{"id":426,"date":"2010-03-17T04:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T04:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com.s96953.gridserver.com\/site\/?p=426"},"modified":"2024-02-27T21:55:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T04:16:00","slug":"tonight-is-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/tonight-is-the-night.html","title":{"rendered":"Tonight Is The Night"},"content":{"rendered":"
In Nigeria, mom owned a Pharmacy, right across our house.  We lived in Jos, about five minutes drive from <\/b> house, but our house was a lot closer to the Muslims.  The young lady who worked in mom’s pharmacy shop, although a Christian, lived in the heart of the Muslim community.  During one of those times when there was tension – but no actual fight – between Christians and Muslims – mom’s employee (whose name I cannot remember now) always brought us news.<\/div>\n
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“Tonight is the night!” She always told us.<\/span><\/span>  They said they’re coming this night to kill all the Christians.  And they’re starting with all the rich Igbo people here.”<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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We were not rich, but we were certainly Igbo.  Our house was not small.  It would have definitely given the wrong impression [that we were rich].  Behind us, there was a rich Igbo man whom we rarely saw, but who always drove out in a different car – all with tinted windows.  In front of us, a very deaf and very rich man resided.  He, too, was Igbo.  Beside the deaf man, a rich doctor and his wife, both from Delta State resided.  They were not Igbo, but they weren’t Muslims either.  Beside us, my uncle’s hotel stood strong.  Talk about sitting on a landmine!<\/div>\n

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So, every night, we went to bed in fear, wondering if it was going to really be the night that the Muslims would attack.  Every time one of our dogs barked, we wondered why: armed robbers, reptiles [we had a lot of those, too], unfamiliar late-night visitors, or Muslims?  We went to bed with knives, mortar pestles, and sharp, metal suya sticks.  We did not have guns, tasers — or at least, mace.  In retrospect, I can only imagine what little damage our weapons would have done, if any.<\/div>\n

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Today, Jos has a different story.  The tension between the Christians and the Muslims isn’t imagined or just talked about anymore.  It is felt, died for, buried, and mourned.  The good news is that we have our very effective Government<\/i><\/b>. They are ever present to lump all the casualties into one mass grave — and then, life goes on.<\/div>\n
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The Government<\/b><\/i> is alive — or maybe not so alive.  Its wife is ambitious, ready to take over the Country.  When she cannot, she rallies her sons in-law, debating which one of them would succeed the incapacitated Government<\/b><\/i>.  After all, Nigeria is only a little village, a village that hosts 100 to 200 people, plus or minus 50.  A constitution (especially one that is written to be obeyed) is only for Countries, big Countries, Countries that have people, people that have education, education that edifies, informs, and betters.  That wouldn’t happen to be Nigeria, would it<\/i>?<\/div>\n
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Come Saturday, we would be talking about the State of the Nigerian Union<\/span><\/a><\/b> on the Verastically Speakin’ Talk Radio<\/span><\/a><\/b>.  I’ll be co-hosting with Mustapha and Nonso.  You really, really don’t want to miss this one.  We’ll be talking about Yar’Adua’s life (or lack of it), Turai’s ambition(s), Jonathan’s Acting Presidency, Jos’ violence, and the youth’s recent rally in Abuja (called, Enough Is Enough).  You can watch a short video of the rally below, courtesy of 234Next.com<\/span><\/a><\/b> <\/div>\n
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Listen to the show at its usual time, 10am U.S. Eastern (3pm Nigerian time) here<\/span><\/a><\/b>.<\/div>\n
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Join the conversation by calling 1.646.929.1905<\/b><\/div>\n
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Text  or e-mail your response(s): 1.443.934.9039 <<>><\/b> radio@verastic.com<\/b><\/div>\n
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Follow me on Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/b> for quick updates.<\/div>\n
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P.S.<\/b> In case you didn’t notice, the blog template has  changed.  Notice the tabs up there?<\/div>\n
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P.P.S.<\/b> Daylight Saving Time has started, so there’s now a five hour difference between U.S. Eastern Time and Nigerian time = the show will now be at 3pm in Nigeria<\/i><\/b> (no longer 4pm).<\/div>\n
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P.P.P.S.<\/b> Verastic now has a fan page on Facebook.  About time, huh?  It was created yesterday.  26 fans is a little lonely.  Please join<\/span><\/a><\/b>.<\/div>\n
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P.P.P.P.S.<\/b> This would be a really, really good time to vote in the poll — at the top right sidebar.<\/div>\n
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In Nigeria, mom owned a Pharmacy, right across our house.  We lived in Jos, about five minutes drive from house, but our house was a lot closer to the Muslims.  The young lady who worked in mom’s pharmacy shop, although a Christian, lived in the heart of the Muslim community.  During one of those timesRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_14738191_14738191":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[249,180],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","tag-nigerian-politics","tag-radio","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTonight Is The Night - 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