Maulud is an annual religious festival being celebrated by Muslims worldwide. The maulud day is set aside to commemorate the birthday of prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Thus, all muslims celebrate the yearly event as every faithful feels happy whenever the birth date of the exalted messenger of Allah is being marked.
One may argue that my generalization that every muslim celebrates maulud is wrong. But let me add that here in Nigeria all citizens including muslims and christians celebrate the day. It is a common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria declares every maulud day a public holiday. That means schools, offices and banks will be shut down for a whole day in honour of the festival. So, every compatriot is a celebrant in his or her own right. Some people will take to the streets to celebrate, some will either come out to watch them or stay at home to relax.
It is not only during mauluds that the countrymen celebrate together. Nigerians share in the joys of sallah, christmas, easter among other religious events. The celebrants of the aforementioned religious festivities used to be generous and kind as they share the goodies with their fellow citizens.
By so doing, the needy, the almajiris and beggars eat food and meat to their satisfaction, free of charge as they will be abundantly available.
The social importance of maulud and other religious festivities such as sallah, christmas, easter, national preaching etc is that the religious leaders use such occasions to preach peace, love and unity among the compatriots. While the citizens make good use of the holidays to pay visits to their loved ones and or rest at home, recreational, or tourists attaraction centres to entertain themselves.
Aside from that, such festivities have economic benefits. Traders make a lot of money as people from different places assemble to witness them. Therefore they need to buy commodities to take home at cheaper prices. For example, during the last maulud of late sheikh Ibrahim Nyass held in Bauchi, adherents of the Tijjaniya sect trooped from all over Nigeria and other neighbouring African nations to attend it. As such, foods and water vendors made a lot of money. Some businessmen from Kano state which is the centre of commerce of Nigeria brought their various commodities and made huge profits. Buyers benefitted too as they got items of their choices at wholesale prices without traveling to the commercial state.
Sellers of clothes, shoes, perfumes, animals, butchers generate more profits at festivals. Tailors make cool cash. Other artisans such as laundry service providers, shoe makers and barbers make cool cash. The events boost their economic activities.
On their sites, states governments hosting such religious occasions can tap much too by collecting taxes from the traders. On Wednesday, the renowned islamic scholar sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi will conduct his maulud. He is always the first in the state to open the maulud festival. His event attracts thousands of people from across the country. So businessmen and food vendors will generate a lot on the day. The general maulud will subsequently take place on Thursday worldwide.
How to have peaceful celebration
First of all, security agents including soldiers, police, DSS, civil defence and vivilante organizations should be well prepared. A good number of security men should be deployed to all the streets to avoid fights, attacks or disruptions of the procession by criminals.
Road traffic officers such as road safety personnel, traffic wardens and aid groups should be available in good numbers to enforce traffic rules and avoid accidents. Aid groups like red cross society and other volunteers should come out to give first aid in the case of accidents, injuries or in the event a celebrant collapses during the maulud procession.
Wealthy people should provide water and other support to the people that will pertake in the street rally as they can be thirsty.
Finally, the celebrants should be security conscious as some criminals masquerading as onlookers may storm the roads to steal, pickpocket or rob innocent people of their belongings.
They should also respect security men and traffic officers to ensure that the event is hitch-free, peaceful and do not prevent other road users completely from plying the roads. Happy maulud Nabiy!
Najib, a journalist and author writes from Bauchi, Bauchi state.
