Today, the rains fell and they fell hard. The lightning colored up the skies at dispersed intervals and the thunder echoed in the distance. Earlier as I turned over and tussled under my covers half asleep, I weighed the severity of the corp anthem. "Under the sun or in the rain". I contemplated if the soldiers would enforce our daily oaths. Would they come marching into our hostels like they did in the dry days with their shrill whistles as early as five in the morning? Would their dripping camouflage draw more vile towards our lazy sleepiness as they cause us to roll in the muddy waters for daring to skip parade, even in the stormiest of mornings. I envisaged in my wildest imagination, doing frog jumps in rain water puddles and standing in my bare white Ts as the cold current of the morning gust flows across my chest. Whatever way I imagined it, today would be a different day.

But it turned out, no military officer came around. There were no whistles-only crickets- and we were granted extra sleep time courtesy of the morning storm. Time enough for me to transfer games into my iNote Prime. Time enough to go say hi to my friends back at the camp radio studio. Time enough to sit and think back at how much my perspective on Northern Nigeria and Islam had changed in just a week.

I thought about the first day I met my roommate. At the bus park, I wrote him off as a half educated Hausa graduate, the type I thought were churned out of their biased universities because no one could ever actually be good enough to graduate. He was everything that was wrong with the Nigerian system, another incompetent man in the system. But, firstly to my surprise, when we spoke, I noticed a distinct tongue, more complex than the plain speeches surrounding the region. He was Taroak, not Hausa, by tribal origin, one of the hundreds of ethnicities in Jos, located in North Central Nigeria. Still I pardoned my misconception. The misconceptions however became unforgivable when he told me he was a doctor, poet and professional rapper, the kind that organizes talent shows for upcoming artists. Reading through his book of poems and hearing tales of how his audiences sometimes demand for en cour, I was humbled in my narrow mindedness. Who would have thought?

My views of Islam have also dramatically changed since I arrived the camp. I've learned that Sharia justice can only apply to Muslims. Another scholar roommate of mine patiently educated me out of my stereotypic understanding. It is against Islam to carry out judgment on any person. He vowed that if I were to blaspheme against the Prophet, I would go scot free.

I was dumbfounded when he expounded to me how the Charlie Hebdo killings in France were unIslamic in their gruesomeness and such capital punishment should only apply to a Muslim and only after a competent Sharia court had found him guilty. Shocking the level of wanton destruction and death that happens when religion and ignorance come together.

He was asked about child marriages. He explained with passionate analysis how girls were only allowed to marry after developing womanly features. More; the veto power to give out a girl child rested solely on her parents, whose word was final on the matter, irrespective of the views of any Imam. Child marriages were therefore a result of poverty minded fathers and rich, perverted men having business transactions over the lives of innocent adolescent girls. The religion could not be blamed for the insensitivity of the uninformed who gallantly defend it.

I cannot categorically assert to his words, or that majority of Muslims would agree with all of them. Yet, the benefit of doubt that is my life view tends to think they are true. What I am sure of though is that, contrary to major opinions down South, rain does fall in the North. A lot. It rains so hard that you would dream you were home. It rains in Jigawa as hard as it rains in Benin. So, yes; I can personally verify that, with images to back up my claim. It rains in Northern Nigeria, among other things I was ignorant about, I now know. It rains in Northern Nigeria.