Spare a thought

Millions of Nigerians will know about the end of fasting in the month of Ramadan, but they will be forgiven for not celebrating  the end of a vital act of worship with the encouraged traditional feasting and other festivities. There will be joy at the privilege to have performed a demanding and rewarding act of faith, but these are difficult times. If the smiles and the laughter are muted, if children in many communities feel the difference this Sallah, if traditional festivals are cancelled and hearts remain heavy, it will be because many Muslim communities are going through some very difficult and trying times. Spare a thought, therefore, if you are free of the burdens of crushing poverty, fear and uncertainty, or the unusual feeling that not much will change, even on those few moments when divine power decrees that we celebrate and look forward to more cheerful days.

Spare a thought for millions of individuals and families who ended the fasting day without any food to break the fast with; for entire families that had to jostle with traditional beggars and destitutes for Iftar food this year, masking the shame and humiliation of poverty with children who stay in long queues for food alms. Spare a thought for families that have to share food between the two meals allowed during Ramadan, and children who can neither fast nor feed. Spare a thought for those blessed enough to go for Umrah (in some cases with retinues), but not blessed enough to feed neighbours during the Ramadan. Spare a thought for children who will not have new Sallah dress this year, and those who have to trudge longer distances for food on Sallah day. Spare a thought for those who do not know it is a moment for celebration, for those for whom the street is home: the mentally ill in the rains, the permanently homeless and those permanently alienated by lifestyles. Spare a thought for those incarcerated for just and unjust causes.

Spare a thought for those who will be celebrating this Sallah as Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs), unlike previous years when they celebrated at home in many villages and communities. Spare a thought for families who have lost bread winners to bandits in the last few months or weeks. Spare a thought for dispersed communities, for those who cannot visit relatives on Sallah days because it is unsafe to move around. Spare a thought for communities that have not prayed the Eid in the normal manner out of fear that bandits will attack the prayer ground just to make the point that they are in control. Spare a thought for communities that will be reminded of their dire exposure to insecurity by decisions to cancel ancient Sallah celebrations.

Spare a thought for communities whose moods will be affected by certain, impending famine because their farms have remained uncultivated this far into the rainy season. Spare a thought for kidnap victims whose fate hangs on negotiations and moods of kidnappers, and relations frantically trying to raise huge ransom. Spare a thought for men and women under arms and under intense pressure to end run-away banditry in the North and kidnapping in most of the nation. Spare a thought for prominent kidnap victims such as the Magajin Garin Daura, and unknown victims caught in an expanding wave of an industry of kidnapping. Spare a thought for millions of victims of the terror of Boko Haram, for hostages who may have lost all hope of being freed, and communities resigning to living with terror next door. Spare a thought for Dasuki and the Zakzaki family and those Nigerians who agonize over the many standards of justice under a leadership sworn to uphold the rule of law.

Spare a thought for a Muslim community that showed its raw wounds from its exposure to the bitter partisanship of the last elections during Tafsirs and other public outings of clerics. Spare a thought for an Umma desperate for leadership that  should improve its unity and assure it that  it can make sense of what is the appropriate response to its many challenges. Spare a thought for a community that is being pulled further apart by unending inter and intra-sect divides, for a faith dealing with rising walls around Shia, Izala and Darika followings, while threats from Boko Haram and allied forces exploit a hopeless impotence or total absence of  effective leadership among Nigerian Muslims. Spare a thought for religious and traditional rulers who are muscled by politicians and partisan interests to the point of irrelevance. Spare a thought for aggrieved and threatened poor who have no recourse to justice because it is too expensive too cumbersome or too removed from them.

Spare a thought for leaders who took oaths last week, many of them while fasting, to make a difference in our lives. Spare a thought for those with experiences of the burden of leadership, the leaders who will make amends or make more enemies among the people. Spare a thought for leaders who are exercising fresh mandates, whose enthusiasm, competence and integrity will soon be tested by the challenges of addressing poverty, insecurity and desperation. Spare a thought for President Muhammadu Buhari whose second watch could very well mark a major turning point for better or far worse for a nation on the edge. Spare a thought for his wife who appears bent on being, at best, his voice, or at worst his counter-voice.