this dream since he was a child or after some significant experience or influenced by some high revelation or inspired by some deep thoughts. As fate would have it, the young Umar Muda grew up safely, became an adult, made it to becoming a politician and luckily for all of us, he got elected into the House of Representatives to make laws that regulate the lives of millions of his fellow citizens. On a personal note, one of the many things I have not been able to do in my now long ordinary life is become captain of a national cricket team, the other is becoming editor of the most read weekly magazine. If I were an editor today, I would put Umar Muda on the front page of my magazine. Media reports inform us that the bill proposed by Hon Umar Muda and boldly read out by our hero wants a person engaging in crossdressing to be considered guilty of committing an offence and be liable to imprisonment of six  months or to a fine of five hundred thousand naira. “That will teach them a lesson”, Hon Umar Muda must have thought to himself whilst conceiving, writing and reading out his bill. The initial speculation on how long this bill must have been on Hon Umar Muda’s mind, his source of inspiration and how dear the bill is to our hero will become clear when we think of the when. It can’t be just another bill. Hon Umar Muda proposed his bill at a time when the whole country is worried about security and concerned about preserving lives and properties, at a time when individuals are donating money to state governments and people are trying to find ways to survive high prices, low income and shrinking employment, with students and parents worried about the fate of education. How more different can one be to think that, in the middle of all the issues and challenges the world is going through and from which our country is far from exempt, an important thing upon which to dedicate time and vote right now is matters relating to crossdressing? Hon Umar Muda must see things that the rest of us, absorbed in our mundane thoughts and needs do not see, he must know what we don’t know and perhaps as heroes do, he feels what we in the middle do not feel hence he prioritizes what we do not deem as necessary let alone urgent. Who knows? Maybe Hon Umar Muda sees a link between crossdressing and problems affecting us that we do not see due to our limit. Perhaps he has discovered the link between fashion, makeup and cost of diesel or he has uncovered how terrorists start life as crossdressers and this triggered him to vow that crossdressing must not be left unchecked. News editors should be more generous in their style and content: It was tough finding in whose name Hon Umar Muda went to parliament. News reports limited themselves to saying he is a member of the APC. That is true but incomplete. Our dysfunctional federal system makes it normal for parliamentarians to act as if they are in the house for Nigeria as a unified entity and most of us accept it that way. In reality legislators are elected to represent a part of Nigeria: their own constituencies. Ideally, a member of the house can and should vote not just along party line but also with the interest of his or her constituency in mind. Hon Umar Muda represents the Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State. Do the over 500,000 people and voters in the towns and villages of Toro, Berkete, Gumau, Boloji, Magama, Muja, Panshanu, Tama, Pingel and Zalau feel represented in the Hon Umar Muda’s plan and priorities? Anthropologists and psychologists should take time to study these towns and villages, are their inhabitants and indigenes like the rest of us or are they a special breed like Umar Muda? Water does not get sour without a cause. When party members and leaders were proposing and canvassing for Umar Muda to become a legislator. Did they see his uniqueness? Did they notice anything particular about his priorities and timing? Did he mention his knowledge of and interest in crossdressing to party members in Bauchi? What about his colleagues in the house? Did his proposal come as a surprise to them or do they know Hon Umar Muda as someone with this kind of heroic disposition? Did he discuss his ideas about crossdressing with them and did he ever mention his desire to jail crossdressers to them and did he ever give hint of how important the task is to him? Do they agree with him about the content and the timing of his bill? Who are these colleagues? Are they like Hon Umar Muda or are they more like us? Whether you are in Bauchi or elsewhere, as we move closer to the year of elections, it is important that we all have a good think about who we want in office and ask ourselves what traits and sensibilities do we want in them? We should ask ourselves if we want more people like Umar Muda or more like the rest of us. 

Prof.  Kila is Centre Director at CIAPS Lagos.