Bloody Friday and the Fear Factor
TODAY IN HISTORY, 26 AUGUST: One year ago today, the UN House was attacked in Abuja Nigeria
Abuja Nigeria, 26 August 2011
Rousing from a lazy morning in bed, I heard a blast in the distance this morning and asked my husband: ‘That sounded like a bomb, didn’t it?’
For all my sheltered life, I had become more familiar with the perilous sounds of bombs in the past 12 months of living in Abuja Nigeria. Not wanting me to panic, my husband reassured me I was wrong and as it was raining, I shrugged it off believing it could have been thunder. I now know my first instinct was right because about thirty minutes later, my phones went off with calls from all around the world inquiring that I and my former colleagues are all well. I worked in the UN for 8 years and in the UN common house building for 2 years.
Placing calls to friends in the building, I learned that one of my closest friends was actually not at work that morning and was only heading to the UN building after he found out about the bomb. Another one in the building sounded a little disoriented as he and others were looking for missing colleagues. The two agencies I had worked in were on the 3rd and 4th floors. The last time I visited, I was shown to a new section on the ground floor where some of the support services had been moved within the space originally allocated to the UN Information Center (UNIC). UNIC had remained in Lagos when the rest of the agencies moved to Abuja. The ground floor also housed the Bank (Standard Chartered Bank) to the left and common support services to the right.
Last month the UN received a bomb threat from the Boko Haram Islamic terrorist group and stepped up security in response. This morning, a suicide bomber staked the building and seized an opportune moment when the exit gate was opened for an exiting vehicle to drive in and ram into the left side of the building where a bomb detonated on impact taking out the ground and first floors. The UN clinic is also on the ground floor but in a separate building at the back. Security staffers on the ground floor were killed on impact. Another dear friend whose office was recently moved to the ground floor happened to be attending a meeting on the fourth floor and was not at her desk when the suicide bomber rammed the building. 18 people are now confirmed dead and about a dozen seriously injured in hospital.
Nigeria is a country where the Muslim population is roughly equal to that of Christians; the north and middle belt (where I live) are predominantly Muslim. As much as I love this city, I live in fear. I speak a smattering of Hausa (the Lingua Franca) but not enough and I find that while it is a relatively safe place to live, Fridays are extremely tense days for me. Mornings are usually fine but I usually awaken on Friday mornings with a sense of trepidation. On the alert for anything out of the ordinary, I conduct school run more prayerfully than usual, watching the clock until it’s time for the return school run and once my children are safe within the walls of our home, no one ventures out unless they absolutely have to and I even tell staff members who work out of my home office to be on the alert on Fridays. As worship time draws to a close, we become more nervous because most riots occur on the return from the mosques, where it seems incensed worshipers are sent out on whatever destructive mission the clergy choose. When night falls uneventfully on a Friday, I give thanks silently until the next Friday when we live through it all again.
A day of worship in most religions is a day of tranquillity and peace, marked by reverence but not so Fridays in northern Nigeria. In every company worth its salt, there are security advisories about Fridays: limited travel is advised for non-natives and especially for non-Muslims. If travel is inevitable, people are advised not to venture out too early nor stay out too late; stay away from crowded areas, avoid dressing in any manner that would cause you to stand out as a non-Muslim, exclude from your social schedule on Fridays places where non-Islamic practices would be on display such as drinking of alcohol and erotic dancing. In other words, on Friday, stop living.
Although not a fan of erotic dancing myself – except I am behind closed doors with my dearest and for his viewing pleasure only – and I am a teetotaler these days, but not everyone is. People should not have to stop living because other people are worshipping. No one should have to live in fear. The attack on the UN building is unwarranted and to all intents and purposes, the consequences of interrupted development programmes while the United Nations Development System (UNDS) recovers from this assault would hurt the real people of Northern Nigeria more than any other part of the Nigerian society. More than 65% of UN and general development assistance in Nigeria goes to Northern Nigeria, especially on health-related programmes geared towards improving the skewed social development indicators arising from years of neglect by local government and state authorities (such as lower levels and standards of education). Hence, an attack on the UN in Nigeria is an attack on Northern Nigeria.
People mostly want the same things out of life: good health, shelter, clothing, safety, decent living. The people of Northern Nigeria are much the same as everywhere else. Mothers want their children to be healthy, Fathers want to provide for their families and to keep them safe. Individuals want to live the best life they can and maybe help someone along the way. Travelling with the UN in Nigeria to the remote parts of Katsina, Borno, Sokoto, Kaduna and Kano states, I was always humbled by the simplicity and welcoming nature of the people. Properly attired in a Hijab, we could pretty much enter any home with a greeting of peace Salaam ailekum regardless of what race, tribe or religion we were. Women at lunch would offer to share their meals with us and once they knew we were with the UN, they would become even more hospitable and welcoming. Not once while I was in the hinterlands of Borno or Kano did I feel threatened by the people. However, once in the city, I would feel conspicuously out of place (especially in our gleaming white UN jeeps) – even like a sitting target. The fear eased a little on return to Abuja but on Fridays, it would come crashing back. This Friday, my fear has come to pass and all that is left is a deep aching, rocking sorrow.
Staffers leaving their families and homes for work this morning had no idea it would be their last day. Other colleagues sitting at their desks and going about their work ensuring that the people of Nigeria have a better quality of life have been paid back with unimaginable evil for all their long hours and labour. Lives have been destroyed, mothers and fathers killed. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters lost. And to what cause? Good Muslims all over the world must arise and condemn this evil, pushing out these people who are a putrid sore and a curse to the faith.
The list of the dead are: Mr Abraham Osunsanya (Administrative Assistant, WHO), Mr. Stephen Obamoh (Radio Operator, UNDP), Mrs Felicia Nkwuokwu (Receptionist, UN Common Services, UNDP), Mr. Iliya David Musa (Receptionist, UN Common Services, UNDP) and Mr Ahmed Abiodun Adewale-Kareem (Shipping Assistant, UNICEF), Mr Elisha Enaburekhan (Driver, UNAIDS), Dr Edward Dede (National Professional Officer, WHO) Mr Johnson Awotunde (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, UNICEF), Mr Musa Ali (Zonal Logistics Assistant for North West Zone, WHO), Ms Rahmat Abdullahi (Registry Clerk, UNDP), Ms Ingrid Midtgaard, (Associate Officer, UNODC).
Others are Mr Sunday James Ebere (Shipping Agent, Balast Agency), Mr Ndubuisi Bright (Hospitality Industry Consultant), Ms Kate Demehin (Federal Ministry of Health), Ms Caroline Michael (Guard), Mr Sunday Omelenyi (Guard), Mr Yakubu Garuba (Guard), Mr Abiodun Cyril Adeseye (Julius Berger), Ms Patricia Ekwetinge (Travel Agent), Ms Joy Audu (Nigeria Cleaning Services) and Mr Paul Waziri (Nigeria Cleaning services).
May the souls of my departed former colleagues rest in perfect peace but may their blood speak against and hold to account the perpetrators of this unconscionable evil.
