While the Children Slept

On the night of February 24, 2014 members of a “terrorist group”  Boko Haram, opposed to “Western Education” slipped into the school dormitories of Federal Government College, Buni-Yadi, Yobe State, Nigeria.  Just before midnight,  they gathered the girls together  and told them to abandon their education,  go home and get married. The boys they murdered.  In the melee others were killed. The school buildings they burnt. 

Boko Haram claim this is in the name of Islam. But let us be clear here….this is NOT about Islam. It is NOT about religion. It is cold blooded murder by people craving power and control over an innocent population. The people of Yobe State are mainly Muslim, but this is not the Islam they subscribe to – the slaughter of sleeping children…because this horror has been wrought on children. Federal Government College Buni-Yadi is a secondary boarding school for children between the ages of 11 and 18. One of the "Unity Colleges" whose purpose is to build a united Nigeria by bringing together children from all over the country, to live and study together, to make friends and grow up more tolerant of our country's rich differences. Their only crime was the quest for an education. 

        Image source: Nigerian Nostalgia Project 1960-80 Facebook

Like others my first reaction was that this is an awful image to see on Facebook. But if you look carefully, it is not a gory picture...it is a photo of sleeping innocence. Until you realise that these boys will not be waking again. They will not scrabble with their friends for the last slice of bread on their breakfast table to dip into their ogi. They will not be straightening their beds waiting for inspection. They will not be hurriedly ironing their shirts to turn up for assembly. They will not be laughing at a classmate for getting a simple question wrong in class and eagerly offer their right response. They will not be playing football or climbing mango trees for the juiciest fruit. They will not nudge each other and grin broadly as their teenage hormones kick in, at the sight of a pretty girl classmate walking by. They will not be hiding "bad" report cards from their parents nor eagerly anticipating displays of pride and affection when they bring home glowing reports.

In fact they will not be going home to their parents' houses...because their innocent childhood has been cut short. Hormones no longer surge, emotions no longer engulf, blood no longer flows. The sounds of their laughter will no longer be heard. And when next, indeed if, their school mates gather to sing their school song “Pro Unitate” – their voices will no longer be raised in pride and a sense of belonging. Their dreams have ended and their futures are no more. They would have been our country's doctors, engineers, lawyers, agriculturalists, economists and strategists...this prospect is no more.

The Children of Yobe will always be remembered by their mothers whose pain I pray never to know; and by their fathers whose anguish will forever remain locked up inside; and by siblings who will stay confused as to why "unknown men" should do this to their brothers. But to us and the rest of the world they will be forgotten …very soon… and become statistics of some "disturbance" somewhere, in some distant place, in some remote part of Nigeria, someplace in Africa.

I hope this image goes viral. It should go viral. These boys, OUR SONS, OUR BABIES, must not be forgotten. The horror of this senseless war Boko Haram is waging on innocent people and children in particular MUST be brought to an end. We are losing count of the number of children killed in the last few months. Boys murdered, girls kidnapped and taken heaven knows where. We voice our sympathies and move on,  and as a nation we have become desensitised to images of violence, war and death. It has almost become accepted that these images will be printed across our newspapers' front pages or on our television and computer screens on a weekly if not daily basis. "E no concern me" is the attitude that prevails. Why? Is it because your life is so far removed from those of your other country men and women? Is it because you prefer to "leave it to God"? Or is it because you're hoping if you say nothing, this evil will not come your way? In one news report, this atrocity was described as "an unfortunate incident". Unfortunate???? Unfortunate is when you spill palm nut soup on your white babban riga. Unfortunate is when the the meat is not enough to have a second helping. Unfortunate is when you tea has gone cold. Unfortunate is NOT a word that describes the massacre of boys while they sleep. 

          Our leaders ask us to pray while they celebrate 100 years of Nigeria. Is this the Nigeria we dreamed of? One where girls are spirited away, boys killed in the cover of darkness and we bury our heads in the sand? Take a good look at the picture, if it moves you to tears, listen to the wails of their mothers in mourning. If you are not comfortable with it, good...it is not meant to be comfortable. Share it if you dare, because the Children of Yobe must not be forgotten and their deaths should not be in vain. If this photo galvanises people to get off their knees and demand action from our leaders, then all is not lost.

   

    Sale Mamiski

    Musa Muhammed

     Sani A. Audu

     Usman Faltu

    Inusa Ali

     Ali Ayuba

     Aliyu Yala

     Garba Jibo

    Hassani Mari

    Bukkar Maiiam Ali

    Goni Ali Babamai

    Peter John

    Abba Muhd

    Abba Adam

    Hamidu Bala

    Suleiman Lawan Guji

   Abbas Ibrahim

    Rukaya Gaji

    Auwal Adam

   Usman Saleh Idriss

.   Usman Abba Kaku

    Musa Yalti Buba

   Sadisu Dauda

   Aisha Audu Goni

   And the others who have not been accounted for…REST IN PEACE