Veteran actor Kasimu Yero is fondly remembered for his role as 'Uncle Gaga' in the now rested '80s situational comedy, Cock Crow At Dawn, and as one of the lead characters in Abubakar Imam's Magana Jari Ce.

Today, he is older, more rested and taking things easy, but back in the days, he was one of the actors who dominated the region and entertained the populace with his ability to interpret humorous scripts.

Yero was born in Zaria some 64 or 65 years ago. But when he became of school-age, he was taken from Zaria City to his grandfather in Kaduna. At that time, his grandfather Mallam Mohammed Sambo, was the Magajin Gari of Kaduna. It was while the young Yero was with him that he had the opportunity of going to primary school. Ironically, his school was located somewhere around where the present-day Fire Brigade headquarters is in Kaduna.

Interest

While in school, the young Yero showed so much interest in the performing arts and artistes. Luckily, he belonged to a family where artistes - magicians, singers, actors and dancers - always perform in his grandfather's house. That way, he became very interested in coming to perform before the public and trying to show talent in different ways. The presence of the cinemas like the Rex and Garada cinemas in the ancient city also contributed to his love for the arts.

Then, the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Information had a mobile film unit. They would come to his grandfather's house with their van and projector, and showed the excited people English and Hausa films. That was Yero got to watch Balare, the first Hausa film. It was after this particular experience that he really became interested in the performing art.

"At that time also, there was a weekly cinema show at the place where the present-day Mogadishu Army Barracks is. They charged us 2kobo to watch cowboy movies and other interesting ones. Gradually, cinemas were built in Kaduna and that was the beginning of the influx of Indian films. The Indian films were coming in different fashion and, over time, we became very interested in and addicted to them."

When he got to secondary school, sometime between 1962 and 1963, he joined the drama society, and that was where he met some memorable classmates. "With people like the late Khalifa Mohammed, Mamoon Baba Mohammed and others, I joined the drama society, and a couple of times in a year, we performed at the end of the term. The school invited dignitaries from the town to come watch us. Even the Emir of Zaria used to come watch us perform."

When secondary school days came to an end, he joined the Arabic Teachers College (ATC) Kano. This was sometime around '67 '68. After some time with the College, he returned home, waiting results to get into the university or whichever higher institution would accept him.

"I was at home one day when Halifa came to me, saying, 'look, do you know something?' I said 'No.' He said 'we are going to be into drama now. Do you know that there is a television programme called Hausa Drama and they are interested in getting people like you? I know you were very good when we were in school.' I said 'yes,' that I would like that very much. 'Okay,' he said, 'I will take you to the producer.' He came and took me to the producer, Patrick Itiohe, who said 'gentlemen, let's get together, sort things out and concoct a play for ourselves'." That was how Yero got into acting, both on stage and in the studio, full-time.

Due to the stress of coming down to the station every time, he opted to stay behind to finish his work. By the time he was done, he had three stories which were accepted. "From that time until now, I think I have read more than 1,000 scripts," he said.

Yero continued to hone his skills, until he became so interested and experienced that the producer had to make little or no effort. He was involved in sorting out issues having to do with the studio, the number of people needed for a session, their roles, and their names in the production.

Now a full-time actor, sometime between '69 and '70, the group decided to start the Hausa drama which concentrated on educating people one way or the other about social ills, called Kukan Kurchiya. Many times, it was changed to Tambari, but it was the same thing.

'Magana Jari Ce'

Sometime later, the group was approached and told to try some other line of stories, since their moral approach was beginning to wear thin. This was when he decided to reach into his treasured literature collection.

"I decided that since one of the works we read was Abubakar Imam's Magana Jari Ce, we could work on it. Our producer was Late Dalhatu Mallam Bawa. When we suggested our choice to the head of television, he said 'you can try: Just have one or two episodes and see if it will work out.' At this time, the video machine had come, so we no longer had to depend on the studio. We could take our cameras, go to a location, and shoot all the sequences (some in the studio, others on location)."

With this, people became hooked on Magana Jari Ce, because Yero and his friends kept on picking stories from books 1, 2 and 3. With its interesting story lines and colourful characters Imam's work gained new life and attracted millions in the region.

'Cock Crow at Dawn'

The episodes were so interesting that when the federal government was looking for a means of promoting its Operation Feed the Nation (or was it Green Revolution?) policy on television and radio stations, the media was directed to have a national programme - either drama, comedy or anything they could - promoting the policy. Yero and the company of actors decided to produce theirs in the English Language, and it became a national programme.

That was the beginning of the Cockcrow At Dawn. When it was decided that the banks help in the campaign, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) used the opportunity to sponsor the programme. Jos, Plateau State was chosen as the location, so we shot it there. Cockcrow At Dawn was the toast of the region for about three to four years. While the Eastern region took glory in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the West shot Village Headmaster, Yero and his friends ruled the north with Cock Crow at Dawn.

Hardwork

For Yero, there is no exact secret to his success rate; just hard work, more hard work and interest. "With all the difficulties we had," he recalls, "all we had going for us was our interest, and that was reason enough why we did not want to fail." That was what made his era so special, he insists.

Though he is now taking it easy, it is not due to his strength. Rather, it has more to do with the rate of work, interest and originality at play. Yero would give anything to have those days of glory return to the North. He acknowledges that the south-east has taken over. "I think it is because they know what they call public enterprise and if they don't make any money out of it, they would not be spending their earnings, their sweat and blood, to produce these things which means they make money out of them. That is why they continue to produce, and make these films, people, most especially Africans, are very interested in Nollywood films. Everywhere you go in Africa, they want to watch Nigerian films, and the Nigerian film industry has now become a big success, I must say - at least, in terms of the number of films we produce, and the quality of our pictures and stories."

But he thinks that most of today's script writers and actors are too sadistic and 'dry', while some are too unnecessarily emotional. "You watch 400 Indian films, 500 Indian films, 1000 American films, and you hardly see anybody with tears on his face. Also, you see all kinds of violence and brutality. Unfortunately, in Nigerian movies, everyone cries - male, female, old and young. Are we so weak?"

Kannywood

Yero respects Kannywood as the movie industry born in Kano, but he thinks they are 'over-copying the Indians.

"Unfortunately, we have a culture just like the Indians; so,why don't we make films that promote our own culture and send them to India like I did with Magana Jari Ce. Why should they sit here and start behaving and singing and even copying the songs and changing only the lyrics, and putting in ours. Why? We have our own useful song everywhere which we can utilise. We bring in songs which disgrace the Hausa culture. As far as I am concerned, we know our songs and the types of songs. If you look at the Indian films and culture, their way of worship is through songs and music. There are songs for funerals, birth, worship, and so on. So, when they make a film and they sing at every occasion, we consider it to be their culture."

But he prescribes the way forward for the Northern movie industry. "They believe their education can help them, even without experience, but when they go to the studios, they discover how handicapped they are, because they produced the films out of over-confidence. How can you produce 100 films in Kano without having experienced people like Samanja or Kasimu, among others to offer their opinion? If they can do away with the know-all character, Kannywood will progress."

Memorable Days

For Yero, there have been no dull days. "I say this in the sense that if one is interested in something, he never sees the bad side of it. Whatever it is, at the end of the day, I am always happy because it has been a good time. In the early days (the '70s), we used to enjoy ourselves, because at the time we were young, with youthful exuberance or whatever. In the late 80s, we were getting mature. We were being more experienced and things were a bit difficult for us, because we had to work harder to make things better. In the 90s, we became responsible people -directors, government workers, and all that.

"It is disheartening to think of all those who have died, but it is an opportunity for these young ones to come near us and learn from us, from our experience, since they don't have the experience."

Limelight

It was the Tambari programme that helped Yero and his group begin. "It drew the attention of a lot of people, but Magana Jari Ce made people to become really aware of us. Cockcrow At Dawn was better, because it was a national programme."

Hobby, Family

At his age, Yero still plays the game of snooker, billiard, golf and he happens to belong to social clubs, like Zaria Club and the Kaduna Recreation Club.

Yero has lost some members of his family and their deaths have scarred him deeply. But he still has a large family: eight children (five girls and three boys). "All the boys have grown up and they have become adults. Three of my daughters are married, except two. One is yet to be called for the National Youth Service Corps programme and the others are still schooling."

Yero was awarded the national award of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON), amongst others.