Travelling 35km to sell corn in Bauchi
Sellers say distance is not a deterrent
Dozens of young men between the ages of 15 and 35 travel daily from Dajin village in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area to Bauchi metropolis to sell cooked corn at the popular Wunti Roundabout.
Apart from the distance covered on daily basis, the young men also take the risk of selling their corn in the middle of the highway, thereby exposing both the traders and customers to danger with the hundreds of trucks and other fastmoving vehicles plying the Bauchi-Gombe Road, as well as contributing to traffic gridlock.
The activities of the traders also attract hundreds of children, including the Almajiris, to the area, with some coming to assist and get stipends while others scavenge for remnants, as well as beggars asking for alms and corn.
Hundreds of consumers visit the corn joint in their personal and commercial vehicles, tricycles and motorcycles, a situation that creates traffic challenges and littering the environment, especially parts of Tafawa
Balewa Stadium and the ever busy Wunti Roundabout.
Fifteen-year-old Mubarak Alhassan Abdullahi, a SS1 student, said selling corn there has become a household hobby in Dajin village. “I have been selling corn in Bauchi for almost five years and I am proud of the business. By doing this, people can see that I’m responsible and no one will undermine my integrity and dignity. I have made a lot of fortune from selling corn with daily profits of between N500 and N2,000, depending on daily sales. Through this business, I bought a piece of farmland and a ram which I am breeding to make profit during Sallah festivity. I am also helping my parents apart from meeting my personal needs. I am in SS1 and I buy text and exercise books without waiting for my parents to do it for me.”
Yahuza Ismaila Dajin, 22, told Daily Trust Saturday that he makes between N1,000 and N1,500 daily, but “Sometimes, I get nothing or even lose if we witness bad sales as a result of rain or the kind of corn I brought. We usually start our trip from Dajin between 10am and 12 noon. By 1pm, we would arrive Bauchi. We come in batches; and before the first batch finish their sales, the second would arrive. At least, four of us share a bag of corn and everyone of us sells between a quarter bag or more.”
“What motivated me to continue with the business is the profit. This is my own way of learning how to manage a smallscale business and become self reliant. I am paying my school fees in the polytechnic and taking care of myself with the proceed, apart from helping my parents and younger ones. Our activities have given some commercial drivers the opportunity to make money because they shuttle many times with passengers and their luggages. We also employed a cleaner who keeps sweeping the vicinity and gets his stipend on a daily basis.
“Our major challenge is the intrusion of children into our selling space because their presence makes our business difficult to operate and they have defied all our efforts to stop them from coming. If you look at our station, it is not safe for children to be roaming on the highway. We have not recorded any accident at our point or as a result of our activities in Wunti Roundabout,” Ismaila said.
The leader of the corn sellers, 35-year-old Saidu Hassan, said they have over 70 members who shuttle from Dajin to sell corn in Bauchi.
“What inspired us to sell corn was the need for us to keep ourselves busy with a legitimate source of livelihood to support our families, and to start a capital base for more profitable businesses because corn is seasonal. We are doing this as a temporary measure to plan for bigger and better businesses. Majority of our members are students who are also planning towards other professions.”
Responding to the hazards and risks on the highway, Hassan said, “We’d prefer if the state government can provide us an alternative place at a strategic location where our customers can easily locate us, and then the government generates revenue from our activities. However, since we started our business at the Wunti Roundabout five years ago, we’ve not recorded any accident involving our members, customers or the children.
On the issue of littering the environment, the leader said, “We contribute money on a daily basis for the sweeping of the area and we employ a standby cleaner who sweeps the surrounding at intervals, and then parks the dirt to the refuse site after closing hours. Our problem is that sometimes customers buy and drop the covers on the roads and people accuse us of littering the environment.”
A customer Bala Garba said cooked corn is one of the most affordable food items around. “With just N100, you can feed yourself during this austere economic condition because you cannot get a plate of food for N100 but you can get two cobs of fresh cooked corn for N100.”
A father of children of five, Rabiu Adamu, said “I enjoy eating corn almost everyday. It serves as my lunch most times. I have five children, and when I close from work, I visit this joint to buy corn for them because they also love and enjoy it.
However, a businessman and neighbour to the corn sellers, who gave his name as Charles, decried the activities of the traders. “Their presence in the middle of the highway connotes danger for themselves and their customers, apart from constituting nuisance to the road. They litter the environment without considering the right of others to a clean environment. I have tried many times to complain to the elderly ones because most of them are young men.”
We are doing this as a temporary measure to plan for bigger and better businesses. Majority of our members are students who are also planning towards other professions.