Words are still roaming around my heart, but I can’t get them all out at once, so i bring myself to a stop at this junction, and if this article affect the mindset of even a single person, then I’m satisfied and I’m glad I got to speak my mind, lots of love.
Yesterday being Sunday 14th August, I arrived at Dadin kowa around 5pm, reaching my destination I learned that there was tension earlier that day, I’m not going much into details about what brought the occurrence, because I wasn’t present, the only sure detail is that the tension was a gang fight, and later on turned religious, and I cannot point a finger because I only heard my people’s side of the story, not suitable for judgement, that wasn’t the first of it’s kind, it always starts as a gang fight between thugs on their personal affairs, then later on it becomes a crises between Christians and Muslims, it has happened several times and each time it does, there’s always a retaliation afterwards when it gets dark, they regroup, pick weapons and attack, the later result is always worse than the first, so the night was long, we had to stay woke and keep watch, anyways that’s not the point I’m trying to pen.
The following day Elizabeth came to visit, after walking her home on my way back via the market route, everything looked normal as though nothing happened, the market was lively, where Christians were buying from Muslims, and vice versa, just as any other market, still not the point I’m trying to make.
From time, tracing the history of such crises, we’ve been hiding behind the curtains of religion and killing lives of people we spend each day with, people we work with, farmers that produce our food, business men, even women and children, we’ve burnt our neighbors houses, properties, and ever since, we haven’t been the same till date, especially when elections approach, why is that? Only God knows, but what we all know is this, you cannot be bitten twice by the same snake, neither should you fall twice in the same pothole, but for several years a single weapon is used against us, the worst part is, we’re always the one’s holding the weapon, Religion.
My interest is not on the causes of these crises, let’s keep aside what led to what, or who caused what, what baffles me is this, so far, from experience to stories I haven’t come across where a single group of people live, there will always be diversity in traditions, cultures, beliefs, norms and religion, our diversity makes us the community we are, learning from each others perspectives and believes, the beauty in existence, and together we enjoy the blessings that nature holds, basically one does not exist without the other, God in his own intelligence made this the way it is, the question here is, if there won’t be a day I open my eyes and tell myself that there is not a single Christian in my community or state, if you cannot wake up one day and all the Muslims around you are eliminated or exiled, if you have to wake up to this faces everyday of your life, if you have to do business with these faces every time, if you have to board the same bus and go to work in the same office, then why do we have to shed each other’s blood heartlessly, when will we start telling ourselves the obvious truth, when will our mindset change for the better? Why are we hypocritical with each other, why the hate when there’s enough love to go round, Nigeria, what way?
It’s high time we allow ourselves think out of the box we are caged in, we can all live in this world peacefully, it’s too big, there’s always rots in every society, we should learn to treat criminals as the criminals they are and not call them names or associate them with religions and if you take a chill pill I’ll eventually die if you hate seeing me, but so will you, so will all of us, let it happen naturally, we too dey rush ahbegg.
Words are still roaming around my heart, but I can’t get them all out at once, so I bring myself to a stop at this junction, and if this article affect the mindset of even a single person, then I’m satisfied and I’m glad I got to speak my mind, lots of love.
Baihaqi Muhammed Shehu
From Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi.