Towering pyramids of ground nut and cocoa sprawling right into the skies threatening to eclipse both the sun and the moon. Barns of yam surrounding beautifully crafted homes, doubling as perennial perimeter fences becomes a common architecture. You could hear the melodious tunes from the soft whistles of young farmers walking in groups to their farms to earn their daily bread. Beautiful maidens, calabash on heads, hurried home under the warmth of the fading sun to prepare meals for families and loved ones.

There was peace in the land,there was calm in the neighbourhood.

Borno state, neatly tucked away in the North Eastern Nigeria was known for its subtle clime, a major commercial border state with a busy multi directional flow of commerce inspiring booming businesses and a thriving economy. Consequently, people of diverse ethnic groups,culture and tongues co-habited together, transacted peacefully in love and unity. Friendships were over time built, established and sustained.

Though not of the same mother, Okechukwu and Aminu saw themselves as brothers. They borrowed money from each other, helped out one another in the farm, drank burukutu together over plates of dried meat roasted by Bassey who was a great hunter.

Amina made Jumoke’s hair during leisure, they went to the market square together, took turns to run each others errands without bearing any grudges. They were like half sisters, learning each others language, always giggling and gossiping about the handsome men in their neighbourhood. Even though they were of different tribes and religion, they were too busy being friends to remember mundane things such as religious beliefs and ethnic differences.

Father Rowland was the missionary from Scotland who was the Parish priest at St. Nicholas catholic church. Situated in a very remote Muslim dominated settlement,he basically relied on the locals to do his manual labour and run his domestic errands. With his sparse christian congregation, he mostly depended on the ever agile and helpful muslim youths who would come and clear the over growing grasses around the premises and clean the church furniture. Before father Rowland’s wife Monica came to abide with him in Nigeria, the community leader Mallam Mustapha would mandate his two wives to take turns to prepare meals for the good preacher. Father Rowland slept all night with both eyes closed,in absolute peace and calm. No qualms, whatsoever.

There was absolute peace,harmony and tranquility in Northern Nigeria. People saw themselves as humans,as Nigerians, as brothers and as sisters. If you find a brother who fell off his bicycle in an accident, you assist him, clean his wounds and help him home. Pregnant muslims attended the birth homes ran by christian women who helped bring their muslim babies into the world.

Play time was fun. Kids stayed over at friends homes and had fun until dusk. No molestations,no kidnappings. Mosques were situated opposite churches and worshipers waved each other goodbye before heading right into their places of worship to mind their own spiritual businesses.

Religion was only seen as a means to relate with God. Like footpaths,which may run parallel to each other,but eventually in the end, they converge into the same destinations. That was the mind set, then. Nothing more, nothing less.

Then, young men kept late nights drinking after a hard days work and when anyone gets drunk and falls faced down by the road side or footpath in a drunken stupor. If they are lucky,an acquaintance will help them up to their feet and help them home. If not,the following morning, they will wake up, though personal ego severely diminished and self esteem greatly battered, but their heads would remain intact still upon their bodies.

Hooligans, drunkards, rascals and other such men regarded as “no good” in the society were not mobilized by evil interests to unleash terror on the lands, rather they were redeployed to the farms to unleash mayhem on earth which more often than not, needed ploughing . At the end of the day, even the worst of men, the scum of the earth and the dredge of the society were kept productive and never a menace to the society. Nobody was an infidel who deserved death, nobody was ever mobbed nor stoned to death publicly.

People were happy with the government, and though life wasn’t a bed of roses, there was honesty from the ruling class, hence the people needn’t want more. They didn’t feel cheated in the scheme of things, hence there was never any need to replace the laws of men by the law of God. People never had any cause to blame their woes on the authorities. A days job was equivalent to a days wage and a days wage could take good care of the days basic needs, family inclusive. There was no wanton greed, no diabolical thirst and quest to amass eye popping wealth.

Therefore, there was never a cause to take to arms to demonstrate any kind of frustration to the people who presumably didn’t make lives not worth living for the commoners.

But things have since changed.

Decades later, Northern Nigeria has become a deep shadow of itself. What happened? What did we do to ourselves? How did we allow things to degenerate so badly? Did we fall into a trance while Aliens came and destroyed the fabrics of our society? Maybe millions of demons were belched from the pit of hell into our cities, while we sat idly watching as they possessed our fathers and sons causing them to war each other and ravage our communities beyond repair.

When did we sell every piece of humanity in us that we could raise our arms and destroy our brothers, destroy our sisters, destroy our families and even our selves? What really went wrong?

Looking all around there’s nothing left to remind us of our joyous past, our love for each other,o ur brotherliness and our friendships. The pyramids have collapsed, the barns that towered like babel are visibly grounded, our farmlands now lies desolate and our prosperity is but a mirage before us.

Like a feverish nightmare,all we dreamed of is long lost. Politicians now decide who eats and who starves, who lives and who dies. Repeatedly, they have capitalized on the poverty running wild through our communities to push our sons and husbands to commit heinous crimes and unimaginable atrocities .Our communities have been overtaken by strange looking men lurking in dark corners and smelling of nothing but sheer will to do evil.

They speak in hush tones and whisper in strange languages. The only weapons we knew, bows and arrows once used by our hunters to hunt game have now been replaced by automatic rifles used to hunt men down like beasts.

The rattle of guns has since replaced the songs of young wives; the rush of streams, replaced by the roar of lethal explosions.

Brothers have been set upon brothers, suspicion becomes a mask every man bears upon his forehead. Sons have been educated in foreign lands to piece together weapons of mass destruction to fight for God, against what we have always known and believed. Religion has now become a bridge pitching men against their fellow men. If a man is not of the same faith with you, he is an infidel unworthy of sharing life with you. They are to be lured and destroyed before they pollute what is left of the world.

Churches have become a prime target of brutal and desperate animosity, if a brick but stands on its walls, then our place in paradise shall be threatened, so the youths burn and destroy the christian places of worship till its all debris and dust.

Blood which was once sacred is now shed with ease, our youths have washed hands with the blood of their fellow men, the streets have been tainted crimson with them and the sewers overflowing of them. The stench of burning human flesh and bone left after serial attacks stinks to high heavens.

The promise of erotic pleasure with countless virgins has inspired loving sons to become moving bombs. We now are getting used to the deafening sounds of the explosive blasts ripping through dusty streets accompanied by the hot vapor of human blood. Life is now as cheap as a blast of shrapnel and steel mixed with concrete and human bones exploding over a twenty mile radius, a mobile cocktail of death killing and maiming whoever and whatever dares to stand upon its path.

Day in day out, the clouds are contaminated by billowing black smoke which aren’t from burning heaps in the farmlands but from burning roofs and burning men.

Everyday, sons, daughters, parents, sisters and brothers are committed to mother earth so much that we fear we will run out of spaces. We don’t have farmlands anymore,all we have are burial grounds. Yet every day we hope for the authorities to come over and put an end to this madness, this insanity threatening to annihilate all of us. We are trapped in our own homes with nowhere else to go, we are tormented by the shrieking ghosts of our friends, brothers, sisters, neighbours mangled in a gruesome death by our own hands. Even the God we claim to fight for seem so far away from us.

What a sigh of relief we heaved when troops were deployed to maintain law and order in our shredded communities. Alas, peace has come, alas we can all begin to heal this cancerous wound which has tormented us day and night. “May Allah be blessed”, we said, expecting reprieve.

But like zombies, they arrived in the dead of the night and by dawn instead of law and order restored, it was another dimension and depth of mayhem. More bodies littered the streets. Our mothers,sisters and children were not spared this time. They resorted to uncommon violence, they violated our women in the guise of flushing out the trouble makers. Whoever believed the trouble makers hid back into the cavities of their mothers?

They shot at sight, without reason, without cause.

Youths must never have a reason to assemble together, if they did, they will be branded an enemy of the state and a thousand bullets rained upon them. Angry looking soldiers smelling of alcohol and death patrol the empty streets, killing everything, anything that dared to move.

I don’t know,but I heard they came with an order from above to neutralize all enemy units. So now the streets are hellish and the people are being decimated by the day, we know its only a matter of time before our time comes.

But we have been praying God will somehow bring an end to this man-made disaster since we have lost hope in men for they have failed us. But it seems God is nowhere in sight and we will have to undo this pillage ourselves. So with every iota of hope lost, we can only wish that someday the natural swing of change will come along and put and end to this war.

Though we also know we will never recover our loses nor get over mourning our loved ones, we are certain that if the swing of the machete, swirl of the arrows, the rattle of the guns, the roar and rumble of the bombs should cease, maybe we can start from right there to heal. But we are since tired of living in fear, sick of waiting in apprehension to see whose child it will be when next the drapes over the corpses are unveiled.

This is a cry for help to whoever is listening, the NORTH IS BURNING,can someone please help!!!

- Ifeanyi Okoli (on Twitter: @countproject) writes from Lagos, Nigeria

A well written piece! But let me disappoint you here that no one will rescue the North except their elite class learn to liberate the masses up there and let them see the real light or else.....this North will cease to be on the long run

all their political strategies are from the colonial masters, thats why they are boxed up, and sealed forever from 1966.

tomakint: A well written piece! But let me disappoint you here that no one will rescue the North except their elite class learn to liberate the masses up there and let them see the real light or else.....this North will cease to be on the long run

d fact is dat in d longrun, u wil seize 2 exist whle d North wil continue 2 exist, if u dnt hav anything meaningfull 2 say, u just shut up. Peace wil return 2 D North.

ecosanders: d fact is dat in d longrun, u wil seize 2 exist whle d North wil continue 2 exist, if u dnt hav anything meaningfull 2 say, u just shut up. Peace wil return 2 D North.

ok nama

T9ksy:


If only wishes were horses........................why do you guys always wish evil on others only to

turn round and accusse your neighbours of intense hatred towards you? Same thing we hear from you in regard to lagos and the

yorubas. Yet you and your kinsmen are all over these regions making a good living but you wish nothing but calamity on your

hosts. These are human beings (never mind fellow countrymen) like yourself that you are hoping will dissipate into thin air.

But you expect these same people to have nothing but love for you and your ilk............................mtcheeeeeew.

I wonder oo. The Yoruba boy from Ondo state (Tomakint) should be well reprimanded.

PointB:


I wonder oo. The Yoruba boy from Ondo state (Tomakint) should be well reprimanded.

Of course, he can only be a "Yoruba" boy..............from Nnewi.

T9ksy:



Of course, he can only be a "Yoruba" boy..............from Nnewi.

Tomakint is Yoruba, take it or leave it. heck what's my biz.

PointB:

Tomakint is Yoruba, take it or leave it. heck what's my biz.

whereva he may b From, its nt right 2 wish ur neighbour evil, every human, tribe or race is bound 2 b in one trouble or d oda, wen d clock shft 2 ur region, we wil c hw u react if odas wish it consume u.

tomakint:
ok nama

thank God u agree, Akuya, omo ale jatijati!

ecosanders: whereva he may b From, its nt right 2 wish ur neighbour evil, every human, tribe or race is bound 2 b in one trouble or d oda, wen d clock shft 2 ur region, we wil c hw u react if odas wish it consume u.

That is why I posted this:

PointB:


I wonder oo. The Yoruba boy from Ondo state (Tomakint) should be well reprimanded.

Obviously the other guy mistook him for someone from another ethnic group outside his. And it shift to your region, rest assure you will have my sympathy as well.

Easterners on this forum are bigots!!!

An Igbo police commissioner of a Northern state has been shot in Enugu. Yet it is the North that is burning?

I pity una!! Hatred don cast una senses binding!

0lumide: Easterners on this forum are bigots!!!

An Igbo police commissioner of a Northern state has been shot in Enugu. Yet it is the North that is burning?

I pity una!! Hatred don cast una senses binding!

Was an engineer not kidnapped and killed some weeks back in Ogun state or Lagos? U dis aboki claiming olumide with ur big bulgy bigoted eyes.

PointB:

That is why I posted this:




Obviously the other guy mistook him for someone from another ethnic group outside his. And it shift to your region, rest assure you will have my sympathy as well.

Tomakint is Igbo.

T9ksy:
Of course, he can only be a "Yoruba" boy..............from Nnewi.

I thought u are a wise boy but I was wrong what has my response to ecosander got to do with my tribe? You just want to engage me in ur pointless ranting as usual! If I have in anyway insulted u, address me and not u doing 'amebo' on what is not ur business. Je ki ori e pe o

PointB:
I wonder oo. The Yoruba boy from Ondo state (Tomakint) should be well reprimanded.

You are being rude here, allow the person I am addressing to attack me boy, don't join the fray son you are wiser than that I guess

ecosanders: thank God u agree, Akuya, omo ale jatijati!

If I have in anyway insulted ur intelligence by my post I am sorry, but I was reacting to the topical issue on ground yet you launched the personal salvo first I am not attacking personality but a region for failing to develop her people and region, yet they want to develop a whole nation! I am waiting 4 ur response....

tomakint:
If I have in anyway insulted ur intelligence by my post I am sorry, but I was reacting to the topical issue on ground yet you launched the personal salvo first I am not attacking personality but a region for failing to develop her people and region, yet they want to develop a whole nation! I am waiting 4 ur response....

i dont intend 2 attack anybody's personality, bt i hate it wen ppl try 2 tribalise issue, each regionh av its own challenges, Maiduguri was acclaimd a very peaceful place b4 BH, so i xpect u 2 criticize objectively ,nt saying d North wil seize 2 exist, or did u think d Northerners r happy wit wat is happening? All we need is prayer 4 God 2 tak control. Peace, and Apology 4 ma earlier comment.