With the ongoing stubborn weather (Harmattan) in the extreme northern parts of Nigeria, one sleeps even unwillingly most at times, especially in the morning hours. Whether you like it or not, the weather will induce you to sleep during this holiday.
I have been trying to terminate its act of inducing sleep in me especially after Subhi (Morning) prayers but all efforts proved abortive until recently when I discovered that social media is the weapon against it.
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Before I discovered social media to be a helping instrument in that aspect, I tried some other things like reciting the Qur’an, reading a book/novel, or even reading them from mobile apps but it didn’t work.
Until I noticed that any day I decided to check messages from my social media accounts (Facebook and WhatsApp), sleep would not come around.
Subhanallah! So, sleeping doesn’t surface if I open social media immediately after the Subhi prayer and morning supplications. Although, I used to start dozing even while still praying/supplicating. But once I opened Facebook/WhatsApp, it’s gone.
After I discovered this phenomenon, I said I needed to manipulate the development and strategize it to have it in pros instead of cons. There’s no way I can open social media instead of opening the Qur’an or books. It would be a misplacement of priority at its peak. And I should be the one using social media and not otherwise, nor should I surrender to sleeping desire when I cannot allow the weather to make a jest of me.
So, side by side, are my Qur’an, book, and phone if I should succeed in reciting/reading in the morning at this period. Once the sleep showed up in the process of reading, I grabbed my phone and before you know it, it’s gone; then back to reading. Social networking has become my antidote against unwanted sleeping.
Mohammed Aliyu Baba, a student of ABU, Zaria, writes from Kaduna
