Living on Borrowed Time: Nigeria’s Deadly Dance with Terrorism

Its no news that Nigeria has been on the global stage recently for the wrong reason as a result of the terrorism that has been carried out by this Islamic extremist in the Northern part of Nigeria.

what we see today, started as a small crack, that was handled with kids glove in 2009 by our leaders and when they try to eradicate them completely by hiring mercenaries from outside country after the chibok girls Saga.... The Northern Muslims made it look like they were trying to kill there people because the sitting president back then, Goodluck Jonathan was a Christian.

Now, it has blown on our face to a hydra headed monster that has many groups in the Northern part of Nigeria, responsible for killings, banditry, kidnapping and all sort of social vices you can think off..

To get a broader view of this whole crisis, we must look at how it all began, how it expanded, and how it has shaped the daily lives of ordinary people.

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When insecurity is been talked about in Nigeria, many people outside the country, imagine something far away or maybe in the bush. Even the real gist is hidden under big vocabularies like banditry or insurgency. But behind those vocabularies are human lives been snatched from the surfaced of the earth everyday and fear in the eyes of this northerners.

Sometimes, when I hear of the insecurity in the norths, I get flashbacks of how things use to be during the militancy era back here in the Niger Delta region. When our parents stay awake all night not because they have any reasonable thing doing but because even a sound of a falling bucket can cause serious panic and everyone lived on high alert.

Now imagine living like, everyday is going to be your last and raising kids in such condition, where nightfall doesn’t mean rest but it means danger. As a result of the incessant gunshots, kids now can now tell the different between sound of AK-47 and a GPMG before they can even spell there own names not because they want to but because that is the life they were forced to grow in. This is the story for many villages that resides in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

There are villages in Zamfara and katsina states where bandits walk in freely, like landlords checking rent. you see the same villagers been slaughtered coming out to welcome and take pictures with them like some heroes, whenever they come out from their hiding place to negotiate with some of this communities heads, all because they want to plant crops on their own land without being killed.