By Awaal Gata
During festive periods, Abuja’s city centre is always empty, as many residents prefer to travel to their hometowns for the celebration. This year’s Eid-el-Kabir, which was celebrated on Saturday, was however not different.
The roads were empty, and so were the amusement parks.
But in the satellite towns, as well as in the rural areas, where the original inhabitants are mainly based, celebrations were in top gears.
In Zuba, as early as 8:30am, the intermittent drizzle which the day started with did not stop the hundreds of people who lined the Eid ground waiting for the Agora, the town’s monarch, Alhaji Muhammad Bello, and the Chief Imam to say the Eid prayer. By 9:05am, they arrived. By 9:20am, the prayer and the sermon were said. By 9:30, the Imam’s ram was slaughtered to signify that it was time for the people who could afford the livestock sacrifice to go ahead. And thence the Agora, atop his colourfully dressed horse, began a procession back to his palace, with drummers and trumpeters determining the movements.
The Agora, in his Sallah message, called on parents to accord priority to education of their girl-children.
He said parents should always exhibit good moral attitude towards their children.
He noted that education is the only legacy that every parent should give to their children so that they become meaningful and contribute to the development of the society.
According to him, the era in which parents send their children, especially girls, to hawk banana, orange, eggs and pure water on the street is over, saying it is a collective responsibility of both parents and stakeholders to support the education of every child.
“It is high time parent’s accord priority in their child’s education, both Islamic and western education especially now that the world has become a global village because the era of where some parents send their children to hawk is over,” he said.
The monarch, therefore, enjoyed residents of the chiefdom, especially farmers and Fulani, to sustain peace among each other and called on youth to shun any act of social vices and be law-abiding citizens.
The following day, at the Agora’s palace, before hundreds of spectators, princes of the town brought the age old festive tradition of the town into display: the Agora sits alone on the stage, sword in hand; the princes, who were almost hundred in number, dances onto the stage one by one, collects the sword, showcases his swordmanship for about a minute, returns the sword back to the Agora and leaves the stage for another prince. At the end, through his spokespersons, the Agora announces the princes that did the act well and rewards them.
“This has been happening in this town since time immemorial. This is how we celebrate our Sallah; we ensure that our traditions are kept alive. The sword dances is a very vital to those from the town’s three royal houses,” one of the princes told our correspondent.
In others places across the territory, the celebration was colourful as well.
However, the Agabe of Ugbada-Gwargwada community in Kuje Area Council, Alhaji Hussaini Agabi Mam, has enjoyed residents of the chiefdom to continue to live in peace with one another irrespective of their tribes, religions and ethnic affiliations.
Mam, who was speaking in his Sallah message, also urged residents of the community to imbibe culture of health living by keeping their surrounding clean.
“Although, the minister of health has made it clear that there was no case of Ebola in FCT, but there is still need for the people to be conscious and always keep their surroundings clean and healthy,” he said.
