BRETHREN, he is a compatriot of yours and mine. But unlike some of my colleagues in the academy here whose belief in Jesus Christ constantly reminds you of the noble and eternal messages brought by all prophets of the Almighty to humanity, the old man in question is a typical 'fanatic'. Each time he sees a Muslim woman in hijab, he feels like throwing up. He suffers a momentary loss of his psychomotor. Blood rushes to his brain; he falls into a swoon. The sight of the hijab on the Muslim woman then becomes a signifier; a negative one for that matter- the figure of the enemy within, the image of what the anti-hijab subject would not want to be – or rather what he cannot be. The hijab, unlike the habit on the Catholic sister, reminds him of the unknown that is unknowable.
In other words, the case of the anti-hijab subject is pathetic because what he feels at the sight of hijab is different from what he experiences at the sight of the 'Mother' in the catholic dress. The latter, you would recall, equally goes about town in a unique dress. She dresses in a way that calls attention not to her body but to that which is more subtle, more preternatural, more sublime. Her carriage and candour constantly remind you that though we may be in this world, we should not be of the world.
But ironically in a season where nudity is modern, where men feed their eyes with ease on the bodies of the female gender, a female figure that is wrapped up becomes either a boon waiting to be appropriated or a colony waiting to be despoiled. A colleague on campus, one whose faith lies in his phallus and whose cathedral is located in his solar plexus once told me he has no taste for the 'babes' who go about town basking in the fakery of their bodies and the infamy of their licentiousness. His attraction lies in those who go about town completely wrapped up. "After all," he argued, "the more the meal is exposed, the sour it is to taste," he concluded as usual with sarcasm.
But the old man whose story partly fed today's sermon was once dismissed from the employ of the College Hospital. Before his dismissal, each time he came across a woman in hijab or niqab (the face veil), he wished that, like the soldiers who sought to derobe one Muslim woman in Lagos last week, the earth should open up and swallow the person in question. The animus of the non-Muslim anti-hijab compatriot of mine lies not in any biblical injunction. No. Rather he abhors and loathes the hijab as an extension of his invidiousness for the religious order. He does all of this not based on knowledge but ignorance. Or prejudice. Whether he is found in the church or mosque, individuals such as this old man usually want to be more catholic than the Pope; among Muslims, such people would want to practice Islam 'better' than Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). But how did this old man become a 'hero' whose story should merit a space on the pages of The Guardian?
Our old man is a Nigerian just like you and me. Though he is located in the South-West, he is affected, in line with Edward Said, by 'affiliation' by the roguish and sanguine violence that has been the hallmark of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.
Again as it is for every patriot, he had been 'praying' to the Almighty for a quick solution to the crisis. Thus, on the night of the first media chat featuring President Muhammad Buhari being asked questions by a group of journalists a couple of weeks ago, our old man became happy. Immediately he heard the response of President Buhari to the question whether he would be willing to consider banning the hijab since the Boko Haram elements now use it as weapon of war, our man immediately began to plot and plan his own battle down here.
He too began to marshal his strategies on the best way to prosecute his own anti-hijab campaign in the southwestern part of the country. Though what the President said, without quoting him verbatim, was that 'he would look into the possibility of banning the hijab', the mere expression of willingness to ban or censor what the Muslims believe is a divine injunction meant the provision of iron in the fire for the existing campaign against the hijab in many parts of the nation. If President Buhari could say that the hijab could be banned, then it does not matter what millions of other Muslims say or feel about outright interdiction of the practice completely.
On the night of the media chat, President Buhari became the 'Donald Trump' of Nigeria. Donald Trump, you remember, is the Republican Presidential aspirant who suggested that one way to stop some Muslims' involvement in acts of terror in America was to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. By suggesting the ban of the hijab as a strategy in the on-going war against the insurgents in the Northeast, President Buhari found himself on the same 'train' with Donald Trump. Perhaps more importantly, the President opened himself up to a sucker-punch; he unwittingly fell into the fallacy that one solution fits all the problem of insurgency in the North east.
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TO BE CONTINUED
