“Alhamdulillahi Rabbi I Alamin for the safety of all observers who were physically present at the Polling Units during the 2023 Elections and also the members at home who were praying fervently for Allah’s protection for those on the fields.The situations were scarry. May Allah SWT accept the service to our Nation as acts of Ibadah from us all. May He grant us the much needed Peace and Love in our Fatherland”
Member on the What’sapp chat
The Sunday following the last chapter of the 2023 General Elections, the local FOMWAN organized their anual Pre-Ramadan lecture. In fear of post-electoral violence, they maintained it with the memories of past violent events. It was the day after, the first day of the next five years. Full of hope of change for some, of disappointment for others.
But for all the prayer :
“May He grant us the much needed Peace and Love in our Fatherland”
[Title taken from the what’sapp message in image 1]
Over the past months, the women of FOMWAN Oyo State have been preparing for the elections, increasing awareness among members to register and then collect their PVC (Permanent Voters Card).
“It is our civil responsability, whether you like it or not” reminded the Oyo Chapter’s naiba (second to the amirah) a few weeks ago.
The election committee officers of Oyo State Chapter have been participating for several months in workshops and meetings held by international NGOs such as TOSATAN “peaceful conduct on Election Day & the role of Women in Election”, or other local and international agencies such as the Oyo Peace Commettee and its two day workshop “Youths, Women, and Persons with Disabilities on peace building ahead of 2023 general Election”.
January 11th, FOMWAN National obtained approval as an accredited election observer throughout the country (see INEC publication below number 53). Since then, members are invited to register as election observers for their pooling units through a google form shared on WhatsApp groups.
In Oyo State, executive committee members remind others at all meetings that a minimum of two members per local government are required as observers. All excos are expected to register as observers. On Sunday 5 February, during the General Meeting, the election committee members involved the women in an observation and reporting exercise.
When I asked a member what the role of the observers was, she replied: “The task is to report on the events happening wards during the PVC collection and at the pooling units. We make sure there is no pressuring and intimidation of the people, no bribes paid to officers or vote buying.”
Furthermore, the members are extremely active on the organisation’s WhatsApp group where they post and repost practical information related to the elections, awareness-raising messages (image 1 & 2), or standpoints from local and national Muslim groups such as the MSSN The Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (image 3) and The Muslim Umah of South-West Nigeria (image 4).
The latter is interesting as it raises the question of the intersection of regionalism, ethnicity and religion in Nigeria’s general elections. Indeed, with less than a month to go, separatists rhetorics have become increasingly audible. If such discourses preceded the election period, they have been exacerbated by a simplistic ethnic, religious and regionalist analysis of the three main candidates: Atiku, a Muslim for the north, Obi, a Christian Igbo for the south-east and Tinubu, a Muslim Yoruba for the south-west. While the first two reject the ethno-religious-regional game, the latter seems to rely on it to secure the votes of the south-west.
General meetings for the state are held fortnightly, hosted by a different branch each time.
All LG (Local Government) branch members are welcome, but it is almost compulsory for those holding offices, especially Amirahs and Naibahs (Amirahs’ seconds), who submit reports on the branch’s activities. However, it is difficult for women to spend one Sunday every two weeks away from home due to the increased cost of fuel and transport and the domestic responsibilities that fall on their shoulders.
“When the girls were small, I couldn’t go as I go now! It is of most importance to take care of our children and husband first.”
Thus, they will mostly come when the Meeting is held in their zone and send their reports (when they do) through the general or Amirahs-only WhatsApp platforms.
This time, apart from the executives from st State Chapters, only 6 of 34 Fomwan Local Governments are represented.
The meeting usually follows the same following structure
Asalatu : reading and recitation of the booklet printed by the FOMWAN Oyo State chapter containing a selection of quranic surahs or ayats. The first to arrive starts the recitation until everyone has joined.
Coran reading
Health Talk
Presentation of State executive members, Zonal coordinators and LGs Amirahs
Reading and correction of the last meeting’s minutes
Discussion of important topics concerning the whole State (Hijab Day, Elections, Ramadan lectures, etc)
Submission of reports
Final prayer
Performing of salat together (prayer)
Sharing of one meal prepared by the hosting branch.
During the meeting, members are invited to sign their names in a large book and the Muslim organisation/association they represent. The woman in charge of marketing goes around the room and introduces the members to the new merchandising items that can be purchased to support the state chapter: small and large purses, handkerchiefs, hijabs, scarves, water bottles, and others, with prices ranging from N150 to N12,000.
Each time, they will also set up a table where the health officer takes the blood pressure of the members who wish to do so and answers any questions they have about their health.
Facing the fear of traveling and the growing insecurity in the pre-election context of Nigeria, hunfreds of muslim women have traveled from all parts of the country to meet in Port-Hacourt for the FOMWAN National Conference : Bridging the inter-generational gap of sustainable development
They met in the south Est of the country, in the Delta region. Some travelled up to 18 hours by bus on roads known to be dangerous and subject to frequent kidnappings.
In a context where religious and ethnic differences are instrumentalized for political purposes, these muslim women of various ethnic origins, social classes and generations discussed their role for the future of their country, the importance of their unity and political participation in the 2023 presidential elections.
When I return to Tede on the 18th of April, everything feels different than Eruwa. The town’s pace is slower and calmer, revealing the differences that exists when the majority of the community is Muslim. People sit on bamboo structures in front of their shops and houses, in the shade of trees.
Each night before ten, after breaking the fast and spending time with family and neighbor in front of the television, the family I stay with walks down to the central mosque. They pray there until 4 a.m., when I hear music and singing intended to wake people up for the final meal before dawn and prayer.
Iya (I will refer to as such from now on to protect her anonymity) sleeps for a few hours. Before seven, she goes to bath her newborn nephew, first son of her younger brother’s second wife. When she returns, she finds me alone on the front porch, reading.
The teen-aged children and her husband have gone to the farm and will return around 11 a.m. before they head to school for exam revisions.
Just before 10 a.m., we dress ourselves, and leave the house to meet the FOMWAN members at a house in the town center.
There for more than two hours, sitting on the plastic raffia mats in front of the house, we recite in a singing and melodious invocation, the 94 pages of the Oyo states FOMWAN Prayer Book. Tired from their night of prayer some women fall asleep whith their lips occasionally still praying. Their neighbour awakens them, smiling, until it is their turn to doze off.
Following the Surat al Waki’a (The Inevitable) and the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah, the women each pray for the household that host us.
It is during these prayers that the members and the hosts family (usually women) contribute 10 – 20 – 50 Naira bills to a small aluminium pot in front of us.
Iya later explains:
“We get change ahead, so that we can put small amounts depending on our own fortunes. It is for the host that we pray, and it is they who provide for us.”
The host brings some gifts for all of us, usually 5-7 Cabin biscuits in sachets and 1-2 cans of 3 crown milk, or 100gr salt and sugar sachets.
Standing up, we great our host goodbye and walk on to a second house where we repeat the exact same ritual. By the afternoon, heads full prayers, we will all walk back home. The sun slows our pace, the tiredness shuts our lips.
This morning just after seven, Iya leaves to bath the newborn. When she comes back, the baby sleeps on her back. She sweeps the house and feeds the goats and chickens as I write my notes on the porch.
The teenagers left for the farm on their father’s bike with their eyes still closed with sleep.
Just before ten, we wrap our scarves, and leave the house to meet the women at a house in in the outskirt of the town. When everybody arrives, we lay the raffia mats out on the front porch and take our green booklets out. The host brings a tray with an empty pot and a box of Cabin biscuits and lays it in front of us.
In an almost automatic way, we recite the content of the booklet. I say ‘our’ as my own lip follow the same mechanical recitation process, no thinking, reciting…
Our voices rise in the melodious La illah illa allah (There is no God but Allah).
I hear my neighbors voice fainting soon to be replaced by a soft breathing. The women in front of me throws her tasbih (prayer beads) at her in a vain attempt to wake her up.
The host stands in the door frame. some young children sitting and playing in the middle reciting some verses with us.
When we finish, the host helps us out of the compound. I feel hungry and thirsty from all this talking, but I don’t dear to drink from the bottle in my bag since all the women fast. As we walk under the sun, they discuss and laugh at some things I can’t understand. A few women always insist on walking next to me, the younger ones (maybe 35 y.o.) holds my arm.
In the next house we are invited to sit in the living room on huge sofas that cannot accommodate all of us. We share seats, and some of us sit on the floor.
Once more, we recite, we donate, we pray, and we receive.
Walking back toward the town, we pass by a small mosque where the women stop to pray. I sit outside under a mango tree, guarding all their bags.
When we get home, the teens are asleep in their rooms and Iya lies down on the couch. Soon after she falls asleep. The heat is too much for me to do the same. My head is full of the melodies of the prayers.
Just before 6 p.m., the girls light a fire under the lemon tree in the in the yardand cook the evening meal. To save money on gaz, they use two fireplaces, one with charcoal the second with chopped wood. I assist Iya in peeling off the beans with the mortar. Tonight, as almost every night before and every night after, we will eat moimoi (bean cakes) and drink koko (a form of milliet porridge).
They break the fast at 7 p.m. with the soft dates I brought from Ibadan. “We’ve never eaten any dates this soft and sweet; it is like honey!” exclaims Daddy. I had to get them from a Lebanese store, as all the dates I found in Nigeria were dried and dusty. We share pieces of the pawpaw brought from the field in the morning before they head to the small mosque two house away for the prayer.
We dine in front of a Live TV broadcast of Meqa. We have not seen light (electricity) since I arrived in Tede. Every evening from 8p.m. to about 10p.m., the family turns on the gen (generator) and the neighbor’s children, as usual, arrive running with all of their familys devices to charge. They stay to watch TV with us, sitting stiffly on the sofas’ side.
Tonight, the only TV channel we have that is not Live Meqa is broadcasting Warcraft.
The action fantasy film with orcs, gore war scenes and dark fantastic magic is a disrupting contrast to our prayer day.
They leave shortly before 10pm as sleep overtakes me.
The next morning she returns just before 9 am, the baby nephew had his bath. I’ve already swept the floor and sip my nescaf’ while enjoying the morning sun’s caress.
At 10, we hurriedly put on our hijabs; Daddy arrives too late from the farm to drive us to the first house, so we began to walk. The place is far away, and Iya’s knee is paining her. She refuses to let me carry her bag because it balances her, she says…
The women are already sitting when the okada drops us at the house. Some of them still arrive. The host brings a small empty pot on a stainless tray.
FOMWAN (Federation Of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria)
“Come today between 2pm and 4pm at our secretariat” said the What’s App message I received from the woman I had never met but to whom I was introduced by the contact of a contact of a contact. “you will see, she is a great woman, very active for the Muslim community of Ibadan and beyond, she is head of FOMWAN’s Child Protection Network (CPN) in Oyo State, it is a great woman!” I was told.
Knowing I’d be meeting a muslim “oga madam” (boss lady), as we jokingly say here, I made sure I was dressed appropriately, deliberating for hours whether to wear a hijab, a veil, or none at all.
When I arrived at 2 p.m., the guard at the gate requested me to sign an imposing guest book with my personal information: name, address, phone number, purpose of visit, hour of arrival and host. FOMWAN Oyo State was imprinted in blue on the book, table, and chairs.
The paved front yard where I waited in the guard’s house’s shadow, was empty and hit by the dazzling afternoon sun. I saw nor heard anyone but a few running lizards.
As I was invited to enter the main building, expecting to meet one lady, I was surprised to face 8 women siting at 4 tables in a baren imposing yellow hall. A lone white plastic chair with the blue imprints stood in front of them.
I knelt before them.
My host rose to her feet and introduced herself and the others by their formal titles: Alhaja Dr. Armirah of Oyo State FOMWAN, South-West Zonal coordinator, former Secretary of…, Head of Education Committee and so on.
The formality of the meeting and the weight of the hierarchical titles left me completely befuddled. I felt so small, so insignificant, sitting in front of these distinguished women, whose titles I was given in endless enumerations. And as they described the organization’s work from its headquarters in Abuja to its smallest branches and the scope of their soco-religious projects and actions, I felt awed and amazed even though I already knew all the details. I wondered whether they were conscious of the impression of power they gave me, but what is certain is that the whole setup triggered an overwhelming sense of greatness of the organization and its members.
Founded in October 1985 by a group of educated Muslim women, FOMWAN’s main mission is the dissemination of Islam and the education and empowerment of Muslim women in Nigeria. The organization is present in all 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and operates under the following structure: a national executive council based in Abuja, a division of the Federal territory into 6 Zones, including each States (State Chapters), subdivided into Local Government Chapters. The latter consist of all the affiliated associations, represented by one or more women. It is FOMWAN’s grassroots level.
“So now, what is it you are researching on?”
Asked the Oyo State Amirah after outlining the entire organisation’s structure and answering all my questions.
Well, I am not quite sure. I am interested in Muslim women’s involvement in organizations such as yours, though in less urban context.
Like rural areas?
Exactly, but what is defined as rural in Nigeria?
This is the question now; you will see for your own. Let us introduce you to some of our active sisters from rural towns in Oyo State.
You know, we are all sisters in FOMWAN, we are one a big family”
Completed my host.
Two weeks later, at 7 a.m. on the eve of Ramadan, I’m sitting in a shaky bus direction Shaki, in the north-west of Oyo State. I will have to disembark at Ago-Are Junction and complete my journey with an okada (bicycle). Tede, the place I’ll be visiting, has been described to me as a “rural town”.
Security being a constant issue when traveling in Nigeria, a friend accompanies me on this journey. The bike drops us in front of the imposing dark red and light green central mosque, the town looks almost empty on this hot Friday morning. We put our hijab on and wait in the mosque’s shade for our host, the local FOMWAN Amirah.
She arrives on a bike. We kneel before her as she welcomes us with a warm hug she and a cheerful smile putting us back on our feet. She seats us on a bench next to a small shop where a few children play and two elderly women relax. Bringing us delicious amala and gbegiri she asks us to wait for her till the end of the Friday Jummah prayer. By noon, families, groups of friends and elders, all colourfully dressed, walk by us to join the prayer. As the warmth overwhelms us, the melodious recitation of the Qur’an and the preaching arising from the mosque lull us into a drowsy contemplative state.
A group of elder women join us later with our host and lead us deeper in the town to a smaller mosque. We take a crumbling path seemingly dug by the rains between the houses, it seems there is no tarred or paved streets once we leave the 2 main roads that run through the town. In the background between the houses, I can see the few green hills surrounding Tede.
Some women already sat, waiting for our group in the small mosque. They presented themselves as the FOMWAN members and part of various organisations as NASFAT, Ansar ud Deen and Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat to name but a few. Most of the women only spoke Yoruba, which the Amirah interpreted for me. They met every Friday after the jumaah prayer, hosted each time by a different association. After I explained my research and the purpose of my visit, they kept on with their own assalatu program reciting parts of the Qur’an and prayers in Arabic, by heart or read from a small green FOMWAN Oyo State prayer book.
Throughout the meeting, an older lady (part of the founding members) sat to my right looking at me with a frown. Following a great silence, she asked in a croaking voice:
“Are you a Muslim?”
I suddenly feel tensed and afraid of what my answer might entail.
“No, I am not a Muslim.” Silence. “But I am deeply inspired by the lives of women in every religion, especially in Islam, as such, my research is driven only by curiosity and genuine interest in the experiences of others women.”
Smiles slowly appeared on the faces in front of me as the Amirah translated my answer. The old lady replied :
“You are welcome my child. When you are here, we are your mothers”
Agreeing other women added:
“You can always come to my house”, “welcome”, “You are at home here”
And finally, one concluded :
“Inch ‘Allah, by the end of your research you will be part of us” [meaning I would convert to Islam]