I cannot remember the last time my family and I had a sound sleep. Every night, I sleep with one of my eyes opened like dolphins. Gone were the beautiful days when we slept in our small village peacefully. The village had lost its tranquillity and serenity. Even the birds had gone a million miles away, leaving only vultures to hover around.
My name is Junadi, I live in a village in southern Borno. I am a pensioner. I retired as a primary school teacher in Maiduguri and moved my family to my country home in January, 1997. Few months before my retirement, my wife and I decided to relocate to our village so we could be full-time farmers. Upon relocating to the village, we quickly settled down. One year after, we were glad we had made the decision of coming back to the village. We had the peace the city never gave us and our farm was thriving well.
My village is remote but with bustling people whose occupation is farming. We do not have any government presence – no accessible roads, no pipe- borne water, no cottage hospital, no police post, no schools, etc. Despite all these, however, we were happy.
However, little did I know that our peace and happiness will be short-lived. Now, the menace of Boko Haram has stolen our peace and happiness. Every day distant and nearby villages are being burnt down and the innocent villagers killed in cold blood. In our village the sound of gunshot has replaced the chirping of birds. We lost friends and relations every day. We now live in constant fear and trepidation. I had asked questions without answers. What do the terrorists want and why kill innocent villagers? When will help come to us? The government seems to be overwhelmed and clueless, while we the people helpless and hapless, and Boko Haram is senseless and heartless, killing mercilessly.
Let the government care less and let the sponsors, sympathizers and perpetrators of these despicable acts continue to have a field day. It is needless to remind us all that a day of reckoning awaits us all and it is our fate everybody must taste death for we are all birds of passage.
My children had asked me “what is the worth of human life?” I told them in this part of the world, human lives do not worth a thing. Let’s just continue to live in this limbo of terror, where human lives are being cut short, indiscriminately. After all, we are but a forgotten people.
Junadi Peter Gizo,
Gwoza, Borno State
