By Yemi Ogunsola
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The annual casualty can, and, must stop. Men must be careful around spiritual powers. We are mortal. They are not. Al-Saitan, especially, is not known for his sense of humour.
He probably takes the stoning serious (an affront to his person) whereas men mean it as merely symbolic with many smiling while going through the motions.Turning the other cheek is for Anobi Yisa and understandably very, very, very few of his fans.
With Al-Saitan, it is the old stuff: ‘An eye for an eye’. Even worse. He replies earth clods with iron bars. And why risk life and limb to stone an entity who has survived the ordeal for generations — and would be there next year? By the way, who wouldn’t agree that stoning the Satan outside us is far less important than stoning the “Satan” inside us which causes poor management and poor crowd control where human lives are involved.
So, my first suggestion: de-emphasise the stoning. Make it optional. Two, top-class crowd control. Don’t let the rams say ‘serves them right’. As for those praying to die in Mecca, be they reminded that unlike in some Nigerian exams, “passing” to “Heaven” is not a function of the exam centre. And do all Mecca indigenes make Al-Janna? As for me, I make a careful round of my Muslim friends’ houses armed with a saka (sack). I simply drop it , wide open and watch closely how much they love me by the number and sizes of meat chunks that join their mates. It never fails. Every year. Invariably, I end up consuming more Ileya meat than the average Muslim…Why bother my head whether it was Isiaka or Ismaila that was almost sacrificed. For me, the psycho-social dividends of improved human relations is the real thing… I try to “retaliate” at New Year. May Al- Saitan, (eni eko) never spoil our Ileya joys again. Aaaamiiina!
