Eid al-Adha popularly called Eid-el-Kabir is here with us. The eid is simply called the festival of sacrifice to show how Prophet Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his only son Ismail until Allah provided a sacrificial lamb for the same purpose. It is a period Muslims all over the world use to reflect on their journeys so far and see how they can also live a life full of sacrifices both for our immediate community and humanity in general.
To me, the striking significance of Eid al-Adha to the youths is the willingness of Ismail, Prophet Ibrahim’s son to willfully without coercion or any gain whatsoever succumb to sacrifice. In Quran 37:102, the holy book recorded Ismail’s response when his father told him of Allah’s instruction to sacrifice him. “And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think.” He said, “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast.”
It is a celebration and at the same time a period for reflection. It is a time every Nigerian, especially our Muslim brothers should use to take a second look at Nigeria and take a deep reflection of where we are coming from and where perhaps we are headed to.
For the first time in our history as a country, we are faced with uncertainties and we have even reached that stage when many incurable pessimists have started questioning the continued unity of Africa’s most important country, apologies to Hillary Clinton. In the last two years especially, we have seen the rising wave of terror that hitherto was alien to us. Terrorism has left Nigeria and Nigerians known for their hospitable and happy disposition roundly disillusioned. It has given rise to heightened anger and brought out our old animosity. It has reawakened distrust, opened old wounds of ethno-religious divide, while at the same time exposing our better-forgotten weaknesses.
How we arrived at this crossroads in our national journey calls for concern. But for the 30 months old avoidable civil war that blighted our jolly ride after independence, Nigeria has always been a peaceful place. With the onset of democracy and the turn of the last decade, the country started witnessing some pockets of agitations mainly from the people of Niger Delta calling attention to what they believed was a criminal neglect of the region by successive governments.
What started as placard and leaf-carrying women soon gave way to an armed struggle and the next we had on our hands was an unprecedented militancy that threatened the very economic roots of our country. With the magnanimity of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, there was a win-win situation where the amnesty he granted allowed full crude oil exploration to continue in the region while the armed militants were rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society.
However, while the country was just shouting hurray on the victory in the Niger Delta, the fundamentalist Boko Haram raised its head in the north eastern part of Nigeria. It is no longer useful to us to begin to probe why and how they came into existence, but the damage they have done both to Nigeria in general and the north in particular has left us gasping for breath.
Today, one of the major reasons why no sane investor may want to come to Nigeria to do business boils down to this. What in the recent past Nigerians used to hear on air and watch on TV especially foreign TV channels is what has become a part of our daily lives. Bombings and maimings of innocent souls have become the order of the day.
The index of human development in northern Nigeria has never been more desperate than now. Whilst many Nigerians who may not be in a better position to appreciate the situation are blaming the president, many others are urging him to employ the Odi/Zaki Biam solution to wipe out the sect. Without claiming to know the mind of the President of the federal republic, I think that the Odi/Zaki Biam solution is wide off the mark and only suitable in an era where the rule of law was of a remote consideration. In a world where human rights and the sanctity of the individual person have been elevated to almost a scriptural status, allowing one innocent Nigerian to perish in search of any member of Boko Haram will still not solve the problem. And moreover, evidences have shown that military might alone has not been able to wipe out or even stem the tide of terrorism anywhere in the world.
This perhaps explains why the president against popular view appealed to the sect members to come out in the open, make their grievances known and accept the government’s unconditional pardon. The president has even gone to the extent of explaining that members of the sect are like our family members and nobody kills his family member at will. By setting up a committee to look into ways of dialoguing with the sect, the President has shown that uncommon and genuine desire for a peaceful resolution to this fiasco.
With the Eid al-Adha popularly called Eid-el-Kabir in local parlance, my take is that our Nigerian youths, especially the Muslim youths should not allow this opportunity slip by. Eid al-Adha signifies sacrifice and no sacrifice made for the continued existence of Nigeria will be considered too much. Boko Haram members are youths; the future of any given country or community. The victims in the cross fire between the military and Boko Haram are still the youths and no country can afford to look the other way while the youths take the wrong course that leads to nowhere.
While we should at all times make enormous sacrifices for the sake of our dear nation, I want our Muslim youths to use this special occasion to pray earnestly for Nigeria. We all stand to gain in a united, virile and economically stable country, while we all have a lot to lose in a country that is as fragile as ours now.
We as a matter of national urgency and sacrifice should resolve to put a stop to this insurgency. Just as Ismail was willing to lay down his life for sacrifice, we the Muslims youths must be more than willing to help the government in truncating the evil plans of those who want to make Nigeria, our Nigeria a place of desolation. We can do it. We can embrace the many laudable projects of this administration targeted towards the youths and by so doing get ourselves extricated from the vice grip of those who are bent on misinterpreting religion to suit their fiendish motives.
I am very very optimistic because I know that no matter what the evil ones are wont on doing; our beloved country is a rare one. It is not every day you find a country that survives a civil war and in so short a time moved on as if nothing happened. It is not every day you find a country that was on the brink given the aftermath of the infamous June 12, 1993 election and was able to pull through without much hurt. It is not every day you see a country with so much diversity and dissention in almost every national question and finds a consensus at the end of the day.
This more than any other thing else gives me the impression that though our journey maybe long, the path may be dark as night and the road rough and dreary, but we will get there.
–
Barr. George Alabh Turnah is the Special Adviser on Youth Matters to the MD/CEO, NDDC.
