The sun had set to rise no more

   “The sun had set to rise no more”

… a man had picked me,I wanted to cry but I couldn’t…he was ugly and his smile did not only show that  more than a few teeth was missing from his dentition but also went further to x-ray his mundane desires… he was dirty in every sense of the word and he smelt of bad meat… The bed was makeshift and now wet with not just my tears but with blood that so readily crept down my legs from the middle…

…The sun had set to rise no more…

Dad was an amputee, but we were thankful. It could have been worse. Both his legs were shredded to pieces in a bomb blast that left too many dead.we had to celebrate,we did so  in church. Dad limped, supported by his newly acquired clutches, mum danced beside him, dancing with a certain care that ensured that the yams she held in both her hands do not drop…her face beamed but I knew her act was one that deserved an Oscar… dad had lost more than his limb, he had lost the physical wherewithal to provide…relatives and friends trailed us, each dancing, trying not to think too much, each fearing their own thoughts, everyone looked cheerful, dressed in their bests, but obviously a thick blanket of darkness had been thrown over my family… the bread winner had lost his limb and so it was better not to think of it…

the sun had set to rise no more…

On a day when he had gone off to purchase forms that would make me eligible to take the west African examination council(waec) exams… that day my family moved from having hardly enough to having close to nothing… coupled with his legs he had lost the forms…

…The sun had set to rise no more…

He made sure I was registered for the exams as soon as he was fit… dad was a believer in education, something he ironically had very little of. He believed in the girl child, maybe because I was his only… even when uncle fatai insisted that I was married off to alhaji dako,  dad’s refusal was not only firm, it was followed by a stern warning and declaration. “Stay off my daughter… she has a future”…
   But today…
Not today…
   Today I looked hard but I  saw no future…no hope…the exams had begun…all 234 of us, we made sure we came prepared…but what followed showed that we weren’t prepared enough… men whose faces we hadn’t seen before, men who weren’t external invigilators rushed in through  the doors, turbaned, encircled with chains of bullets which they seemed all too happy to use, proved …it had happened in a flash… they overturned our tables with a rage that made it look like they had some sort of quarrel with the books. ..they had ordered us to get up…we knew better than not to obey… halimat was at a corner wailing, nneka’s tears were cutting through her bloody face, aishat looked lifeless on the floor…

The sun had set to rise no more…

“I’m not moving” I had said too quickly and before I realized it’s consequences something I suspected to be the butt of a gun hit my head and sent me crashing to the floor… my white uniform had been stained with blood from my head… I tried to stand but then I fell again, vision had become so blurry, sound had become so distant, touch felt so numb… a hand hauled me and I blacked out…

The sun had set to rise no more…

  I woke up in the forest of hopelessness…I woke up to a sunset of despair… I woke up wishing I hadn’t. .. we were bound with tight ropes that threatened to slit our wrists…I realize the noise in my sleep came from weeping girls… my classmates… I saw the  turbaned men, move around, they looked excited, the crowd became thinner as each man left with a girl … I saw aminat being dragged away by one of the men, her tears seemed to heighten his joy as his intent smiling made it look…I saw some girls struggle…they were shot…

The sun had set to rise no more…

The herd moved towards me and I felt my heart beat faster in my thorax…my mind went to daddy, if he still had both his legs, he would be pacing up and down the corridor, but now he’ll be seated and bitting his nails with tears forming in his eyes,hitting his clutches violently on the ground at intervals, mama will be weeping and rolling on the floor calling on the heavens and cursing her enemies… I knew I was another Nigerian dream that was about to be squashed… another light that was about to be put out… a future my father once saw,one which might no longer be…

…The sun had set to rise no more…

A man had picked me,I wanted to cry but I couldn’t…he was ugly and his smile did not only show that  more than a few teeth was missing from his dentition but also went further to x-ray his mundane desires… he was dirty and he smelt of bad meat… he dragged me and I wondered if I would ever see my beloved chibok again…
Today the sun had set to rise no more…
#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS