"…Writing is better than silence…’ – Sheikh Muhammad Al-Amin El-Kanemi.
‘If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’. - BIBLE, I John 4:20
I have in many ways tried to address the issue of ‘difference’—religious difference in particular—in Arewa, as
the son of the soil, who though a youth, is very concerned, and feels in a good position to address the issue. I wish I could devise other more polite manner to bring to your to notice dear brothers and sisters, on the feelings of polarity you have developed against your brothers of not even ‘opposite’ but ‘different’ faith that, you cannot change geography, no matter how you try to. The heading of this piece is somehow very odd and provoking, I know, but I didn’t mean to provoke.

I have observed time and again, from following BBC Hausa ‘Ra’ayi riga’, and in most of the social media, and come to the realization that, Northern non-Muslims have been traumatized by the activities of some Muslims Northerners in the name of Islamizing the North, often involving attacks against them, and it seemed they ‘chose’ not to recover, neither do they also ‘chose’ to realize that those people are not good Muslims, as they claimed. Therefore, they developed some sort of ‘anti Muslims’ feelings. And I could understand. Sincerely, just like no Muslim will find any attempt to destabilize their religious wellbeing well, no Christian will. And because everything in the North is, it is no surprise that, we are choosing to ignore each other because of religion, when all we need is to sit down and resolve our problems within ourselves and forge ahead, but instead lagged behind on almost everything, because we hate each other.

Today non-Muslims find it better to be called Christian Northerners than in generality, Northerners (Yan Arewa); and much worse, even find the Southerners of the same faith more intimate to them than the Northern Muslims, who in the real sense, are almost blood related, if you dig down a bit deeper. Be that it may, this time is time to sit down and ask powerful questions. And the first question I have in mind is: what have we benefitted from hating each other? What? Does it bring 24hr electricity to the North? Does it bring free medication? Does it get a good job for you? Do you school for free? Do you get three square meals a day? Of your choice? Most importantly, does it bring peace? Just tell me, what do you get? We can hate each other and die, that is all, nothing good comes out from it. This Man, Laurell K. Hamilton, is right here:

‘Hatred is a cold fire, and it gives no warmth’.

Does it? No! We can neither stop Christianity nor Islam, and indeed, so also is practicing them. We cannot do anything about it. God Almighty created us and made Arewa our place of birth; made Islam and Christianity religions of the land where both of the believers in both the two faiths are made to dwell. Nowhere in the Bible or Qur’an did God said that Arewa is for Muslims or Christians, nowhere, that I do not need be a Pastor or Malam to know. If God didn’t want us to live together, as Muslims and Christians, He would have created to worlds or even more: Muslim World and Christian World…but.

If we truly love God, and accept His verdict as right, we must love each other.
‘If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’. BIBLE, I John 4:20

And the questions that we can draw from this however are: do we love the Almajiri in almost all the streets of the North? Because they are Muslims, should we ignore them when they come to us, (or do they even need to come us?) for help? We have been subject to different abuses the world over and most people hang on to the poor Almajiris on our streets to cast all sorts of abuses that they find pleasing to use; and some of us will still say, it doesn’t matter, I am not a Muslim, let the worst happen, just because of hatred.

‘Hatred makes us all ugly’. LAURELL K. HAMILTON, Burnt Offerings.

That is why we all deserve every bit of the abuses and discrimination we face at all times.
Our clerics—pastors and malams—have indoctrinated us that, Christians hate Muslims with passion, and vice versa, if not intentionally, indirectly, mostly by some of their utterances. And a saying goes;

‘The worst enemy is one whose doctrines are founded in hate and are thus beyond debate’. TOBSHA LEARNER, The Witch of Cologne

(Do they know? But they should know)

I have been a victim of this for long until recently when I sat myself down and observe the various things happening around me and realize that they are all rooting from the hatred. I was deeply sad thinking that we have thus failed, and felt guilty from the moment. However, a sudden brainwave, (or is it Nelson Mandela himself?) came to my rescue.

He said here:

‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite’. NELSON MANDELA, Autobiography.

This brought back to life my optimism which I completely lost to distress and anger. All that remained from the sieve in my mind that I did, was the task ahead. And my optimism was deepened by another saying that goes:

‘I think that hate is a thing, a feeling, that can only exist where there is no understanding’. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Forward to Sweet Bird of Youth

And:

‘We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them, because we hate them’. CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon

Yes, there is no understanding among us, as put in the first; and as in the second, we don’t want to understand. On this, I do not blame any side, even if there is to, because it will only infuriate the more, and heap more tension and confusion.
I write this piece certainly to plead with all Northerners, particularly the non-Muslims, to come to common terms with each other and face the challenges of our time. Just see, we are not normal in almost everything: we don’t know which school to take our kids, because there is no good one in our land; our children and wives die, because there are no affordable good hospitals; we don’t know what our leaders do, or who to even call our leaders because they have confused us all knowing well the kind of our mind frames; we don’t know who to take our complains to because no one is in charge and no central body; you can go on and on, no end to it.

But they say, the resultant of long hatred is always ‘love’. This is today very obvious. Hatred, I can say is one, in the stages of love. Example, detergents, for one brand to do good, it needs a fierce rival. Therefore, Klin do need Omo Multi Action to do good; and that is why even in politics, PDP will need CPC or ACN, to perform better. From this, we would see that, the competition in the detergent market will be incredibly high, and both sides will perform good. But however, two likely things will happen: one, at some stage, one party may give up because it no more has what it takes to compete, and, as the only option, will resort to partner with the same rival it used to compete with, and even that one too may be facing the same thing, but only manages to persist. Here, when they erstwhile rivals merge, they will both help and bring back each other to life, they will gasp up and become stronger together.

And if that did not happen, their competition will give way to a third brand, lets say, Aerial—and it will naturally come because, if the competition between the two is in the top, the market will be hit, everyone will want to join the detergent market, assuming it is the most profitable business. Aerial will join, and will come in, from the start, very powerful, such that, it will overpower both Klin and Omo and dominate the market. What would the two—Klin and Omo—do to reclaim their places in the market? Come together, simple, like recently Ecko Bank and Oceanic Bank did. And that happens naturally, today. What did HATRED bring? LOVE.

Now, is not enough, here are the data, do the math for yourself: replace Klin and Omo with Muslims or Christians, respectfully or reversely, then, Aerial, with the problems that confronts us in the North—the bombs, the poverty, the illiteracy, all—and try adding. If it adds up, do not accuse me of having a discourse with an expert economist before writing this piece.

I am writing this to all Northern Christians, to please do away with hatred and come to common terms with all well meaning Northerners and work towards saving our people from total collapse and also make the future brighter for our children. I have written this to you because I believe, like El Kanemi said, ‘… writing is better than silence…’ You can choose to ignore my call, but be sure, your great grandchild will curse you, if you do, hundred years after your dead. And when you die also, do not expect to wake up smiling, because you don’t miss Church service every Sunday while you are alive, no! But if you hope for heaven, love your brothers and sisters, is not too late. SAY NO TO HATRED:

‘Hatred is the atmosphere of hell’. MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER, Proverbial Philosophy.

I SAY NO TO HATRED, LETS FREE OURSELVES FROM THIS BONDAGE.

Abdulhamid Al-Gazali
Unuversity of Maiduguri
Algazali04@yahoo.com
(ON FACEBOOK:
http://www./269397079745572/)