S.O.S!!! The Northern Nigeria Massacres

As a child, I lived among predominantly Yoruba and Igbo tribes. We enjoyed the friendly banter and things you imagine young children would get up to – lots of mischief.  

At school, I enjoyed the stories at english lessons – one in particular was travels of the Bako Family (Biola, Alade and their parents) in Nigeria, culled from the New Oxford English book 5, it details the itinerary journeyed by car to the whole of Nigeria. I felt as if I was part of that adventure, my inquisitiveness grew from thereon. I wanted to know who the Hausa people resided, the only ones I had seen where shoemakers, traders at Idi-araba and the blind singing beggars! 

As a family, we had to relocate to another part in Lagos, and this affected my schooling where lo and behold, I met lots of friends from the northern part of Nigeria (A wish come true), I was happy to be in their midst and learn from their culture. But some of my Hausa friends lived in the barracks and had to relocate to different parts of Nigeria due to their fathers’ posting.

Then, There were uprising then in Kaduna, the Zango Kantaf conflict in Kaduna in 1992, which was more of a religious cleansing, but it was not as worse as this so called Boko Haram insurgence killing and kidnapping everyone in the North from Jos, Kano, Adamawa, to Bauchi states – a massacre still going on at a large scale – the worst I have seen in my entire life. What amaze me most are the leaders turning a blind eye to the situation and not taking a stand, as if northern Nigeria is not part of Nigeria at all.

There are lots of ways in resolving conflicts among leaders, rulers and government officials. I don’t know when this will end. President Barak Obama of United States said ”We are the change we have been waiting for.” The international communities are all well aware of what is happening in the country; but it would take the love and wisdom of every Nigerian to put a stop to this. If western education is no longer favoured in the north, there are ways to educate its citizens for the best; implement educational lessons that would enrich their lives. Being forceful is not the best approach to take, as we are all witnesses to a part of the country wiped out in terrorism, where innocent children, women and men lose their lives for the mistakes not of their making - very disheartening.

Condolences to all those who have lost their lives through Boko Haram massacres.