“Just leave am for god” – Amadi Ora
It was October 1, and trust me, many parts of Nigeria were green and white. Some parents went the extra mile, dying their kids’ hair with national colour, my kids went to a party and came back with green and white faces.
In Abuja, many cars had flags flying, whether at full or half-mast was inconsequential. Activists, unionists and leaders of all shades said a word or two, radio and television had Independence Day tailored programmes, and newspapers had commentaries from my comrades in pen arm.
The message was basically of two kinds – Hope and Despair: For the hopeful, you could not discount their pride in the Nigerian spirit. And for those that despaired, the tales of woes were inevitable, and you dare add true. Many compared the nation to the 54-year-old crawling man, others said; the fact that we are still a nation is a miracle and a plus.
Talking about miracles, my eye caught the attention of a friend’s comment, “just leave am for god”, Amadi Ora said, “the damage this singular statement has done us in this country is immeasurable!” I could not but agree, as I reflected on that comment, Sallah was upon us as a nation, and I decided that without sounding like some episcopal theologian or expert in religion my admonition will take this dimension.
Kindly and patiently follow me…Are you a Christian, did you eat Sallah meat? I enjoyed my childhood so much that most times I detest growing up and old. If there was a reason I did not like failing in school, especially any term that preceded the festive period, it was because I hated missing the visits and festive roaming because of poor performance reprimands. Those visits were worth the fun of a whole year.
Like Christmas, Ileya (Eid-el-Kabir) used to be fun for us, even as Christians. We would put on our best clothes and go visiting our Muslim families and friends; they would do same during Christmas. The only difference I knew between Christians and Muslims then was the place of worship – we went to church; they went to mosque. Shikena!
Every year, our freezer and pots were filled with “Rago leya, nama Sallah or Eran Ileya” (sallah meat) that would last several days after the celebration. I recount the names of those who would bring “abinchin Sallah or ounje odun” and at what time it would be. Any knock on our door, after the family altar, would usher in the first set of pounded yam and greatly garnished Egusi soup (a special recipe reserved for that season). It is followed by a variety of rice and meat from different cooks. But as we started growing, things changed.
There is this hypothesis forbidding the eating of “such meats”. Some tag it “meat offered to idols” while some just hate the fact that it was a ram. Some people would eat the chicken and the cow meat served on Sallah day but not the ram (though all came from the same pot). I have no intention of going into the theology of difference in Gods of Christians and Muslims.
The crux of this piece is not to establish whether eating Sallah meat is right or wrong for a Christian! On the contrary, as time past, with numerous ethno-religious crises, with building hatred; with the ‘Islamic’ agenda, with the “Christians” have it spirit; with who took us to OIC and who should bring us out; with how many Muslims have been IG, or how many Christians would be ABU vice chancellor becoming the issues, suddenly we are not sure what to leave to God and what not to leave to Him.
Leaders stole us to the gutters, we left it to god in establishing the ethnicity of the thief, and we refused to leave it with God when it came to the faith of the thief. Did we leave Ebola to God, or we left it to fate, is the light (electricity) meant for Nigerians in the hands of god, have we left our courage to god, in return for cowardice?
Let me cap it all with this story. When I was teaching in a private nursery and primary school, I had both Christian and Muslim students in my primary 1 class. On resumption after a Sallah break, one of the kids ran to me with a parcel of meat and said excitedly, “Uncle, I brought this for you”. Would you have expected me to reject such from a kid whose sole understanding of Sallah was a period of celebration just like birthday or Christmas and a time to share with his loved ones?
Nigerians are so religions yet with no godliness, we live in an era of mutual suspicion, we have lost our innocence from the moment we started leaving what God intended for us to do, in the hands of god. So, while the flag glowed in the blazing sun, and I remain an unrepentant optimist yet a cautious one about the Nigeria dream, while I ate my Sallah meat till my tooth ached, and though I still expect the main Sallah meat from you, I reflected that on the October 1, there was no flag hoisted anywhere around Nigeria’s foremost Independence Square – Tafawa Balewa. Could it be that, we equally left that to God. While we bicker on whether to eat Sallah ram together as a nation, one wonders when we will get it right. Only time will tell
