My once beautiful city is now a shadow of itself. I don’t understand where we lost it, is it in our homes, our religion institutions, the schools or are we simply growing up? It started like a match-stick but we never remembered it takes a match-stick to start a fire and this fire is fast consuming us.
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The joy I feel when going to school is no more there, the friends I used to play with are fast disappearing just because of our ethnic background and our religion differences. The freedom of movement a child would say she enjoyed when growing up has been stolen. I can no longer go to a neighbour’s house to watch my favourite soap opera, neither can I go for a friend’s birthday party; all because I don’t want to get killed. They fail to understand that I am gradually becoming dead inside, I’m becoming numb and I am gasping for air. All I have in place of Joy is sorrow, anguish and pains. The tears seem not to dry, each day brings nothing to hope for and the end to it all is fast becoming a mirage...
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I feel like a bird in a cage and I want to fly and be free. I want to be free in my mind, in my spirit and in my soul. With the killing here and there, I wonder when the dragon let loosed will have it complete fill of blood. The blood of the innocent children who were not as fortunate as I am, the blood of the fathers that went out to provide food for their family and whose body became food itself or the blood of the mother who stayed in the scorching sun all day to make ends meet and never returned home. None of these people bargained for death neither did they want their blood and flesh littered on the street of my beloved City. Is it a crime to provide for one’s loved ones; is it a taboo to leave the house for the betterment of one’s future? These are question I asked and nobody seems to have answers.
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...It is saddening how dreams and destines are daily cut down like a tree, how our cemeteries continued to be filled with bodies of future engineers, doctors, accountants, presidents... people that will make our world a better place. If we kill them all today, who will then repair our roads, treat our sick, teach our children morals and values tomorrow?
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They say you can never see a smoke without fire, so what is the reason behind this? I want to know! Someone said it is because of my school, another said because of my religion, my mummy said it is because of our tribal differences, the news says they are fighting against the government. I don’t know who to believe, nobody seems to know. We are all confused-¬¬¬¬-- they are all confused. But didn’t we see all these before we agreed to live together, to stay together as a family---a nation?
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How could a school which is filled with so much fun and life be tagged a forbidden, how could a place of worship be named ‘unwanted’ when we didn’t create ourselves but by God , how could a government be fought with bombs and explosives without hurting ourselves. Who is the government, who are we? Without the people will there be a government? We simply forgot we are the government. Well, grownups! You can never understand them; you can never understand their ways.

...The dragon is now at large and everybody is running for their dear life. The security men we entrusted with our lives are asleep while some are also on the run. But why won’t they fall asleep or flee when we equipped them with stones and sticks to fight this beast.
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We fed it right from when it was young with hatred and we expect it to just go or die that way. We armed it through our ethnic bitterness and we don’t want it to strike us. What should be our binding force is what threatens to separate us. We should all know the only way to kill this beast is to stop feeding it with the preaching of hatred from our religion gathering, schools, motor parks, even in the confine of our bedrooms. How long do we think we can kill it with force? Don’t we know when a beast feels threatened it will fight back, fight it the hard way and it will bite back.
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Now how do we tame this beast, how do we kill this dragon that we raised? We should simply replace the preaching of hatred with the message of peace and love in our sermons. Show the beast you love him and poison him. The poison may not work once but it will gradually--- Cut it from the root and it will die.
And If this beast dies I know my beloved City--- Nigeria will return to its place of rest and the trees will grow, the birds will fly, the Dogs will bark, the goats will bleat. Yes, we will rise again, we shall rise and fly above it all.

So touching... ℓ̊ pray nigeria will be better someday

Amen o. It will one day

A nice piece. Hope your prayer is answered now now....

penthotoyi: A nice piece. Hope your prayer is answered now now....

I sud not only be my prayer,it should be urs and many others too or what do u think?