Isa Sa'idu
17 November 2007
Zaria — In Northern Nigerian, many people see beauty contest as alien to their culture. Unknown to such people, beauty contest is part and parcel of their custom.
In the history of Nigeria's beauty pageant, Hajiya A'ishatu Bala Ahmad alias Sarauniya (Queen), is probably the youngest lady to emerge queen from such competitions. Sarauniya was crowned as the most beautiful girl in Nasarawan-Kebbi, in present Nasarawa State, in 1966. At that time she was only seven years old.
In the former Benue-Plateau State, there was an annual beauty contest competition in the town of Nasarawan-Kebbi. The town's traditions demand that a young girl is to be selected as the most beautiful among her peers. The beauty contest also qualifies the winner to be the Queen (Sarauniya) of her generation. She will rule her peers like a normal queen or king. She will have her guards, palace and all other services obtainable in the Northern traditional institutions.
Hajiya A'isha was the Nasarawan-Kebbi's Sarauniya of 1966. Her reign lasted for five years. That experience gave her the chance of touching the lives of more than 6,000 families. Sarauniya was concerned over the high rate collapse of marriages in the North, and so she opened a vocational training centre. The centre has so far trained more than 6,000 women, whose marriage contracts could have otherwise dissolved.
Sarauniya Vocational Training Centre is a famous name in Zaria and beyond. It is situated in Samaru, the host community of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. Hajiya Aisha, the proprietor, told Weekly Trust that the conception of the idea to save marriage contracts dated back to her teenage days. Sarauniya's father was a medical doctor. Her grandmother was a caravan trader. Sarauniya, as a young girl, was involved in taking cow milk to Lokoja via Ummu-Asha port.
"My family is of Fulani origin. By that, we used to take cow milk with my grandmother from Nasarawa to Lokoja. We usually trek from Nasarawa to Ummu-Asha where there is a port. From there we will join a ship or canoe to take us to Lokoja where we sell the cow milk. With the milk money, we will in turn buy salt to sell in Nasarawa. I think from here you can see that I had a trading and self-reliant background," Sarauniya said.
After Sarauniya's primary seven education in 1971, she was enrolled into the then Jos Craft School. "Here in the North, as you know, most people assume that female education will translate into indiscipline while in our matrimonial homes. It is that believe which made my grand parents to force my father to take me to the then Jos Craft School instead of continuing with formal education pursuit. In the school, we were trained on craft engineering and craft works," Sarauniya said.
After her studies in the Craft School, Hajiya Sarauniya was married to a Quantity Survey student in 1972. The marriage contract brought her to Zaria to join her husband in the Ahmadu Bello University. Students were not allowed with their wives in the hostels, therefore, the husband found an alternative rented accommodation for his wife in the Samaru town. It is from here the idea of the vocational centre was conceived. But some reasons influenced the initiative.
"When I came to Samaru and began to associate with my peers among their house wives, I was amazed to find that most of them were doing nothing to augment the survival of their families. Among the wedding presents I got from my father were sewing and knitting machines. Upon my coming to Zaria, I began sewing to augment the income of my student husband. What astounded me most then was how some of the women decorated their rooms with items worth more than N10,000 but they cannot afford five naira to solve their problem. You know N10,000 in 1972 had so much value, but some of these women had to come to me to borrow money because they are doing nothing. They will only eat and have siesta," Sarauniya explained.
Idleness of Sarauniya's friends made her to conceive an idea on how to empower them. She advised them to seek permission of their husbands to enable them to learn sewing from her. About five women got the permission of their husbands and the training began. This, according to Hajiya A'isha, was the beginning of the vocational centre which later turned to be an avenue for saving marriages.
Having seen the benefits the first set of trainees derived, many women showed interest. The centre in 1973 had 21 trainees. Since the number has risen, Sarauniya introduced a monthly fee of five naira.
"I had only one sewing machine then which we were using for the training. One machine is not enough to train 21 students. When I introduced the five naira fee, in a month we collected N105. A new sewing machine then was N90 only. With the monthly stipend I used to buy one new machine to add to the one we have and the remaining N15 were used for buying other training materials. This is how the centre developed to have 18 machines," she said.
With this development, Sarauniya's trainees had no problem of training machines. The centre continued with this focus until 1987.
"In 1987," Sarauniya said, "I visited a friend who was a registrar in Samaru court. At the court I was accosted with the sight of young girls instituting court cases against their husbands. They were at the court seeking for divorce because the husbands failed to satisfy their needs of N5 or N10. Had it been they were doing something, they could have helped themselves without waiting for their husbands. I was shocked and surprised how a woman would want to terminate her marriage because of N10 or N5. Some of my trainees then, not even graduates, earn more than N30 per day," Sarauniya said.
So, what did Sarauniya do? "I sought the cooperation of the registrar. We agreed with her that henceforth she will send such young girls seeking for divorce to me. What I did was to start with counseling and with the permission of their parents and husbands I enrolled such girls, who went to court for divorce, into my centre. Through that we were able to save more than 6,000 marriages from collapsing. I know this because I keep records of all my registered trainees," Sarauniya said.
"All praise is to Allah. This centre has now become international because we have trained many women from neighbouring Niger and Cameroun republics. Not only that, some men too have shown interest and they were trained on knitting and sewing at the centre.
"Many thanks are to the Better Life Programme of the one-time first lady. The programme took me to Beijing to enlighten Nigerian and world women on how to develop and maintain the types of my centre. In return I was trained on many vocations. I was trained on how to make about 27 items like soap, shampoo, perfume, detergent, etc and in return I trained many women here in my centre."
Sarauniya has this advice to the Nigerian government. "Sometimes in 2004, I was invited by the government of Niger Republic. The invitation came courtesy of some Niger women we trained. Despite the impacts of our centre to Nigerian women, Nigerian governments at all levels have never for once recognised us. I don't need to mention that, but there is no part of this country that you can go without seeing the product of this centre. We deserve to be encouraged by the government to enhance our activities. This will add to our zeal of women empowerment," she said.
"As I am talking to you now, the Saudi Arabian government has invited me to go and train their women on knitting. I have been here in Samaru training our women for 35 years but no tier of our government sees the need to extend a hand of fellowship to us. I thank Allah that we did what we did for His sake and we were able to change the lives of many women for the better."
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