Some youths, mainly Muslim faithful, organised themselves into groups yesterday to guard worshippers in some churches in parts of Minna, Niger State capital, as part of a solidarity gesture against the removal of oil subsidy.
LEADERSHIP observed in Kpakungu area of Minna that some of the youths earlier dispersed by the Police on Friday from protesting at the Polo Field, Minna, had regrouped to protect some of the churches.
It was observed that the youths mounted the gates of the churches as their Christian counterparts were worshipping, and conducted themselves peacefully in order not to cause any apprehensions.
The youths, under the umbrella of Concerned Minna Residents, were last Friday dispersed by the police for lack of identity, with the Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Mohammed Maishanu, saying they could not be granted a permit to hold protest.
The leader of the group, Awaal Gata, told LEADERSHIP in an interview at St Mary's Catholic Church, Kpakungu, said, "we are protecting our fellow Christian brothers and sisters to show the people that our leaders cannot use religion to divide us.
"In this struggle, we are determined to make sure that the removal of fuel subsidy will not stay; we want to send a signal - by coming here to protect our Christians friends and to show that we are one and our Christian brothers will do same on Friday," he added.
Asked whether they got police permit to do what they were doing, he said: "We are peaceful; we are here to protect ourselves and to emphasize that security is not only in the hands of the police - security is the responsibility of every citizen."
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Let me start my comment with a somewhat an unrelated story., Recently I found myself having to break the traffic law by driving against a short one way stretch of road inside VI to avoid what would have been a 1 hour traffic entanglement. When I asked the poice officer standing by how risky that would be with the notorious Lagos State LASTMA, he volulntered to escort me through the one way stretch. At the end my offer of a paltry N500 dash for morning tea, was emphatically rejected by this young Nigerian Police Officer, reminding me that I could have been his uncle needing help somewhere. Which brings me to the story of some muslim youths offering to guard christian churches in Minna. As symbolic as this might just be, this story, along with that of the yound police officer in Lagos, brings out the side of Nigeria which all of us must act in unison to preserve and protect - especially these days when our earlobes are being deafened by the screaming headlines of Boko Haram, retaliatory killings of innocent citizens, Fuel subsidy protests, corruption and apathy! I hope our youths all over the country will borrow a page from their counterparts in Minna to protect innocent and defenceless lives and property in their communities regardless of which part the country they might be.
Thanks to our Muslim brothers in Minna. They have presented all of us a good example of what it means to be a true worshipper of God and a true Nigerian, namely, being one's brother's keeper. Their example is one which all of us, irrespective of our religious inclinations, should emulate.