The rate at which time flies nowadays is phenomenal, and it challenges
us to set and pursue our order of priorities diligently and
appropriately. The euphoria of welcoming the month of Ramadan has
hardly died down when we begin to bid it farewell and welcome Eid
el-Fitr (Sallah), which we look forward to celebrating tomorrow or the
day after tomorrow asthe case may be.
Interestingly, Eid in Nigeria inspires such a unique excitement, which
surpasses what is obtained even in the countries regarded as the
cradle of Islam, the rich Arabian Gulf countries. Perhaps it is the
intense pressure an average Nigerian goes through in order to secure
and provide Eid related stuff and services to themselvesand their
dependents that provides the Eid atmosphere with such an exuberant
pulse that inspires tremendous enthusiasm for it.
For instance, the stress associated with the hustle and bustle to
secure the means to provide kayan sallah, tuwon sallah and indeed some
cash for yawon Sallah and other Eid-related activities is so enormous
that the joy of aperson who manages to secure such things in time
extends into the Eid days and gives the event such aspecial taste of
joy.
By the way, it is really pathetic that an average Nigerian Muslim has
become so poor to the extent that he merely looks forward to
celebrating the Eid in terms of enjoying some relatively better
quality foods and wearing some new clothes, which he ordinarily only
dreams of. This explains his apparent high consumption of the rare and
relatively abundant delicacies available during the Eid festivities.
For instance, he consumes a lot of meat, particularly during the Eid
el-Adha when meat is relatively easily accessible,apparently to quench
his burning appetite for it once and for all, as a resultof which he
upsets his stomach and ends up withdiarrhoea and other stomach-related
illnesses.
Incidentally, hardly anybody raises alarm overthis annual predictable
endemic diarrhoea amongst many people much less take any precautionary
measures. In many places, though, towards the Eid el-Adha
inparticular, demand for dates and kanwa increasesdramatically on the
assumption that they cureor perhaps prevent diarrhoea, which many
people deliberately brace up to suffer as a result of such high, and
sometimes reckless, intake of meat within a short period of time.
However, while the poor Nigerian chap regards such things as rare
luxuries, his counterpart inthe rich Arabian Gulf doesn't have that
level of joy during Eid because he is not looking forward to enjoying
anything he has taken for granted, which further explains the relative
dullness of the Eidin this region compared with countries like
Nigeria.
This is in spite of the enormous challenges associated with the
preparation for the festivities in Nigeria. For instance, tailors, who
are notorious for breaking promises, deprive many people of the joy of
wearing their kayan sallah, which inevitably affects their sense of
excitement during the festivities.
Unfortunately, this year's Eid will be particularly unexciting to many
people due to two prevailing phenomena; one of which is natural and
the other largely leadership-inflicted. The natural one is, of course,
the current climatic condition which has already caused floods in many
areas, while the leadership-inflicted is the persistent deterioration
ofsecurity situation in the country, which, for instance, is
presumably the real reason behind thesuspension of the grand durbar
festivities in Kano by the state's emirate council.
Although the Eid el-Fitr is called Karamar Sallah suggesting that it
is less significant than Eid el-Adha (Babbar Sallah), the former
inspires more enthusiasm than the latter. This is quite understandable
because the Eid el-Fitr falls after nine months from the last Eid
occasion while Eid el-Adha falls just a little over two months from
marking the Eid el-Fitr. Also, the Eid el-Fitr is immediately preceded
by Ramadan fasting of one full month, the ending of which attracts
celebration.
Ironically, however, despite the festive mood and celebratory
atmosphere of Eid in Nigeria, there emerges an unnecessary wave of
hunger of a sort as result of a self-inflicted food scarcity during
the Eid days. Although I don't know what obtains elsewhere in the
country, in my hometown of Kano and perhaps in the neighbouring
states, one can't understand why, though so many households offer
tuwon sallah, they hardly care to prepare any other meal for the rest
of the day and perhaps for the next day. Instead they prefer to keep
warming the same tuwon sallah repeatedly to have it for launch and for
dinner as well.
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