Alas!
Chaos looms in the air
We dance
to the tune of our fears
The pains
of losing those who we held dear
Hoping
when death arrives, they won’t be there.
My
little legs took me fast as they could and I caught up with my fleeing neighbours;
they were guys that lived beside our house. I felt they were making the right
moves so I followed suit. As the crow flies, in few seconds, we found a perfect
hiding spot; it was the house of a neighbour, a Hausa Muslim family. They saw
us running so they offered to shield us from the mob who everyone knew was
nearby.
“Come
inside, quickly” the woman said, wearing her hijab covered from head to toe,
beaconing on us to come into her home. We were all sceptical about her offer, we
asked silent questions among ourselves without using words but they were rhetorical,
did we have any other choice? We just had a short time to either accept her
offer or die trying to flee. She took us in quickly and her daughters directed
us to the bathroom, told us to duck, and stay away from the window. Between the
time I made the choice of vanishing with my neighbours and the point I got into
those ceramic walls in a strange house, I felt it was like a flash, I had no
thought precisely, felt nothing in particular, I just knew somehow, we were in
our neighbour’s bathroom, about hundred meters from my house with no clue what
was going on outside. Sitting down in that bathroom trying to catch my breath,
my mind then began to function properly, I could now reminisce. I started to wonder
what could happen in the next few hours, will we be safe in here? Will they
find us? What about my family, will they be alright? There horror of losing my
family began to dawn on my tender mind, tears were the only expression I could
show, scared and tormented in my heart, shaking all over yet I had to be quiet.
For
a moment, we heard nothing; it was as if the who quarters became a graveyard,
not a sound from the birds tweeting, or the gentle waves of the tress. No! It was
dead silent for a moment; it was like nature was watching to see what comes
next. In minutes the silence was broken with a shout, it wasn’t chorused like
before, they was individual voices calling out to people specifically, they
would shout and you could hear various smashing in all directions. They were
forcing themselves into houses, destroying properties they could find and desperately
searching for the occupants of the houses they broke into.
It
continued for several minutes and as time flew; my mind was drifting in all
directions. I was scared to death. Not knowing if my family was still alive
added more to the pressure. They were out to kill and we didn’t know if anyone
could stop them, we just waited and hoped. We could hear the footsteps outside
the bathroom, in the isle, our host moving around their normal duties to avoid suspicion
but we were still suspicious of them somehow, they could give us up, they were
of the same kin. During conflicts like this, you don’t know who to trust.
After over
30 minutes in hiding, there was a turn of event, several gunshots outside, the
atmosphere changed and the noise increased. We could hear people running in
different directions. Everyone in the bathroom was asking questions, you could
see that in our eyes, “Do they have guns?
If they do, this doesn’t sound good” someone just had to peep through the
window to know what was happening outside, he needed to be careful. Lo and
behold, it was not what we thought, there were soldiers outside. Apparently, someone
had called the incident in and they moved in as a swift response to the issue
before anyone got hurt. Deliverance was outside but I wasn’t satisfied, I was
still scared, what if they were still outside
and we come out and get mobbed? My little mind wondered. The face of
everyone in was lit up but I was still unsure about what happened before the soldiers
arrived, what happened to my family.
“You
can come out now, the army is outside, Ku ji ko? (Have you heard)” said the sweet voice of the girl outside the door
of the bathroom with her Hausa accent.
“It’s
alright lets go outside” said the eldest person among us, trying to assure us
and himself that it was fine to come out from hiding.
We
came out to a different kind of atmosphere; there was smoke from a distance and
solders all around, with guns in their hands. We waited for some minutes and a
coaster bus arrived to take us away. I didn’t know where we were being
transported to and I still couldn’t see my family members, just neighbours who
were hiding in other neighbours houses during the siege. Not quite long, I saw
my Mum, Dad and my two sisters, at that moment, nothing else mattered, not the fact
that my heart had be beating so fast that I thought it would force its way through
my rib cage or the fact that I had pictures in my head of them; dead, and I
alone as an orphan, taken back south with tears from the north. It was a joyous moment
seeing families alive once more.
As we got transported with the bus having a
convoy of scary looking soldiers, I found out what the smoke from the distance
was when we got to the front of our house. It was Dad’s car, they attacked our
house majorly for no reason I can clearly state till date but I know they were
calling out for my Dad.
“Auditor!!!!!!”
They kept yelling, according to my dad.
Luckily
they got out, my Mum also didn’t buy Dad’s idea so instead of remaining
indoors; they fled at the last minute to our immediate neighbour’s house. They
hid in her bedroom while she stayed at the door preventing them from coming
into her house to search for them
According
to the Hausa culture, once the husband of the house isn’t at home, you are not
allowed, as a Man, to come into the house and intrude on the woman’s privacy. Her
husband for some reason unknown, left home that morning before all the attacks
and so did several other men too. That cultural norm came in handy and saved my
family from the blood thirsty folks who kept searching our house destroying
anything they could lay their hands on. Before they were interrupted buy the
soldiers. Since they couldn’t find anyone they decided to destroy the house,
set the car ablaze and contemplated burning the house but they knew it wasn’t our
house, and besides, what point will it make if they set a government property
ablaze.
We
got to the gate and found out that one of the attackers was killed, his body as
picked up by the soldiers at the other side of the fence, that was the first
time I saw a dead body up close. As we kept moving I wondered where they were
taking us to, I didn’t ask, I just waited for the suspense. Everyone was
looking calm but I knew they were scared as we moved away from the city to the
outskirts; seeing various scenes of destroyed properties by the road sides. Soon
we arrived at the Barrack; it was now obvious that we were to become refugees
for the next couple of weeks. We live in certain apartments in the barracks and
we all had to live as a family with the rest of the rescued.
For
two weeks we lived as refugees, got used to hearing gunshots from several
distance and near. Inside the walls of the barrack, it was safe even though
there were guns around and restrictions, but it was better than back home. Families
were separated for those periods but it was worth it, we stayed alive....
After
two weeks and some days as refugees, we returned back to the quarters, the riot
had subsided and we had to get used to the new reality. We moved back to our
house after the place was fixed to make it habitable again. A lot of our
property had being destroyed but it didn’t matter, we had ourselves. While at
the barrack, my eldest sister was brought there and she and other students who
had exams then were transported carefully to write their papers. Feeling safe
again was difficult, we found it hard to do, and any sound at night would
create a panic in our hearts. About a week after we got back to our house,
there were fresh rumours that something was being plotted again to re-kindle
the flame of the conflict so Dad and Mom finally made a tough decision, it was
time to leave the north for good and go back home, it was time to return to our
families back in the south, Ibadan was the perfect destination.
Oh!
I can still remember that morning when we had to say goodbye to what we had
known as our home and hope for a better life; far better than what we had in
the north. We were on their way back to the south.
***********
Ibadan
(present day)
We
had to adapt to a new life, a new reality in a new environment. We have our lives.
Starting a new life away from the nightmare we awoke from wasn’t easy but we
had God’s help, we still do. But in all that happened we learnt a lesson; life is the most important asset a man has and in that moment, when you have
lost all, you know that family is everything you need once you are still alive.
We still have friends up north, some we’ve lost contact with and others are
gone. Now in my early twenties, looking back through the window of time;
memories of almost 13years down the line, I know that we are still standing for
a reason even despite all the PREJUDICE!
(The END)
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