What a lengthy fervent prayer from yesternight by Muslims in a nearby mosque to my place. Their noisy chants penetrating everywhere due to hours of “Band B” power failure. How I wish their faith in Allah reflects in their attitude, character & Integrity and interactions with fellow citizens across tribe & religious divide. The nation will be better
How I wish this attribute of faith in Allah/God and that of millions of other kurukere kurukere Muslims & Christians reflect in their choices of leaders and government, lifestyles, business ethics, etc then Nigeria will be a good place to live and have no place for mass poverty, hunger, killings, rogue leaders, maiming & rigging during elections.
These midnight prayer warriors remind me of my late grandmother, Iyagbore who was also a kurukere Muslim, always praying alone at night or in the mosque, and with her fellow Alasalatu women during muslim festivals in the 70s – 80s. But I also remember that at that time, there was Electricity Company of Nigeria, ECN later turned NEPA that used to give us light almost 24 hours. I also remember that there were public water taps that dotted Igbore – Ago Oba – Itori areas of Abeokuta that supplied water to the general public including students in primary & secondary schools who always used their two palms to drink from those public taps. Some stubborn pupils would even shower themselves until they were chased away from the tap by public spirited adults. It was great fun then. Nothing like bottled or “pure water”, we all used water from public taps or installed in homes. Humanity still ruled then before the invasion of heartless rogue capitalists who sold the inhuman profit motive concept that government has no business with the welfare of its citizens so that they would have more public fund to loot.
I remember that in 1980 when I joined NTA Abeokuta, my monthly salary was far less than One Hundred and fifty Naira (N150). Yet, I was able to feed myself, four of my siblings (all of us motherless & became orphans few years later) and my grandma, Iyagbore who was also contributing her little from her indoor “wosi wosi” trade since she was no more active in active trading due to her old age. Tell my Iyagbore not to work and rest, her routine answer always was, “emi Asabi, nko le ma sise laye mi. Ise yi mo se ti mo fi ko ile meji, nko le fi le o” (I Asabi, I can’t stop working in my life. I can never stop the trade that fetched me two houses). Laughable though, but she kept to her trade. After her death, some of Iyagbore’s customers came to pay their debts but I told them to forget it for being honest debtors.
I remember I gained admission into UNIFE now OAU as an orphan in 1986, and with some savings from my salary and some unforgettable assistance, I was able to graduate after 13 years due to three illegal rustication and expulsions and detention unleashed on me as a principled student leader by the university authorities and Babaginda illegal regime.
I remember that on the long major road of Igbore in the 70s – 80s, there were one central mosque, two churches and one Iledi Ogboni. But today, mosques and churches are uncountable like in other towns in Nigeria. One can count the number of Muslims going to Mecca in Igbore and Abeokuta then. I’m not sure there was kurukere to Jerusalem pilgrimage then. None to the best of my knowledge. But now, kurukere Muslims and Christians pilgrims are everywhere and succesive governments wasted government fund that would have been used for education, health and social infrastructure, to send people to Mecca and Jerusalem. Tinubu government is subsidizing this year Mecca trip for pilgrims with a whooping sum of N90bn despite their lies that government is broke to subsidize education, petrol, electricity. With this profilgacy, I think those people who still believe government is broke are now free to get their brains examined. . It wasn’t like that in those years for government to put its long nose into people’s private religious affair. No religion makes pilgrimage compulsory for faithful. It’s only “if you can afford it”
From 1970s – 1980s to now, Nigeria has witnessed population explosion of kurukere kurukere ardent Muslims and Christians in millions folds. Almost every person you meet on the road or in the neighborhood is Alfa, Alhaji, Imam, Alhaja, Pastor, Reverend, Shepherd, Woli, GO, Pastor Mrs. churches and mosques everywhere, prayer and fasting everytime.
There’s no house or family without at least a prayer warrior helping to fight Satan and wade off enemies. There’s no house / family without Alhaji, Alhaja, JP. Yet, there’s no family that doesn’t have a member that had escaped abroad and there’s no family that doesn’t have people who want to desperately escape “JAPA” to America, Europe, Asia or just anywhere due to increasing economic hardship, insecurity and bad governance unleashed by heartless rogue political ruling elites who also profess one faith or the other.
Something must be wrong with us as a prayerful people of God/Allah, because the more churches and mosques we build , the more God fearing prayerful criminals we produce, the more the nation gets worse, the poorer, hungrier and unsafe most people become.
Lesson is that prayer and fasting without character, integrity, national ethics, collective resolve to fight for good governance, nothing concrete will change. China is a good example that kurukere kurukere religionism without serious national focus on technological and scientific development, is a waste of time.
Time off. The sleep is finally here. Good morning
Adeola Soetan
08037207856
