It was a wonderful day of joy and love for residents of Agwan Hausa, a predominant Muslim settlement located within Damangaza, a sub urban area of the FCT when a borehole, renovated Arabic school as well as food, clothing, toiletries and foot wears were donated to them by members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, International Christian Centre, ICC, Abuja.
Bosun Kuku of the Rapha Health, an off shoot of the RCCG, International Christian Centre who spoke to Inside FCT said, “We came here one day and discovered the village and saw the kind of water they were drinking; I know that I can’t use the water to wash my clothes, it was terrible”.
The initiative was then borne out of a humanitarian gesture and a call towards helping and empowering others. According to Bosun: “We decided to alleviate their plight by providing this borehole because we noticed that they had more kids here than adults, and their existing school is so porous; they study on sand –as in bare floor. We decided to help them renovate the Arabic school and give them a borehole”.
Angwan Hausa only has a manned borehole which was donated to it three years ago by an NGO, but was only functional for a while before it eventually broke down; repairing it was said to be beyond the power of the community.
The renovation of the Arabic school had already generated palpable tension before the handing over, resulting in attacks on one of the residents. Rumours had been making the rounds that the community chief planned to convert the Arabic school to a church, but it was later resolved to avoid unwarranted religious conflict.
In a chat with Ahmed Saidu, the victim of the brutal attack before the commissioning of the projects, he berated the activities of some hoodlums in the community who he tagged as being ignorant of the tenets of Quran and Islam.
“Islam doesn’t permit anybody to kill, Islam taught us to always love one another and show love to one another, not for us to force our religion on people. Those people who are causing problems in the name of Islam are the ones who are trying to spoil the religion.
“The same person who came here yesterday trying to break and destroy these things, he changed the input language on his phone to Arabic mistakenly and surprising enough, he couldn’t even read it, yet he will claim to be a good Muslim. If you come into the Muslim fold, you will know the type of people that are doing these things, anybody that has the understanding of Arabic or Quran would not behave in such a manner as he has done”, Saidu added.
Reacting to the verbal attack on a team of Rapha Health as well as sundry issues relating to religious intolerance in the country, Bosun Kuku stated that only tolerance can see Nigeria through the prevailing insecurity as a result of religious bigotry. “It is a problem of tolerance. But in our patience, we achieved what we wanted to achieve and we will give the much-needed clean water and go our way”.
Pastor Paul Sule of RCCG ICC said: “The issue of Boko Haram is an extreme case, it is not really in our culture, and we live together as Christians and Muslims. You might be surprised to know that even as a pastor, my daddy is still a Muslim, my mother was a Muslim until last year, but she is a Christian today. We still relate together as a family, all my siblings are now Christians today because I showed them love; love is all we need.
“We must win them over; we can’t fight them back because they are fighting us, the Bible enjoins us to show love; which is the supreme thing. Love overcomes, love conquers, love saves, and love is the answer to it all. We can’t be hostile, they will keep on attacking us, that is scriptural, that is prophetic, but we are under a duty to love them and that is exactly what we have done today. I want the Federal Government to be sincere in approaching issues; if you are Christian, love your Muslim brother. Some of these extremists we found here are not really from the core Muslims, they have another agenda, they are not the real Muslims”, Pastor Sule said.
The community head, Chief Abdulhameed who was so full of appreciation and gratitude for the laudable projects as well as clothing, food, mats and toiletries which were donated to them, also used the medium to solicit for electricity in the community and a palace in other to garner the support and obedience of the people. “If the government can help to bring light to the village, other people will come to live here. If other people come here and we mix up, most of the ignorance and illiteracy will vanish. By having different people here, you may come in contact with someone that is wiser than you and will enlighten you about the areas of life.
“If the government can help to provide a Palace, I will be very happy so that if any kind of circumstance like this comes up, most people who come to help us will have a designated place to be received and welcomed, and this will also grant more courage, authority and power to be able lead the followers in the community as a chief is supposed to; I will be able to talk and the people will accept it”, Chief Abdulhameed said.
The high point of the event was when snacks and drinks were being distributed just as it coincided with Mongrib (the evening break of Islamic fast). The initial orderly conduct later got rowdy as children, youths and adults were all seen scampering and pushing one another other in order to savour as much as they can; it was a pointer to the success of the event.
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