Nigeria: Borno - Peace Is Home Soon

10 February 2013

The epitaph of Borno State still rings loud and clear in my heart, it still holds great promise - 'Home of Peace', the rendition of this prose says as much in a continuous tense of a once tensed atmosphere. I am a as a wife and most importantly a mother, my stake as well as those of other mothers in the Borno project is crucial, not in writing or public outcry but in our own deeds, inside our own bedrooms where we muster the courage and power to speak to the issues that keep us in this desperate blood orgies, when we can reclaim our proud history as an independent people of the oldest surviving Sub-Saharan Africa dynasty that defied various invading and alien cultures to keep true to our identity- that of a peaceful, homely-comely people.

Over the past few years, with deep and desperate sadness, I saw how my beloved home state made national and international headlines for all the wrong reasons, I saw the excitement and anticipation of homecoming dissipated whenever I tell my kids we are going home, I saw the hope of the youth in the once vibrant University of Maiduguri give way to fear and uncertainty in a land that was once a thriving centre of academic excellence, I saw a lot I couldn't chew, I cried in public and private as I witnessed the exodus of my people to neighboring states and beyond.

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