Replying a follower who made a comment about most Northerners being illiterates, the lawyer, pastor, activist and author, Reno Omokri wrote;
“Dear Okikiola,
Thank you for your feedback. What an ignorant statement!
First, not everybody in the North who goes by a Muslim name is Hausa. There are many ethnicities in the North and the core North.
Secondly, what is literacy? Is it not the ability to read and write? If you take that as the premise, the North has way more educated people than any part of Nigeria.
It would be best if you rethought your definition of literacy or illiteracy. Literacy is not the ability to read and write English. There are over a billion people in China who cannot read or write in English. Yet, they are educated and are more technologically advanced than Britain, with 65 million speakers and writers of English.
Your brain has been westernised. It is time to humanise it.
The average core Northerner, that you call ‘Hausa’, can read and write in Arabic or Ajami before seven. In terms of female education, they are light years ahead of the South. It is just that we in Southern Nigeria have been sadly brainwashed to see female liberation as slay queens going almost naked, bleaching their skins and refusing to even date men who earn a mere ₦800k a month because it is not up to the cost of their wig. That, and their heavy body count. Not all Southern women are like that. But unfortunately, a lot are. Yesterday, Reverend Father Emmanuel Edeh gave a damning verdict. He said Madonna University is the only university in Nigeria where girls are admitted as virgins and graduate as virgins!
Reverend Father Emmanuel Edeh said that because he probably has not spent time in Northern Nigeria.
The average core Northern Muslim woman is educated in Ajami and Arabic and is highly likely to go to her husband’s house as a virgin.
Have you heard of Nana Asmau? She was the daughter of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio. She wrote books in the 19th Century. This is the Twentieth Century, and her books have survived till now. Can you, Okikiola, produce one woman from your lineage who wrote a book even in the last Century?
Have you heard of Ladi Kwali? Known all over the world. She was a great innovator and invented a unique art form for pottery. UNESCO recognised her. She is the woman you see on the back of the twenty Naira note. She is a Northerner. A woman who, as of the 1950s, was already educated and an international icon. Okikiola, please, can you name one woman as great as Ladi Kwali from your state?
The Kano Chronicles were written over 500 years ago. Okikiola, can you produce a written work from your region from 500 years ago?
Be open minded. God has created so much knowledge out there. It belongs to humanity. If you limit yourself to your ethnicity, you will not grow.
The sad truth is that most people on Earth are unconscious. Unfortunately, they are not aware of it. Just think of a product in a supermarket. It is brought in barcoded and that barcode determines its life, until it leaves that store and is consumed by the end user.
That pretty much sums up the existence of most people on Earth.
They are born and have no control over their parentage, gender and birth nationality. Then, they are named by their parents. When they come of age, they are indoctrinated into their parents religion, or lack of it. By the time they get to school, they are put on an assembly line of a life destined for 22 years of class room moulding, 35 years in a cubicle they call a job, and then 10-15 years to enjoy what is left of their lives.
And then death.
Only few buck this trend of living the result of other people’s choices and calling it life. And those few are labelled by the rest of the crowd in order to bring them into line. Just as you, Okikiola, have done to ‘Hausa’.
Iqra! Read! Knowledge is beautiful. It is more pleasurable than sexual intercourse. Embrace it. And it will elevate you such that you transcend foolishness.
Thanks again, and may God bless you.”