Post Election Crises.....My Experience (we have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another-Jonathan Swift, English Author)

I always await every election with dread seeing what it has done to other countries disrupting their peace and economy, knowing how violent prone the elections are I made it a rule for my self not to travel or involve myself in any way with the process, though I got crucified by some friends and family who felt I had to exercise my civic duty as a citizen of this country I didn't budge because I felt the security operatives can in no way convince me they were competent enough to safe guard the lives of Nigerians, and how right I was! with the various bombing episodes that took the lives of innocent budding youths. I always felt the crises that erupts during these elections are more religious than political.

Despite how safety conscious I was, I traveled to Zaria on the eve of the Presidential election to attend to some pressing personal issues against my better judgment. As I traveled through Kaduna town I felt the tension every where, Knowing the nature of the north and knowing CPC couldn't move a magic wand to win the election every thing in me was screaming go back! but my stubborn nature made me continue.
On getting to Zaria everything looked and felt normal and the fact that Zaria doesn't have so much history of violence I relaxed and forgot where I was and I decided to leave Zaria on Monday big mistake that was! woke up on Monday morning took my time getting dressed not aware of the crises that started the night before in Kaduna. I got to the first park with a friend but only buses were available and knowing how slow the Kaduna buses could be, it was just not an option considering that I had to get to the office at 10am! so they directed us to another park not too far only to get there and and be told that Kaduna 'ba shiga' (no entry) reason? they were protesting the Presidential election results!

The sensible option would be to go back and wait it out, but we decided to wait and see if any of the drivers would change their mind, luckily an igbo driver did (he too like money abi), so we left making calls confirming that the roads were fairly safe and my friend said something like I know i'm not going to die in a car crash or any sort of violence but old on my warm bed and the thought in my head was I don't know about that because no one really knows but I know we are not dieing today.We almost got to Kwoi next thing we know the driver started reversing saying it was not safe and in my head I was saying 'fear, fear' apparently i didn't know how violent the protests was.

On our way back to Zaria we started receiving calls of violent protests erupting in Zaria, and in my naivety I felt it was something mild and by evening they will get tired and go home and I can leave for Abuja the next day  i got the shock of my life when just at the outskirts of Zaria a large group of protesters with various barbaric weapons and burning tires were on the middle of the road with two dead people on the ground, I was like okay....we just leave Zaria 25 mins ago! about six military men were somewhere between but their presence did not seem to deter them from chanting CPC!, CPC! and intimidating vehicles trying to get into Zaria and we had to chant CPC with two fingers up to pass through only to meet a more vicious set in front, we had to retreat and were advised by some kind settlers in a nearby village  to park our car there, it was a very frustrating experience because we couldn't enter Zaria and we couldn't go to Kaduna and we were not safe where we were.

While we were in the village waiting for the protesters to cool off, can't really remeber the name right now, about twenty minutes later we heard gun shots, my heart skipped, I looked up and I saw people running towards us, obviously the soilders couldn't tolerate them anymore. We had to run as well, through it all I imagined myself on the ground with a bullet in my head but I kept telling myself to keep running, then I heard "Shiga!, Shiga!"(it means enter in Hausa language) I looked up and saw a group of Hausa muslim women urging us to enter their room, I was skeptical about entering  because of stories I've heard. It was a classic case of between the devil and the deep blue sea, I entered anyway and I found myself with two other guys, the women and their kids and we all layed on the floor for about an hour. Those women turned out to be my angels, they didn't care that I was putting on a tight jeans, that I am a christian or that I am yoruba. To them I was a human being, their sister......The world will be a better place if we just love one another.