Human existence is filled with both positive and negative experiences. There are some times when one wishes that things remain the way they were at the period of smooth runnings of one's endeavors and other times, we wish to get out of an undesirable experience.
I have had some experiences in this regard and the worst of it was when I was under some levels of uncertainty about my safety. I faced this a quite number of times. One of my worst experiences that I would like to talk about was during a religious crisis in Jos, Nigeria.
Without a prior sign of crisis nor any rumor to the effect of any problem in town, I picked my bag and boarded a vehicle going to Jos from Abuja. Unfortunately, before we arrived at the motor park in Jos, the city was already in a turmoil with smoke being visible from major hot spots in the city.
The driver conveying us managed to drop us in the park before abandoning his vehicle in the park while he walked into a street road to meet a friend of his who resides close to the park. Before going, he advised us not to spend much time in the park so that we wouldn't be attacked by rioters.
We were five in number out of which four of us were students. The problem in town was a religious crisis. A Muslim isn't safe in Christian dominated areas while Christians aren't safe in Muslim dominated areas.
The road leading to the hostel from the park is one where you would meet both groups of fighters at their individual strongholds. The park wasn't safe to remain in. We found a taxi driver that agreed to convey us through the risky journey to our hostel. He charged us and we hired him without any attempt to negotiate the transportation fare. At that point, I was ready to submit all my belongings for anyone willing to transport me to safety.
We boarded the vehicle and the driver navigated through different routes in his attempt to reduce the risk of meeting any group of fighters.
We were almost leaving the troubled spots when we unluckily ran into the hands of some rioters brandishing weapons. They stopped our vehicle and asked us to alight from the vehicle and joined a few other people that we met at the place.
My heart was racing beyond normal but I tried to control myself.
"If you know that you are a Muslim, go this way." One of them instructed us.
Though I am a Muslim, my identity easily gave me away. There was no Muslim name on my 🆔 card. I was in a corporate dress. It was obvious that they wouldn't believe me to be a Muslim. If I chose to join the queue of Christians, I would only be counting seconds to bid the world goodbye.
I looked into the faces of the people and I saw frustration and lost hope.
It was a strange thing to me because right from my birth, I had always been someone brought up amidst both faith. My paternal family are majorly Muslims while my maternal families are majorly Christians. I grew up with my maternal grandfather.
Unfortunately I was caught up in the debacle of identifying with one of the religions while I hate on the other.
My concern was how to survive the encounter and the chance was very slim. A luxurious bus with goods worth thousands of Naira belonging to a businessman who was unfortunately caught up in the crisis was burning at the center of the highway.
After a little hesitation, I joined the queue of the Muslims. The hoodlums who were Muslims were screening us to make sure that no one was lying in regard to his or her religion. They decided to do this by checking 🆔 cards. My fear of not surviving it increased again but I kept my calm waiting for the worse.
They barely checked the identity of two people when we heard of multiple gunshots from the adjoining street.
Upon sighting the military van approaching our position, the rioters ran away and left us there.
The soldiers came and rescued us. They confirmed our identities as students before they transported us to the hostel. We all boarded the military van while our initial driver drove his car in front and the military vehicle followed him.
My body was shaking till we arrived at the hostel. It was a close encounter with death. Many students lost their lives to that crisis. It was a terrific experience that I would never forget.