Fight! Nigerians Fight

“My son is not dead. My son is sleeping,” she said convincingly. “Son, wake up,” she pleaded, cradling his limp, bloody body to her chest. Everyone could see that Promise was gone...except for Mama Promise. In reality, she could see, but her heart was denying what her eyes were seeing.

This happened earlier this week, in the city where I live---Jos of Plateau State, NIGERIA. On Palm Sunday, the beginning of perhaps the most important remembrance week in all of human history, gunmen on motorbikes rode into our city on a late evening rampage. Driven by their own hate, they left nothing but a bloody trail and devastation in their wake.

Thirty people down. Shot and killed in cold blood. And for what reason? Only God knows.

This is the reality for so many Nigerians every day. Terror. Every single day. For years.

We live in this reality. The reality of the constant threat of radical terrorists and Fulani militia who destroy and devastate our country.

Parents cannot sleep at night because their children in the university settings are constantly in danger (the universities are one of the most crisis-prone regions in the state for terrorist attacks).

Farmers cannot go out onto their farmland to work it for fear of being killed.

On the highways, kidnappings happen constantly.

In villages, banditry and land grabbing by insurgents is commonplace.

Nigerian soldiers are being ambushed and killed in high numbers constantly.

No one is safe. This is Nigeria. This is Plateau State. This is my reality.

And after every attack, the government “strongly condemns this attack” and “will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.” This is what the public is told every single time. The same empty promise that is never upheld. Justice is never served.

On every Nigerian’s mind, the same question remains: for how long will this be tolerated?

For how long must we wait until the perpetrators are brought to book?

How long before all of us are gone?

How long?

How long?

The Christian community has suffered serious blows; including what just happened on Sunday. The beginning of Holy Week. And two factions have arisen within the Christian community:

There are those who believe that the time of waiting on a failed nation to secure their lives is over. Therefore, they believe they must take up arms to protect themselves. And then there are others, who still advocate for peace, non-retaliation, and dependence on the government to safeguard our lives and properties.

But to this party I must ask: what government? The same government who pardons “repentant terrorists” and integrates them into the Nigerian army? The same government who refers to insurgents as “our brothers in the bush?” The same government that has bashed Nigerians and made everyday life a struggle?

I ask now, why do we have to choose sides when we can engage with both? It is time that the Nigerian people defend themselves against these violent marauders, and the government helps us as they are able. These terrorists are not unknown gunmen as the government wants us to believe. Neither are they ghosts that cannot be caught. We know them. We were taught to always run away at the sound of “an fara, an fara.” (meaning "it has started")

We Nigerians have been running for years. We refused to engage our enemy at the gates, and now the enemy has broken into our homes.

We are now grown. Some of us have children. And we’re still teaching them to run. I'm tired of running. Where are we supposed to run?!? The time of running has passed. And it is long overdue. The people of Nigeria must stand and resist this continuous mayhem that has lasted for over two decades in Plateau State.

This is not a call for war. We are already at war.

We are at war with a very clever enemy. Common to both Muslims and Christians. He changes like shifting shadows, camouflaging in our communities as he did from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden.

To my beloved fellow Nigerians of Plateau State, may God comfort our hearts during these dark days. Stay vigilant. fight for your survival. Fight for the survival of your children.

And above all, stay alive.

Written by Gemma-Elizabeth Sunday in honor of the thirty men, women, and children who lost their lives in Jos on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026.