In The Name of Allah:
On Saturday, the 8th of January 2011, a Luxury bus departed Maiduguri en route to Lagos. As the bus approached The City of Jos from Bauchi, the bus was stopped at roadblock. Gunmen entered the bus and ordered all Muslims off the bus. These gunmen proceeded to set the bus ablaze with all remaining passengers inside. Most of the victims in the bus were from the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, both The East and The West all heading south.
What was their crime? None! Did they deserve this? In the name of Allah they did! An open declaration of war was made by Jama’ atu ahlus on the 28th of December 2010 after four bombs were exploded in The City of Jos, along with bombs going off in The City of Kano and The City of Maiduguri. Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bin Mohammad Shekau stated,
“I want to tell the Muslims in this country and the whole world that they need to know this is a war between Muslims and non-Muslims… this is not a tribal war, nor is it similar to the wars of the pre-Islamic era, it is nor a war for financial gains, it is solely a religious war. We did not start this war so it would end in one week, or one month or one year. Only when we are completely annihilated and nobody chooses to continue with our struggle may be that could be the end. Or we establish a system where religion has the final say or religion determines everything, that will be the end of this war… “We are ready for anyone willing to face us, whether it is a group of people or even the government because we know who supports us, God the Creator of the universe, Allahu Akbar. Therefore, we are warning every Muslim who believes in the religion of Islam that he should never help a non-Muslim in this war. If he helps any non-Muslim and in so doing, a fellow Muslim suffers due to that, he should know that he is a dead person.”
Since Jama’atu Ahlus made this declaration of war, a bomb was exploded in Abuja followed by another in Jos. This most recent atrocity is only affirmation of the stated objective and implementation of the war.
In all of these atrocities, our government has done its best to suppress all this information. Most Nigerians are unaware that this bus burning incident sparked off more fighting in The City of Jos since Saturday and continued into Monday. The predominantly Igbo neighborhoods and business in Jos were attacked in conjunction with the bus burning, leaving the city in chaos. Have you heard this information anywhere in the media? I guess not!
This image speaks to the continued suppression of the truth from Nigerians by the state. Many atrocities, such as this have taken place, but the state has confiscated the cameras, which have documented such atrocities. Most of the witnesses to these events from our presidents, governors, state security, NGOs’, and a few others are never allowed to divulge these secrets in the name of holding Nigeria together as one nation.
The real casualties are never reported. When the numbers are given, the government always disputes the numbers because we have no documentary evidence. Apparently, they must fear if we really know the extent of the atrocities, people would begin addressing the battle we are already in.
There comes a time when a nation and it’s people must decide and determine what their destiny and legacy to their posterity and the rest of the world shall be. Nigeria has found itself at that cross roads. We must decide if we are willing to accept and allow genocide to continue, terrorism to continue, oppression of the masses by use of the state apparatus to continue, suppression of the truth by government to continue, and destruction of the hope of Nigeria’s heart and soul, it’s people, to continue.
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