That is the only identity the boy has. As I was made to believe, he doesn't even know his age neither does he has a clue of how his mother now looks like simply because he was thrown out to the street at a early age with blue bowl. The bowl is the size of every bowl I see around with other folks who shares the same fate as Aliyu. That is the only thing the parents owe them. Lest I forget, sometimes, some are lucky enough to be given a rubber shoe, that type that has the shape of soccer boot.
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Aliyu was found on KCK volleyball pitch laying down with his plate over his head. He had been there hours earlier, I knew because the time I went for Suhr prayer, he was there. Katsina sun doesn't respect anyone and Aliyu was laying down inside the same scorching sun that chased Mallam Audu out of his cigarette kiosk. After noticing Aliyu, I called upon my friend in the Logde and with some pleasantries and conversation, we took Aliyu to the hospital and he was treated against malaria.
Just some days ago, it was a Monday, I had woke up with a flu that often accompany Malaria. And as I wrapped and squeezed myself on the bed mimicking the fist of Donking whenever he is angry, the thought of Aliyu stroke my mind. I began to think about him and I was so annoyed that I couldn't try hard enough to look for him after he left the clinic. I imagined how on earth Aliyu could withstand all those pains that malaria always comes with. I thought about Aliyu, I wondered about how he could not go home to his mother and instead choose to lay aimlessly inside a scorching sun of Katsina that chased Mallam Audu away from his kiosk.
Children like Aliyu filled the streets of Northern Nigeria, boys like Aliyu are the tools use more often by the political gladiators. Boys like Aliyu are the ones that harassed my friend when she couldn't leave behind something after her meal.
Boys like Aliyu were the ones I saw carrying knives and sword during the Governor Abdullahi Ganduje rally in Kano. Boys like Aliyu are the ones that will carry your load in the market for #20. Boys like Aliyu are the ones that approach you with prayers and ask if you have any cores, they will do all of it just for a plate of burnt rice. Boys like Aliyu are the ones that often fall victim of Sodomy, I read about one in the newspaper some days back. Boys like Aliyu are the ones that the Northern politicians will want to have around their house always. Boys like Aliyu are marital blessings as they are often engaged by some Northern ladies who find it difficult to manage to do their house cores.
Boys like Aliyu are the victim of the abused Almajiri system. Boys like Aliyu also want to go to school and serve their father land but boys like Aliyu are so unlucky. Boys like Aliyu are expected to push wheelbarrow selling carrots on the street of Katsina. Boys like Aliyu enjoys no privilege, no security and the only time boys like Aliyu knows about their country is when the election is around because boys like Aliyu would form a long queue to vote even as boys like Aliyu of the same age in the West are seen as underage.
I pray that boys like Aliyu will rise up against the conspirators and put an end to the system that gives boys like Aliyu blue bowls instead of education