One of the victims of last Tuesday’s twin bomb blasts at the
Terminal Market, Jos, Plateau State, Lydia Komolafe, had in weeks
preceding her untimely death lamented the incessant loss of lives to the Boko Haram insurgency. This she did in
a series of tweets.
The late undergraduate spoke as she
had the slightest premonition that she may become a victim, herself. She posed
a rhetorical question in a tweet, “Hmm,
now we don’t know if our parents or siblings are safe in
the park, church,
mosque, market, and schools. The airports are not left out. I forgot, Aso Rock,
isn’t left out either.
“They (Boko Haram) go
wherever they want! It’s a fight against Nigeria, and Nigerians are helpless.
Because they didn’t curb it at first, terrorism has grown so wild!”
She also enjoined Nigerians against the belief that
insurgency is only a “northern problem.”
When a second bomb went off in Nyanya, a suburb of the
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on May 1, Komolafe, expressed deep concerns
over the violence and called for prayers to end the extremism.
Her tweet at the time read, “Pray for Nigeria, Nigerians can’t sleep! We are not even secured in
the midst of road blocks! This has got to stop!! Who’s going to be our ‘Avatar’
in this nation?”
Arguing that terrorism had indeed “grown so wild” in Nigeria
as it had become a daily occurrence, Komolafe accused the Federal Government of
playing the ethnic and political card with the insurgency from the outset.
Her thought-provoking tweets in this regard read, “They ignored the red flag for terrorism
when it started earlier in Jos and Kaduna. Nobody cared. They called it all
kind of names. They called it religion, ethnic, political. We suffered in
silence. They shut us up! Now it’s coming closer ‘home,’ the seat of government
and everyone is crying wolf!
“If only we had curbed
it earlier! They left it to our governors to fight it; they brought soldiers
who molested us! Nobody cared! I’m not being insensitive; I’m just saying if we
had saved the cup of milk from falling, we wouldn’t have been worrying about
the spill now.”
Komolafe urged Nigerians to refrain from actions and
inactions capable of brewing acts of terrorism. Treating members of other
religions, ethnic and political groups, she argued, was capable of breeding
terrorist actions.
“Boko Haram started
like a joke, we prayed, cast and bound, we did nothing! The citizens kept
pointing fingers at the government! Calling it different things! We thought it
will vanish. Or maybe, since it started in the north it would remain there. As
long as it didn’t go down south, they didn’t care.
Komolafe, who was a passionate fan of Chelsea Football Club of London, during her life-time, also lent a
voice to the ongoing global campaign demanding the release of the abducted
Chibok girls.
“With one voice, let’s
speak against terrorism. I’m not calling for protests or any of that sort! The
moment you hold hate in your heart, you’re giving room to hateful thoughts that
could lead to terrorism. Nigeria will get past all this! So help us God!”
Often, she expressed her thoughts and views with the
hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls. Her words, “Nobody
should be punished for going to school! There’s no basis to this kidnap! Our
hearts are bleeding. Please bring them alive! May the angels protect them
wherever they may be.”
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