Something seems to have changed over the last 2 weeks, and I know it’s not just me feeling it. After the Boko Haram bomb threat broadcast went viral on blackberry messenger, it seems everyone has been on their toes wondering when, where and what will hit. God forbid that it does though.
But the changes are as far reaching as they are dramatic. I was at the Galleria with friends last week and at the entrance we were confronted by the kind of security checks that one reads about in the middle east (just joking, it wasn’t that major)…I thought, wow is this really happening to us? And then a friend told me a story of how in her church on a Sunday morning some guy walked in, dropped a bag and walked out. Everyone seated in that row who saw him, stood up and walked out of the church (They didn’t report this to anyone before leaving, and I thought that was cruel of them. If it really turned out to be a bomb, couldn’t they have silently informed an usher and afterward, turned and run? But I don’t blame them, nobody wan die abi?). When the ushers noticed what happened they went to the seat and found the bag there. They later found out the bag owner had only gone to the bathroom.
But this is the kind of paranoia we seem to be living with. Nowhere is safe anymore and everyone is looking over their shoulder praying nothing happens.
I’ve been a victim of this too, though I must admit I am generally paranoid. On two occasions I’ve almost had the cause to shout bomb and run out of a building (well I’m sure it wouldn’t have been that dramatic).
Last week I was in a building in Yaba area and some guy walks in with a bag looking very suspicious (well I thought he did). He looked nervous and cast furtive glances to his right and left and it was then I thought OMG…is this one of them?! To make matters worse, he came and stood right beside me. At this point I was sure I would pass out. He then opens the bag and reaches into it, searching; and then I see a wire sticking out. Yes, you can imagine how I felt. But just before I hit hysteria lane, , I saw what turned out to be a phone charger and the man was only looking for a wall socket to charge his phone. PHEW…. Sweet relief washed over me, but also alarm at the panic I had just felt. What was wrong with me I wondered?
Today, I headed to Ajose Adeogun on another errand.. At the front desk was a guy who wanted to deliver 2 flower vases to the MD’s office. But the security didn’t want to let him through… Why? He had no I.D but insisted that he was a regular at the office and some of the guards knew him.
I looked at him, then at the flowers, and made a quick mental calculation: Unidentified man + Flower vase (that looked like a good hiding place for a bomb!)+ MD.s office….hmmmm seems like something is about to go down…. (Yes I know I’ve seen too many Mission Impossible-type films). I figured if I was on a certain floor and MD’s office was all the way up, an explosion won’t affect me right??? (Yeah I guess you’re thinking what kinda crazy thought is that). Apologies, my wild imagination at work. Well I was there for 2 hours, and no explosion so I guess the guy was truly just a flower delivery boy
But all this just keeps me wondering, for how long will this BH, Bomb matter continue? Now things are seemingly calm; but is this the lull before the storm? Are we simply waiting for another explosion somewhere in the North (which we would only shudder and shrug away in the hopes that it’ll never happen to us or someone we know. May it never come to Lagos o is always our prayer)? What is the government really doing? What can they do? What is the solution to this nerve-racking insecurity in our nation?
Will we continue to live like this believing some day it will all just go away? Infact my question is how in the first place did we get here? Is this what we have become?
