By Káyọ̀dé Oyèró

Last year, the National Youths Service Corps deployed me to Gombe, North-East Nigeria with batch A 2015 which rounded up April this year. For Gombe Kopas, service year began with a labyrinth of fun.

Gombe state was under sporadic terrorist attacks considering her proximity to Boko Haram’s base in Borno State so she was declared unsafe to hold the twenty-one days camping of 2500 corps members.

NYSC Jigawa permanent orientation camp was then opted for. You will relate better with the experience I am about to share if you were once or currently a serving corps member posted to a ministry as place of primary assignment (PPA).

After an eventful but strenuous three weeks of orientation, paramilitary drills, skill acquisition and entrepreneurial development activities in Fanisau, Dutse in Jigawa, the next phases were places of primary assignment and community development services – of course in Gombe state. Both of which were allotted according to the discipline and specialization of each corps member.

The road travel from Jigawa to Gombe was backbreaking and sickening but we took solace in sightseeing the wonders of nature. Peeping from the windows as the bus raced, we relished the crisp sights of beautiful landscapes, amazing rock formations, ravishing mountains, exquisite valleys, plains, scintillating escarpments, lush green plantations and thousand rows of ridges on hectares of farmlands that crisscrossed the entire north.

We were trapped in adventure as the vehicle ate the distance like a carnivorous beast to our destination – the Jewel in the Savannah.

Approaching Gombe, breathtaking sights of hillocks and mountains of different sizes and formation greeted us. As I would later know, these surrounding sentinels guard the state from invasions. Also, the ecosystem was sane not like Lagos or elsewhere, at least that I have been too.

The weather was soothingly cold during rainy and harmattan seasons that we dressed and posed for shots that we uploaded on social media like we were in the Diaspora. Gombe state is indeed the jewel in the savannah!

I, alongside seven others had our place of primary assignment as Gombe State Ministry of Information and Orientation. Some of us liked the idea of serving in a ministry. Not as though there was no work to be done in ministries but it allowed us more time to do other things for ourselves.

Other things like extra-place of primary assignment or as we called it: secondary place of assignment (SPA), of course which we assigned ourselves. Some friends even had two, three or even four SPAs. The idea of multiple streams of income was just too fascinating for us.

I was not left out of the SPA runs but I had just one; writing gulped a lump portion of my time. I moonlighted as a Literature-in-English teacher at a private secondary school, Al-heri Model College, which was located in the heart of Gombe. The pay was meager but the monthly N8, 500 footed some basic bills. It helped whenever federal allowance tarried.

I taught at Al-heri Model College for eight months but something struck me real hard all through my stay there. It was the way the school was run. It was hard for me, an insider to tell whether the school ran Islamic or Christian ideologies. The system was just balanced. Religion or fanatism was out of operation.

Muslim students freely wore Hijabs to school while Christian students used beret coverings on their heads; some even left their head without covering – out of choice. No qualms. Both Muslim and Christian students had morning devotions and briefings together three times a week after which the Muslims had their separate devotions for two spaced days while the Christians also had theirs simultaneously – at separate halls though.

And on Fridays, the Muslims had their special prayers at noon while the Christians also had their fellowship same time different venues. The staff also comprised both faiths. The management respected the religion of both staff and students and did not intimidate anyone, be it staff or student – at least on religion basis. There was no enforcement of belief as far as faith is concerned.

No boundary trespassed. Nothing like compulsion of a religion dos or don’ts on another like we now have in the State of Osun.

Introducing policies such as Muslim students wearing Hijabs to schools running with well-articulated Christian doctrine and forbidding Christian students from wearing their choir robes to schools run with clearly-defined Islamic orientation is but a shame to the priorities of the Ogbeni-led administration.

Besides, there are more important issues for him to focus on; issues as defraying months of unpaid salaries of workers in the state is enough for Ogbeni to tackle not the frivolities of digging the ditch of schism and flaming the embers of religious intolerance by enforcing the doctrinal ideals of one religion on another.

Differences in religion have done more harm than good for this country in past and recent times. The gross firing of workers of the Christian faith from Kaduna South for no particular reason, massive demolition of houses with Christians as owners amongst other government-orchestrated instruments of oppression on Christians in far Kaduna South in Kaduna state is backward to the ideals of democracy, tolerance and unity that the new Nigeria is determined to promote.

We have suffered a lot in the hands of you-don’t-belong-to-my-religion syndrome and we cannot afford to walk that path anymore.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai should please take caution and tread softly and borrow a leaf from the operations of Al-heri Model School, Gombe and stop running the affairs of their states with extremist ideology, else, another tower of Babel may be looming somewhere in their states.

The two brothers in religious fanatism and extremism should be reminded that the gross votes of electorates across faith and creed divides got them into power thus should get busy with real issues of economic and infrastructural development that would make standard of living easy for her citizenry.

The duo should be reminded that they are called to serve the interests of all and not some. Like President Muhammadu Buhari rightly said on May 29 2015, it is time the duo started living and running the affairs of their states by the motto: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”

The labours of our heroes past shall not be in vain. Religion will not thwart us apart. Nigeria will live and not die. God bless Nigeria.

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

‘Kayode is a product of Grace and a Bridge-builder. He writes from Lagos, South-West, Nigeria. His works aim to inform, transform and reform. Please feel free to share this piece if you think it is worth it. You can as well send him your views via his mail: optimistjosh@gmail.com or tweet him @Imodoye_1