I CHOSE TO BE POSITIVE

First I would love to say a big thank you to @karenmckersie for organizing this contest and also the all beautiful @sweetsssj my steemit crush ❤️ For supporting this project and also Sir @doitvoluntarily also for his amazing support. Big thanks to you all.

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Its funny that it has taken something as awful and demonic as terrorism and suicide bombing to give me an optimistic view and perception about men and life.

And now I can say with much assurance that nothing is impossible (impossible is a facade).

A couple of years ago, I couldn't say this with any sort of assurance whatsoever. How did terrorism change my mind? You'll see shortly.

I've been taught and trained by my father to always see the good no matter how dire the circumstances. Some things were just too difficult to fathom or comprehend. I mean, who gets paid to kill himself and others. Obviously people do but how do they enjoy the money? I used to think it only happened in the movies and in Arab nations. Armed robbery I try to understand but suicide bombers? That's a whole new level that I believed no Nigerian would ever explore. Our sense of self preservation was too high to permit such nonsense.

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In my young mind I reasoned that the Hausa and Fulani people were content with just worshipping Allah, taking care of their cattle and just getting by.
The Igbo man on the other hand seemed to love money too much to sacrifice his life. The Yoruba man was obviously too scared to get into such nonsense. I figured he would abandon the bomb and run.
The folks of southern Nigeria are a people of enjoyment, pleasures and huge egos. Surely they would not accept any amount of money no matter how much if it meant loosing their life.

So in my young mind I concluded, there would never be acts of terrorism or suicide bombing in Nigeria. We just don't have the capacity or conscience to carry on with it. If you are reading this, then you know I was as wrong as the butterfly who considered himself a bird.

Mohamed Yusuf

Mohammed Yusuf founded the terrorist and insurgency group known as Boko Haram in 2002. An Islamic terrorist sect that altered the scheme of things in Nigeria.

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On April 24, 2014 over 88 people were killed in a twin bomb attack in Abuja and the next day 276 female students popularly known as the Chibok school girls were abducted by the same terrorist sect that I had thought impossible. Something had to be wrong somewhere I thought. This is very much unlike Nigerians. And for a time I felt again that I was right. Rumors began to fill the mill that the terrorists were not Nigerians. It was claimed that they were Islamic extremists from from neighbouring states like Niger republic. I gladly accepted this.

But all was to change after more and more of the insurgents were caught and details of their operations revealed. My friends brother who serves with the Nigerian Navy served in Maiduguri, Borno State and I had to get some first hand information from him that left me convinced beyond every reasonable doubt.

Some claimed it was a political propaganda to truncate the administration of the then President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan but I know better, I also thought the crave for wealth and a good life was the motivation of all men. But indoctrination and determination can make any man do the impossible.

If a terrorist group and suicide bombers could terrorise Nigeria and disrupt the socio-economic scheme of things for almost a decade now, then nothing is impossible.

I figured we just have to find the right people, a good enough reason, believe in what we are doing and give it our all.

I guess from this view point, You can do whatever if you chose to believe in you and the reasons you tell yourself that makes it worth doing. I would never give up on my dreams again no matter how bleak my chances are.