The relationship between earth involuntary quivering movement, God and Nigeria's elections

Nigerian writer and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani considers why some earth tremors in Nigeria's capital caused such a stir.

Sometime in the early hours of 6 September, I was tucked in bed at home in Abuja when, suddenly, a slight trembling seemed to sway the building from side to side.

My first thought was that a jihadist bomb had struck.

I still remember the exact moment in August 2011 when a Boko Haram militant drove a vehicle through two security barriers, crashed into the reception area of the UN headquarters in Abuja, then detonated a bomb, which left more than 20 people dead and more than 60 wounded.

I was in a nearby building, the offices of the now defunct Next newspapers, which rattled and quaked while we all flung ourselves to the ground.But, when I didn't hear the wailing sirens that always followed bombings in Abuja, I relaxed.

Perhaps the trembling was simply an after-effect of the quarrying that sometimes takes place near my Asokoro neighbourhood and in other parts of Abuja, a city known for its imposing rocks.Later that day, frantic phone calls from friends checking to make sure that I was fine made me realise that what had simply been a mild trembling in my area was more tremulous in certain parts of the city, such as the Gwarinpa District, the location of a housing estate that is believed to be the largest in West Africa, and the Mpape suburb where residents, mostly-low income families, panicked and fled their homes in terror.

The tremors in Mpape began on the afternoon of the previous day and continued till around midnight, according to newspaper reports.

Residents described goods toppling off the shelves in their shops and fearing that the ceilings in their homes would cave in.

Many assumed that their buildings were about to collapse.

Barely two weeks earlier, the collapse of an incomplete building in the Jabi area of Abuja made news headlines. The scene of the disaster, in a modern neighbourhood with some upmarket estates, attracted a visit from Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.At the time, the government and residents disagreed over the number of dead, and there were protests when government rescue efforts ended barely 24 hours after the incident, with a number of victims still believed to be buried in the rubble.

A few days after the earth tremors, which were felt in different parts of Abuja between 5 September and 8 September, the government released a statement to reassure residents that there was nothing to worry about