#NigeriaAt55: Thank God it didn’t happen! By Tomiwa Olajide

By Tomiwa Olajide

It was the blast from a huge shell that jolted me awake today. I had barely drifted into sleep when the earth rattling shell exploded meters to the empty warehouse where I had sought shelter.

They are closing in and I have to be on the run again. Its been eight straight days now. The pounding, the shelling, the sound of rattling guns and the frequent heavy thuds have impaired my orientation.

I am famished and thirsty. There hasn’t been anything to eat in days. In fact, my failing strength is why I remembered food. Yet in the run for my dear life, I get lost in revelry, remembering days I complained about noodles and egg. Oh…if those days would return!

I have lost brothers and friends. I can’t tell where I am, let alone where my family members are. We all scattered since the war began. I can only hope and pray we will reunite by sheer providence when this is over, if ever it will.

She’s telling a sad tale about my once glorious country. About how religious, ethnic and parochial interests truncated the destiny of a nation with so much promise. But I am glad because this never happened.

This place has become a heap of rubble, a graveyard for millions of young and old. Men and women cut down in their prime. Broken dreams, forever lost. I hear bones cracking under my boot as I drag my weary self along. The air is thick with smell of burning bodies, blood, rubber, wood.

Now those who were lucky to escape watch the horror on television. Millions fled to neighbour countries. Some to other continents. Ah! I should have listened, but I believed in this country. Is this how my life would end?

I never knew fortunes could be overturned in one fell swoop. Months ago I had dreams of building a successful career, of getting married and starting a family, of going on to contribute to my country’s development. But elections came and the war broke. Now its hard to tell if this war has served its purpose. The scale of destruction is numbing.

I look up and its a media crew from CNN. Amanpour is beaming live now. Today would have been Nigeria’s 55th anniversary. Today there would have been a glorious parade on the rubble she now stands. Today, Nigeria’s president would have addressed the nation.

She’s telling a sad tale about my once glorious country. About how religious, ethnic and parochial interests truncated the destiny of a nation with so much promise.