By Muhammad Isyaku Malumfashi
People nowadays cease to understand that everything in this life is ‘do me, I do you’. Nonetheless, very few people have the discretion of paying good for the bad input.
On several occasions, I have heard people complaining about why others don’t treat them as they had treated them or relate with them politely. But, unfortunately, even my humble self is not an escaped or sacred being to that temptation, to be honest.
People want to be treated more kindly than they treat others. But we often forget that life is “reciprocal”. We don’t get in return more than what we do give. However, the clean-minded people would always do good even if otherwise was done to them and vice-versa.
I recently witnessed fascinating neighbourly scenarios, which will be the foundation of this piece.
An elder brother from a distancing place narrated a heart-touching story between him and the community members in one of the states in the West. He lived there for a while as a civil servant. He left on transfer to another workplace.
That brother is a northerner who was lucky to have come from parents who nurtured good parental upbringing to their children so that they could live with others even when the parents are no more, and the children might still be young.
His transfer announcement threw the entire mosque to sombre as if life was about to be lost. Now, come to think of it. This man was transferred from North to West for public service. Still, he understands that despite the seeming differences in culture and religion to some extent. We’re all humans and citizens of this beloved country, so we can still live in peace and harmony. And that was the secret behind his love by those people.
Similarly, a female Christian neighbour in our school’s postgraduate hostel was robbed on her way back home to South-South from school for Christmas and New Year season. The news shocked us. We were all disturbed for not reaching out to her to sympathize because the phones were confiscated during the robbery, plus other valuables.
As a mature woman, she always takes precautions while interacting with us to maintain the opposite sex. You know North is very sensitive about religion. However, her friendly attitude made us so open to her. We once had a total blackout at the hostel for three weeks due to the theft of some expensive fuse from the transformer. This woman collected our laptops and phones down to the school’s clinic to charge. She still did that though their law didn’t allow anybody outside the clinic to charge there. Then, sometimes unknown to us, she would cook and take it to our rooms and plead with us to bless the food.
Another case study was a female Christian corp member serving in our school. The corp member hails from West, but she’s that kind of person one could describe as snobbish. She stays in the PG hostel with us too, but you hardly see her talking or greeting people. Her case was not a familiarity issue as many females in the hostels socialize far better than many males.
Her fate came during Christmas and New Year seasons. I’m a living witness because I didn’t travel earlier for that break until I submitted my chapter three to my supervisor. One day, when coming from the town, I overheard her complaining to someone on the phone that she’s tired of this Katsina, adding that the people are not as hospitable and accommodating as being alleged. Nobody wished her Merry Christmas except those calling on the phone from distant places. She added that some people even frowned at her when they met as if they wanted to fight her. The submission came to me as a shock!
More so, a respected former corp member and brother from North Central who served in my local government area recently unfolded his ordeal on how some of our people maltreated him during his national service. Even though he deserved to be retained but nepotism didn’t allow it.
Furthermore, I witness many such scenarios where in one way or the other, someone falls victim to “not being our tribe person or just for me been a Muslim and Hausa in the South”, but I never used that to stereotype the southerners. Because if some hurt me, I was accommodated and loved by others of the same tribe. Thus, every society has the good, the bad, and the ugly.
May we be the reason why others will anticipate our race.
Muhammad Isyaku Malumfashi sent this via muhammadisyakumalumfashi@gmail.com.
Wow! This is a knowledgeable experience, a memeory that any ine can use to live happier especially in my Country, Nigeria. May Allah bless you Muhammad.
Extremely fact, M . Muhd. This is what we people nowaday we totally lost. Our only main focus is blaming and blackmail each other not loving each other.