Ramadan ends tonight. Nigeria watched for the moon at dusk.

The Sultan of Sokoto designated today, March 18, as the nationwide moon sighting day for Nigeria. If the crescent is sighted this evening, Eid begins tomorrow. If not, Ramadan completes its 30th day and Eid falls on Friday.

The federal government has already declared Thursday and Friday public holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr. The announcement came yesterday. The families have been planning longer than that.

Over 100 million Nigerians fasted through a Ramadan that included a war, petrol above N1,300, bombs in Maiduguri, and a budget crisis. The mosques stayed full through all of it. The final ten nights drew crowds that queued outside in the dark.

One detail that holds the weight of the month: three days ago, suicide bombers struck Maiduguri's Monday Market and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital during Iftar, the moment when people break the fast. They picked the most communal, most defenceless point of the day. Twenty-three people died.

Boko Haram was born in Maiduguri. The insurgency it launched 17 years ago has spent years targeting exactly these moments. Ramadan ends in the same city where it started. The crescent will rise or it won't. Tomorrow the celebrations will begin regardless.

Some things in Nigeria run on a clock that predates every system that's been breaking down this month. This is one of them.