When Social Media Becomes A Savior -By Mohammed Aliyu Baba

With the ongoing stubborn weather (Harmattan) in the extreme Northern parts of Nigeria, one sleeps even unwillingly most at times especially in the morning hours. Whether you like it or not, the weather will induce you to sleep during this holiday.

I’ve been trying to terminate its act of inducing sleep in me especially after Subhi (Morning) prayers but all efforts proved abortive until recently that I discovered that the social media is the weapon against it.

Before I discovered social media to be a helping instrument in that aspect, I tried some other things like; reciting the Quran, reading book/novel or even reading them from mobile Apps but it didn’t work. Awuzu Billahi!

Until I noticed that any day I decided to check messages from my social media accounts (Facebook and WhatsApp), sleep would not come around.

Subhanallah! So sleeping doesn’t surface if I open social media immediately after the Subhi prayer and morning supplications. Despite the fact that I used to start dozing even while still praying/supplicating. But once I opened Facebook/WhatsApp it’s gone.

After I discovered this phenomenon, I said I needed to manipulate the development and strategize it to have it in pros instead of cons. There’s no way I can open social media instead of opening Quran or books. It would be a misplacement of priority at its peak. And I should be the one using social media and not otherwise, nor should I surrender to sleeping desire when I cannot allow the weather to make a jest of me.

So, side by side, are my Quran, book and phone if I should succeed in reciting/reading in the morning at this period. Once the sleep showed up in the process of reading, I grabbed my phone and before you know it, it’s gone; then back to reading. As a matter of fact, social networking has become my antidote against unwanted sleeping.

I know some of us are addicted to social media, hence, cautiousness is needed to apply this tactic scenario. You don’t go there and forget your purpose. Always know that you’re only going there to kill a sleep and you’re coming out immediately your aim is achieved. Don’t try to send/reply to any messages during the period as it’s not a moment of chatting but reading.

This would help my fellow students in the North (especially East & West) to manage this harmattan period effectively in the morning hours. And if you haven’t been reading in the early morning hours as a lifelong learner, then you’re missing a lot. Because everything you read in the morning goes straight to your heart.

M. Aliyu Baba is a student of  Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

He writes from Kaduna, Nigeria.

He can be reached via: aliyu0380@gmail.com