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TEARS FROM MAIDUGURI - BY AHMAD SALKIDA
Growing up as a child in Maiduguri, Borno state left me with vivid memories. There were clear memories of affinity, of love, of trust, of sharing and good neighbourliness . By the way,I was born Christian, and raised as one but I also had among my very closest friends, muslims and in no way did any sense of difference amongst us highlighted.The adopted line of official lingo of “home of peace” seemed very fitting.
Today, that epitaph mocks at thestate, its people and government.On a recent duty tour to Maiduguri, what I saw showed how easy it is for society, indeed,for civilizations to die. Maiduguri, indeed what was known of Borno,the Kanuri civilization has died a painful, shameful death, with no loved ones at the funeral. If you live in Abuja as I do, and pick the official lines from the media you will go with the impression that “the economic life of Borno State” is in comatose but that with the gallant efforts of the security forces, things were returning to normalcy.
To associate Borno State with any form of economic or social lifetoday is to engage in an ugly, nauseating joke. The soul and personality of the Borno under which I grew up died unsung. Among my friends, when Borno lived, we played together. The Muslims were friendly, generous and accommodating to non - Muslims. We lived together, shared each other’s clothes. What determined who wears the best shirt and jeans amongst ourgroup of Muslim and Christian friends is not the ownership of these clothes but rather, who has the most important date that day.
I remember with nostalgia how I used to hold a container of water and pour it for my Muslim friends to perform their ablution and the same set of friends will always wait for me by the gate of the local church that I attended with my parents when it was closing time so that we could embark in our desired exploits. This became such a line of routine that sometime in 1997 I found myself converting to Islam.No one gave an ultimatum that if I or anyone for that matter did not convert the heavens was going to collapse. One thing was evident then, my conversion neither unsettled any Christian families that I know nor did it affect my relationship with my friends.
As fate will have it, I am now a Muslim and one of my good friends, who grew up a Muslim, met an enterprising Idoma lady who converted him to Christianity. They are married, live happily with their children in Abuja. Maiduguri was very peaceful until February 2006 when the first major crisis broke out. Then again, in July 2009 when the Islamist insurgents declared war on secular institutions. Now death and its fear dominate the space all across Borno. As Chinua Achebe’s legendary character noted in thecelebrated novel, “Things Fall Apart” ‘they have put a knife in the thing that bound us together...”
While it was obvious that the 2006 crisis in Maiduguri was mainly an attack on Christians and their institutions by rampaging Muslim mobs, the 2009uprising led by late Mohammed Yusuf had a slightly different motivation. Today, there are many faces of the calamity in Maiduguri. There is the ugly face among Muslims, and there is the pathetic face of the calamity among the hapless Christian community and there is a troubling, complicated face created and stoked by the government forces.
Maiduguri is flattened and riven with chaos, grief and fear, peopleare afraid to talk about anythingnot only to strangers but even to their neighbors because some have pitted against one another or serve as informants to either sides of the conflict. Security agents that should be responsiblefor safeguarding lives and properties are apparently turning against the people they are paid and trained to protect.
The operation restore order in Maiduguri by the... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/12030 -
TEARS FROM MAIDUGURI -
Growing up as a child in Maiduguri, Borno state left me with vivid memories. There were clear memories of affinity, of love, of trust, of sharing and good neighbourliness . By the way,I was born Christian, and raised as one but I also had among my very closest friends, muslims and in no way did any sense of difference amongst us highlighted.The adopted line of official lingo of “home of peace” seemed very fitting.
Today, that epitaph mocks at thestate, its people and government.On a recent duty tour to Maiduguri, what I saw showed how easy it is for society, indeed,for civilizations to die. Maiduguri, indeed what was known of Borno,the Kanuri civilization has died a painful, shameful death, with no loved ones at the funeral. If you live in Abuja as I do, and pick the official lines from the media you will go with the impression that “the economic life of Borno State” is in comatose but that with the gallant efforts of the security forces, things were returning to normalcy.
To associate Borno State with any form of economic or social lifetoday is to engage in an ugly, nauseating joke. The soul and personality of the Borno under which I grew up died unsung. Among my friends, when Borno lived, we played together. The Muslims were friendly, generous and accommodating to non - Muslims. We lived together, shared each other’s clothes. What determined who wears the best shirt and jeans amongst ourgroup of Muslim and Christian friends is not the ownership of these clothes but rather, who has the most important date that day.
I remember with nostalgia how I used to hold a container of water and pour it for my Muslim friends to perform their ablution and the same set of friends will always wait for me by the gate of the local church that I attended with my parents when it was closing time so that we could embark in our desired exploits. This became such a line of routine that sometime in 1997 I found myself converting to Islam.No one gave an ultimatum that if I or anyone for that matter did not convert the heavens was going to collapse. One thing was evident then, my conversion neither unsettled any Christian families that I know nor did it affect my relationship with my friends.
As fate will have it, I am now a Muslim and one of my good friends, who grew up a Muslim, met an enterprising Idoma lady who converted him to Christianity. They are married, live happily with their children in Abuja. Maiduguri was very peaceful until February 2006 when the first major crisis broke out. Then again, in July 2009 when the Islamist insurgents declared war on secular institutions. Now death and its fear dominate the space all across Borno. As Chinua Achebe’s legendary character noted in thecelebrated novel, “Things Fall Apart” ‘they have put a knife in the thing that bound us together...”
While it was obvious that the 2006 crisis in Maiduguri was mainly an attack on Christians and their institutions by rampaging Muslim mobs, the 2009uprising led by late Mohammed Yusuf had a slightly different motivation. Today, there are many faces of the calamity in Maiduguri. There is the ugly face among Muslims, and there is the pathetic face of the calamity among the hapless Christian community and there is a troubling, complicated face created and stoked by the government forces.
Maiduguri is flattened and riven with chaos, grief and fear, peopleare afraid to talk about anythingnot only to strangers but even to their neighbors because some have pitted against one another or serve as informants to either sides of the conflict. Security agents that should be responsiblefor safeguarding lives and properties are apparently turning against the people they are paid and trained to protect.
The operation restore order in Maiduguri by the Joint Tax Force of... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/12029
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