•Appetizing: Fish on roast •Photo: Sun News Publishing

SunSplash Index

Along the busy road from Abuja to Keffi, Nasarawa State, to the left of the road and reclined at a slope is the Sani Abacha Barracks. This is still within the Abuja metropolis. Within this domain is a mammy market, in popular military and street parlance.

A visit to this market in the evenings, especially of a weekend would set your mind battling on whether to give it to the barracks’ market as the place with the highest human congestion or whether the Idumota market still retains this title.

This is the most bubbling point in the entire capital city of Abuja. That sleepy ‘Ghana-must-go’ city of government loot appropriation and bogus contracts comes alive with eyes wide awake at the Abacha Barracks. The beat here does not stop with the array of expensive and ordinary cars filed neatly like in a grand prix.

Smoke-screen transaction
As automobiles queue for supremacy here, so also the people that brings them. The visitors park at the lot close to the road and vanish from sight into the inner chambers of the market. It was learnt that the invasion and desperation of thieves who terrorise and rob fun seekers of their handsets and other valuables at joints in Abuja has made the barracks the best place to go as security is assured here.
Inside this chamber is a ring of fire like a military war rubicon.

A cloud of white smoke that blurs visibility races skyward endlessly like fire in a refuse bins. A row of women stands behind this ceaseless billow of chocking smoke which emanate from oil from fish and groundnut oil which is used as tinder here to coax the sparks into low flames whose faggots are coke from rainforest hardwood.

Bony fish of all sizes line the hearth made of wire mesh. They are laid out to dry or more appropriately roast. As the women work their fan to and fro over the fire to enhance and induce more oxygen and make it burn, buyers hang around doing their bidding for the fish. For years, this circle of fire and smoke cloud that hangs in between the sellers and buyers making them see each other through a spectacle of cloud has remained one of the major temptation to joint goers as Nigerians would call it. It is big business to roast fish and sell to buyers who cluster around the ring for the delicacy.

Drinkers concentration
As if the connoisseurs nurse the fear the fish may not reach them when it is out of sight, they sit under canopies of beer sellers at their stands akin to a trade fair, arranged around the central ring of roasting fish on the racks and enjoy their beer while waiting for the fish they ordered to be served.
This spot will compete strongly as the place with highest density of beer drinkers per time on the face of the earth. As the beer flows, the fish roasts, so the music blare at deafening tempo and pitch from the beer stalls.

Friends and family
The patronage of this business knows no bounds either in age, sex, affiliation or race. As single persons come with friends, so also do families troop in with children and other family members. On many tables, you can spot white men and their friends seat around their tables drinking and eating the roasted fish.
While other people come to the place for fish, society ladies of paid comfort make a reasonable chunk of the crowd as they troop in, in search of prospective customers to patronize their kind of business. They smoke that oozes from their cigarettes and those of their friends give birth to another class of smoke screen that adds to the billow from the roasting fish to make the spot a perfectly smoky arena.

Great delicacy
To actually convince you that this point is a perfect smoke zone, the fish which attracts the carnival of Abuja crawlers and good time seekers is never served alone. At least there is none that one saw served straight or just the fish. While the fish roasts, there are smaller fires that emanate from portable hearths made from disused vehicle wheels on which rest small frying pans with bubbling oil which scream and clap louder as chopped Irish and sweet potato chips are ladled into them. Their own smoke also contribute to the sea of floating colloid.

As the fish emerge in service dishes, they have been well adorned in rich delicacy and garnishing. The fried potatoes, steamed and stewed onions and chopped fresh red pepper prepared in groundnut oil add so much value to the already rich scaly fish. As the pans they are served in appear on the table, nobody would resist salivating to have a piece of the steaming fish.
It is a place the Nigerian natural dish has been so glorified and tuned-up to its right level so much so the fish looks more like a recipe in a glossy colour catalogue pages.

A busker’s playground
In the midst of this smoky boisterous tribe of fish eaters is a man that escaped albinism by the skin of the teeth. He twangs away on his strings as he swings his frame in rhythm with the music that emanates from his guitar. He is a jolly fellow who makes extra profit every eve entertaining for fun and income.
A beckon on him to your table brings further spicing to the dish of fish that comes with sliced lemon which gives a zing and tinge effect to the rich dish.
The man is bedecked in black suit on black trousers, a white shirt inside and a tie. On his head rests a black cowboy broad hat that has a strap that wounds round his jaw as if to secure it from being blown away by stubborn wind.

He introduces himself as 0.1 (Zero Dot One) That is actually the numeric equivalent of two alphabets that represent the abbreviation of his names. The ‘0’ stands for ‘O’ and that goes for the name Okey. The ‘1’ stands for letter ‘I’ which in turn represents Igbokwe. Zero Dot One hails from Ekwulobia, Aguata LGA of Anambra State.
He gleefully recalls that he has been in music and entertainment for about 20 years. The good jolly fellow displayed a knack for evading questions be does not want to answer even in a most informal conversation. He buskers in this smoky arena from evening to evening.

But that is not all he does to sustain his residency in this expensive city where all residents have been hounded into living and spending at the rate ghana-must-go-wielding contract racketeer do.
Zero Dot One teaches music in some schools around the city. It is like non-sedentism has become his adaptive radiation in money making. He teaches music from school to school as he plays his music from one joint in town to another.

His only place of business is not the fish barbecue at the Abacha Barracks. Any good spot in the city where the movers and shakers of Abuja social life converge is just fecund for his trade. When a good city guy who shared same table in the company his family asked him of his itinerary in some notable spots, he simply replied by hailing him as a man that knows his way around town. And at the schools where he plies his trade he is better known as ‘Uncle Music’ by school children and he enjoys every bit of it as: “It makes my life roll on endlessly”, he coached.
As Abuja residents tap nutrient from the rich fish delicacy, Zero Dot One makes sure they get nourished further in their emotions by supplying the music which serves as both appetizer and dessert to go with the joy.