Surviving In Times Of War

I have never imagined living in times of war until I happen to be in its midst. And my experience I may say, is quite different from what I read in different literatures especially from the East African region where the story is always and has always been survival instinct by residents due to colonization and other related mishaps. Have you ever thought of going without network, where your social media pages, surfing the net as well as making necessary and unnecessary phone calls? It is without expectation it downed on us all of a sudden in Zamfara State.

The eve of the said event, I was sleepy around the hour of nine that was few hours to the network breakage. Instead of me to respond to my messages, I decided to postpone till I wake up after the first quarter of the night; this never came though, because when I woke up around 12;am the network was long gone. I restarted my phone several times but to no avail. It was in the morning that I got confirmation the whole state been shut from mobile network; unknown to me, the chief of Army Staff has arrived to see to it that banditry becomes a history in my dear state.

Gun shots upon gun shots, whooshing of Aircrafts to the closest proximity and howling echoes from God know where kept us alarming in phobia and despair for the complete period of operation until finally good news hover the media; many bandits captured, some fled though. And a significant number of informants have been apprehended and taken into custody. Good news huh?

It is said that you don’t know what you have until it’s missing, but you equally don’t know what you have missed until it arrives. My preoccupation geared towards my family residing in states like Kaduna, Katsina, kano and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja whom if I had known, would have bade goodbye pending the return of network.

But I also wish to see an end to this banditry and insecurity, hence, cutting supply of network, halting of schools and markets and even religious activities as well as surfing the net or making phone call is but a small price to pay.

Mufida Bashir Isyaku: [email protected]