According to one of Suleiman’s grandchildren, Dan’azumi, “My grand-father told us the whole of this place (Jos Road) was a bush. The houses were not more than four in number. He would tell us at night people used to hear the sounds of dangerous animals like hyenas.
However, today, Jos Road as transformed into a modern settlement with over 150 houses adorning the street. A newspaper vendor who pleaded for anonymity told the Sunday Tribune that, “Visitors who come to the street every day, apart from buying newspapers, also come to buy Kilishi.”
According to Dan’azumi, Kilishi is a Hausa delicacy prepared from cow meat. He added that the meat is usually processed and dried with spices before it is put in an oven to dry.
“After it is dried in the oven,it is now taken out and ready to be eaten. According to him, Kilishi can be stored for as long as one year without getting spoilt,” he stated adding that apart from eating it as a snack, ‘one can entertain one’s guest with it or present it as a gift to friends and well wishers.
“When my grand-father settled here and started making Kilishi in this place (pointing at their family house) people from other parts of the metropolis trooped to our house to buy the delicacy.
“In fact, people came as far as Lagos, Port Harcourt and Enugu to buy it. Eventually it became the major source of income for the family. Our parents were taught how to prepare it and when they gave birth to us, we later learnt it from them,” he stated.
Speaking in the same vein, Muhammad Kamis also known as ‘Danlami’, one of the surviving grand children of late Suleiman told the Sunday Tribune that his grandfather introduced Kilishi business in Kaduna metropolis almost 100 years ago.
“Today, I am happy to tell you that the children of this great man and his grand children would be around 200. It is this business he floated many years ago that brought our family to limelight in Kaduna.
“I have been in this business for three decades. It was after my secondary school education I came to realise that I don’t have anything else to do in my life than this business,” Danlami reflected.
Looking back, the father of nine children remarked that he is grateful to god because he is happy with what he’s doing, noting that he got married and is raising a family through the business.
“Right now, two of my children are in the polytechnic and four of my daughters would be joining them this year, while the remaining three children are all in private schools,” he enthused.
However, in spite of the success story, Danlami who is also the branch chairman of Kilishi Sellers Association lamented that the economic crunch facing the country has also affected their business.
He said that apart from the family members who are in the business there are other people who have come from other parts of the region and have equally joined them.
“Things are very tough. It is no longer brisk business. The cost of cow, ingredients like dry pepper, fresh pepper, groundnut, ginger, seasoning that we use in preparing Kilishi has gone up unlike before when all these things were cheap,” he said.
When asked, whether successive governments have come to offer assistance to enhance their business, he responded in the negative adding that no bank loan had been offered either.
Findings by the Sunday Tribune revealed that some of kilishi sellers had applied for the loan, but they were not given.
However, according to him, this time around the union wants government intervention of assistance of a non-interest loan.
“If we can get this loan, we will use it to buy as many cows as possible. This is our major headache, instead of buying a cow every day at an exorbitant price.
and then