I was encouraged by the terse comment of Col. Danladi M. Zakari (first military governor of Kogi state and a civil war veteran) to write this.
The comment was his response to Mr. Fenny Fwa’s contribution on the piece I wrote yesterday on move by a group of people who isolated the Hausa-Fulani indigenes from membership of their group in order to effect the change in the name of our state from Adamawa to Gongola state.
Col. Danladi M. Zakari and my elder brother Fenny Fwa are two gentlemen I respect for lacking in sentiment and for their patriotism and love for this country.
Mr. Fwa had argued in response to my piece that although he would rather the name Gongola state than Adamawa, yet for reasons he advanced, which are plausible, he said he has no problem with the name Adamawa. To this, Col. Zakari added WHAT IS IN A NAME, to which Mr. Fwa agreed that whether Gongola or Adamawa, there is nothing in a name.
By using the phrase ‘what is in a name’ to denote the insignificance of change in the name of this state, Col. Zakari (God bless him), has reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespeare’s novel I read concerning two principal characters in the tragic romance play.
In Act 2 Scene 2 in the play, Juliet was seen reflecting in a monologue that she loves her boyfriend Romeo so much so that the feud between their families will not prevent them from getting married to each other despite objection from their parents who do not see eye to eye.
At the end of the play, when Juliet’s parents insisted that their daughter of the Capulates family will never marry Romeo of the Montagues family, Romeo took poison and died. When Juliet was awakened from her drugged coma and learns what has happened to her lover, she stabs herself. That’s true love.
In essence, the phrase ‘what is in a name’ inquired of by Col. Zakari means the name we call a thing is not important as its essence, regardless of the name. Juliet’s lamenting that her family forbids her to see Romeo just because he is a Montague, a family name he bears, overlooked love when in fact a name does not, by itself hold intrinsic value or define the essence of a person. Love transcends such labels.
Love for our state transcends any name it bears. In other words what Col. Zakari said, to which Mr. Fenny Fwa agreed, to which I concur, is simply that the people of Adamawa should understand that whether the name of this state is driven from a Kamwe or from Chamba, is no longer important.
Modibbo Adama has long gone. He died in 1847, that is, 178 years ago when the foundation of the nation building he laid, stretched from Lake Chad to Banyo.
I love History as a subject. Despite the fact that when I was studying law, my Faculty was at the then ‘New Site’, (if you know UniMaid) I took all my electives from Faculty of Arts where I offered History, Literature and Islamic studies. I was taught World History by Mr. Holms an American.
Mr. Holms taught me that the whole of the present state of Pennsylvania in the United States was given to Sir. William Penn by King Charles II to offset debts the King owed Penn’s father. Today, Pennsylvania state exists in America.
Sir. William Pen was a Quaker, the name of a Christian group that stresses the guidance of the Holy Spirit, rejects outward rites and an ordained ministry. The group has a long tradition of actively working for peace and opposing war.
Sir. William Pen ‘owned’ Pennsylvania and the state is named after him and still bears his name in America, the world’s greatest democracy.
Here I will borrow from Malcom X, the black American revolutionary. In his words –
“Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you’ve got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. And once you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get yours straight”.
America had straightened their problem by leaving the name of Sir. William Pen who literally ‘owned’ Pennsylvania and everybody minds their business in the state of Pennsylvania not minding who Sir. William Pen was. “Nobody gives a damn” as the Americans say.
After all, as Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet which was echoed by Col. Danladi M Zakari today and agreed to Mr. Fenny Fwa to which I concur, WHAT IS IN A NAME? Nothing!
- Dasin is a former House of Representatives member from Adamawa State
