It increasingly appears that the terrorists who drink the blood of Nigerians are now tired of the blood of Nigerians shed at other fora. For them, throwing places of worship into the dice will make their killing sprees sweeter.
In Nigeria, religious is a staying force. Many Nigerians subscribe to one religion or the other. And from whichever set of beliefs the religion they practice subscribes to, many Nigerians draw the strength to continue on their difficult journey.
Thus, on almost everyday of the week but especially on weekends, Nigerians fill their places of worship, and take their time to make peace with their God as well as to ask for the final piece of the jagged jigsaw that life has become in the country.
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As amended) guarantees that every Nigerian must enjoy the right to freedom of religion. In many ways, this right nicely dovetails with the right to freedom of association which the same constitution guarantees. This invariably means that it is lawful for Nigerians to gather where they are and profess their religion as long as it is done within the limits of the constitution which courts of law are always so reluctant to circumscribe.
Relentless attacks
Since terrorism broke upon Nigeria like a plague beginning in 2009, Nigerians have witnessed just how traumatizing it can be to live in a country where the brakes have come up for terrorism. In many ways, the Nigerian experience has mirrored that of the historically terrorized countries of the Middle East.
It has become a daily experience for Nigerians for bullets to fly around and bombs to go off. And they have not just been flying around or going off. Since terrorism became a force to contend with in Nigeria, countless have been slaughtered or displaced with countless other lives irreparably broken in the process.
As these attacks have continued largely unchecked by a government whose ability to check them continues to come under immense scrutiny, worshipping communities in Nigeria have had a fair slice of their own run-ins with the agents of terror and destruction.
In Kaduna State for instance, the Christian community has lived through impossibly difficult times. Worshippers have been attacked while in church and many of them slaughtered. Churches have been razed and Christian clerics slaughtered or abducted by those who are yet to tell Nigerians what their exact grouse with the country is.
On Friday, September 2, 2022 while prayers were going on, terrorists fell upon a Jum`uat mosque in Zugu, Zamfara State. After sufficiently terrifying those who had gathered to worship by repeatedly and sporadically firing into the air, the terrorists abducted an unspecified number of worshippers including the second Imam of the mosque. Reports have since come out to indicate that the worshippers abducted have since been made to sweat on the farms of the terrorists.
If no blood was shed as the Ju`muat mosque in Zugu, on Friday September 2, 2022, terrorists fell upon a mosque in Ngulde community of Askira- Uba Local Government Area where they killed the Chief Imam of the mosque and three other worshippers. The terrorists who were more than a dozen were said to have started firing at the worshippers who had just finished their Fajir prayers at the mosque. They were also said to have looted livestock and foodstuff and set ablaze two vehicles in the community.
These latest iniquitous attacks on places of worship in the country serves to painfully remind Nigerians of the December 2011 bombings that rocked churches in parts of the country including Madalla in Niger State.
In many ways, that Nigerians can no longer enjoy worship at their worship centers because they have to look over their shoulders for tells a story that indicts the Giant of Africa.
Until terrorism is stamped out of Nigerians, those who have now specialized in the slaughter and persecution of innocent Nigerians will continue to enjoy a field day.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu
